TPMDC Saturday Roundup
Obama Calls For Credit Card Reforms
In this weekend's Presidential YouTube Address, President Obama spoke of the need for a bill to reform the credit-card industry, and called upon Congress to have it ready for him to sign by Memorial Day:
"There is no time for delay," said Obama. "We need a durable and successful flow of credit in our economy, but we can't tolerate profits that depend upon misleading working families. Those days are over."
GOP YouTube Address Blasts Obama On Gitmo
In this weekend's Republican YouTube, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) criticized President Obama for planning to close the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay:
"Closing our terrorist-detention facility with no backup plan is one campaign promise that can't hold up to national security realities," said Bond. "While the President has made closing Guantanamo Bay a priority, the highest priority must be keeping America safe."
Obama Attending White House Correspondents' Dinner
President Obama and the First Lady will be attending tonight's annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, essentially a comedy roast with the President himself as the guest of "honor." This year's guest-list includes an illustrious list of political and pop-culture notables, including Rahm Emanuel, Tim Geithner, Newt Gingrich, Ben Affleck, Jon Bon Jovi and others.
No Joe Biden Events Today; Jill Speaking To National Guardsmen
Vice President Biden is in Wilmington, Delaware, and does not have any public events today. Jill Biden, meanwhile, is speaking at a 1 p.m. ET departure ceremony for 140 members of the Delaware National Guard 262nd Component Repair Company, who are deploying to Iraq.
WaPo: Obama To Revive Military Commissions, In Newer Form
The Washington Post reports that the Obama Administration is set to bring back the military commissions process at Guantanamo Bay, with new rules forbidding the use of evidence obtained through torture, giving defendants greater ability to choose their own attorneys, and making other changes. Said one anonymous official: "It looks a lot more difficult now than it did on Jan. 20."
Obama To Speak In Egypt Next Month
President Obama is set to deliver a speech in Egypt on June 4, fulfilling a campaign promise to reach out to the Muslim world by making a speech from a major Muslim capital in the first few months of his term. It is not yet clear whether the speech will be in Cairo or elsewhere in the country.
Specter's Cancer Site Now More Clearly Promoting Re-Election
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has modified his controversial "Specter for the Cure" site, making it clear that donations to the site are meant to aid his re-election battle in 2010. The site came under fire yesterday after the campaign was accused of constructing a site that would make people think they were donating to medical research.
NYT: Obama Faces Need To Hit Right Note Of Optimism
The New York Times points out that President Obama faces a delicate balancing act in encouraging economic optimism in order to spur the economy itself, but without being too sunny so as to defy credibility. Explained presidential historian Robert Dallek: "Hoover's 'Happy days are here again' wasn't credible. Bush's 'Mission accomplished' became a running joke. No one wants to make that mistake again."
| TOPICS: Arlen Specter, Barack Obama, Guantanamo Bay, Joe Biden, PA-SEN, Senate '10
Josh
Matt
Eric
This Republican argument that terrorists are too dangerous for American jails is getting more irritating by the day. It's not like they're going to get released on parole to walk the streets. When was the last time someone broke out of a Supermax prison? I live in Maryland and I would normally be completely in favor of housing some terrorists in my local prison, I have to reluctantly say it's probably not a good idea because it's too dangerous...for the terrorists. Has Kit Bond ever heard of what happens to terrorists in prisons? In a prisoner hierarchy, a terrorist is above a pedophile, but only just barely.
A Supermax prison with solitary confinement is perfectly adequate for terrorists (after all, they managed to keep other terrorists like Timothy McVeigh locked up). Kit Bond is really being insulting to American prison guards.
May 9, 2009 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with you. I live near Camp Pendleton, a site that's been suggested as a place to house some of these men. I have no doubt the Marines can take care of them.
May 10, 2009 1:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
If they're not armed or carrying a backpack full of explosives just how dangerous can they be? Sounds like a repuglican effort to stir up the masses by playing the FEAR card. To bad for them - the card comes with an expiration date.
May 10, 2009 3:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
How about Repubs make a youtube address trying to make a case for some of their policies. Oh wait...
May 9, 2009 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
It dosen't matter if we passed credit card legislation or not, it's not like anyone cares anymore. Most liberals here and on other blogs can't stand Obama anymore and want him gone. I see it here, TPM, DK, OpenLeft, the writers at the Washington Independent. They all dislike him anymore and thinks he's a bad President. They all wish he was done.
May 9, 2009 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
You read comments by a few professional malcontents and you conclude that MOST liberals hate Obama? Well, I guess that's means more than Obama 90% approval rate among Dems and 67% approval rating overall.
Get a clue. The people you're talking about are invested in grievance and misery. They only like politicians who are either dead or lost the election. They try to prove their liberal bonafides by trashing Obama as not liberal enough.
Gore wasn't good enough for them either until he lost. Now, he's a freaking saint!
May 9, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Four words: pre-pos-ter-OUS!
Your tinfoil hat does not seem to have the ESP feature installed.
May 9, 2009 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
What are you smoking?, and where can I get some!
May 10, 2009 1:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not trying to sound like a screaming troll or anything, i'm being seriously. Mostly everyone here and the other liberal blogs/news sites I mention can't stand him and widh he wasn't President. It's a goddamn shame.
May 9, 2009 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
dumbest comments i've read all week.
thanks.
May 9, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't decide if you're a chicken little or just an idiot.
May 9, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey I never said I didn't like the man. Obama has inspired me to do more in life. Plus I like what he did when he written that personalized letter to that outed army soldier that were going to get rid of DADT. What integrity. What I meant is that it dosen't matter what he does because EVERYONE hates him. That includes most of the people here, the writers at the Waahington Independent like Mike Lilis and Spencer Ackerman. All thry do do is beat on him with anger and snark and the people who comment there. DK, Open Left. They all dislike him. He's not doing enough, were still in Iraq, we elected Bush II, this isn't change. shit like that. So that's what i'm getting that.
No, your wrong, I like the President, i'm proud after years this country finally got it right and elected a real leader that isn't a moron.
May 9, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention Elena Schor, who seemed to have it out againist the man when she worked here. But I could care less since she gone here. Suddenly the quality of writing at TPMDC just gotten better after that.
May 9, 2009 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. You're totally hopeless.
May 9, 2009 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. You're an idiot because you completely misread my post. It had nothing to do with whether you liked Obama or not. It's about your reaching a totally stupid conclusion that nobody likes Obama because of the lefty bloggers who don't like ANYTHING.
These folks thrive on being pissed of about EVERYTHING while ignoring anything good. There are some of those here, too. But, so what. Some people are still looking for Obama's birth certificate.
May 9, 2009 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
No I didn't misread the post, you said there certain liberal bloggers that pretty much hated anything that isn't totally insync with their views and I commented on it. Point is Obama is losing support around hisbase. I read it in thery blog I go to. The readers of blogs like DK, OpenLeft hated him because he's not living up to his promises and he's a DINO, same goes with the malcontents here. The writers like Spencer Ackerman, Chris Bowers and David Sirota hate him because he's not liberal enough or he's not doing enough. Pretty much everyone at the Washington Independent (espically Mike Lilis) think the reason why the cramdown bill failed in the Senate was because Obama didn't say anything before the vote) it could of been that atleast 1/3 of our Senate Dem caucus are filled with corportists like Ben Nelson and Tom Carper who are in bed with the mortage industry. No, it's because Obama did say anything before the vote, he didn't pressure them enough.
Obama could of made a rousing speech to those guys and it wouldn't of done shit because most of those guys in there like Evan Bayh and the Bluedogs aren't happy with the Obama and his ambitious agenda, they rather have McCain in there running the show because his views are probally more in line with there. That's the reason why the cramdown bill failed.
It dosen't matter because liberals here and everyone else are tired of him and they want him gone. I seeit here, I see it here, I see it everyone else and that's a damn shame.
May 9, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOSER = YOU.
Fuck off.
May 9, 2009 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I write a specific post like that and all you can tell me to doi is fuck off. I wasn't excpecting an answer like that.
May 9, 2009 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would think you would give me an answer on why the people here and the people I mentioned dislike the man with a passion.
May 9, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
As much as these folks bitch, I have never heard ANY of them, including the losers who post here say "they wish he was gone from the WH." That's a total lie and you know it.
Bitching is their profession; it's how they drive traffic to their site. They prove their purity by saying Obama isn't liberal enough. That's a long, long way from saying they hate him.
You're just trolling and spreading bullshit. Obama's approval rating is 65-67% and you're worked up because a few professional malcontents are doing what they always do. Grow the fuck up.
May 9, 2009 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/science/earth/09bear.html?hpw
May 9, 2009 10:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not happy about this move. I hope there's something in the works we don't know about.
But even if this is as disappointing as it looks, I am mature enough to know that I will never agree 100% with ANY president. Governing is tough and if you can only support a president with whom you agree on every decision, you'll be forever disappointed.
May 9, 2009 10:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah I agree freeider, I don't like this move but I knew going in that I wouldn't agree with everything the President does, shit the man said it himself. Since he took office, I have agreed with atleast 88-90 percent of the stuff he's done and that's a good thing. Plus in government, you don't always get what you want.
Shoot man, you don't even always agree with the cloest around you whatever it be family or friends, that's life. Not everyone can like what everyone else is doing all the time. There will always be disagrweemrnts and with Obama that story about the environment is one of the few issues we can disagree with him on.
Also, sorry if I was being concern troll about Obama's popularity. Somethime when I see negative things written about him from OpenLeft and the people here like Oleeb and Bluebell, it gets me worried that all liberals think that way. That's why I went into that concern troll frenzy. I've been reading this blog for quite some time and you, Dick Day, Steve Katz, Michael A, Walter Mitty/Jonze are some of the smarters posters here. That's no BS. I look forward to reading more of your comments here. Take care and have a good one.
May 10, 2009 3:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is the stupidest example of Obama-bashing yet (OK, as far as Obama-bashing from the left goes).
The Endangered Species Act to curb carbon emissions? Really?
Oh, what Obama won't do to thwart the progressive agenda. Give me a fucking break.
May 10, 2009 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's the law (as unintended and as scattered shot as it might be) and Obama intends to ignore it until he gets something more to his liking and perhaps better. Bush ignored the Endangered Species Act and even the conservative courts rebuked him. It is just as wrong when Obama does it.
When the Endangered Species Act was passed it was never conceived that such a wide-spread and apparently innocuous emission such as CO2 could endanger the planet and thereby endanger specific species. Trying to have the EPA remedy the situation by regulating CO2 where ever found on behalf of each and every species harmed is NOT the best regulatory scheme that could be envisioned. But I'd bet that Obama's chances of getting a more coherent scheme in place would be a lot better if he started enforcing the one we have until a new one is passed.
That said, the reason I posted to quote was to show that a good part of the irritation at Obama was not due to characteristics of the groups offended by him but a response to his own policy choices.
May 11, 2009 10:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your reading of that article is quite different than mine. Nowhere does it say that the rule has been found illegal, even by "conservative courts," as you suggest.
It then goes on to highlight difficulties in enforcement due to proximate causation issues, states that Obama is letting several lawsuits on the ESA proceed, and notes that Obama is already using the EPA's regulatory authority in lieu of the ESA.
It seems Obama is trying to reach the goals you advocate through different means. It also seems that the method you advocate has significant enforcement problems, would be politically difficult, and looks absurd to an uninterested observer.
I really don't object to criticism of Obama. It's just that so much of it is so knee-jerk that I think many of his critics on the left will never have a president they can find acceptable. As long as they keep voting for Democrats as the lesser of two options, I'm OK with that. But 2000 is still an open wound for me, and I hope Obama's leftist critics remember that a certain level of solidarity and support is necessary in a pluralistic democracy.
May 12, 2009 12:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
The comment about the courts stemmed not from the article but from my memory of this: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=court-orders-polar-bear-announcement.
It would appear that once an animal is endangered the government has certain duties under the law and cannot evade them by refusing to ascertain the status of the animal.
Most indifferent observers are not going to be paying attention in any case. The environmental community is. The business establishment will be entirely happy to let environmental regulation of CO2 hang fire unless it is made uncomfortable for them. My intended point is that by making them uncomfortable through EPA regulation they might be much more willing to come to the table and work out decent regulations such as cap and trade.
May 12, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
FYI, those folks were NEVER Obama's base. They complained during the primaries and general, too. They were always finding something to be pissed off about. Nothing has changed.
Obama's approval rating is 90% among Democrats. That's the kind of base-losing presidents would kill for.
But why am I wasting time bothering with you. Go out and search for some other anti-Obama posts to wring your hands about.
Hopeless.
May 9, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually i'm not a troll, I had a concern regarding Obama and his popularity and you helped eased my concerns. I just got freaked that everyone ws turning on him because of the stuff I read here from people like bluebell and the stuff I read over at the Washington Independent regarding the cramdown bill and how Mike Lilis said it failed because he didn't say anything before the vote (like that would of done any good anyways).
You basically told me what I kinda already knew, but wasn't sure. I like Obama and i'm very glad that after eight long and suffering years we have a President people like, a President that isn't a joke. You know. Also don't forget in the latest Pew poll regarding his popularity around his party, yes about 90 percent approve. But only four disapprove. Also I found it very touching the letter he wrote to the recently outed military soldier on how he's going to get rid of DADT and not to mention in his budget he's cutting money for abstinence programs, found that very comforting. (got that tidbit from Pro Republica).
Thank you for your comments FreeRider, hope that there's no more anamosity between us and hope you have a nice day and a good weekend..
May 9, 2009 9:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bluebell is the most miserable person I've never had the displeasure of meeting. She railed on against torture and Gitmo for years but didn't say a word when Obama ended torture and ordered Gitmo closed.
If you can find me ONE positive post Bluebell has ever made about anything, I'll eat my hat.
May 9, 2009 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess you'll never eat your hat because i'll never find one positive comment on Bluebell, espically about Obama. Hell will freeze over before I find a comment where she actually likes something the President does. lol
May 10, 2009 4:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you bothered to listen to Obama during the campaign, you'd know he's a Centrist, not a liberal. That's why many on the left aren't pleased at the moment - he isn't bending to their will on issues they feel are important. However, their displeasure shouldn't be misconstrued as remorse.
May 10, 2009 1:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh I know this beetlejuice, I think that's why he won big in the election. Not just because he was up againist McCain, but because Obama's centrist views stuck a cord with a wide range of voters whatever it's Dems, Indies, moderate Repugs etc. What those purist on the left fail to understand is Obama said he going to represent not just the 52 percent that voted for him, but the 46 that voted againist him. The far left need to understand this that just because he isn't bending over backwards for every issue thhey deem fit to tackle ASAP, dosen't make him a awful president. I havent seen too much that would make me feel this way.
I was concerned every single liberal hates the msn and wishes he was gone. My concerns are gone and I was wrong about the whole thing. Thank you all.
May 10, 2009 3:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously dude... if you are feeling that way just come out and say so. Otherwise I think your projecting in a BIG way or focusing in on something small and making it bigger in your mind. It is not the reality I see here on TPM or in general.
I don't agree with everything the president does but I can't think of a better 'leader' to be at the helm of our messed up country at this moment.
I am glad he doesn't just walk out the door and say 'you're on your own', cause it is a freakin mess!
May 9, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why did the GOP decide to do this full-court-press message-discipline storm on Guantanamo this week?
May 9, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with torture.
Off topic, I still mean in my posts above regarding Obama and his through.
May 9, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
OBAMA HAS A POPULARITY PROBLEM! EVERYBODY JUST HATES HIM! I'M TOTALLY SERIAL!!!
May 9, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with you. And I'm totally parallel.
May 9, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
i'm cereal, dude. don't let obama's popularity fool you; nobody likes him. ditto but reverse with cheney, the GOP is gonna make a giant comeback hanging on big dick's coattails -- why do you think he's all over the media. just you wait.
May 9, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. What a waste of a week for GOP messaging. But yet again almost every week has been bad for Republican messaging.
>500,000 people lost their jobs last month and the GOP is talking about Gitmo. Like people give a shit about that right now especially since it won't happen for another 8 months.
Obama is addressing what people care about which is credit card rip-offs. The GOP instead are playing the fear card.
May 9, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well said. I'm not sure the Republicans are even aware we are in a deep recession because they never talk about it much less offer any real solutions.
All the Repubicans are talking about are Gitmo and prayer day...fear and religion, their usual rally calls. And seriously, don't they have anybody under the age of 75 to give these addresses? Their party image is white males from the middle of last century.
May 9, 2009 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where were you during the Bu$h years? When they do it, it's to distract us from something more important.
May 10, 2009 2:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
What is it about becoming the minority that makes the republicans act 'dumber than doornails' about EVERYTHING?????
I should not be shocked but the lack of intelligence expressed overall is off the charts!!
May 9, 2009 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Same thing that makes them act dumber than doornails about everything when they're in the majority, I'm thinking.
May 9, 2009 9:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
touche'
May 10, 2009 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't you think somebody in the Republican party could recognize that the fear card just isn't working for them anymore?
May 9, 2009 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't you think somebody in the Republican party could recognize that the fear card just isn't working for them anymore?
Posted by Debra
May 9, 2009 6:21 PM
===================================================
I'm afraid they are not ready to confront a fact as scary as that, Debra.
~
May 9, 2009 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Catskills booking next?
May 9, 2009 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink