Fyi...


The song that lies silent in the heart of a mother sings upon the lips of her child..
Kahlil Gibran




Rodney D. Coates
Professor

-----Original Message-----

1 Obama Is a Two-Faced Liar. Aw-RIGHT!
2 Obama's Economic Recovery Plan Is Almost As Pure As
  Ivory Soap

Obama Is a Two-Faced Liar. Aw-RIGHT!

by Greg Palast
<www.GregPalast.com>
January 29, 2009

Republicans are right. President Barack Obama treated
them like dirt, didn't give a damn what they thought
about his stimulus package, loaded it with a bunch of
programs that will last for years and will never leave
the budget, is giving away money disguised as "tax
refunds," and is sneaking in huge changes in policy,
from schools to health care, using the pretext of an
economic emergency.

Way to go, Mr. O! Mr. Down-and-Dirty Chicago pol.
Street-fightin' man. Covering over his break-your-face
power play with a "we're all post-partisan friends" BS.

And it's about time.

Frankly, I was worried about this guy. Obama's
appointing Clinton-droids to the Cabinet, bloated
incompetents like Larry Summers as "Economics Czar,"
made me fear for my country, that we'd gotten another
Democrat who wished he were a Republican.

Then came Obama's money bomb. The House bill included
$125 billion for schools (TRIPLING federal spending on
education), expanding insurance coverage to the
unemployed, making the most progressive change in the
tax code in four decades by creating a $500 credit
against social security payroll deductions, and so on.

It's as if Obama dug up Ronald Reagan's carcass and put
a stake through The Gipper's anti-government heart. Aw-
RIGHT!

About the only concession Obama threw to the right-wing
trogs was to remove the subsidy for condoms, leaving
hooker-happy GOP Senators, like David Vitter, to pay
for their own protection. S'OK with me.

And here's the proof that Bam is The Man: Not one
single Republican congressman voted for the bill. And
that means that Obama didn't compromise, the way
Clinton and Carter would have, to win the love of these
condom-less jerks.

And we didn't need'm. Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!

Now I understand Obama's weird moves: dinner with those
creepy conservative columnists, earnest meetings at the
White House with the Republican leaders, a dramatic
begging foray into Senate offices. Just as the
Republicans say, it was all a fraud. Obama was pure
Chicago, Boss Daley in a slim skin, putting his arms
around his enemies, pretending to listen and care and
compromise, then slowly, quietly, slipping in the
knife. All while the media praises Obama's "post-
partisanship." Heh heh heh.

Love it. Now we know why Obama picked that vindictive
little viper Rahm Emanuel as staff chief: everyone
visiting the Oval office will be greeted by the Windy
City hit man who would hack up your grandma if you mess
with the Godfather-in-Chief.

I don't know about you, but THIS is the change I've
been waiting for.

Will it last? We'll see if Obama caves in to more tax
cuts to investment bankers. We'll see if he stops the
sub-prime scum-bags from foreclosing on frightened
families. We'll see if he stands up to the whining,
gormless generals who don't know how to get our troops
out of Iraq. (In SHIPS, you doofusses!)

Look, don't get your hopes up. But it may turn out the
new President's ... a Democrat!

---

Greg Palast's investigative reports for BBC and Rolling
Stone can be seen at www.GregPalast.com. Palast is the
author of New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy
Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse.

===

Obama's Economic Recovery Plan Is Almost As Pure As
Ivory Soap

CAF STAFF
By Bernie Horn
January 27th, 2009 - 9:00pm ET
<
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009010527/obama-s-economic-recovery-plan-almost-pure-ivory-soap>

There's been a lot of bitching and moaning in the
progressive blogosphere about the huge business tax
cuts that are supposed to be contained in President
Obama's economic recovery plan.

In fairness to all, the negotiations took place behind
closed doors, leaving us little solid information on
which to base opinions. And over the years, we've had
good reason to be wary of backroom deals in Congress.

But there's good news. The American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act is a remarkably "clean" bill. Only
between 1½ and 3 percent is being wasted on tax cuts
for business. Put another way, the bill is about 98
percent pure-money dedicated to good, progressive
causes.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis,
released Monday, says the business tax cuts will cause
"a net revenue loss of $13 billion over the 2009-2019
period." See the discussion on pages 11-12 of this
document.

The figure of $13 billion is confirmed and explained by
the House Ways and Means Committee on pages 2-3 in this
document. There are only three business tax provisions
that have a significant price tag. First, the extension
of bonus depreciation enacted last year, allowing
businesses to depreciate capital costs faster than the
ordinary schedule, will cost $5 billion. Second, the 5-
year carryback provision, allowing businesses to deduct
net losses from the last five years instead of the last
two, will cost $15 billion. Third, the repeal of a Bush
Treasury Department ruling that unjustly benefits the
purchasers of certain companies will increase revenues
by $7 billion. So $20 billion in business tax cuts are
offset by a $7 billion tax increase, leaving a total of
$13 billion in benefits.

As you probably know, the Senate Finance Committee
intends to make larger business tax cuts than the House
bill has. The analysis of the Finance Committee's
markup, evaluated by the Congressional Joint Committee
on Taxation, is on page 3 of this document. The Senate
version includes both the bonus depreciation and 5-year
carryback provisions, but the Joint Committee estimates
these will cost a total of $22.5 billion instead of the
House's $20 billion. The Senate does not include the $7
billion tax increase and adds a bit more than $2
billion more in tax breaks for a total of $24.9 billion
in business tax benefits.

The CBO tells us that the whole bill costs $816
billion. So if the Senate version is adopted, only 3
percent of the spending is for business tax breaks.
(That percentage is about the same with or without the
recent Alternative Minimum Tax provision.) If the House
version is adopted, it's only 1½ percent. Either way,
this is a bill that is between 97 and 98.5 percent
targeted toward good causes.

In our nation's capital, no major bill ever passes
without a "sweetener" for the special interests you may
oppose. By Capitol Hill standards, this is an
exceptionally modest sweetener. And don't think it's
necessarily being done to gain Republican votes-key
Democrats want these too.

The bottom line: This is the biggest and boldest
progressive legislation in 40 years. By all means,
register your complaints against the business tax cuts.
But don't let that dampen your enthusiasm for the
overall measure. If you live in a state with a
Republican or less-than-liberal Democratic Senator,
call them today and urge them to support this bill.
You'll be sorry if you don't help out, because this is
history in the making.

The writer is a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America's
Future and author of the recent book, Framing the
Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and
Influence People.

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