#Selma50

SOTU 2015

President Obama delivered the 2015 State Of The Union address last night, here it is in its entirety:

I absolutely LOVED:

• He used actual facts and figures again.  It’s nice to see actual data laid out, doesn’t matter that the Press Corpse and the seditionists will either ignore or lie about it – they do that anyway.
• The Neo-Confederates sat on their hands over EVERY SINGLE POSITIVE that got brought up. They just can’t help themselves.  “Loyal” opposition my ass. Speaking of which…

• The single biggest source of their (and the media’s) hatred of him, I’m glad he called them on it.
• They couldn’t make him 3/5 of a person, but they did roll out FIVE separate “responses” to him. The best thing you could say about them was that Joni Breadbags inexplicably managed NOT to castrate a pig.
• The angry old guy channel finally got called out for what they are, real subtle-like:

(Hint: There’s a word missing from that placard – the same thing missing from the content that the network in question produces.  NEWS.)

I hope President Obama keeps this up – the GOP 2016 clown car bus double-decker bus isn’t anywhere near full yet!

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Requiem For The FerengiMedia™

President Obama, last night:

“You’ll hear if you watch the nightly news or you read the newspapers that, well, there’s gridlock, Congress is broken, approval ratings for Congress are terrible. And there’s a tendency to say, a plague on both your houses. But the truth of the matter is that the problem in Congress is very specific. We have a group of folks in the Republican Party who have taken over who are so ideologically rigid, who are so committed to an economic theory that says if folks at the top do very well then everybody else is somehow going to do well; who deny the science of climate change; who don’t think making investments in early childhood education makes sense; who have repeatedly blocked raising a minimum wage so if you work full-time in this country you’re not living in poverty; who scoff at the notion that we might have a problem with women not getting paid for doing the same work that men are doing.
“They, so far, at least, have refused to budge on bipartisan legislation to fix our immigration system, despite the fact that every economist who’s looked at it says it’s going to improve our economy, cut our deficits, help spawn entrepreneurship, and alleviate great pain from millions of families all across the country. “So the problem…is not that the Democrats are overly ideological — because the truth of the matter is, is that the Democrats in Congress have consistently been willing to compromise and reach out to the other side. There are no radical proposals coming out from the left. When we talk about climate change, we talk about how do we incentivize through the market greater investment in clean energy. When we talk about immigration reform there’s no wild-eyed romanticism. We say we’re going to be tough on the borders, but let’s also make sure that the system works to allow families to stay together…

“When we talk about taxes we don’t say we’re going to have rates in the 70 percent or 90 percent when it comes to income like existed here 50, 60 years ago. We say let’s just make sure that those of us who have been incredibly blessed by this country are giving back to kids so that they’re getting a good start in life, so that they get early childhood education…Health care — we didn’t suddenly impose some wild, crazy system. All we said was let’s make sure everybody has insurance. And this made the other side go nuts — the simple idea that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, nobody should go bankrupt because somebody in their family gets sick, working within a private system.

“So when you hear a false equivalence that somehow, well, Congress is just broken, it’s not true. What’s broken right now is a Republican Party that repeatedly says no to proven, time-tested strategies to grow the economy, create more jobs, ensure fairness, open up opportunity to all people.”

I can already hear Chuck Todd whining from here.

Exposing The NeoConfederate Lie

President Obama took an hour to call out the GOP for hostage taking attempting to nullify the 2012 election:

Nice touch bypassing the Village enablers in favor of actual journalists asking actual questions instead of those running interference for the NeoConfederates. Here are a few excerpts:

“Think about it this way, the American people do not get to demand a ransom for doing their jobs. You don’t get a chance to call your bank and say I’m not going to pay my mortgage this month unless you throw in a new car and an Xbox. If you’re in negotiations around buying somebody’s house, you don’t get to say, well, let’s talk about the price I’m going to pay, and if you don’t give the price then I’m going to burn down your house. That’s not how negotiations work. That’s not how it happens in business. That’s not how it happens in private life.

***

…members of Congress, and the House Republicans in particular, don’t get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs. And two of their very basic jobs are passing a budget and making sure that America’s paying its bills. They don’t also get to say, you know, unless you give me what the voters rejected in the last election, I’m going to cause a recession.

***

…imagine if a Democratic Congress threatened to crash the global economy unless a Republican president agreed to gun background checks or immigration reform. I think it’s fair to say that Republicans would not think that was appropriate.

***

House Republicans decided they wouldn’t appoint people to the committee to try to negotiate, and 19 times they’ve rejected that. So even after all that, the Democrats in the Senate still passed a budget that effectively reflects Republican priorities at Republican budget levels just to keep the government open, and the House Republicans couldn’t do that either.

***

You know, the American people have already fought too hard and too long to come back from one crisis, only to see a handful of more extreme Republicans in the House of Representatives precipitate another one.

***

…I’m not going to do it until the more extreme parts of the Republican Party stop forcing John Boehner to issue threats about our economy. We can’t make extortion routine as part of our democracy. Democracy doesn’t function this way. And this is not just for me; it’s also for my successors in office. Whatever party they’re from, they shouldn’t have to pay a ransom either for Congress doing its basic job. We’ve got to put a stop to it.”

Way to take them to school, Mr. President.

A Time To Stand, Pt. II

President Obama responded to the NeoConfederate shutdown of the US Government:

“Of all the responsibilities the Constitution endows to Congress, two should be fairly simple: Pass a budget, and pay America’s bills. But if the United States Congress does not fulfill its responsibility to pass a budget today, much of the United States government will be forced to shut down tomorrow. And I want to be very clear about what that shutdown would mean, what will remain open and what will not.

With regard to operations that will continue, if you’re on Social Security, you will keep receiving your checks. If you’re on Medicare, your doctor will still see you. Everyone’s mail will still be delivered, and government operations related to national security or public safety will go on.

Our troops will continue to serve with skill, honor and courage. Air traffic controllers, prison guards, those who are with border control — Border Patrol will remain on their posts, but their paychecks will be delayed until the government reopens.

NASA will shut down almost entirely, but Mission Control will remain open to support the astronauts serving on the space station.

I also want to be very clear about what would change. Office buildings would close. Paychecks would be delayed. Vital services that seniors and veterans, women and children, businesses and our economy depend on would be hamstrung. Business owners would see delays in raising capital, seeking infrastructure permits or rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy.

Veterans, who’ve sacrificed for their country, will find their support centers unstaffed.

Tourists will find every one of America’s national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, immediately closed. And of course the communities and small business that rely on these national treasures for their livelihoods will be out of customers and out of luck.

And in keeping with the broad ramifications of a shutdown, I think it’s important that everybody understands the federal government is America’s largest employer. More than 2 million civilian workers and 1.4 million active duty military serve in all 50 states and all around the world.

In the event of a government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of these dedicated public servants who stay on the job will do so without pay. And several hundred thousand more will be immediately and indefinitely furloughed without pay. What, of course, will not be furloughed are the bills that they have to pay: their mortgages, their tuition payments, their car notes. These Americans are our neighbors. Their kids go to our schools. They worship where we do. They serve their country with pride. They are the customers of every business in this country. And they would be hurt greatly, and as a consequence all of us will be hurt greatly, should Congress choose to shut the people’s government down.

So a shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away. Past — past shutdowns have disrupted the economy significantly. This one would too. It would throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction.

Five years ago right now, our economy was in meltdown. Today our businesses have created 7 1/2 million new jobs over the past three and a half years. The housing market is healing and our deficits are falling fast.

The idea of putting the American people’s hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility, and it doesn’t have to happen.

Let me repeat this. It does not have to happen.

All of this is entirely preventable if the House chooses to do what the Senate has already done, and that’s the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process, the same way other Congresses have for more than 200 years.

Unfortunately, right now House Republicans continue to tie funding of the government to ideological demands like limiting a woman’s access to contraception or delaying the Affordable Care Act, all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party.

So let me be clear about this. An important part of the Affordable Care Act takes effect tomorrow, no matter what Congress decides to do today. The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. That funding is already in place. You can’t shut it down. This is a law that passed both houses of Congress, a law that bears my signature, a law that the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional, a law that voters chose not to repeal last November — a law that is already providing benefits to millions of Americans in the form of young people staying on their parents’ plan ’till they’re 26, seniors getting cheaper prescription drugs, making sure that insurance companies aren’t imposing lifetime limits when you already have health insurance, providing rebates for consumers when insurance companies are spending too much money on overhead instead of health care. Those things are already happening.

Starting tomorrow, tens of millions of Americans will be able to visit healthcare.gov to shop for affordable health care coverage. So Americans who’ve lived for years in some cases with the fear that one illness could send them into bankruptcy, Americans who’ve been priced out of the market just because they’ve been sick once, they’ll finally be able to afford coverage, quality coverage, many of them for the first time in their lives.

Some of them may be sick as we speak. And this is their best opportunity to get some security and some relief. Tens of thousands of Americans die every single year because they don’t have access to affordable health care.

Despite this, Republicans have said that if we’d lock these Americans out of affordable health care for one more year, if we sacrifice the health care of millions of Americans, then they’ll fund the government for a couple of more months. Does anybody truly believe that we won’t have this fight again in a couple of more months? Even at Christmas?

So here’s the bottom line. I’m always willing to work with anyone of either party to make sure the Affordable Care Act works better, to make sure our government works better. I am always willing to work with anyone to grow our economy faster or to create new jobs faster, to get our fiscal house in order for the long run. I’ve demonstrated this time and time again, oftentimes to the consternation of my own party.

But one faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn’t get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election. Keeping the people’s government open is not a concession to meet. Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of Americans on the job is not something you give to the other side. It’s our basic responsibility. It’s something that we’re doing for our military and our businesses and our economy and all the hard-working people out there — the person working for the Agricultural Department out in some rural community who’s out there helping some farmers make sure that they’re making some modest profit for all the hard work they’re putting in.

They’re the person working for HUD who’s helping somebody buy a house for the first time. They’re somebody in a VA office who’s counseling one of our vets who’s got PTSD.

That’s who we’re here to serve. That’s why we’re supposed to be carrying out these responsibilities. That’s why we should be avoiding the kinds of constant brinksmanship. It’s something that we do in the ordinary process of this extraordinary system of government that we have. You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there’s a law there that you don’t like.

The American people sent us here to govern. They sent us here to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make their lives a little bit better — to create new jobs, to restore economic security, to rebuild the prospects of upward mobility. That’s what they expect. And they understand that there are differences between the parties, and we’re going to be having some tough fights around those differences.

And I respect the fact that the other party is not supposed to agree with me a hundred percent of the time, just like I don’t agree with them. But they do also expect that we don’t bring the entire government to a halt or the entire economy to a halt just because of those differences. And that’s what they deserve. They’ve worked too hard for too long to recover from previous crises just to have folks here in Washington manufacture yet another one that they have to dig themselves out of.

So Congress needs to keep our government open. It needs to pay our bills on time and never, ever threaten the full faith and credit of the United States of America. And time’s running out. My hope and expectation is that in the 11th hour once again that Congress will choose to do the right thing and that the House of Representatives in particular will choose the right thing.”

Go get ’em, Mr. President.