[mattduke]

I know all of you are just as surprised as I am.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-j ... authoritah

[Sixstrings]

Yeah, I saw that.. it really is stunning, when the footage of the "old Obama" is played back. One tends to forget just how different he's been since taking office, how many campaign promises have been broken, etc., it's just stunning how a man can campaign for two years and then when in office become the exact opposite of what he portrayed himself to be.

Funny thing is that the Republicans warned us of this, but we had no idea the surprise would be just how far to the right Obama is!

Add this to the list of broken promises and empty words:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]White House Flip Flops On Reining In CEO Pay

The White House is intervening at the last minute to come to the defense of multinational corporations in the unfolding conference committee negotiations over Wall Street reform.

A measure that had been generally agreed to by both the House and Senate, which would have affirmed the SEC's authority to allow investors to have proxy access to the corporate decision-making process, was stripped by the Senate in conference committee votes on Wednesday and Thursday. Five sources with knowledge of the situation said the White House pushed for the measure to be stripped at the behest of the Business Roundtable. The sources -- congressional aides as well as outside advocates -- requested anonymity for fear of White House reprisal.

The White House move pits the administration against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who told Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to stand strong against the effort.

(snip)

An administration spokesperson said that the White House isn't flip-flopping because it has never made proxy access an explicit position it supports. "It was not part of our original financial reform proposals, and we have not taken a position explicitly. We have heard from and understand the various concerns on this critical corporate governance issue from multiple stakeholders including business, investors, labor and others.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/white-house-guts-reform-t_n_615952.html

[vtsnowedin]

Ah yes the great rift between campaign promises and actual governing. Really they should invent some punctuation mark to be added to the end of each "If elected I will--------" statement something like this.
##$@&$. It will translate to "If I can get public opinion polls solidly in favor of it along with both houses of congress and none of my parties largest contributors are against it etc. etc.
They can't say that a million times while campaigning and admitting that you would not be godlike if elected would not sell well but adult voters have always know what they mean when they start in with the "If elected...." speeches, only the young and foolish actually expect them to deliver as promised without taking into account the actual realities of the world.

[Ibon]

Comedy can get a point across to the masses better than many a study which people never read. This episode was great also because Americans have a short attention span and memory that they don't remember that this theme has been over 4 decades old. This skit was great in that regard.

This is just another indicator that slowly but surely the nature of the energy checkmate is penetrating into the collective.

Frugality and conservation will emerge.

The irony comes back to Cheney's comment about the American lifestyle not coming into question. Because when you look at the crisis head on it is the change of the american lifestyle that provides the best solution going forward

[efarmer]

Great post Ibon!

I think Mr. Cheney's famous quote about our lifestyle being non negotiable was true if politically incorrect to say. Changes in our lifestyle, due to it's ease and comfort to date and it's inertia and familiarity will be involuntarily imposed by nature without negotiation. Not what I wish for and not what is possible, but I do feel it is the probable outcome.

I think Mr. Cheney believed that we could win the negotiation via will and strategy, whereas I believe we will not negotiate well and lose and accept the terms of natural laws and available resources to see how a lifestyle, if any, fits in at that point.

Not sure nature takes a steely eyed bluff and folds but it looks tough as woodpecker lips on TV.

[mattduke]

http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/rally- ... onal-mall/

[Sixstrings]

Well it's the "Rally to Restore Sanity"... did you consider maybe there's less crazy black folks in the first place?

[dinopello]

Crowd was pretty typical for a major rally. Size estimate ranges from 200K to 10 million .



A Glenn Beck lookalike at the bars last night was very popular lamenting the rally. I'm actually not convinced it wasn't Beck he had the weepy, paranoid thing down.

[PrestonSturges]

I think the crowd estimates of 215,000 vs 89,000 for Beck's rally seem right on the money

Sanity rally photo
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... ontentBody

Beck rally photo
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... ontentBody

I was a lot less worried about the Tea Party after I went to Beck's rally. Even down front, people sat on chairs and blankets, but GOPers estimates of crowd sizes clearly assumed should to shoulder density. The Sanity rally had much higher density.

Also, the Beck rally was wrapped around the Reflecting pool, which sit ins a hollow so there's 100 feet on each side. The Sanity rally filled the mall from side to side, with no area lost to water.

And the origional 9-12 rally last year was tucked into small strip of land behind where yesterdays rally was held, and that was about 60,000 tops. They were on the western edge of the Capital lawn, and the rally did not even reach the Mall. A casual observer would think they were on the Capital step and filled the lawn, but they were several hundred yards closer to the Mall. That rally covered an area about the size of soccer field.

[Ludi]

Only one of those guys up there qualifies as "white," or so I've been told.....

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'O')nly one of those guys up there qualifies as "white," or so I've been told.....

[PrestonSturges]

The Park Service has those white towers, which are booths on big scissor jacks. Those would make a hell of a deer stand.

I forgot to take pictures of those. It's always funny how we forget to take pictures of really interesting stuff like that.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'O')nly one of those guys up there qualifies as "white," or so I've been told.....

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'C')rowd was pretty typical for a major rally. Size estimate ranges from 200K to 10 million .

[dinopello]

Many didn't want to deal with the human sea, and headed off to the bars.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;I don't think they were expecting the amount of people who showed up down there," says John Brooks of D.C., who by 1:30 p.m. was sitting comfortably inside Chinatown's Bar Louie. Despite being from the area, Brooks and his family admit they got turned around amid the sea of people packing the streets. "We tried to help some tourists find their way, but it was hard."