Here are the results of the Obama Primary Challenge poll:
And here are our comments:
From TC on December 21, 2010 at 11:03 am.
Bernie Sanders or Howard Dean
From Otis on December 14, 2010 at 7:18 pm.
I don’t know who should go against Obama. It should be a governor, though. They do better in Presidential races. Not Quinn from IL, though. He sucks. I don’t know the governors around the US at all, so I would have to rely on someone else putting up a ‘nomination’.
Maddow won’t, and Sanders has been an independent for too long to get serious traction with the Dems. Obama’s campaign would crucify him with that to the sheeple.
From Tom on December 14, 2010 at 9:03 am.
Sanders vs Palin? Jesus…
From TWM on December 13, 2010 at 4:27 pm.
I would like to see him challenged but who…that is a tough question because the politicians who are left of center I doubt unless there is major improvement are unelectable. H. Clinton has publicly stated that SoS is her last public office.
One thing i have come to learn in the past two years is that any candidate will say whatever panders best to the crowd and the ten second sound bite. Who is there to trust that you are getting what you voted for.
Take SCOTUS justice retired David Souter, man daddy bush thought he was appointing a conservative justice and we got us a true centrist.
The problem is that politics has become a career taught at every major university and grad school which turned it from public service to a JOB with benefits for life. And I doubt that it will ever go back to a heart of service to the nation for the people.
It is a job where they set their own salaries and get the best of everything laid at their feet. Who will change that, what branch of government will stop the other two from selling themselves.
No I have no answer for who but the people. The people need to start to protest again in mass numbers meet at the mall in the numbers Doctor king commanded. Meet on Wall street and demand accountability.
The problem though as it was way back when we had legs to march on Tom is that there will always be a radical fringe that will try to incite violent protest.
I think and have thought for awhile that when the middle starts to go hungry then the couch will be empty and feet will be walking.
For the moment i have no name to put forward other than the citizenry of the United States of America.
From Lisa G. on December 12, 2010 at 8:19 pm.
I’d like to see Bernie Sanders, Alan Grayson or Dennis Kuncinich up on the ticket. I like the idea of Rachel Maddow too. Obama has been a real shit as of late and getting shittier by the day.
From Kevin K. on December 12, 2010 at 12:47 am.
I am becoming more dissatisfied with Obama’s decisions over the past several months. I think he is being a bit naive in regards to the Republican party and he should act more cautiously and more aggressively. Why would he compromise with them on this when they have showed zero interest in compromising on any Democratic initiative?
From Richard F. Burger on December 11, 2010 at 2:17 pm.
We need a new ticket for sure, I would propose Bernie Sanders with Alan Grayson
From Cellophane on December 11, 2010 at 12:24 pm.
I wouldn’t exactly call him a weasel, but he weasel-worded to make this seem like a good deal. Well, we know better and, if we didn’t, Bernie Sanders told us exactly how. I caught about half of his marathon.
I can’t think of any Dem candidate except Rachel Maddow for President. Bernie could be her VP.
From William Nelson on December 11, 2010 at 9:38 am.
Barack Obama. A rat bastard. A Manchurian Candidate who, because Democrats assumed he would be working for their best interests, was allowed to get away with far more obfuscation than any Republican. It may be too late–but without a primary challenge this weasel will give away what was left of FDR and LBJ’s protections of the common man.
Yes was a runaway winner by over three to one. Sadly only four of us made suggestions.
Congrats to Oso for posting the 13,000th comment here at Politics Plus. We have seen more of Oso recently, and he’s starting to be a serious threat to Lisa’s domination of this award, willing his second out of the last three. We still may not always agree, but his positions are always honest and well-reasoned. He is also an excellent writer, and you can find him at Mad Mike’s America.
I’m taking a day off, because I decided to try to force myself into a more normal sleep schedule, due to the increase in my evening commitments for volunteer work. I should return tomorrow, but I’m not sure what time I’ll ne posting. Thanks for your patience.
The recent developments on tax cuts have been enough to drive a person to distraction, but I’m trying to put it all in one place including coverage of yesterday’s vote in the House, a Rachel video, a report on our own poll on tax cuts, a look at what’s ahead, and my own recommendation. To start, while the House was passing the Democratic tax cut for the poor and middle classes only, John Boehner, who had previously promised to vote for it, said that without a bonus tax cut for millionaires and billionaires, cutting your taxes is “chicken crap”.
On Thursday, congressional Democrats took a big step toward resolving the fiercest battle of this lame-duck session: deciding the fate of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. By a vote of 234 to 188, Democrats passed a bill that will permanently extend the tax cuts for couples earning less than $250,000 and single earners making less than $200,000. The bill also slashes the capital gains and dividend taxes for the middle and working classes.
House Republicans vehemently opposed the measure, with House Minority Leader John Boehner calling it “chicken crap.”… [emphasis added]
Even though it will be filibustered by Senate Republicans, it’s about time someone stood up to the Republican party forcing to vote to raise your taxes, while fighting to add $700 billion to the deficit to give extra to the super-rich. Rachel Maddow was gleeful as she and Gail Collins exposed the total hypocrisy by Republicans on this issue.
For the last couple weeks, we’ve has our own poll on tax cuts here at Politics Plus. Here are the results of that poll.
And here are your comments.
From TWM on November 30, 2010 at 5:50 am.
Now that the poll is older it is easy to see the trend. Liberals are mostly going for their own self interests.
I wonder if those (so far) 98 people who voted to keep the middle class tax cuts only is still “borrowed money” instead of a 4 trillion dollar hole in the budget it is 2.5 trillion dollar hole over ten years for both figures.
Everyone is hurting but we really do need to raise the taxes AT LEAST back to Clinton era levels which were still some of the lowest on record. At one time the top tier tax rate was 91% compared to that 39% doesn’t sound so bad does it Mr. Blankfien?
From Otis on November 29, 2010 at 11:51 pm.
Painful as it may be, I think ALL the tax cuts should expire. Sorry, the government is broke, and only getting broker.
If people think that we can balance the budget when times or good, I will laugh in their face. Clinton and Carter only contributed least to the deficit, not cut it. (I will add that times were certainly not good under Carter, through little fault of his own. So, there is that.) And there was no balanced budget under either. (Clinton’s ‘surplus’ included Social Security income. Since that money was previously spoken for, I don’t count that towards a ‘surplus’)
Short of an Amendment, we will never see a balanced budget. Ever. We have to get while the getting is good and at least try to slow the bleeding.
We are headed toward Greece, or any of the other PIIGS countries. Not as soon as the doomsayers think, but I can see it on the horizon.
Next: Cut spending. Everywhere. I want nobody happy or even content when the cutting is done. That CAN wait for some better times, though. But, it won’t happen. As a matter of fact, just the opposite will. Party affiliation will be irrelevant, just as it usually is on this subject.
From Lisa G. on November 22, 2010 at 8:23 pm.
I voted for permanent tax cuts for the middle class, what’s left of it. It’s the only way to get the middle class back on their feet and to reasonably make the wealth in this country more equitable. When so much of the nation’s wealth is held in so few hands, no one has any say in matters but the wealthy.
From bluuman333 on November 19, 2010 at 11:07 pm.
I think a four year tax break for the middle class and then review it . This would have an effect of stimulating the economy, for now. Not sure about anything permanent.
From SoINeedAName on November 17, 2010 at 9:26 pm.
I actually could have lived with a one year extension for those wealthy folks making $250,000 or more … until multi-millionaire Tom Brokaw gave “advice” to Pres. Obama on tax cuts saying:
“… don’t call families making $250,000 a year rich.”
Only in the delusional world of the likes of Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, Chucky Todd, David “Dances-With-Rove” Gregory, Matt Lauer and all the other NBC Teapublican toadies is an income $250,000 consider “NOT rich.”
From Infidel753 on November 15, 2010 at 8:47 am.
Middle-class tax cuts must be kept for the sake of the economic stimulus they provide, which is more important than deficit reduction at this point. Tax cuts for the wealthy don’t provide the same stimulative effect, so it would be better to end them for the sake of the deficit.
I voted for the third option, which includes temporary tax cuts for the rich, because it would be worth it if this enabled a few Republican votes to be swung. If it’s absolutely impossible to pass a middle-class tax-cut extension without caving on permanent cuts for the rich as well, Obama should abandon compromise and tell the country in blunt terms who’s blocking cuts for the lower 98%.
From TWM on November 15, 2010 at 4:26 am.
Painful as it is we are a household making minimum interest only payments on the national debt the only way to reduce it is to tax all(including foreign companies doing business here) and legislate that money be used only for debt reduction.
I would find the extra money for the higher tax by consuming even less than I do now which then shifts the entire world paradigm of America consuming goods from all over the world while not being allowed open access to other markets.
If for example Korea is not going to open their markets and we are going to keep ours open then Hyundai for example should be willing to pay a share of their pretax profits to decrease the trade imbalance. That tax again should go only to deficit repayment.
I voted temporary middle class cuts only. At this time cutting back the spending power of the poor and middle classes would cost thousands of jobs. Working class people spend their money, unlike the rich. But I would would be willing to review it in the future for deficit cutting purposes, after recovery.
Looking ahead, here’s what we can expect.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow on two Democratic proposals to extend Bush-era tax cuts before they expire at the end of the month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. Neither proposal is likely to pass.
Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said the Senate would follow yesterday’s House passage of a measure to extend lower rates only for middle-class Americans. The Senate proposals include a version of the House bill, which sustains lower rates only on the first $250,000 of a married couple’s annual income, and another that would extend the lower rates on the first $1 million of income.
Reid earlier yesterday had been prepared to allow votes on two competing Republican proposals, senators said. That plan changed suddenly when an unidentified Republican senator objected to having all four votes today, Reid said… [emphasis added]
Both of these measures will fail, because Republicans will goose step in lock step in filibustering them. However they will clearly demonstrate that the Republican Party id happy to screw everyone in America for the sake of multi-millionaires and billionaires. If the Republicans refuse to give in, let it stand. Let the Bush cuts expire without replacing them. This runs against my self interest, because my tax rate will go up 50%. I’ll make that sacrifice. DO NOT CAVE-IN! Let Republicans go home to their districts and tell their constituents why they blocked tax cuts for 99% of Americans, why they refused to extend unemployment benefits and sent two million hard working American families to soup kitchens for Christmas, and why they blocked the START treaty, that five former Republican Secretaries of State have said must be passed as soon as possible, all because they couldn’t get an extra $700 billion for millionaires and billionaires.
Our ninth full month since we moved from Blogger was even stellar, largely because one article had a huge response. This was our second best month ever, so I’m anticipating a decrease next month. I will consider any improvement on October a success.
Here are our basic stats:
Here is our most recent Clustrmap, last updated on November 21.
Our durations well well down from 224 seconds last month:
Number of visits: 43254 – Average: 153 s
Number of visits
Percent
0s-30s
37733
87.2 %
30s-2mn
1499
3.4 %
2mn-5mn
983
2.2 %
5mn-15mn
1046
2.4 %
15mn-30mn
608
1.4 %
30mn-1h
769
1.7 %
1h+
616
1.4 %
That’s not a problem, because we had so many more visitors.
There’s some linkey-love in return The best ways you can publicize Politics Plus is to use the share button at the bottom of each post to list our articles on the the sites where you belong, and to quote PP articles on your own blogs. The operative commandment here is “thou shalt steal.” We’re on the same side here, so I won’t mind. Even if you want to repost a whole article, that’s OK. Just link back, please.
Technorati increased our global Technorati Authority from 447 to 535 (rank 2,683). That puts us back on the A list. Our topical ratings are;
US politics 649 (rank 129)
Politics 603 (rank 181)
World 479 (rank 231)
I could not be more thrilled. Just to give you an understanding, in US Politics our authority is 331 below CNN, 131 below TPM, and 38 above SPLC Hatewatch.
We have 303,887 links on other websites, up from 65,558 last month.
We have 1,672 posts and 12,634 comments, as of midnight 12/1.
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I’m proud of our success, but I hold you equally responsible it. This belongs to all of us. Please feel the pride you deserve to have over the quality of your participation here.
Congrats to Mimi for posting the 12,500th comment here at Politics Plus. Mimi used to be a daily visitor at the old PP, but family obligations have kept her away far too long. She is one of the kindest and most responsible people I have known. She even gives computer time to her cat, something which I highly approve. She writes an excellent blog, and you can find her at Mauigirl’s Meanderings.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow on two Democratic proposals to extend Bush-era tax cuts before they expire at the end of the month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. Neither proposal is likely to pass.
