On the show last night, Rachel compared the dynamic between President Obama and the Republicans to the one she has with her giant dog. He whines for food and whines to go out and generally anytime he wants anything. Rachel gives in -- she knows that's she's training her dog to whine more, but she does it anyway. As goes the Maddow, so goes the president?
"The president is not great at negotiating with Republicans. And every confrontation, they prove themselves to be willing to do something that's bad for the country, and in order to prevent that from happening, the president gives them mostly everything they want and then some. They are being rewarded for it every time they do it.
"Democrats on the left right now are having a principled and pretty rollicking fight among themselves about whether or not the president should just let the metaphorical dog whine."
Last week, the whining was over defunding Planned Parenthood as a condition of keeping the government open. Last night, the Republicans returned to it. NBC News producer Shawna Thomas sent notice of a new measure that would do exactly that. It's a correction of the spending bill that would insert this language: "None of the funds made available by this Act may be made available for any purpose to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. or any affiliate of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc."
Filed by Congresswomen Martha Roby (R-Alabama) and Diane Black (R-Tennessee), the measure has little chance of passing, Shawna reports. But what's amazing is the relentless pursuit of that single conservative goal.
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What the president needs is a nation sized rolled up magazine to whack the Republican party across the nose with and break them of their bad habits. I'm betting Poppy does more for Rachel than the Republicans do for Obama or the nation.
I love the image...
Butch Cronkite gives dog training lessons !
Obama needs to exercise some serious training with Boehner. It is imperative that the lead dog respects and obeys the musher. Hike! Gee! Haw! Easy... Whoa!
BTW, Whoa! is the most difficult command to teach to a sled dog. They just aren't willing to stop.
I say let the Pack Rule! If Obama were a true Yellow Dog, like the Head Wolf, then he would snap at them every time they put their whiney noses into the "caucus" of America's dying body! He is so stained with Red Whine, he appears PURPLE! Where are our leaders???? This pack of mutts has none!
This is weird. WandaGerschwitz is a multiple of OttoWest, but I don't know why - OttoWest wasn't suspended and abandoned until a few weeks ago. Welp. Simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Both banned.
POW!
can they counter submit to double the funding to planned parenthood?
I say let them wine and cry all they want.....this is about making our country better....not giving in to the "politics" of what the government wants IT IS about what the people of America want....
So who's side are you on....
Why this hatered for Planned Parenthood? That's what I don't get. Are they trying to make us an overpopulated, undereducated, completely bankrupt country like India or Brazil?
But, I guess that they are, so their corporate buddies can have a cheap and underpaid workforce once more. People who will be so desperate that they will sacrifice a living wage just to find work once more, so the corporations can further increase their profit margin and the CEOs can just keep getting richer.
Yes, Chelsea, they are.
I have many republican friends and even some of my democrat friends thought Planned Parenthood only does abortions.
Because Planned Parenthood is linked to abortion, the dreaded "a" word, it's the only thing they focus on. They refuse to acknowledge facts. Did you see Colbert's take on Fox and Jon Kyl's false perceptions of Planned Parenthood? It was genius.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/381282/april-11-2011/pap-smears-at-walgreens
The long and short answer to your question, Chelsea, is YES.
That is the $64,000 Question! Why doesn't the President share his negotiating tactics with his supporters.....at least to the extent that we understand why he is giving in so much.
You mean you don't see as clearly as the rest of us that this is all about the next election?
It is more that Obama and Wahington Dems are acting more like a 2008 republican than the 2011 republicans are. Democrats need to quit trying to placate republicans and return to the progressive ideals that got them elected. Since the election Obama has been acting like dubbya, (though his smile is less irksome). The Do-nothing Dems in congress didn't even try to pass a budget, or repeal DADT because they were worried that the republicans would blame them for everything. How'd that work out for them in 2010? The liberal and moderate independent voters saw that there was little if any difference between the Dems and the Repubs and found that in effect there is a one party system, and as independents we chose not to vote for more of the same.
IF the Dems can't show us that they will actually stand up for their professed beliefs then moderate and liberal independent voters will either abstain from the election again, or find a candidate to vote for that has proven their political mettle. P'raps Bernie Sanders?
Ben.E.Coyote Let us all hope D's, I's and some R's will get out to vote for democrates, the nation and its people can't afford another repub win. If there is not a resounding loss for the actions we have seen from the far right we will continue on a path of destruction, as this is just the begining of the repub agenda. The tea party win of 2010 gave the repubs the idea this type of government is what the population whats, we the majority need to show them otherwise.
It's increasingly difficult to see that any tactics are in use -- President Obama's compromise philosophy to date seems to be a euphemism for giving the GOP what they want so he doesn't look confrontational. We need to see him standing on Democratic principles and holding the line.
Time to rub the dog's nose in its mess and say, "No!"
That is the funniest thing I have read in weeks! Thanks for the laugh!
I'm so sick of politics. I think I need to take a break, but I can't because when we stop paying attention, we get screwed by the GOP. What will they ask for when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling? More corporate welfare? Those are the true 'welfare queens.'
Also, any person who would like to see a lower rate of abortion in this country should be supporting Planned Parenthood 110%. The work that they doing in 'planning' eliminates the necessity for something on the order of 600,000 abortions per year, never mind all of the cancer screenings that help people catch that killer early enough to affect the rates of survival. For funding that is 0.0083% of the Federal budget (that figure comes from Lawrence O'Donnell's show), it is money well spent. I find it reprehensible when people want to stop abortions but don't want to support measures that would prevent unwanted or unintended pregnancies in the first place. That is ridiculous.
If only the house Republicans were as cute as TRM's dog, at least they'd have one thing going for them.
Instead they are like Cujo.
18 months in the pound and then we can put this rabid dog down in 11/2012
If the Republicans really wanted to run the government like a business as they say they would realize that the drop in the bucket that goes to Planned Parenthood is multiplied exponentially in the savings of medicaid dollars having to fix those back room botched abortions, medicaid dollars paying for unwanted babies to be born, medicaid dollars paying for that child for the next 18 years, food stamps for that child, cash assistance...you get the point.
If they really want government to be run like a business, which of these sterling business models are they suggesting?:
Enron - manipulated prices and shut power down to millions of people in order to increase profits, criminal activity that led to prosecution
BP - disregarded safety regulations over and over again that resulted in a number of worker deaths, destruction of the environment, and the loss of billions of dollars to the economy by destroying the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents
Goldman Sachs - prime figure in the subprime mortgage scam, which, in concert with other Wall Street firms, succeeded in bringing down the entire world economy, and precipitating a housing crisis that has cost hundreds of thousands of families their homes and life savings.
Yeah, let's run government like a business...look how well that has worked out for business.
GENIUS! Fanny and Freddy get to be the fall guys on the sub-prime mortgage scam, BP contractor gets a safety award and the Enron proceeds have evaporated into the ether. There was the savings and loan deal.
It's a good thing the government is not run as a business so it is there to bailout businesses when they flush our economy down the toilet. That flushing sound you here is your tax dollars being flushed down the corporate welfare toilet as bonuses for the folks that broke the economy in the first place.
Past due time to rename Planned Parenthood anyway. United States Reproductive Health Services or something. The trouble with these bills targeting specific organizations is that organizations (esp. nonprofits) can dissolve and reincorporate in a heartbeat.
NO, Rachel, you aren't training the dog to whine more, HE'S TRAINED YOU TO CAPITULATE.
OOOooooh oww burn!
I think we need to send the dog whisperer to washington with a clicker and a TSSSSST!
Imagine the look on Boehners face if every time he started to t-p America, Obama just "TSSST!"ed him.
Of course, Obama would have to WANT to change his unruly goper habits.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155251/cartman-vs-the-dog-whisperer
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155254/discipline-with-kfc
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155253/walking-cartman
Fact: Planned Parenthood accounts for 0.008% of the federal budget. Yes, you read it right, that's 8 thousandths of 1 percent, not hundredths. Meanwhile, defense spending accounts for 54% of the budget. These are idealogical battles and nothing more as these type of cuts would have no impact on the budget whatsoever.
I have 2 cats and a dog who are experts at whining and complaining to get what they want, and like Rachel I'm a sucker and cave into it. But at least they offer also offer companionship, snuggles, and alert me to dangers like the mailman, squirrels,and whoever happens to be walking on the sidewalk. It's time to bring the GOP to a shelter.
True...the Republican Party ceased serving any legitimate purpose long ago.
1) Until progressives find a narrative that resonates with the majority of American, I see no end in sight to spineless Dems in Washington and the decay of America.
2) Rachel has the biggest progressive soapbox in America, outside of Obama's bully pulpit.
3) The buck stops with voters as they are at the top of the political food chain.
4) A nation of voters, voting against their own economic interests for some 30 years now, when voting republican, given the $28 Trillion in Twin Deficits & carrying costs Reaganomics/Bush-o-nomics produced via tax cuts for the wealthy, hollowing-out the American economy as a result... and the likes of Rachel can't demonstrate clearly, the how & why's it has been against republican voters' interests?????
5) Correlate 29 consecutive yearly trade deficits starting in 1982, totalling $8 Trillion in accumlated trade deficits... to factories & jobs fleeing overseas... and a hollowing-out of the American economy as a result. Reagan got America hooked as an addict on cheap imported goods... at the cost of good paying American jobs. False, borrowed sense of prosperity. Now the cheap goods are getting expensive, and the value-added jobs are gone. This after a national lifetime of EARNING our prosperity, being a net surplus trading nation. Thank Nixon & Reagan for this trade cancer.
6) We only have our inarticulate selves to blame, we shoe-in-the-mouth progressives.... not connecting the dots for American comprehension of what hit them/us.
There is sooooooooooo much fiscal and trade political criminality on the tables to work with to prosecute conservatives with... and progressives don't see or use it. As if all this generational embezzlement & hollowing-out of the American economy, destroyed by republicans... is immaterial???? American factories & jobs fleeing overseas for all these years, the economic implosion, are directly linked to Republican malfeasence. Maybe we just need a better crop of articulate progressives with soapboxes with prosecutorial skills?
Google the history of the national debt, AND the US Current Account historical tables in trade and you will see it all EXPLODED post 1981, the start of the Reagan Revolution... their hero. $28 TRILLION w/ carrying costs. A hollowed-out economy. And we can't visually convey that???? We're idiots, we progressives. Pure, unadulturated idiots. While conservatives are busy looking for their next Ronald Reagan. Amazing.
Well put!
I agree with everything except the part about the President preaching progressive principles from his pulpit. The reason Obama hasn't resonated with the progressive voters is that he has shown that not only is he not willing to stand up for the things he was elected for, he is willing to actively work against them. His presidency has been more like what Mitthead and Ghouliani offered in 2008. It has more in common with dubbya's regime than what Voters were told they were voting for.
Obama is not a Liberal, he is not progressive, his presidency has been very neo-conservative. That's why his debt has been so high, because he has not fundamentally changed anything.
If Rachel Tivo'ed and watched The Dylan Ratigan Show everyday, and boned-up on fiscal & trade history, bigtime, and its implications to America, and voters' responsibility in it, Rachel could RESONATE with millions of more Americans. She would ROCK. She would be an awesome FORCE in American politics, given her prime-time soapbox gig. It's much more voters voting republican at fault, than republican leadership per se. But we are ALL idiots as to the fiscal & trade history & the dire implications. Rachel could & should be connecting the political dots for prime-time America. Truth to power.
I'm waiting for Rachel to see that light and the light bulbs going on. Connect the dots, Rachel... connect the dots for ALL of us. America, we are in this together.
Gawd forbid that any blame for the state of politics in the US should be placed on the Amurrican Peepul (which is where it ultimately belongs, of course, but good little boys & girls aren't supposed to say such things).
I am reminded of the writer who stated (late 1980s) in the magazine Mother Jones, "We must have faith in the American people!" My immediate reaction was twofold: first, "What do you mean we?", and second, what are the American people that anyone is obliged to have uncritical faith in them?
The main reason this whole thing is happening is that this country continues to be too afraid to branch out beyond the two party divide. Divide and conquer works really well in America. We all have more than enough fear to capitalize on.
The fear has been very successfully grown to hatred by those with the most cash. Now we are too stuck in anger towards each other and the "other" party to notice that those at the "top" are playing chess with our lives. We have all lost sight of who/what the real enemy is - greed.
Well hopefully a progressive or at least a non conservative candidate will run, because at this point the two have become as one, and no-one can tear them apart.
Bernie Sanders where are you? We need you in the white house! Hello Dennis Kucinich, Paging Dennis Kucinich!
IT is looking more and more like the T-P heads are going to split the right wing ticket, so lets do this, we could win with little more than 25% of the vote, though I would imagine that in the electoral college Obama's folks would prolly vote for the republican to keep an independent from winning (like the VTDP did in 2008).
I like the whining dog story better.
If he hadn't, the message would have been Obama closed down the government so that babies could continue to be killed. What we need is a good messenger. So glad to see Kaine go. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz will be a force!
Our country has (to it's detriment) been controlled by the far right for too long now. They are a bunch of bullies who will stop at nothing to push through their absurd "christian" agenda. I really don't understand how they were allowed to gain so much control during the Bush administration, but it's time we fought back hard. It's time the progressives do whatever it takes to take back our country from the insane far right.
When my cats whine they usually do so by going into the bathroom and sitting in the bathtub or sink until I come and pick them up. Then I have to carry them to the bed and start petting them or they will return to the bathroom to whine. It's a way of getting my attention via annoyance. Even though they could just come up to me and get pet they know sometimes I might ignore them doing it the civil way, so they resort to more malicious tactics to get my attention. The thing is- sometimes, like when I'm really tired, I ignore them. Then they realize "Oh I can't get what I want this way" and suddenly they return to civility. I'm so not making a metaphor here, I just wanted to talk about my kitties some more. =P
My 8 lb froo-froo shih-poo doesn't whine. She rarely barks unless its an insistant "Hey!" She bosses. She expresses her displeasure by kicking her hind legs on the ground, like digging. She is my wife's enforcer and I'm her herd of one. She gets mad and barks when I try to go to the bathroom or leave the house. She's awfully savvy to have never been trained and does a real good job of training us...and she understands English REAL well. She's awesome!
What do you do when your dog craps in your 'house'? Rub his nose in it...just sayin'
Although the GOP loves vituperation...huh...damn :-/
hmmm super rich minority ruling class, strong on the military, strong religious faction, party owned tv and media organization, does not support womens rights and does not want to educate its lower class population....sounds like the Republican party wants us to become Saudia Arabia
What infuriates me is that the President seems to be taking direction from people who are way out of touch with his base. Progressives (like me) are having a hard time rallying around the "Panderer in Chief". One must ask his/herself: would things be that much different under McCain? I am exaggerating, of course. Things would be a whole lot worse under McCain, but where is that strong leader that showed so much potential on the campaign trail? First the Bush tax cuts and now this joke of a budget, which is all about radical right-wing ideology. Mr. President: if you want to win in 2012, you are going to need your base to go out and fight for you. Right now, your policy record is far less than inspiring. Maybe it's time to start paying attention to what the people are saying. If you need an example of Democrats with spines, check out the Wisconsin 14!
The Dems got the wrong message from 2010, or they just don't care. The moderate and progressive independent voters were disenfranchised with the right wing swing Obama took once being elected, and the do-nothing-democrats policy of doing nothing is a bitter pill for those of us that had the audacity to hope.
Maybe a real progressive like Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich will run against the neo-con candidates in 2012.
This president is simply NOT a fighter. I sometimes wonder how effective he was as a community organizer.
Considering how he allowed ACORN to be thrown under the bus and Shirley Sherrod to be steam-rolled, I'm guess not terribly. We require fighters, not poets.
As America's Pastime is getting under way, I am reminded of the power of the rally chant. So:
Lets go Liberals, lets go! LETS GO! (clap clap clapclapclap clap clap, clapclap) Lets go Liberals, lets go! LETS GO!
We need a LEADER, not a beg and PLEADER!
We need a FIGHTER, not a SWING-TO-RIGHTER!
We need a PEOPLE-POWERED-HOWARD, not a SELLOUT-COWARD!
We need a BERNIE SANDERS, not more T-BAG-PANDERS!
We need the HAVES to PAY THEIR TAXES, not more SOCIAL-PROGRAM-AXES!
Coyote, I like your style.
I just love how Rachel loves to pop off about the President without doing her homework. Terrible Negotiator? Really? If you take a look at the actual details of this deal, you'll see that he completely hoodwinked the Republicans. If you search for this article from AP: Obama prevents budget cuts to favorite programs you'll see some of the nifty bookkeeping sleight of hand that went into the deal. Also, hello, he got 18 Billion dollars cut from Pentagon spending included in the actual cuts. Our President is a masterful negotiator and Rachel couldn't even hope to accomplish anything near as good were she in his position.
Obama prevents budget cuts to favorite programs