President Barack Obama made another magnificent State of the Union speech last night, and made it clear that where cooperation is possible with the Republicans in Congress, he will encourage it, but he will NOT be powerless IF the GOP does not cooperate!
Instead, he will use executive orders where possible to take action on urgent matters, and he has every right to do so, as executive orders are used on a regular basis by ALL Presidents, with George W. Bush having used it 291 times, Bill Clinton 364 times, Ronald Reagan 381 times, and Jimmy Carter 320 times, as recent examples!
The idea that Speaker of the House John Boehner suggests possible impeachment because of use of executive orders is totally outrageous, another sign that the person two heartbeats away from the Presidency has no regard or respect for the President.
Even though Nancy Pelosi never cared for George W. Bush when she was Speaker, she always showed basic respect for him as the President, and dismissed ideas of impeachment charges against Bush, showing much more class than Boehner has done, and that does not reflect well on his character.
Obama will do what he must do, and to hell with the whacko Tea Party Movement and their anarchistic and racist sentiments!
President brilliantly hammered the Rethugs!
6 of the craziest reactions to the SOTU by the TeaPugs.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/01/28/3219181/sotu-reactions/
“President brilliantly hammered the Rethugs!”
Too bad few watched, as it was the least watched State of the Union in several years.
That is a loss to the American people. Their ignorance undermines change, and promotes the Republican desire to take us backward!
Mark,
The world has changed. People are increasingly using computers and smart phones to view live events.
Exactly right Jane Doe. People don’t have to sit in front of the tube anymore to watch programs.
Very much agree Rustbelt. The rating system is behind the times.
Excellent post about why mass media is dying. http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2014/01/bread-and-circuses-without-bread.html
Daily Kos put it perfectly! Republicans are a fringe minority party. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/29/1273418/-SOTU-address-confirmed-Republicans-are-fringe-minority-party
The SOTU should return to the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, and be delivered as a formality in some paper document. You people who get your spiritual sustenance from a yearly fascistic speech are pathetic
LOL! Thanks for the laughs Mark!
Mark’s ridiculous comment is why his party is not being taken seriously by the American people.
Mark and his ilk label the Pres a dictator yet they want to dictate what women do with their bodies and dictate who marries who and so on. Very interesting.
@Princess Leia
They’re a bunch of hypocrites!
Mark, Fascistic? Do you have any understanding of what Fascism is? Others have said that Obama is a Communist or Socialist, without understanding what those terms mean. You are showing just how ignorant and stupid you are, throwing around terms you have no clue on their meaning. And, despite what Jefferson to Taft did, it is the responsibility of the President to deliver his speech directly to the joint session of Congress, as Washington and Adams did! You just do not want to hear the truth, the facts ,as to how America is, that is, the TRUE State of the Union!
Yes, I know what fascism is. In the words of Mussolini himself, it’s the merge of state and corporate powers. The revolving door between the Treasury and Goldman Sachs and the bailout to save Goldman Sachs which Obama supported are the greatest manifestations of fascism in the last few years.
The merger of state and corporate power, like the Tea Party Movement and the Koch Brothers; like the Republican Party and the majority Supreme Court and the Citizens United Case; like the House of Representatives Republican majority and the energy and other industries, all of whom want the minimum wage NEVER to go up; want the environment destroyed by denying climate change; want women kept down in poverty with children, but no contraceptives or abortion rights under any circumstances; like the desire to let people starve and go homeless rather than provide unemployment compensation after the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, then as in 2008 caused by corporate interests linked to the Republican Party! Is not that what you REALLY mean, if you are honest, which you clearly are NOT? 🙁
“like the Republican Party and the majority Supreme Court and the Citizens United Case”
That’s actually not fascism, that’s just plain old freedom of speech. People used to say that Republicans were in favor of economic freedoms and Democrats of personal freedoms. But Democrats aren’t even in favor of personal freedom as the Citizens United case shows they’re against free speech.
It is NOT freedom of speech, as corporations are NOT people. This is a fix by the GOP controlled Court to deny fair elections, along with their interference with the Voting Rights Act enforcement!
Sock it to him Professor!
The first amendment protects speech, it doesn’t say by whom, it just says ‘speech’. Text printed by an individual is as much speech as text printed by a corporation.
We all know that corporations are not people, only interested in profits and desire to dominate their work forces. TR said so a century ago, and what was good for a century is good for now, and when the American people realize that their system of government has been corrupted by a right wing majority Supreme Court, there will be a strong reaction, as going back to the Gilded Age is not acceptable in the 21st century!
As a man who has never voted for President Obama or even thinks he’s done a good job. I am amazed at the lack of respect shown for his Presidency. But maybe my opinion will start changing. The executive order mentioned in the SOTU is something I read about earlier in 2013. I spent the rest of the year thinking that Obama was the typical POTUS. Nothing but pretty speeches filled with empty words. But if he actually sacks up and signs that executive order raising the minimum wage for federal employees, well that is a step in the right direction. When it comes to the non living wage that people work for, it is definitely better late than never. Get it done Mr. President.
I am very happy, JOB, to see a person who did not vote for Obama, who is now willing to give him credit for an executive order, and to bemoan the lack of respect that many give him as President, with him facing more insults and disrespect and death threats than any President of the United States. Obama is a man of courage and principles, and does not allow his enemies to control his life, and I am pleased that you can see him as having good intentions.
“Obama is a man of courage and principles, and does not allow his enemies to control his life”
He seems more like a guy who stumbled into the Presidency and doesn’t care much about it, as shown by his finding out of his Obamacare website problems through the newspapers, the same day as everyone else found out.
No one is saying that Obama handled the launch of ObamaCare well, but until you are President, no one truly understands the burdens, the multiple of issues that he has to deal with at the same time, and even with the best intentions, not everything works out the way one wishes. But in the long run, ObamaCare is here to stay, and will be seen as a success once the launch period is over!
We’ll see. I’m counting on the young people to save us from it by not enrolling and causing the so called death spiral.
By saying you hope for a death spiral, you are telling us that you do not give a damn about those with pre existing conditions, do not care about the donut hole in Medicare prescriptions, do not care about keeping no lifetime limits on medical coverage, and do not care about tens of millions of Americans who are finally able to gain health care coverage for the first time! You are also opposing a plan that keeps private insurance companies involved as the major players in health care coverage over the government, and rejecting what Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, and the Heritage Foundation supported in 1993 as an alternative to HillaryCare, and was similar to RomneyCare, but the minute that Obama settled for this comparatively moderate plan, all of a sudden, it is no good, even though the Republicans never have had an alternative plan to offer these tens of millions of Americans! And I am certain you are vehemently pro Life for fetuses, but apparently not once born, heh? 🙁
I hope for a death spiral of the program, so that the death panels, shortages, long lines, and lower quality of care don’t happen. It’s because I want more people to live that I want Obamacare to die.
Death Panels? You really are drinking Kool Aid and believing moron Sarah Palin if you talk about such panels. They do not exist, and are part of the conspiracy theories of Fox News Channel. I thought you were intelligent, but now I have to wonder, Mark! 🙁
Republican policies are a turn off to young people. http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/why-young-people-dont-vote-republican/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Obamacare success stories (something Fox News keeps you in the dark you about): http://www.winningprogressive.org/celebrating-obamacare-success-stories
The Republicans losing the young is the death knell of their party, along with women, and minorities. They cannot win the White House without massive support from those groups, as older white males, and particularly in the South, are a dying breed!
I’m old but I’m right with the young!
I think that Jon Huntsman has some great things to offer but the current GOP won’t support him.
What about secession, Ronald? Wouldn’t everyone be happier if the South just goes on their own?
Rustbelt Democrat, if you look back on what I have written over the years about Jon Huntsman, you would know that I have praised him, and thought he would have been the biggest threat to Barack Obama, had he been the nominee in 2012. Huntsman is very qualified, brilliant on foreign policy, highly intelligent–the ideal choice for the GOP in 2016, as much as in 2012, but he will NEVER be the nominee, because he is not an extremist right winger, not a Tea Party whacko, believes in science, is really more like the moderate Republicans of the 1960s and 1970s. So he has no future in the GOP for the Presidency, simply because he is too outstanding! What a sad state of affairs!
Mark, secession is illegal, and was resolved by the Civil War, at the cost of two thirds of a million lives lost. That is NOT the answer, and will never happen, or be allowed to happen. The South will have to accept what they have never been willing to accept, that they lost 150 years ago, and must obey the Constitution, and the federal courts.
Having said that, I also feel that even if such a scenario developed, I would not be willing to let Virginia, Florida, and Texas break away, as they are the true gems in the South, just that Florida and Texas have some of the worst Congressional leadership right now, and their Governors are atrocious! But both are becoming more “Blue” by the hour, and they are the true shining stars of the South.
I also have hope for a return to sanity in North Carolina, with its great universities and the Research Triangle, and also Atlanta is a sophisticated city, and Savannah and Athens also make Georgia a place to wish to hold onto.
I have less feelings of warmth toward South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, but even so, Charleston and New Orleans have their virtues, and I am not willing to give up Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage Plantation in Nashville or the Bill Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock to a “foreign” government.
That leaves Alabama and Mississippi, both of which leave bad feelings from the turmoil of the 1960s, but still I have hope for long term change even there.
Having said much of the above with “tongue in cheek”, joking around, we are not going to give up on the hope for reform and progress in any of the eleven Southern States of the Confederacy. The Civil War settled the issue of secession for all time!
“The Civil War settled the issue of secession for all time!”‘
dang…
Mark, I am not sure what you mean by “Dang!”. Are you joking, or upset, or what? In any case, saying that does not make you look exactly as making any sense!
dang… as in I’m disappoint
sorry to waste your time prof
Why disappointed? Do you REALLY think the South could survive as a nation, with its backward labor situation and its backward economy and tremendous poverty and deprivation, not only of African Americans and Latinos, but also a multitude of poor whites working for low wages, and told how wonderful it is to have “a right to work” without unionization? The rest of the country actually supports the South, but the Republican Party, similar to the old Southern Democrats, cares not a whit for the lower classes, whether minority or white! Why whites in the South vote against their own interests economically is mind boggling, impossible to understand!
Just because I’d like there to be a place where I’m not forced to buy health care, have my balls squeezed or exposed to porn scanners when I travel, etc.
Forced to buy health are? Mark, you are so self assured that you will NEVER need health care coverage? I am sorry to say that what you wish for, no government, is anarchy. and there is no place on earth like that! And I have no clue to what you mean about the other two statements you make! Head shaking in disbelief!
My last comment to not waste any more of your time.
“Forced to buy health are? Mark, you are so self assured that you will NEVER need health care coverage?”
Doesn’t matter. Even if I enjoyed exercising, I wouldn’t enjoy exercising with a gun pointed to my head because the government wants to make sure I’m healthy. That’s the difference. Being forced to do things is intolerable as a principle.
Also, the fact that there should be a government doesn’t mean it should be an all-present fascist government. Limiting to basic functions doesn’t mean one wants anarchy.
“And I have no clue to what you mean about the other two statements you make! Head shaking in disbelief!”
TSA. If you refuse to go through the porn scanner machines at the airports, they put you through an “enhanced pat down” where a TSA officer occasionally plays with your balls, and we all know it’s all theater that doesn’t enhance security.
Mark, in any society, everyone MUST obey the rules and laws of that society, and you have no clue as to what Fascism is, if you think our government is that, totally ridiculous! Believe me, if you had lived in Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany or Peron’s Argentina, you would understand truly what Fascism is!
I do not like the scanners either, but it is the price of trying to make our air transportation system safer, and if you were in a plane hijacked by terrorists, you would understand the reality of what can happen. But to be so concerned about “your balls” makes me wonder, how do you feel about intrusive testing of a woman’s private parts by anti abortionists who want to prevent any rights of a woman to her own body? I bet I know the answer on that one!
Wow Professor!!!! My family’s 150 year legacy of the belonging to the Republican Party has had its head hanging in SHAME with the likes of Mark and his type, laying claim of being a member to what was considered as the “Critical Thinking Man’s Party” during the “Golden Age of Free Thought.” Mark is the epitome of what is destroying what once had been a proud and honored Republican Party; reducing it down today as something less than a “Circus Clown” act since the time of President Eisenhower.
“Just because I’d like there to be a place where I’m not forced to buy health care, have my balls squeezed or exposed to porn scanners when I travel, etc.
Mark, you’re in that place. You are not “Forced” to purchase health insurance. No one’s holding a gun to your head. Sure, it might cost you $700 in fines, but you do not have heath insurance. You will not be sent to jail. However, if you have a $20,000 Hospital bill weeks after you elected to NOT carry insurance, guess what happens. The tax payer covers it. That doesn’t seem very Conservative.
Anyway, I’m with ya Mark. The AHA (Obamacare) id f##king awful. I’m a blue collar worker who makes 85k a year and my taxes WILL go up. I fall under the “Cadillac” plan. So I have to pay extra taxes for the plan that I already had. It leaves too much control to the insurance carriers. And in my opinion, Proves that Obama is bought and sold by lobbyist groups just as much as the next guy. But what would you prefer?
What say you Mark?
Wow, JOB, I am very impressed with your comment to Mark. Indeed, he does NOT have to purchase health insurance, although in theory, there might be a tax on him for being irresponsible enough to fail to do so, and therefore throwing his hospital bill on the rest of us taxpayers, which is indeed NOT conservative at all!
Actually, I also agree with your condemnation of ObamaCare as giving too much power to the insurance companies, as it ABSOLUTELY does! Remember that this is NOT what Obama wanted, but is rather all he could get accomplished!
What would be far better would be to have the “socialist” system found in Western Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, of a single payer system, but oh my god, that is the dirty word “socialism”, which is TOTALLY misunderstood by a large percentage of Americans, who do NOT have a clue about what it means, and think it is dangerous, that it is Soviet Communism, Chinese Communism, etc, when nothing could be further from the truth! But this is what the Republicans and conservatives and others on the far right want you to think, so that millions of Americans are forced into bankruptcy and poverty, while being forced into minimum wage jobs that never go up in pay as inflation occurs; see their nutrition levels cut while corporate farmers get their billions while food stamps are cut for the disabled and sick and children and the elderly; and seeing people made homeless after being victims of the Great Recession, but no understanding that these are good people who are victims but now are thrown off unemployment compensation, only equivalent of a minimum wage existence, not making people “rich” off taxpayers!
If only more politicians were like Senator Bernie Sanders, who happens to be a “Socialist”, who organizes with the Democrats, we would be a lot better off, but many think he is “dangerous”, when nothing could be farther from the truth!
The one “good” thing out of all this is that, eventually, we are likely to have a single payer system, an addition to our “socialist” system of Social Security and Medicare! Oh my god, the sky is falling, or is it? 🙂
@JOB
If you want a more progressive health care system, it’s important to vote for a more progressive Congress.
Conservatives in Britain are willing to raise the minimum wage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-minimum-wage-is-set-to-rise-in-britain-and-conservatives-are-all-for-it/2014/01/26/b944832e-8531-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html
Realize, Rustbelt Democrat, that the Conservatives of Great Britain are far to the left, compared to the 2014 Republican Party, but this news DOES put the GOP to shame, and the conservative think tanks, as well! They should be ashamed of themselves, but have no shame!
You are totally correct, Pragmatic Progressive!
“If you want a more progressive health care system, it’s important to vote for a more progressive Congress.”
Well Pragmatic Progressive, DUHHHH. That was a lighthearted sarcasm. You are 100% correct my friend.
HAHA! That is what I like and prefer on this blog, humor and pleasant responses! LOL
Hi Rustbelt. Years ago Thom Hartmann spent a week in Denmark doing his show from there. He had his producers book many politicians who were on the right side of the political spectrum. He was surprised at what he found. The only difference between Liberals and Conservatives in Europe seem to be immigration. Left of center wants more open immigration where right of center wants end it or heavily regulate it.
Imagine that. These Conservatives were in favor of their nationalized healthcare. They were in favor of their $16/hr minimum wage. And they were all for women’s rights. Republicans here will say, “Of course that’s what they believe, they’re all evil socialist Europeans.” But the truth is, I think European politics are quite a bit less bought and sold than American politics. In my humble opinion.
JOB, your “humble opinion” makes a lot of sense, and I am enjoying your participation in this blog a great deal! 🙂
Well Ron, Do you mind if I call you Ron? Don’t rush to judgement on my participation just yet, LOLOLOL. When it comes to some topics, I am very stubborn. But you can thank Engineer of Knowledge. He mentioned your blog several months ago, and I have been reading since. Only recently have I began leaving comments on blogs. I was very busy the last few months of 2013. But I have to tell you, I like what I see so far. In fact I will be purging my own blog roll soon. I hope you don’t mind if I add yours. 🙂
I must make a small correction.
“Indeed, he does NOT have to purchase health insurance, although in theory, there might be a tax on him for being irresponsible enough to fail to do so, and therefore throwing his hospital bill on the rest of us taxpayers, which is indeed NOT conservative at all!”
I’m not the one throwing my hospital bill on the rest of taxpayers, because I oppose all use of taxpayer money on my healthcare (or anyone else’s for that matter).
It’s YOU, those who want healthcare to be paid by taxes, who are throwing the health bill to taxpayers if they use the system without paying into it.
To make it crystal clear: I oppose the use of ANY tax money to pay ANYONE’s healthcare, therefore I’m not throwing any health bill to taxpayers.
HAHA, Job, YES, you may call me Ron! 🙂 You may definitely add me to your blog roll, and let me know what your blog is named! You do NOT have to agree with me, but the main point is that you are civil! 🙂
Mark, it is amazing to me that you think no tax money should be used for health care, and education, which makes me wonder what century are you in, and it makes me think you are loaded with money, that you, somehow, feel that any taxpayer money used for the benefit of others, is somehow, immoral!
“Mark, it is amazing to me that you think no tax money should be used for health care, and education, which makes me wonder what century are you in, and it makes me think you are loaded with money, that you, somehow, feel that any taxpayer money used for the benefit of others, is somehow, immoral!”
Feel free to think all that, just don’t blame for throwing taxpayers money at health bills.
” feel that any taxpayer money used for the benefit of others, is somehow, immoral!”
Yes, I think taxation is theft.
Well, Mark, that makes you a libertarian, I suppose?
I think so, though some self-described libertarians, such as Epstein, prof. of law at Chicago, have written against the idea that taxes are theft.
It depends on what kind of argument they use to justify libertarianism, such utilitarianism, etc.
Former “Newsweek” editor in chief Jon Meacham, a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner who was written books on history, finds executive order rather irresponsible.
In case the link doesn’t work, from the Website bar, here it is again:
@ http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/01/30/meach_on_executive_orders.html
D, i must say that while I have high regard for Jon Meacham, I disagree with him on the issue of executive orders, and I fear that as a result of what he has said, that the Republican Congress will use this as an excuse to impeach President Obama on flimsy grounds. I am curious as to where you stand on this, D, as I have very high regard for your wisdom and views, so please let all of my readers know what you think about this.
Ronald writes, “D, i must say that while I have high regard for Jon Meacham, I disagree with him on the issue of executive orders, and I fear that as a result of what he has said, that the Republican Congress will use this as an excuse to impeach President Obama on flimsy grounds. I am curious as to where you stand on this, D, as I have very high regard for your wisdom and views, so please let all of my readers know what you think about this.”
President Obama hasn’t used executive order enough. I have no problem with the use of it. The president has to have some powers. By using too little, it becomes a question of whether the president wants others to take the “heat”; or that the president is naïve to place too much trust in Congress. Liberals’ biggest beef with President Obama is that they wanted the kind of leadership from him to be more in the vain of what the country had 80 years earlier with Franklin Roosevelt. (George W. Bush was to 2008 what Herbert Hoover was to 1932.) Cornel West had it right in describing the president as a “Moderate Republican.” So, I’m not one who thinks any Democratic president, let alone President Obama, should acquiesce to policies that are right wing and advantageous for the opposition party that has majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives. (In fact, I have a cynical belief that this Democratic Party didn’t mind losing the House in 2010. Selling out on the healthcare bill—including no mechanism to compete with private insurance—created that loss.)
As for Jon Meacham: This causes me to not trust him. For someone who has written about history—and with a Pulitzer to his credit—it makes me question whether anything motivated his “error.” I suspect lots in the beltway like the status quo. They like money. They like their success. They like where they are in society. And with the economic crises (not just employment) directly tied not only to “income inequality” but insufficient income with—basics plus doing some living—for millons of Americans, I think this latest from Jon Meacham is another disgusting and inexcusable lie to help perpetuate the status quo for allowing the haves to destroy the have-nots.
WOW, D, you are biting in your criticism of Jon Meacham, but you know something? I COMPLETELY agree with you, that Meacham has become part of the problem, has become too wealthy and successful and arrogant and egotistical, and in so doing, he has capitulated his credibility totally! Does he forget that Andrew Jackson wielded executive authority which led to a failed attempt to impeach him, or that other strong Presidents utilized executive power, with hell be damned, as Lincoln, TR, Wilson,FDR, Kennedy, LBJ, Reagan and others? Has Meacham lost his memory and expertise in history knowledge?
There is no question that the power elite, both right wing and moderate left, has lost its moorings, and now it is all people for themselves, and to hell with the people and what is needed for their own advancement! We are due for a revolution that could be violent, if something is not done to restore the feelings of the original Progressives of a century ago, that either we deal with the political, social and economic evils of the Gilded Age in a just fashion, or else we have dangers to the ruling class by means no one would want!
This is a warning to the arrogant power figures in both parties and both ideological persuasions, to start dealing with the 97 percent, or the top three percent, let alone the top one percent, will pay for it in a way they will not recover from!
Finally, D, my respect and admiration for you grows, as you make so much sense in your commentary on this blog, so know I treasure your participation!
Prof., what was Reagan most notable use of executive power?
Mark, Reagan’s firing of the air traffic controllers in 1981, and his being involved in the Iran Contra scandal (which he conveniently had no recollection of) are some examples of wielding executive authority that was outside the tradition of the Presidency before him.
Altogether, there were 381 executive orders under Reagan, more than any President since Eisenhower!
Thanks. Out of curiosity, are you pro legalization of pot or other drugs?
I am ABSOLUTELY against legalization of pot or other drugs. However, I do NOT think anyone should be put in prison for sale or possession of pot, and even for other drugs, we are filling up prisons with people who need medical help, not punishment. Usually, those who sell have a drug problem, as well as those who possess.
Pot may not be, as Obama said, as dangerous as alcohol or tobacco, statistically speaking, but he did not, and I do not, think it is good for anyone, as it still kills brain cells, motivation, ambition, and I do not understand why anyone would wish to “escape” in any of these manners mentioned above.
I have never even tried pot or tobacco, and only extremely modest use of alcohol, and to me, having hobbies and interests, including my passion for politics, is my so called “escape” or “high”! LOL 🙂