Author's posts
Nov 11 2009
Maddow destroys Pro-SLAVERY American Corporations “You child labor endorsing, pro-slavery FREAKS!”
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Very rarely does Rachel Maddow lose her temper. Rather, she usually engages even the worst issues with a snarky, cheerful grin, but if you see the look on her face at the end of this segment you will see the burning rage that I have a LOT of trouble surpressing, especially on topics such as these.
Behold the TOTAL DESTRUCTION of America’s Pro-SLAVERY capitalist status quo, courtesy of the wit and brilliance of Rachel Maddow.
Partial transcript and commentary below the fold.
Nov 10 2009
Bernie Sanders may filibuster if there ISN’T a ROBUST public option for everyone
Crossposted at Daily Kos
The ONE Senator that I can safely say is NOT bought off, the one Senator that we can be certain is NOT owned by the banks is Bernie Sanders (I-VT). It looks like good ole Bernie is putting his left foot down on the public option and threatening a filibuster of his own if there isn’t a ROBUST public option that is available to everyone in the Senate version of the health care bill.
I think this is GREAT news, and I’ll explain why below the fold, where you can find a full transcript of this video as well.
Nov 09 2009
WTF was I thinking!?!?!
Dearest Dharma Bums, I apologize for not being myself lately.
I have gotten far too optimistic despite reality. That reality is not kind, nor is it full of much hope, rather it is very cruel and very full of shit.
As many of you have probably read already I posted a diary here this morning that probably left you shaking your heads. I was on my way out to job hunt this morning, and I was trying to give myself a pep talk. Since I wanted to publish a diary before leaving I let that pep talk bleed into my thoughts, but that is a reality that exists in the bright sun of a new day only, and once the wind has hit your face and the ground starts to hurt your feet it is hard to ignore the hunger in your belly that has not been sated, nor is it possible to stay blind with hope forever.
Therefore, I hereby swear to STOP putting a happy face on BULLSHIT. I have been misusing the Yell Louder mantra, and I promise to STOP the BULLSHIT and only Yell Louder for REAL CHANGE.
And what we are getting from these corrupt Democan’t is faaaaar from real change.
Until now I didn’t want to give up on hope. But I have finally realize that hope is for fools if it is not followed by ACTION. Without ACTION hope is just an empty promise, and I will NOT play the pied piper to fools who would happily swallow empty promises, nor will I call a Shit Sandwich a meal rather than starve.
So, I first wanted to apologize to you all here, whom I love dearly, for enduring my bullshit these past few weeks. I have had problems with depression in the past, and I have taught myself to fight through it by remaining positive even when tere is no reason for doing so. I am now learning that this is not the right way to treat the problem. Putting a smiley face on my great depression and our national great depression for everyone but the top 1% isn’t helping me, you or anyone else. For that, I apologize. I have been trying to keep myself out of a depressive cycle by putting on my positive face, but I have had ENOUGH of it, and I am ready to do what I think I do best.
And that is to get MAD!
And boy am I pissed right now.
I am on the verge of homelessness, I can’t find a job to save my ass, and even if I do I will still be a fucking wage slave, forever doomed, it seems, to live beneath the Iron Heel of the Corporations and their Corporatist puppets in political power.
There is no happpy spin I can put on this any longer, no positive side to look at it from. I am tired of watching my fellow Americans, be they workers or women, LGBT activists or retirees suffer so that Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Goldman Sachs may live, and I am tired of trying to find the positive side to the shit sandwich we are being served rather than facing the starvation that awaits us if we follow this path, because even though Shit may be filling, it has no nutrition, and neither does this change or reform if that is what some would like to call it.
So, I am fucking DONE with More and Better, I say it is time for Opertaion Chaos. Though I may get involved in certain elections and races, I am no longer buying an inch of the party line bullshit. I will vote my conscious, speak my principles, and compromise with NO ONE anymore while fighting for my beliefs.
I want to thank you for having patience with me, and especially to those who were kind enough to hear me out and remind me where my heart truly lies.
Becuase my heart lies with no party, but with the people it is supposed to represent.
Thank you,
MoT
Nov 09 2009
YES WE CAN! But It’s NOT ENOUGH to elect a Progressive President, so here’s what we have to do next
Crossposted at Daily Kos
I’d like to share with you all this comment that was placed in my diary yesterday by Dkos User lascaux, as I think it sums up what we as Progressive activists and the Democrtaic base MUST accomplish in order to effect REAL CHANGE we can believe in.
What I learnedWhat this reform fight has taught me:
it is not enough to elect a progressive president, we need to elect liberals and progressives in congress as well.
The frustrating inability of this Democratically controlled Congress is PROOF that our job did NOT END when Obama won the Presidential election in 2008. In fact, our work has just begun, and we must face it with the same dedication, intensity and enthusiasm that we did in 2008, or we WILL lose, because we simply don’t have the money to compete with the special interests that control our Government.
But we DO have the people, and they can’t beat that.
So, here’s how we should FIGHT BACK.
Nov 08 2009
Maddow: Democratic women will REVOLT over Stupak-Pitts if it is not removed in Conference
Crossposted at Daily Kos
On Meet The Press today, Rachel Maddow made a point that should NOT be overlooked by Democrats in the House and Senate who wish to remian in their elected offices in 2010 and beyond, and that is the fact that if the Stupak-Pitts C Street anti abortion amendment in the House version of Health Care Reform is NOT removed if/when the bill goes to Conference to be merged with the Senate bill, there will be MASSIVE blowback for the Democratic party from it’s female base.
H/t to DKos user Scarce for the video
More below the fold
Nov 06 2009
New meme: The GOP is Sabotaging America’s recovery for political gain. They hope WE fail
Crossposted at Daily Kos
They don’t just hope HE (President Obama) FAILS, they hope America fails, and they (The Republican party) are helping it happen by obstructing reform and fighting job growing legislation that will help America recover.
They hope you lose your job and go broke so that you are pissed off and miserable, and they hope this lasts until 2010 and 2012 so you can take it out on the incumbents who are in office, and when we “throw the bums out” Republicans will finally get back the political power that they crave so much.
The Republican party is sabotaging America’s recovery for political gain.
This is the new meme that we as Democrats should push in order to expose the elected Republicans for what they are, fake patriots who put politics above the best interests of their own nation.
More below the fold.
Nov 03 2009
Wanted: “Reality”-based criticism of President Obama
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Of all the screwed up things the Republican party and their Corporate Media enablers have done maybe the worst is the souring of the debate on whether President Obama is doing the right thing or not. When the “faithful” opposition in American politics is more concerned with ACORN and socialism than it is with Corproate malfeasance or the corrupt status quo, it just isn’t worth debating with, but that debate is necessary and our system does worse without it.
Similarly, the left has been conditioned by the raving right to interpret ALL criticism of President Obama as an attack on him. Many on the left see activists who criticize Obama as if they were joining in on the hyperbole, and they fear that Obama, and Democratic majorities, might fall if pressure from the left and the right becomes overheated. These people are often the loudest defenders of Obama, but are they really helping his cause?
I firmly believe that we MUST, as activists and voters, be able to hold President Obama and the Democratic party accountable, otherwise they will walk all over us. In order to do this, we MUST be able to constructivly criticize our leaders, and since the right wing of American politics long ago left the reality based world, it is the left which must provide this criticism. The problem is, will others on the left allow it to happen?
More below the fold.
Nov 02 2009
I demand PURITY!!!!!
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Demand purity? “But that’s crazy talk!” you say.
Of course it is! I’m not talking about purity for the Democrats, you sillies. I’m talking about purity for the Republican party.
I demand MORE of it! MORE Republican purity is the BEST thing the Democratic party and the progressive movement could possibly hope for.
There is NO possibility of recalling The Wing-nuts-
You see, there is no such thing as liberal purity. Put 100 random liberals in a room and you will have 100 different views of how the world should be.
Conservatives, on the other hand . . . .
More below the fold
Nov 01 2009
Alan Grayson accused the Fed of manipulating the stock market
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Back in late September, Alan Grayson (Big D-FL08) grilled Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez on whether or not the Federal Reserve has manipulated the stock and futures market. Since this hasn’t been diaried and Sunday is a slow news day, I thought it would be fun to watch Alan Grayson in action in a bit of a flashback.
(UPDATE: Unfortunately and oddly, the video is no longer working for some strange reason. Good thing I transcribed it when I did. I am looking for another version of the same vide, so hang in there until I can find it
UPDATE 2: Found a second video. Hope you enjoy)
Transcript and commentary below the fold.
Oct 31 2009
Joe Wilson waxes Palinesque against Net Neutrality, invokes 9/11, Iraq and Iran
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Yesterday, South Carolina Congressman Joe “YOU LIE” Wilson gave a speech condemning Health Care Reform as a “Greater Control” on American lives. The video can be seen here, but the main event is below the fold.
Fear mongering over health care reform is nothing new for Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC02), but the speech he gave on the House floor a few days ago that was mocked by Jon Stewart should stand in the Wingnut Hall of Fame of insane, disconnected rants that have nothing at all to do with the reality of the issues being discussed.
It is, in a word, Palinesque.
More below the fold.
Oct 30 2009
Reid will NOT put anti-trust ending language in Senate HCR bill yet. Why?
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Senate negotiators have decided not to include a provision revoking the insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption in the bill leadership sends to the floor, said a Democratic aide close to the merger talks. Instead, the measure will be offered as an amendment on the Senate floor.
Bold and italics added by the diarist
The House bill will have language ending the Insurance cartels anti-trust exemption. Why won’t the Senate bill have similar language in it before it is brought to the floor for debate?
More below the fold
Oct 29 2009
Grayson: “For Gods’ sake!” while weeping for the dead victims of the Insurance Cartels (Updated)
Crossposted at Daily Kos
(Updated to include all 4 videos, with a hat tip to Kossacks Scarce and Miss Information)
Not just GUTS, but HEART too.
After reading over 8 minutes of the testimony of the people who have lost loved ones to our Murder For Profit Health Insurance, Alan Grayson invoked the name of God and pleadedbefore Congress “For Gods’ sake, I look forward to a time when we will have finally done our jobs.”
Video 1
I have provided a short transcript of the final video of Grayson’s House floor speech, and I hope you will forgive me for not including a transcript of the first. I can not transcribe it by ear without welling up in tears myself.
More below the fold.