(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
According to the AP, President Obama named David Cote, CEO of Honeywell International and former Fed Reserve Vice Chair Alice Rivlin to the Panel. He also appointed Andy Stern, president of the SEIU and Ann Fudge, the former CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands.
And again with the skin stuff:
For far too long, Washington has avoided the tough choices necessary to solve our fiscal problems (he says in statement announcing new members)
Formerly named to make the hard decisions that will probably not affect them personally: Democratic former White House Chief, Erskine Bowles and Sen. Alan Simpson of Montana and Senator Dick Durbin.
and Harry Reid’s choices:
Kent Conrad (North Dakota) and Max Baucus (Montana).
What? Grover Norquist wasn’t available?
Well, I’ll be danged: Max Baucus and Kent Conrad. Does this mean we will have another year of Byzantine, roccoco-laden, Medici meandering, front-seat Theatre of the Absurd as we did with the Health Care gift to insurance corporations legislative process.
David Cote’s total compensation last year according to Forbes was $19.75 million. His skin will not be in the game as these people go to the Asbestos tanning salon wherein a layer of nontoxic asbestos is added to the tanning solution to keep them safe from a sliver of skin “being in the game.” (btw, the bill for these tanning salons will be in the mail soon to each of us who still have a mailing address. (Who knows which corporation will be handling that mail, as I think we know Obama’s take on the U.S. Post Office.) Cote is a Democrat close to Obama (according to Wiki) and was a party to the early-on meetings in the White House (you know our White House) with industry luminaries.
What, Kenneth Lewis wasn’t available?
Ann Fudge is on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, Honeywell, and The Rockefeller Foundation, among others, and is the former CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands. She has been involved in the Obama Brand during the election process. She is an African American who is active in promoting black enterprises and is active in other charitable groups.
Her father was an administrator of the U.S. Post Office. (so yesterday)
Alan Simpson, in an interview, has said that since he is retired he can now “beat the brains out of the AARP.” Implicit in the comment is that he doesn’t have to worry about senior voters.
What, Peter Peterson wasn’t available.
Ernest Bowles said in an interview today that
“everything is on the table and I mean everything.”
If you think there was a follow-up question from Brian Williams: Does that mean the DOD is on the table? You would be wrong! – Surprised?
Oh, and John Boehner gets to name 3 commission members as well –
from the AP article:
But the panel is a weak susbstitute for what Obama really wanted — a commission created by Congress that could force lawmakers to vote on remedies to reduce the debt.
That proposal was defeated so Obama creates a commission that makes recommendations to Congress but can’t require a vote.
Once again – I offer my Clark Street bus solution – pluck a group of “folks” from the 22 Clark Street bus in Chicago and place them in this Commission. They would probably be as competent though not as balanced, being bus riders and all. However, do it soon as the Chicago Transit Authority is cutting services LEFT AND RIGHT – though more to the left.
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about what is going on here – but I wanted to get the ball rolling.
I am leaving to work out so won’t be around for a bit.
But add what you know about this commission – or write an ancillary diary.
thanks.
Permanent war, financial deregulation and watching helplessly as our manufacturing sector disappears overseas (while our labor unions inevitably vanish). All this while Washington is flooded with lobby money to do the work of their puppet masters.
Yet, it’s Washington that has avoided the tough choices that the people have to face. Obama keeps stumbling into the dark cave of oligarchic revivalism. He’s become a propaganda machine for forces that are taking all notions of the “social good” out of Democracy and replacing them with economic policies designed to redefine the entire meaning of democratic processes and freedoms.
You can only go so far into this dark cave without ever being able to get out. This is because the priviledged few will always fight to the death to hold their power, and they will buy all the protection they need with their trillions. Can this commission be about anything else?