While “Communications have evolved in the past 25 years” so have the disconnectedness between the ruled and the ruling. No amount of citizen input will change the preordained outcome of the Commission, Congress, the Administration, or their masters. Get out the 100 grit petroleum jelly.

I’m really writing this in the hopes that I’ll get the next letter.

Now David. You have to wait your turn. I’m sure Jane is next in line for a “Simpson Letter”

the Village often flirted with the Iconoclast and Maverick labels with this pig when he was in the Senate – and although I never bought in, it wasn’t ’til his resurfacing did I realize Boor is the only appropriate tag

p.s. hope you get your wish and he responds D-Day :D

teehee, saw her anglin’ for it on twitter last night – man is she good ;)

Simpson never much of a thinker is worse now and likely senile. Yes the more he is provoked the more he undoes himself. I don’t think it would save SS but invalidating the chair can’t hurt.

Looks like Simpson’s derogatory letters will become a cottage industry.

OT– “Prosecutor orders probe against Assange” (sublink of note: “Assange prosecutor cited for secrecy breach,” 24 Aug 10)

“…that Simpson was traveling hiding out and unable to comment immediately.”

Corrected that one.

Simpson might just come to regret having picked a fight with Dean Baker, let alone the “310 million tits” comment. Dumbass.

SOcial Security is just like that village in ‘Nam: Simpson knows we must destroy it to save it!

What a pig he is.

He’s part of the PTB. No one can tell him what to do or criticize him. Dontcha know it’s a one-way street. His sorts tell us what to do and criticize us.

Let me end the pretense: I’m really writing this in the hopes that I’ll get the next letter.

Go for it, Alan. Please. heh

It is curious that Simpson took it upon himself to criticize Dean Baker given his field of expertise. Rather than the old standard of appearing to be above the fray, now public officials – and being appointed to the cat food commission is public – are taking it upon themselves to condescend upon experts in their own fields. Other than misplaced self-importance there is little reason why Simpson would feel that it is his job to silence critics of the commission who represent a different political position in nearly all respects.

Of course the telling feature, like the Gibbs gaffs or the well played Rahm Emanuel profanities, is the chirping of crickets from inside the White House. Obama won’t even stand up to a Republican that no longer holds his Senate seat in a job that he created and appointed. Doormat might be a nice way to phrase it or perhaps Simpson really does reflect Team Obama’s views.

I hear you. I was presupposing that he is capable of feeling regret, which is (I will admit) a stretch.

Your right. Obama is IMO a “Manchurian candidate”. I don’t remember him running on reforming SSI and Medicare do u? He’s been put in by the elite Oligarchs to gut the Social Safety net and privatize whats left. The enemy is within. We need to go to war against the Dimowits and trash their phony party and replace it with a REAL People’s Party.

This deficit commission is an insidious assault on the middle class. When Obama says things like “I don’t plan massive changes, just a few tweaks,” you have to know he is lying. We have to stop him.

I do not want Simpson to resign. He’s our poster boy for what the Catfood Commission is all about. Don’t be angry toward him. Rather, be grateful. Now let’s put ads featuring him on TV.

Simpson made more sense back when he walked around smacking his forehead and exclaiming, “D’oh!”

Got that right.

are taking it upon themselves to condescend upon experts in their own fields.

I’m not surprised about that. What I do find interesting is that the catfood commish is supposed to be secrud, until its recommendations pop full born out of the head of Zeus. With Simpson’s emerging correspondence, he’s opening the closed door, and I thought that was supposed to be a big no-no. I’ll be watching that carefully.

We should prolly just start referring to him as Homer.

My son would resent that denigration of Homer Simpson.

Does anyone know if the pamphlet the SS head actuary gave to the commish and that Simpson is apparently including with his letters is available online somewhere??

I suck so bad at searches, I tried it two or three different ways with teh Google but no luck yet, so wondering if someone already knows where that pamphlet is that supposedly shows social security is “insolvent.”

Thanks for any help.

Then again, Monty Burns could be Alan’s doppelganger.

It is rare that I disagree with the leading sentiments here, but I’d just as soon see Simpson stay as co-chair. He is our ace in the hole. Nothing that comes out of this Commission will be viewed as even-handed.

The funny thing is that the dude, the second generation of a three-generation political dynasty – his dad was a US senator and WY governor and his son’s WY Speaker of the House – reeks of arrogance and entitlement, yet has very little justfication for feelings of superiority.

Notice he waves around the Goss report like abanner? Yet it doesn’t say what he implies it does.

Ooh, PW, can you help me find that report so I can read it too???

I hear you, but really don’t think it matters.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve said for months now that this is a done deal, and I still believe it to be true. The way they set up the commission, the people they put on it, and the timing of it’s recommendations and vote all told me that this was a done deal that they are going to do and THEN they will try and deal with the political fallout.

Hope I’m wrong.

Not sure but this could be it.

You’re not the only one. PhoenixWoman & I agree that he’s best right there, giving the whole exercise a black eye.

Not to worry, he’s going nowhere, no matter what we do. So we can have all the fun with him we want now, complain, bite his ankles, etc. Then later we can use the same tactics to delegitimize the recommendations.

Then the U.S. congress will overwhelmingly adopt their recommendations, gutting ss.

Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is ready: Rick Scott, Florida’s New Republican Candidate for Governor, Rides Islamophobia to Nomination

That’s a funny joke Simpson pulls on Baker- I went to the Fiscal Commission website.

There was no meeting on May 12th!

Wait, only the public meetings are on the website?

I think Simpson should demand that the testimony of Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration should be put on the intertubes so we can all see what Goss has to say.

Unless they are trying to hide what they are doing, then I understand.

Simpson speaks perfect geezer teabagger, right down to the bonus dollop of gratuitous crudity and sexism.

The impropriety of his pissy yattering reminds me of Scalia or Thomas. Nonetheless I too hope he keeps it up, cuz it’s not a good thing for the Catfooders.

Simpson has probably only read a summary prepared by his assistant. He is much too important to slog through reports personally.

Thanks very much SD.

Dang! My Google – Fu isn’t working on this iPod touch. But I do hav this linke which shows that the Goss report doesn’t show what Simpson seems to want us to think it does:
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/06/michels_bachman.php

We need to challenge Simpson because it will force Obama to show his hand

I’d feel that he was an ace-in-the-hole if his co-chair weren’t Bowles and if it could be shown that the majority of Ds in DC outside the White House could be shown to have a backbone. As it is, Simpson just seems to be showing his hold card because he already has a pat hand dealt to him by Team Obama. Like eCAHNomics, I think the cat food is a done deal and all of our being able to see the obvious won’t change the outcome as they pretend that the entire thing hasn’t been already decided.

I think that’s the CBO report, not the SS actuary report.

Thanks PW.

Boy that Bachman is a piece of work. There must be something in the water in that district in Minnesota.

Yeah, I’m not sure either.

I read the summary and the first couple of charts, so I’m still interested in reading it anyway (THANKS AGAIN SD) for the information, but if that’s not the one Simpson is alluding to and anyone does have that one, I would really appreciate it. Be nice to call out the asshole with his own ammunition.

There’s a movement to get Orahma to dump Simpson. Sign the petition.

Barack Obama chose Alan Simpson to head this commission. He was given the greenlight to slash Social Security and he knows it. It is the object of the exercise. Like Gen. Conway, in the previous post, these guys act and say the things they do because they know Barack Obama has given them his implicit or explicit backing to do so. I say this a million times but Obama is a Blue Dog status quo corporatist. If you accept that, do the remarks of either Simpson or Conway come as a surprise?

REPLY TO HUGH @ 41

The only quibble I have is I really believe he’s a Republican. His remarks about Reagan were interesting.

We need to challenge allen simpsom because it will make President Obama show his hand.

How about this one?

Obama has shown his hand a bunch of times – TBTF, escalating military spending, increased government opacity, etc. Each time he says “pay no attention to my actions because only the description of my motivations count.” Seems to have done the job so far.

Even today, not coming down like a ton of bricks on Simpson says way more than is necessary.

Blue Dog status quo corporatist

aka neoliberal

ALL liars need to be challenged. Show me a partisan and I’ll show you a Liar. Period. It doesn’t matter what the title of their particular party is, that’s just kabuki. A dance, a pretend structure to differentiate the players, just like a baseball team. And like a baseball team, the players can freely move from one team to another but they are after the same goal and look to achieve it in largely the same way.

Good analogy.

Back to work.

Namaste

Letting Simpson carry the anti-SS message lets Obama sound conciliatory later on when they are all happily able to determine that it was only 155 million folks looking for milk tits that had to be excised.

While I think the petition is a great idea and I hope all sign it I doubt Obama cares. He has long since given up any pretense of caring what the “little people” think.

Yep. He’ll begin “caring” again on or near January of 2012. Then the Kossacks will have an energy, (and money), outlet again.

He has long since given up any pretense of caring what the “little people” think

As have the Democrats who tacitly support all this. A vote for any Republican or any Democrat this Fall is a vote to keep the looting and all these bad policies going.

This is who Obama is. Cuts food stamps to protect his charter school slush fund, the little punk.

“It’s important to note that Obama’s “Race To The Top” program is a neoliberal effort to privatize the Department of Education. What they are doing is underfunding education while holding billions in this fund, the Race To The Top fund. They are telling the individual school districts that whomever makes the most austerity program type changes to their school systems, gets some of that money. Well, several districts have completely privatized their schools systems in order to get the cash. So that money, the Race To The Top money… is actually then paid to the for-profit charter school corporations. So the White House, rather than take even PART of that money tagged for the charter school corporations, would rather take money from the poor, from the Food Stamp program, than to take it from that corporate fund. So it isn’t about taking the money to pay for education as much as it is about the Obama administration stealing from the poor while trying to protect the corporate slush fund.)”

http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/obey-white-house-suggested-cutting-food-stamps-to-pay-for-education-program/

I think you are on to a piece of the core here. The high rate of recidivism (i.e. being re-elected) among Senators and also among the Representatives means they basically live in Washington like a ruling class. It extends over generations. The mastery of madison avenue advertising to run elections and the universal employment of ‘bomb em to death’ negative advertising–which has proved its effectiveness time and again–creates a mindset of rulers versus ruled. We, the ruled, are the unwashed who don’t know what’s good for us. Simpson does. How does he know? He thought it up himself, and that’s good enough for him.

Our system stinks to high heaven.

Remind me why Obama hired this knuckle-dragging, hate the-lesser-people mongering shithead to rein in the federal deficit. Simpson is right about the two wars and the tax cuts for the rich both being shit, but his head is too full of shit to see that these are the two biggest piles of shit that have gotten us knee deep in debt!

The whole point of a commission is to make a lot of recommendations that lead to bupkis. I predict the same for this one.

isn’t maverick code for asshole?

“Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration shared with the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on May 12, 2010.”

Is this Goss fellow related to Porter?

Thanks, PW for the link! What a jerk that Simpson is. MORE and more of the GOP-Terra.

It’s going to take one Hell of a surgeon to do that mastectomy. I can’t wait for the first repuke to stand up and say he has the scapel.

Simpson sucks the big one.

Shame that assholes like this need a “mis-step” like this to get canned – when they never should have been in the room in the first place, and most are just enough not-stupid to avoid saying these things in-print/on-camera.

So Obama – this is your guy? Just like Gates, Patreous, Ken Salazar, Summers/Gietner, all of Bush’s AG’s, and on and on.

Obama has the authority to place and remove commissioners.

- also people pay in, so again Simpson, go suck it

There are many hard-working people that can’t find jobs, and people that have shown intelligence on Social Security and similar issues. I guess its beyond the palte to consider SCIENCE and IDEAS – just pre-baked conclusions and political cover.

isn’t maverick code for asshole?

No, it’s code for corporate lackey shill hack out to rip off the “small” people for the benefit of the Oligarchs. C’mon: get with the program! /s

Just read the entire letter. If Obama does not remove this asshat by 4pm ET today, then he has finally reached the bottom of a long barrel – and its free fall time.

My prediction: Tea Partiers will line up to shriek and scream that Soc Sec is nothing more than welfare entitlement. And that hippies who demand it are living in the Nanny State as usual.

Do not count even on the geezers protesting the impending rip off. They have proven over & over how brainwashed they are.

Perhaps that’s the goal of Beck’s “rally” this weekend?? Maybe Beck intends to begin indoctrinating these fools into the dogma that Soc Sec and Medicare is really, really, really bad, and that real ‘Murkins don’t want it or need it. And that all that money should go to rich f*cks like Beck and Simpson and their cronies. Wouldn’t surprise me one iota.

Only NOW BHO has reached “the bottom”??? Boyohboy, you are much more patient and tolerant than me (no offense). BHO reached “the bottom” with me ages ago. But whatever…

if for nothing else that he is exposing the nobels distain for the peons. Or that he is clearly a raving lunatic.

But, what the hell – but the fate of the bottom 99% in his hands…

The high rate of recidivism (i.e. being re-elected) among Senators and also among the Representatives means they basically live in Washington like a ruling class. It extends over generations. The mastery of madison avenue advertising to run elections and the universal employment of ‘bomb em to death’ negative advertising–which has proved its effectiveness time and again–creates a mindset of rulers versus ruled. We, the ruled, are the unwashed who don’t know what’s good for us. Simpson does. How does he know? He thought it up himself, and that’s good enough for him.

Our system stinks to high heaven.

Thanks for that. Bears repeating. Hit the nail on the head. Great depiction of what’s going on.

I am not voting for him, but he can do a lot more damage than he has already done.

We have NOT seen the bottom yet.

If this Simpson clown even make it to Friday news dump – then we are more fucked than I can imagine. And if you look at my warning before Obama was even elected, or that my father a Dem for 40 years did not vote in the MA senate election – then you get a better sense of where I am.

All that being said, it could get much worse. Once he dips below 43% approval he may take off the sheeps clothing.

Obama knows we need to cut social security. A 20% cut in benefits for those under 50 + an age 70 retirement age are responsible steps.

He clearly already “knows” the answer, and its evident that he thinks him “knowing” the answer is enough to convince anyone – of course his is a king, so he turns on the insults and is only concerned with charm when he is out with buds eating $200 dinners on the back of the titty-sucker.

et me share with you what Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration shared with the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on May 12, 2010

Got link to this presentation?

Yeah, and then the rest can trickle-down to people.

Your trolling is not even fun, its beyond dull.

couldn’t agree more OFG. Dem leadership has been co-opted by the DLC who are DINO’s. Fuck, Obama campaigned for Lieberman after Ned Lamont won the CT primary – or he gave him lots of cash and an endorsement. Tom Tomorrow saw it before we did…

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/02/01/this_modern_world

Exactly!!!

It’s not Right or Left any more. It’s Upper and Lower.

The commision, and at least him being on it – is an afront to democracy. I do agree he is such a fool that its almost like an ace in the hole, but people (even kings & presidents) should consider doing the right thing – and citizens must demand the right thing.

Obama does not know any of what you just said. Raising retirement age and cutting current benefits will kill any POLface congresscritter for good. He may be persuaded into it like he has with all the other feasts of fools that has passed, but until that moment don’t speak for him.

As they said in the Matrix… “love” is just a word, just like democrat and republican.

Obama is racing to the top to be the one to topple free public education. Privitize schools, no doubt many of the poeple who have privitized prison will get into that game.

Alan Simpson is less intelligent and more selfish and just as crass as Homer.

tomayto, tomahto…

:)

AND Obama’s idea of quality management is to hire people who are exemplary of cartoons.

D’oh-bama! He’ll fix it!

D’oh-bama!

That, my friend, is Daily Show worthy. good one.

good luck with that. BHO only dumps his dem “friends” that stand in the way of the GOP’s approval. Maybe he will run for reelection as a GOP candidate in 2012.

Didn’t mean it as an “attack” on you or your politics, just saying that for me, personally, BHO passed the “bottom” a long time ago. But I get what you’re saying. Thanks for the response.

Maybe he will run for reelection as a GOP candidate in 2012.

Nah, the racist conservatives would never, ever in zillion years vote for a black man, especially bc as we all now know for sure beyond a shadow of a doubt, Obummer IS a Muzlinz… /s

P.S. I “get” what you’re saying, but: just saying….

Raising the retirement age to 70 IS a 20% benefits cut.

Oh yeah, I forgot that that is what makes him a Dem. His policies, not so much.

Is there something in the water in Wyoming that produces all these tempestuous bullies (I’m thinking of Cheney, too)? It’s their way of the highway or ELSE. I pity their wives and children.

The more the elites privatize, the faster capitalism will die. It is a bankrupt system. They think they are pulling a fast, immiserating all of us–but they are killing the golden goose, so to speak.

It will get worse. Much worse. Oilbummer is a one-termer. You can’t have 10% unemployment and win an election.

Thanks Obama you frigging moron for appointing Simpson as co-chair of the commission. He’s a wonderful bipartisan voice for Americans.

Obama and all his Versailles buddies are fucking DICKS. Spectacularly awful human beings.

“Barack Obama chose Alan Simpson to head this commission. He was given the greenlight to slash Social Security and he knows it.”

Right. The problem is not Simpson. The problem is Obama who set up the commission and selected Simpson and the other know-nothings. Obama has shown his contempt for ordinary Americans and his cold indifference toward their plight with every action that he has taken. The DNC, the DLC and the party don’t care. Americans don’t seem to understand what is happening re jobs, SS, healthcare or anything else. I think Obama assumes that liberal and progressive Democrats and others are disorganized and confused. That we are talking to each other and are not a threat.

David, if Simpson wants to fight old school, you have to fight back old school.

None of this fancy ham radio ARPANET nonsense, no sir. If you want to get his attention, send him a telegram. Remember, end sentences with STOP and the message with FULL STOP. :o)
http://www.sendtelegram.com/

Apologies. My reply should have been marked in reply to: Hugh @41

and now there are 2 of us.

Maybe Simpson was drunk when he sent the emails.