And this is exactly why allowing the likes of Collins and Nelson to get their hands on this economic stimulus bill is like a destructive virus managing to get into your computer system at the network level; you can't see the total damage it is doing, but make no mistake that damage - serious damage - is being done.

I woke up depressed.  Remember how Bush ruined the world's good will toward the U.S. after 911 with Iraq?  It's kinda like the same feeling, of a huge lost opportunity...  (not that I had faith in him, but that was truly a time for 'bipartisanship')

'I told you so'

If they had their way I bet it'd be all tax cuts to the rich in pursuit of that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow called supply side economics.

I'm less upset about this go-round because it is only the first of many.  The importance is to get something done soon, even if it is not adequate.  I'm hoping that the next rounds are fought more coherently with a theme other than bipartisanship.

The Beltway "Bipartisan" BSers got their man - and his name appears to be Barack Obama.

I was for Hillary, because I thought this guy stood for nothing except getting himself elected.

Nonetheless, I did vote for him in the general (I'd planned to sit it out, but got too scared of Palin); and now he's our president.  I wish him the best because there's no choice.  I will call him my president (unlike Dubya the thief), and try to make the best of it.

As progressives we can try to push him as far as possible in the progressive direction, but we should shed any illusions about his sharing our ideals.

It takes a certain amount of egomania to run for president in the first place, and Obama has his fair share. Admitting you handled a situation wrong is one thing. Admitting that your concept of governing was wrong is totally different. I don't think he has it within himself to change.

He told everyone from the get go that he wasn't the progressive they thought he would or could be. Not enough people believed him. And now we have him for at least four years.

Politics is about what we get, and what we got is Obama, and now we all have to do our best to have him succeed in spite of himself in a set-up that spells d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r.

Sen. Reid: "Keep in mind, it's approaching a trillion dollars."

NYT: even the senators behind the compromise were uncertain of the number.

Roll Call: The uncertainty made it difficult to predict whether the final bill would be approximately $780 billion or $826 billion.

Fox News: about $811 billion in spending and tax cuts

AP: Democrats put the cost of the measure at $780 billion...Republican critics said that the price tag was actually higher...Official cost figures were not yet available.

AFP: The bill's supporters noted that its price tag would be far smaller than the 937 billion dollars... Details were elusive... Republicans said their calculations put the new bill at roughly 830 billion dollars

LAT: a price tag of about $780 billion under the compromise deal, though the final figure was unclear.  

Bloomberg: Democrats said the Senate plan totaled $780 billion while Republicans said that didn't include the cost of additions made on the Senate floor including tax cuts aimed at helping the housing and auto industries.

Politico: While details are still incomplete, it appears the package, as initially brought to the Senate floor, will be scaled back...the total bill then would be in the range of $800 billion.

Reuters: Democratic senators agreed on Friday on a scaled-back $780 billion fiscal stimulus package

CQ: The deal would reduce the cost of the base bill by about $100 billion, to $780 billion, but this does not include spending and tax provisions added to the bill during Senate debate, according aides and senators. When those amendment are added in, Republican aides argued, the bill's price tag is $827 billion.

Hill: a $780 billion economic stimulus plan

F--- me. Obama betrayed Congressional Democrats fighting for the best bill for the economy and the country. Obama fought for spending cuts and GOP tax cuts!

BTD, let me clue you in on a fact of life that, thus far, seems to have escaped you: most people are not good actors, over the long-term. sure, we can put up a front, for brief periods, but eventually our true nature comes shining through. it's what separates the pros from the amateurs.

so, to summarize young jedi: what you saw of obama, during both the primaries and general, is what you were actually going to get; a person of little substance, but a lot of facade. to quote the late, great, gertrude stein: "there's no there, there."

Take this monstrosity of a bill off the floor right now.

Get out in the media and explain it just the way John Kerry just did on the floor, and as Barbara Boxer is about to do.  Day and night, get real Democrats out into the media and talk sense, tell the truth.

This bill is a gift to the Republicans.  Shut it down right now.  Pres. Obama needs to get his head on straight right now.  Instead of empowering "moderate" Democratic senators who clearly don't have the best interests of the vast majority of the people in mind, empower the people who are not betraying us.

As someone pointed out long ago, the Ruling Class is called the Ruling Class because it rules.

Any readers of Frank Herbert's venerable Dune would tell you that we've had 'Rabban' for the last eight years to soften us up and make us scream for a 'savior', so now we are going to get 'Feyd'. But the same ol' evil 'Baron' controls both.

I never liked puppet shows as a child. I really don't like them when they're fronted as serious politics. Yet that's what we have here. Another puppet on the Globalist's stage, dancing and gesturing and posturing and sounding oh-so-smooth and rational after what we've been through, but the same strings are attached and being moved by the same old bunch of very wealthy and dangerous Stupid White Men.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the proposed reductions "do violence to what we are trying to do for the future," especially on alternative energy and education, two areas Democrats believe were long neglected under President George W. Bush. "The cuts are very damaging," she told reporters at a House Democratic retreat in Williamsburg.

Pelosi also played down the need for Republican input. "Washington seems consumed by this process argument of bipartisanship," she said. The House's $819 billion stimulus package passed without a single Republican vote for it.