Tag: Democrats

    Crossposted at Daily Kos

Did Bush/Cheney face accountability for war crimes and lying us into Iraq?

Did Democrats attack Conservative ideology as totally failed after the roaring 90’s for the rich and Great Depression 2.0 for the rest of us in 2008?

No. Democrats would rather “look forward”, which is a Carlinesque term for Cover Up.

No. Instead Democrats wanted to use those failed ideas themselves to build bipartisan support for FAILED ideas that have bankrupted America and our middle and working class.

    Apparently, elections DO NOT MATTER, because we are getting ANOTHER unpopular war and we are NOT getting a popular program like the Public Option, and all because Corporations have overthrown our democracy. They didn’t need bullets, dollars did the job better than bullets ever could.

    To be blunt, Democrats are losing on purpose, and I have had enough of the spineless wusses who want to play pattycake with the lunatics who kick them in the balls. If you aren’t fighting back you are THROWING THE FIGHT, and that goes for EVERY DEM, top to bottom.

   More ranting and truth below the fold . . .  

What’s that, you say?

When playing the game of checkers, surrendering one piece to set up a subsequent double or triple jump may be well worth the sacrifice, remembering that losing a battle sometimes sets the stage for winning the war.

The Republicans had to be cognizant that the party that “won” the Oval Office in 2009-2013 would be holding onto the equivalent of a sack filled with animal droppings and an activated hand grenade.  They may well have calculated that no matter which party occupied the White House during the current term, there was a significant likelihood that the opposing party would prevail in 2012, and perhaps more importantly, the party controlling the Executive Branch in 2012 could be well-positioned to retain that power for quite some time to follow.  

It’s been harder and harder for me to pay attention to “politics” such as it is. I don’t really see anything happening other than a kind of mopping up operation by the oligarchy. The deed is done the Republic can be buried now.

The most consistently accurate commentator of the left (I regard the “left” to mean opposition to the current power structure not an ideology) has probably been Arthur Silber (his blog is here). I suggest you read his stuff, not just the new stuff. Sometimes he’s a bit pedantic and self-righteous but he’s earned the right to it as far as I’m concerned.

To all those who repeatedly claimed that, no matter what “mistakes” he might make and regardless of the scope of the devastating effects of those errors, Obama had to represent a markedly better choice than McCain, take note: in certain respects, Obama is far more dangerous than McCain could have been.

Why is this?

Recently, world leaders announced some deeply disturbing news: they gave up on reaching a binding climate deal at the upcoming Copenhagen conference. [1]

A major impediment was the refusal of President Obama and Congress to enact tough cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

We've got to turn that around. Immediately.

Tell Obama and Congress to commit to a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2020.

Right now, the most ambitious target that Obama has endorsed is a 3.5% reduction in emissions by 2020. [2]

That's pathetic, compared to the 25-40% reduction that we need to have a 50:50 chance of avoiding disastrous runaway global heating, according to the International Panel on Climate Change. [3]

The United States ought to lead by example. We can do it with strong emission reductions.

Tell Obama and your Members of Congress to commit to tough emissions reductions today.

“I’m getting tired of saving Obama’s can in the White House,” said Conyers.

–snip–

Asked if the president had shown enough leadership in the health care debate, Conyers facetiously wondered why Press would ask the question.

“Of course not, of course not,” he said. “You know, holding hands out and beer on Friday nights in the White House and bowing down to every nutty right-wing proposal about health care, and saying on occasion that public options aren’t all that important is doing a disservice to the Barack Obama that I first met who was an ardent single-payer enthusiast himself.”

He led off the interview by declaring that he was tied of “trying to stop the war in Afghanistan from surging.” He also took several swipes at Emanuel, whom he called, with a slightly derogatory tone, his “buddy.”

“That is essentially what Rahm Emanuel has said: Just give us anything and we will declare victory,” said Conyers. “Not only is it not a victory, but when it doesn’t work, guess who will come at him: the same guys that were saying let’s go along with anything… This is all my buddy Rahm Emanuel trying to get anything. But look the bill doesn’t go into effect for three years. Many of the people that we are trying to help will be dead by then.”   link

What else is there to say?  Conyers will certainly get no argument from me, and I enjoyed hearing it immensely.    It’s too bad that Conyer’s didn’t say it before and vote no with Kucinich and Massa.  The reason Progressives have no power is because they have no balls.  They even run away from the word “liberal”.

I heard on Thom Hartmann’s radio show that CSPAN covered Geithner today vigorously attacking Friedmanomics big time.    Maybe we need Rahm dumped instead of Geithner.  Or, maybe we need them both dumped.  As bad as the Democrats are, the problem is that the Republicans are even worse.  A look at the headline stories on the political page of the Huffington Post makes me wonder whether to laugh or cry.  If this is the best and brightest this country has got, no wonder we’re dying.  

(Cross-posted from The Free Speech Zone)

WASHINGTON – The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate.

Speaking from the Rose Garden about 14 hours after the late Saturday vote, Obama urged senators to be like runners on a relay team and “take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people.”

The problem is that the Senate won’t run with it. The government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…

Oh yes, such a fuckin’ “lefty” that Obama eh?

According to Dr. Angell on that 😉 right wing rag, the HuffingtonPost, here’s what we get with the House bill before the Senate even touches it.

* It enshrines and subsidizes the “takeover” by the investor-owned insurance industry.

* It expands Medicaid.

* It eliminates denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions, but since it doesn’t regulate premiums, the industry can respond to any regulation that threatens its profits by simply raising its rates.

* It does very little to curb the perverse incentives that lead doctors to over-treat the well-insured.

* It is so complicated, it’ll cost a brazillion dollars to administer and enforce it.

(more)