Fareed's Take: We've downgraded ourselves

[BDBoop]

Is that how a democracy should function?

No

Not even 'should'. It's how a democracy ceases to function.

 

[MaggieMae]

Fareed's Take: We've downgraded ourselves – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs

Congress is more polarized than ever before...and that polarization has resulted in paralysis. More than two years into the Obama Administration, hundreds of key positions in government remain vacant for lack of Senate confirmation. The Treasury Department had to handle the global financial crisis, recession, bank stress tests and automaker bailouts, as well as its usual duties, with about a dozen of its senior positions - almost its entire top management - vacant. Senate rules have been used, abused and twisted to allow constant delay and blockage.

The filibuster, historically employed about once a decade, is now a routine procedure that allows the minority to thwart the will of the majority. In 2009, Senate Republicans filibustered a stunning 80% of major legislation. Given how the chamber is composed - two Senators per state, no matter how thinly populated - people representing just 10% of the country can block all legislation.

Is that how a democracy should function?

He's the smartest journalist in the room, but those who SHOULD pay attention to his analyses don't or won't. The adage "The Truth Shall Set You Free [but not until it pisses you off]" couldn't be more true.

Fareed Zakaria also had a longer article in Time magazine on the same subject.

The Debt Deal's Failure - TIME

 

[MaggieMae]

Fareed's Take: We've downgraded ourselves – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs

Congress is more polarized than ever before...and that polarization has resulted in paralysis. More than two years into the Obama Administration, hundreds of key positions in government remain vacant for lack of Senate confirmation. The Treasury Department had to handle the global financial crisis, recession, bank stress tests and automaker bailouts, as well as its usual duties, with about a dozen of its senior positions - almost its entire top management - vacant. Senate rules have been used, abused and twisted to allow constant delay and blockage.

The filibuster, historically employed about once a decade, is now a routine procedure that allows the minority to thwart the will of the majority. In 2009, Senate Republicans filibustered a stunning 80% of major legislation. Given how the chamber is composed - two Senators per state, no matter how thinly populated - people representing just 10% of the country can block all legislation.

Is that how a democracy should function?

Now the lefties are going to blame republicans because Obama couldn't get enough key appointments confirmed to avert the financial crisis? The financial crisis started when Barney Frank let Fannie Mae collapse while he was telling Americans that Fannie was doing fine. Filibuster too? Will the whining ever end?

I get so sick of repeating the FUCKING TRUTH about the financial collapse, I give up. If you idiots don't have the intelligence and time to actually FIND the truth on your own in literally hundreds of places, many straight from the "horses" mouths who intentionally set out to make money on subprime mortgages, then I truly feel sorry for your missing gray matter. Please don't breed.

 

[MaggieMae]

Hay, if you libs cant seem to function, just move along and let the grown ups not on drugs give this thing we call leadership a try.

I'm all for it. Knock yourselves out. But can we at least see a "plan" first? Obama Sucks isn't a plan.

 

[MaggieMae]

Found this bumper sticker.

I think it was Bob Barr, Libertarian candidate for president in 2008, who said that.

 

[MaggieMae]

Now the lefties are going to blame republicans because Obama couldn't get enough key appointments confirmed to avert the financial crisis? The financial crisis started when Barney Frank let Fannie Mae collapse while he was telling Americans that Fannie was doing fine. Filibuster too? Will the whining ever end?

Well yeah..

If you can't fill the spots in your cabinet to do work..guess what? Nothing happens.

And Fannie Mae had nothing to do with the financial crisis.

John Thane did.

It would be impossible for you to understand just how.

Plenty happened fuzz face. That's the problem. How many commie former arsonists like Van Jones did Barry have in mind for his "green jobs" board only there ain't any green jobs? The problem ain't the lack of appointments. It's the fools he appointed.

Van Jones was a minor player, fool. He was Foxnewsworthy. End of story. Suckers are born every minute.

 

[MaggieMae]

You gotta laugh though. As a former editor for Newsweek (Fareed) Zakariah wasn't qualified for much else when they let him go so he took up a position as a wine editor for Slate. What goes around comes around, he went from a wine columnist to a whining columinist.

Now I know you don't inform yourself of anything other than what the bubba sitting next to you on the barstool tells you or what Fox headlines say.

Fareed Zakaria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From 2000, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International, until moving to Editor-At-Large of Time in 2010. He is also the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, and a frequent commentator and author about issues related to international relations, trade and American foreign policy.[2]
In 2010, the government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan for his contribution towards journalism.[3]
...
After directing a research project on American foreign policy at Harvard, Zakaria became managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine in 1992. In October 2000, he was named editor of Newsweek International,[2] and wrote a weekly foreign affairs column. In August 2010 it was announced that he was moving from Newsweek to Time magazine, to serve as a contributing editor and columnist.[5]

He has written on a variety of subjects for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and as a wine columnist for the web magazine Slate.[6][7]

Zakaria is the author of From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role (Princeton, 1998), The Future of Freedom (Norton, 2003), and The Post-American World (2008); he has also co-edited The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (Basic Books).

In 2007, Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines named him one of the 100 leading public intellectuals in the world.[8]

Zakaria was a news analyst with ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos (2002–2007); he hosted the weekly TV news show, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS (2005–2008); his weekly show, Fareed Zakaria GPS (Global Public Square) premiered on CNN in June 2008.[2] It airs on Sundays at 10:00am and 1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time.

 

[MaggieMae]

Now the lefties are going to blame republicans because Obama couldn't get enough key appointments confirmed to avert the financial crisis? The financial crisis started when Barney Frank let Fannie Mae collapse while he was telling Americans that Fannie was doing fine. Filibuster too? Will the whining ever end?

Don't you ever tire of playing Polly Parrot? "Awk, Whitehall want a cracker, awk". This thread provides more examples of the Republican effort to stall recovery in concert their Party First, the end is justified by the means, ideology.

Why do you hate the middle class and support Obama on holding the country hostage until we eneded up getting our credit downgraded?

Are you serious? WTF? I'm more convinced than ever there's something in the water making people even more stupid than ever. What part did you NOT listen to? Or read?

S&P downgrade of US credit rating sends clear message to Congres

And perhaps most important, the two other major credit-rating agencies -- Moody's and Fitch -- have maintained the US's AAA rating. [Imagine that...]

But there is no doubt that the S&P downgrade is an alarm bell not only for the US economy, but more particularly for members of Congress. While S&P's ultimate concern is financial -- the prospect that the national debt could expand out of control -- the reason for the downgrade was congressional dysfunction.

In other words, S&P suggests that the US has the financial ability to head off a debt crisis, but doubts whether it has the political ability to strike the compromises necessary.

"More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned," an S&P statement reads.

Of itself, the recent debt-ceiling deal was not enough to bring federal deficits under control, yet it exposed dramatically the political fault lines that would prevent further progress.

In recent months, "we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics any time soon," the statement continued.

 

[MaggieMae]

Found this bumper sticker.

My favorite: "Friends don't let friends vote Republican"

Mine is "Vote Republican: We're not as bad as you think"

 

[MaggieMae]

We are a Constitutional Republic not a democracy.

I wouldn't expect someone name Fareed to understand that.

And I guess you don't understand that a DEMOCRACY is what the framers of the Constitution designed. If you want to say that they designed a Republican country, you're an idiot. They designed a DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

 

[BDBoop]

You gotta laugh though. As a former editor for Newsweek (Fareed) Zakariah wasn't qualified for much else when they let him go so he took up a position as a wine editor for Slate. What goes around comes around, he went from a wine columnist to a whining columinist.

Now I know you don't inform yourself of anything other than what the bubba sitting next to you on the barstool tells you or what Fox headlines say.

Fareed Zakaria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From 2000, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International, until moving to Editor-At-Large of Time in 2010. He is also the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, and a frequent commentator and author about issues related to international relations, trade and American foreign policy.[2]
In 2010, the government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan for his contribution towards journalism.[3]
...
After directing a research project on American foreign policy at Harvard, Zakaria became managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine in 1992. In October 2000, he was named editor of Newsweek International,[2] and wrote a weekly foreign affairs column. In August 2010 it was announced that he was moving from Newsweek to Time magazine, to serve as a contributing editor and columnist.[5]

He has written on a variety of subjects for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and as a wine columnist for the web magazine Slate.[6][7]

Zakaria is the author of From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role (Princeton, 1998), The Future of Freedom (Norton, 2003), and The Post-American World (2008); he has also co-edited The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (Basic Books).

In 2007, Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines named him one of the 100 leading public intellectuals in the world.[8]

Zakaria was a news analyst with ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos (2002–2007); he hosted the weekly TV news show, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS (2005–2008); his weekly show, Fareed Zakaria GPS (Global Public Square) premiered on CNN in June 2008.[2] It airs on Sundays at 10:00am and 1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time.

Wow. Those are some serious credentials, right there. Do I know now to pick 'em, or what.

/me is injured, patting self on back with both hands

 

[MaggieMae]

Now the lefties are going to blame republicans because Obama couldn't get enough key appointments confirmed to avert the financial crisis? The financial crisis started when Barney Frank let Fannie Mae collapse while he was telling Americans that Fannie was doing fine. Filibuster too? Will the whining ever end?

Don't you ever tire of playing Polly Parrot? "Awk, Whitehall want a cracker, awk". This thread provides more examples of the Republican effort to stall recovery in concert their Party First, the end is justified by the means, ideology.

A simple majority in congress can't "stall recovery". Deep down you lefties have to know it. Obama had the biggest gift a president could hope for, a veteran majority in both houses, and he did what community activists do best. He threw money all over the place and paid off supporters and America got screwed. Cash for Clunkers? You gotta laugh. Arsonist Van Jones on the "green jobs" board only there ain't no green jobs? You gotta laugh. Barry even tried a stand up comedian routine "I guess the shovel ready jobs weren't shovel ready ...yuk yuk". It's his game lefties. You can't blame procedural tricks in the senate and 7 months GOP majority in the house so don't try it. You only look like petulent fools.

How quickly you people forget WHY a lot of government money was infused into the economy. IT CRASHED. The banks had no money. They had no money backing up their held mortgages. They cut off all credit, not just to individuals but to businesses who could not stay afloat without lines of credit. There was only one entity in the entire world that had the capability of stepping in from certain imminent and unexpected economic collapse, and that was the United States Government.

And please don't tell me "the market would have taken care of it." Possibly--over time, but there was an immediacy to this situation, and time was not on our side with repercussions from the big investment banks going belly up almost overnight. A run on banks was in the making. Where would that have left everyone? At least, in spite of all the criticism, that did not happen and many, MANY businesses were saved.

Yet you go on and on and on as if Obama's intention was to bankrupt the country.

I don't defend him on all things, but at the time there were no other options. Did everything go smoothly? As planned? As forecast? Of course not. But blame THOSE parts if you must, not the entire economic tsunami on him. You only look UNread, therefore UNinformed, and have no business trying to debate the subject on its merits. If you're just another political hack, then have at it. But you know what to expect in return.

 

[MaggieMae]

A simple majority in congress can't "stall recovery". Deep down you lefties have to know it. Obama had the biggest gift a president could hope for, a veteran majority in both houses, and he did what community activists do best. He threw money all over the place and paid off supporters and America got screwed. Cash for Clunkers? You gotta laugh. Arsonist Van Jones on the "green jobs" board only there ain't no green jobs? You gotta laugh. Barry even tried a stand up comedian routine "I guess the shovel ready jobs weren't shovel ready ...yuk yuk". It's his game lefties. You can't blame procedural tricks in the senate and 7 months GOP majority in the house so don't try it. You only look like petulent fools.

I suggest you go and get a GED. Civics is a basic requirement and in doing so you won't embarass yourself (as often as you do).

Thanks for giving me the chance to repeat myself but you need to get better material than parrots and GED's . You are starting to sound like Harry Reid.

Harry Reid has been known to get quite upsent when some Republican obstructionist takes advantage of the Senate Rule where s/he can put a "HOLD" on any bill s/he wants.

Holding Spending - Tom Coburn, M.D., United States Senator from Oklahoma

Senators Can Block Consideration of a Bill with a “Hold”

A “hold” is placed when the Leader’s office is notified that a Senator intends to object to a request for unanimous consent (UC) from the Senate to consider or pass a measure.

A hold may be placed for any reason and can be lifted by a Senator at any time. A Senator may place a hold simply to review a bill, to negotiate changes to the bill, or to kill the bill. A bill can be held for as long as the Senator who objects to the bill wishes to block its consideration.

Holds can be overcome, but require time consuming procedures such as filing cloture. Cloture is a motion to end debate that requires 60 votes. A hold can also be overcome by a “live UC” which is when a Senator requests unanimous consent from the Senate floor for consideration of a measure. A single objection from any Senator, however, can stop a live UC, but the Senator who is objecting must be present.

Holds are considered to be private communications between a Senator and the Leader, and are sometimes referred to as “secret holds.” A Senator may disclose that he or she has placed a hold. Senator Coburn typically notifies the office of the author of a bill he is holding within 24 hours of placing the hold. Not all Senators provide the same courtesy and keep their holds anonymous, which is their right.

Now do some homework before spouting off, because you obviously don't know how easy it is for a minority party to block a bill. Since Obama's been President, of course, the Republicans usually do it en masse by their JUST SAY NO way of "leadership."

 

[MaggieMae]

Thanks for giving me the chance to repeat myself but you need to get better material than parrots and GED's . You are starting to sound like Harry Reid.

It's okay, continue to ignore the theory of holes. Those who have passed Civics understand the foolish ignorance of your post.

Yes, it was all that tiny minority of Tea Party people that brought that Obama to his knees... The weakest President and party to ever hold office in the history of our country... Vote for him again, maybe if you have 100% Democrrats they will get something meaningful done.

lol@you.

So you admit that the "tiny" minority held him (and the government, and the people, and the world) hostage. Thanks!!!

 

[MaggieMae]

On reflection it's not fair of me to point out your abject ignorance of our Constitutiion without some effort to educate you. You see, for a law to be passed it must pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives by a simple majority and then be signed by the president.

Hence, when the House has a majority of Republicans, and those members all vote as they are told, it matters not if the Senate is able to pass, for example a jobs bill, when the members of the House all vote against it. The bill never gets to the president, and the American people still suffer from unemployment.

In this way the Republican Party has effectively stalled any effort by the President, and the Majority of Democrats in the Senate, to provide relief to the millions of Americans seeking employment.

I typed very slowly in the hope you might comprehend this basic principle of our democratic republic.

Yes but the Dems couldn't even pass their own bills.... And the 100% voted no on Obama's bill... So why do you hate the poor, the middle class, rich people, blacks and support Obama holding the country hostage until he caused a Depression?

Man you sounds like an idiot btw. Wah wah waah, it was all the Republicans fault, why don't they just vote with the Democrats... It's like you believe voters put the Republicans in office to vote for whatever Obama wanted... Maybe you feel that way because that's what the Dems did after getting into office with Bush, you know, lied and then stuck it to their base.

When the Democrats debate something among themselves, they're doing precisely what legislators SHOULD BE doing: Not acting like lemmings, bringing controversial parts of a bill to a debate and a redraft, compromising on details.

How novel.

 

[MaggieMae]

More or less, if we used wavecrashers idiotic logic the Dems should have just said "ok" to the Republicans and we would have had a budget with 4 trillion in cuts and avoided a downgrading of our credit... But because the Dem's and Obama wanted to hold the country hostage they caused a downgrade in our countries credit rating and also fucked the "recovery" that was not happening.

Interesting how it can be spun like that and the only think WC can say is "Mum Mum Mum" as he tried to pull Obama's cock out of his mouth.

Now you're just showing your true worth. You're probably all grown up but come across as an empty-headed adolescent ditz who thinks talking like a disgusting pig lets you win an argument. And yet you expect people to have an intelligent debate with the likes of you?

 

[MaggieMae]

You gotta laugh though. As a former editor for Newsweek (Fareed) Zakariah wasn't qualified for much else when they let him go so he took up a position as a wine editor for Slate. What goes around comes around, he went from a wine columnist to a whining columinist.

Now I know you don't inform yourself of anything other than what the bubba sitting next to you on the barstool tells you or what Fox headlines say.

Fareed Zakaria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From 2000, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International, until moving to Editor-At-Large of Time in 2010. He is also the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, and a frequent commentator and author about issues related to international relations, trade and American foreign policy.[2]
In 2010, the government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan for his contribution towards journalism.[3]
...
After directing a research project on American foreign policy at Harvard, Zakaria became managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine in 1992. In October 2000, he was named editor of Newsweek International,[2] and wrote a weekly foreign affairs column. In August 2010 it was announced that he was moving from Newsweek to Time magazine, to serve as a contributing editor and columnist.[5]

He has written on a variety of subjects for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and as a wine columnist for the web magazine Slate.[6][7]

Zakaria is the author of From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role (Princeton, 1998), The Future of Freedom (Norton, 2003), and The Post-American World (2008); he has also co-edited The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (Basic Books).

In 2007, Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines named him one of the 100 leading public intellectuals in the world.[8]

Zakaria was a news analyst with ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos (2002–2007); he hosted the weekly TV news show, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS (2005–2008); his weekly show, Fareed Zakaria GPS (Global Public Square) premiered on CNN in June 2008.[2] It airs on Sundays at 10:00am and 1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time.

Wow. Those are some serious credentials, right there. Do I know now to pick 'em, or what.

/me is injured, patting self on back with both hands

His Sunday program on CNN (Fareed Zacaria: GPS) is on twice, and if I know I'm going to miss it both times, I record it. He always has fascinating guests who are high profile people in the know on whatever topics he's covering (usually only about two topics, one domestic, one foreign). There is never any accusatory atmosphere, although he often has two people with opposing viewpoints.

Also, Zacaria's list of articles is extensive. These are the most recent, but you can go to the archive here too.

ARTICLES: Fareed Zakaria

 

[BDBoop]

His Sunday program on CNN (Fareed Zacaria: GPS) is on twice, and if I know I'm going to miss it both times, I record it. He always has fascinating guests who are high profile people in the know on whatever topics he's covering (usually only about two topics, one domestic, one foreign). There is never any accusatory atmosphere, although he often has two people with opposing viewpoints.

Also, Zacaria's list of articles is extensive. These are the most recent, but you can go to the archive here too.

ARTICLES: Fareed Zakaria

Bookmarked, thank you kindly.

 

[Stephanie]

Are we suppose to care what this Fareed guy says?

And of course what is his solution, by golly the same as the Democrats..

RAISE TAXES..