I see there are still many who can't handle success here at DU

[PretzelWarrior]

Go listen to some relaxation tapes or something. Obama and team are doing fine. Did you notice the deal with Cuba? Did you notice the whiff of recovery in the air?

I think some of you believe the only good liberal is a p!ssed off and disenchanted liberal.

I am glad I have been taking a break from the daily insanity here. Switch to decaf.....turn it off for a bit....and see the world for what it really is rather than a constant refrain from the nervous nellies who worry Obama will evaporate before their eyes if he's criticized or the others who think he's a trojan horse planted by the evil Ilumminati to keep the money flowing upward and the wars going.

In the words of Frank Costanza, "SERENITY NOW!!"

[Hanse]

1. His success is their failure.

That's what has them so upset.

[Wetzelbill]

2. I think he deserves both praise and some criticism

But overall he's doing a wonderful job.

And when the hell aren't liberals pissed off and disenchanted? You're up against a force too big to mess with, lol.

[democracy1st]

7. you're well balanced much appreciated

[Wetzelbill]

8. well ordinarily I'm a jerk but this time I'm cool

:)

[Uzybone]

3. you took a good break, the last few days have been the worst

everything from being too weak to being too bloodthirsty to the usual knee jerk reactions at some incomplete headline.

[NanceGreggs]

4. I am SO loving this ...

... more, please.

[NYC Liberal]

5. If their ideal, perfect person was president

they'd wring their hands and worry if maybe they were "too perfect" and maybe that's a bad thing.

[MADem]

6. What? And dare fill up that half empty glass of sour grape juice with a bit of sweeter nectar?

Obama is a pragmatic politician on a good trajectory. He's doing a fine job.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. I have NO problem with success!

It is an amazing sensation here, after the worst 8 years of my life, and the country's life!

I hear you..."SERENITY NOW!"

K&R

[sandnsea]

10. They just need a storytime

and for that one to stare into their yellow eyes!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x296310

[PretzelWarrior]

11. great video. he's so......PRESIDENTIAL

I can only imagine that cad, Bush trying to read a story to the kiddos on Easter because I refused to ever tune in to see him do anything. The mere sound of his voice sent me running to the hills.

[notesdev]

12. I would call it success

if I were a major shareholder of, say, Goldman Sachs. Or another of the parties that got billions.

But since I'm a taxpayer, and am getting anally raped every day by the policies of the Treasury and the Fed, excuse me if I don't call this kind of criminal abuse a 'success'.

[PretzelWarrior]

13. okay. you're a "glass is 1/4 empty" kind of person. we get it.

you aren't getting anally raped at all. you probably contribute more of your money each month to ridiculously high medical insurance costs than you do to the financial bailouts.

Oh, and by the way, President Obama will be helping you with those costs too before he's done.

Brought to you by the people who want someone to get things fixed...not a second coming of Jesus.

[notesdev]

15. You don't get it

Maybe you aren't so good at math. It's a common problem; let me help.

Since September, approximately $12.8 trillion has been committed to one bailout or another by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. Since only about 1 in 3 Americans actually work (110 million jobs in a population of 300 million), and of those who work only about half pay any significant amount of taxes at all, my share comes to nearly a quarter million dollars! And there is no sign this will stop anytime soon; they're already talking about throwing another trillion into the fire.

In other words, between this government and the last (and on economic policy there is NO difference), more of my blood, sweat, and tears have been committed to helping thieves, frauds, and other assorted scoundrels than the entire amount of money that will have been spent on health care for my entire lifetime.

Wake up! Things are NOT OK and are not going to be OK until we stand up and make it clear that we are not sheep to be shorn of our lives' breath in the service of Goldman Sachs!

[PretzelWarrior]

16. explain your 12 trillion first of all....then bearing in mind Goldman Sachs

is on track to pay back their portion of government money and others will be paying theirs back as well, I don't think your doomsday scenario plays out.

[girl gone mad]

19. Goldman Sachs wants to pay back the TARP funds they received.

They don't like the fact that congress might restrict their bonuses. Why would they? They just used 50% of last quarter's revenues to pay themselves bonuses. Plus they plan on massively diluting shareholders to pay back the TARP funds. No pain for them, just gains from screwing institutional investors.

What about the tens of billions they've gotten through backdoor schemes with AIG? Or the tens of billions they'll get through the PPIP? When are they going to pay that back, and how?

[omega minimo]

20. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5438090

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5411791

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5397984

[girl gone mad]

22. 9.7 Trillion (and counting)

U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.

Only the stimulus bill to be approved this week, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates enacted in 2008 have been voted on by lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion is in lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the Fed and FDIC. Recipients’ names have not been disclosed.

“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”

This doesn't include PPIP, which will be another $1T.

[earth mom]

21. I wouldn't call it success either. And neither would those people who are out of work right now

while the banks and Wall Street party hardy with their taxpayer dollars. :grr:

[obiwan]

14. I am cruising. No problems here.

[opihimoimoi]

17. Poor Pubs...lost and no leader to show them the path outta the Doldrums

Not even Rehab gonna save their asses...tea parties ain't gonna do it either...its so shallow and stupid...a gimmick...

They fight with obsolete crap...old shit no one listens to...

[depakid]

18. There are some people who can't seem to handle anything beyond black & white

Manichean thinking. It's not just for Republicans anymore....;)

[Orsino]

23. The nation is wounded, perhaps mortally so.

I don't recommend relaxation. I'm afraid that even if Obama does nothing but good, he may simply not be able to do enough good to help us save the republic.

When you run across something you'd like to see done better, I hope you won't be afraid to hold your president's feet to the fire. He's a grown-up, and can take it.

[PretzelWarrior]

28. you sound either very youn or perhaps you're a drama queen/king?

come on. Mortally wounded? What does that mean? Things are so irreversible that this republic will cease to exist? I think if our country has survived civil war, the Great Depression, Nixon's Watergate, Tamminy Hall, the Gilded Age, etc. etc. that we can survive our recent troubles.

First step was accomplished--get rid of the Bush junta. Next step is to do as you said in holding feet to the fire and let the PEOPLE'S will be heard but with reason.

Just because some electrician in Pennsylvania doesn't want TARP funds sent to banks doesn't mean he knows what he's talking about or understands the financial ramifications of his choice.

[Orsino]

34. This isn't about me...

...and only time will tell whether the nation will survive. Insults won't help, but confidence such as yours might--up to a point.

[NJmaverick]

24. I think some here are anarchists that are not happy with any government

they fit in fine when Bush and the GOP were in power, but now that we have a Democratic President.....

[PretzelWarrior]

29. i think you may be right! :) so I guess serious DU'ers who believe in Democratic ideals

will have to just sift through that constant droning of their complaining as we discuss what we think is going good and not so good about President Obama's time here in office.

[Marrah_G]

25. You should get Skinner to put subliminal messages in some background music !

Then, before long... everyone would think correctly and you wouldn't ever have to get upset again.

[PretzelWarrior]

30. who says I'm upset? I just find it amusing to wade through some of these posts

after being away for a couple of weeks or more. If a person is on here throughout the day every day I think it has a way of inuring one to a sensation of just how silly the topics, arguments, and counter arguments can get.

[Bluenorthwest]

26. Off topic, I think, but...

I recall that at the end of the 'serenity now' episode, we found out that that practice lead to repression of emotion, and put Lloyd Brawn into a mental institution.
Prehaps a recommend of a simple 'ommmm' would be better.

[progressoid]

27. That's not off topic.

Seems to me it's completely relevant.

[PretzelWarrior]

31. yeah....I was saying that fully aware of that storyline.

but I was more thinking of Frank Costanza's way of handling the relaxation technique. He didn't really try to relax. He just substituted it as a word to scream out at the top of his lungs like he usually would.

[Cha]

32. The constant whiners never support anything

Obama does well..it's only when they sniff blood that they come out of the woodwork and jump on the Rage Wagon with all fours.

[PretzelWarrior]

33. "jump on the Rage Wagon with all fours" LOLSSOS

(Laughing out loud spitting soda on screen)

[politicasista]

35. Kick

I am sick of the bashing of good Dems here. :kick:

[Skwmom]

36. If what's going on is considered a "success,"

I'd sure hate to see what "failure" looked like.

[SIMPLYB1980]

37. ... nt

[quickesst]

38. My support for Obama.....

....other than I believe he is doing a good job, stems from desire to never have to see another repuglican in the White House. Simply put, we are a lot better off in Obama's first three months than in Bush's entire eight years, less the time it took to blow through our treasury, and make the first tear in the constitution. The majority of the short-term projectionists cannot except that if Obama is seen as a failure, the general population, Democrats included, will not scream, "WE WANT KUCINICH!!", and seeing Obama, a Democrat, has just failed, will not embrace another one with enthusiasm. Like it or not, this president is the only chance the people will give the left, and if we blow it, it will be a long time before the trust is enough for another opportunity.(four years is too long) If Obama succeeds, in time the people will be more open to more change. Supporting a candidate with the intelligence and appeal such as Obama possesses, then making a formidable case for people to give the left a chance to show their stuff has become a reality, but being among the first to board the condemnation train doesn't really help guide, and shape the future for us and those who come after. One doesn't have to agree with, or even like Obama, but goddamn, it wouldn't hurt if people started thinking past the current hot issue, say to, I don't know, 2012??? I could go on and on about why it is imperative for Obama to succeed, and the best reason is the simplest.

Obama failure=repug prez in 2012

Obama success=no repug prez in 2012

It ain't rocket science. Thanks.
quickesst

[mmonk]

39. I guess it all surrounds what people view as success.

Here's a few non successes from my standpoint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcQ765WJAMk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpOgAGqilx8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SunQGpvGUKI&feature=related

[PretzelWarrior]

41. from the links, it is clear you don't know what you're talking about

President Obama and his team are still pledging to open investigations and take them where the evidence leads. You and Olberman seem to be under the false impression that just because the Obama justice department argues against the merits of certain cases then that means they reject all claims against Bush, Cheney, etc. out of hand.

Obama is a constitutional scholar and has a crack team going after the legal end of this. These particular cases are being looked at in the narrow context of "standing" in a case, etc.

Way to prove my point. Whether a particular civil case against Yoo goes forward or not does not appreciably change anything about your life or our national destiny.

[mmonk]

42. In your honor of your response, I'll add another.

I'd love to agree with you since I was an Obama delegate in NC, however I have to go with what I know and what I've been battling for the last few years. Here's my addition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ki-uQ3V_2s
I added this because on the surface, he is doing what he promised but other cases aren't allowed based on the State Secrets privilege which I find ironic since this was going to go to the Supreme Ct.

You can find in the Political Videos as well. Feel free to debate.
And of course I disagree with your assessment I don't know what I'm talking about. I guess the CCR and the ACLU don't either.

[azmouse]

40. Obama is doing a fine job so far.

He'll continue to grow in the job and do even better as the years go by.
Yep... a break from the craziness here can do wonders.
I'm almost ready for one myself but dangit! if I don't just get too curious to see what's going on here. :D