Obama - only just better than the alternative

Barack Obama is way too conservative for my tastes. His recent foray into offering up cuts in Social Security and Medicare had me going nuts. What the hell is he doing?

From The Political Carnival

Hey, remember this?

V.P. Biden "flat guarantees" no changes in Social Security, which "effectively takes Social Security off the table."

So this happened: Obama budget would cut entitlements in exchange for tax increases:

    President Obama will release [has released] a budget next week that proposes significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security and fewer tax hikes than in the past, a conciliatory approach that he hopes will convince Republicans to sign onto a grand bargain that would curb government borrowing and replace deep spending cuts that took effect March 1. [...]

    Obama proposes, for instance, to change the cost-of-living calculation for Social Security in a way that will reduce benefits for most beneficiaries, a key Republican request that he had earlier embraced only as part of a compromise. Many Democrats say they are opposed to any Social Security cuts and are likely to be furious that such cuts are now being proposed as official administration policy. [...]

    Overall, the budget request reflects Obama's stark shift in strategy over the last month, as he has adopted a far more congenial posture toward the opposition…

    "Millions of working people, seniors, disabled veterans, those who have lost a loved one in combat, and women will be extremely disappointed if President Obama caves into the long-standing Republican effort to cut Social Security," Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, said earlier this week, after reports surfaced that Obama might include the change in his budget.

    "In 2008, candidate Barack Obama told the American people that he would not cut Social Security. Having him go back on his word will only add to the rampant political cynicism that our country is experiencing today."

He can't remember what he said...

Obama full of shit

Obama just signed the extension of the Patriot Act into law which allows for spying on Americans without a subpoena.  But during his campaign, he said...

Pants on fire

From Acerbic Politics

President Bush - Is He a Twofer?

President Bush may have been a bargain - two for the price of one.

Bush is a Liar and a Hypocrite (Day 2121)

George Bush has been speaking out against the Democratically controlled Congress, bashing them for overspending on everything except his war. The truth is, he is just about the biggest government spender of any President in modern times.

From McClatchy News Bureau - click the link for charts, additional information and sources.

WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.

Did You Know - Lying Gonzales

Is there anyone in this administration who isn't a cheat and a liar? Probably not. But this is good stuff of which I was not previously aware...

"Whether Gonzales has deliberately told untruths or is merely hampered by his memory has been the subject of intense debate among members of Congress, legal scholars and others who have watched him over the years," report the Post's Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein. "Some regard his verbal difficulties as a strategic ploy on behalf of a president to whom he owes his career; others see a public official overwhelmed by the magnitude of his responsibilities."

Gonzales's apparent willingness to dissemble in order to protect himself or President Bush stretches back to at least 1996, when he intervened to prevent then-Gov. Bush from serving jury duty in Texas, the Post notes. Not until its second-to-last paragraph, however, does the Post article remind readers that by not serving jury duty in the drunken driving case Bush was able to keep his own drunken driving conviction a secret for several more years.

From the Raw Story.

Did You Know - J. Stephen Griles

The members of the Bush administration really believe that they have a God-given right to do whatever it takes to carry out their agenda. Don't doubt it for a minute.

A federal judge chastised a senior U.S. government official and doubled his proposed prison term to 10 months Tuesday for lying to senators in a lobbying scandal. He was the highest Bush administration official sentenced in the probe.

J. Steven Griles, the Interior Department's deputy secretary, pleaded guilty to obstructing a congressional investigation, but on Tuesday his lawyers tried to deflect blame for his faulty testimony.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle was not pleased.

"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," she told Griles before doubling the five-month prison term he and prosecutors had agreed on.

From the International Herald Tribune.