Tag: John Kerry

Welcome to the 25th installment of “Considered Forthwith.”

This weekly series looks at the various committees in the House and the Senate. Committees are the workshops of our democracy. This is where bills are considered, revised, and occasionally advance for consideration by the House and Senate. Most committees also have the authority to exercise oversight of related executive branch agencies.

This week, I am looking at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Two thoughts before proceeding. First, I am happy to be out of the newspaper business because I can say what I really think without worrying about objectivity. Second, what I really think is that the committee’s website is in dire need of a redesign.  

Since I live in the DC metro area, I attended the rally last Wednesday at which the Clean Energy, Jobs and American Power Act (CEJAPA) was unveiled. Those of you who haven’t read summaries or analysis of this legislation yet should check out both RLMiller’s diary and Senator Kerry’s diary about CEJAPA.  I’ll say straight out that it’s not a perfect bill, but it’s a bill I’m happy to support. Its emissions reduction targets are better than those in the House bill, it includes more funding for clean transportation, and, very importantly, it states that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon pollution. But analysis of the bill has already been diaried, and, to quote “Alice’s Restaurant,” it’s not what I’m here to tell you about.  I’m here to talk about the first indications of a political sea-change.

At the rally, I was struck by something remarkable.  Democratic senators were speaking to us, their progressive base, and asking us to help provide the grassroots pressure needed to get a climate bill through the rocky terrain of the Senate.  Now, politicians from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party have asked for our support before, but this was different.  It wasn’t just one or two left-wing senators addressing us, but a coalition which included some folks who usually don’t talk to us much-and they were asking us, essentially, to do the same thing we’ve done for the public option for this climate change legislation.  Imagine how different the debate on health care would have been over the past few months if Democratic politicians had come to us in April and asked us to mount a grassroots campaign in support of clear policy goals.  They didn’t, which is a shame.  But now, on the issue of climate change, they are.

Folks, we have finally gotten their attention.  The remarkable job that slinkerwink, Jane, nyceve, and others have done to keep the public option alive has finally made it occur to more than a few Dems that we’re good in a fight-and, perhaps, that we’re bad to ignore.  Rather than attempting to placate us by throwing us a few bones, then treating us like Typhoid Mary, which has been the MO of most elected Democrats since the late 80s, these Democrats are treating us as useful allies.  There is a door opening here between Washington and the grassroots, and we need to wedge it open with a brick and march right through.  

So, on behalf of The Carrots and Sticks Project, I am announcing the launch of our campaign to support the Kerry-Boxer bill.  We are calling it the Swing States to Green States Campaign, and we are beginning with a petition, which the members of Carrots and Sticks will hand-deliver to senators, calling on them to support CEJAPA.  Please click through and sign this petition, and spread the word to your friends to do the same.

Support CEJAPA!

We need to do this for the sake of CEJAPA’s goal:  to reduce carbon emissions and birth the new green economy.  But we also need to do this for the sake of another goal, one that brings to fruition the vision of our guiding light Howard Dean:  to take back our party and our country.

Our power is growing, the need is great, and we must act now.

Original article, a perspective from Patrick Martin, via World Socialist Web Site:

In the run-up to Election Day, with polls pointing to a lopsided victory by the Democratic Party, both Barack Obama and leading congressional Democrats are making it clear in advance that a popular repudiation of the Bush administration will not determine the policies of an Obama White House or Democratic Congress.

You’re blowing it, you corporate-conservative jerk.  On the one hand, you’ve wised up a little in the wake of polls showing your opponents ahead; your attack on Palin’s hypocrisy and dishonesty over earmarks was good, though it could have been a little stronger — call her a liar, Barack.

“Don’t be fooled,” Obama told the crowd surrounding him in a large barn. “John McCain’s party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge” for nearly eight years.

“I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she’s change, and that’s great,” Obama said. “She’s a skillful politician. But, you know, when you’ve been taking all these earmarks when it’s convenient, and then suddenly you’re the champion anti-earmark person, that’s not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can’t just make stuff up.”

This is some of the kind of campaigning we want to see from you, and on a consistent basis (maybe you read Steve Almond’s Huffington Post piece).  Then, almost as though you suddenly remember you’re supposed to be the ringer candidate, you turn around and do something insipidly stupid — like saying you won’t push to repeal the shrub’s tax giveaways to the super-wealthy if you become president.

WASHINGTON – Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding President Bush’s tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy.

Those tax cuts for the super-wealthy are a large part of what’s caused the economic recession we’re suffering (the foreign press called it a full-blown depression this Spring) in the first place, and Americans know it.

What about increasing taxes on the wealthy?

“I think we’ve got to take a look and see where the economy is. I mean, the economy is weak right now,” Obama said on “This Week” on ABC. “The news with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, I think, along with the unemployment numbers, indicates that we’re fragile.”

Raising taxes on the wealthy won’t cause things to become worse; there isn’t much else worse that can happen, except perhaps publicly acknowledging what has been common knowledge to many people for years now, and that’s not likely to make a huge impact on the already-failed economy.  Are you so afraid of spooking your corporate masters this close to an election you’ve already decided you don’t want to win that you won’t even allow for even the possibility of making them pay taxes?

You can’t make such flip-flops.  Case in point: what you are quoted saying above, compared to this.

“John McCain likes to talk about fiscal responsibility, but there is no doubt that his proposals blow a hole through the budget,” Obama said.

This is another cause of the recession-depression: the fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP.  Lay blame where it belongs, Barack.  Don’t make taxes out to be the bogeyman; they’re not.  They’re the only way we’re going to begin salvaging this economy.

You’re running a granny campaign just like John Kerry did, and you KNOW how that turned out.  Stop doing it.  This election isn’t about you; it’s about every American whose suffering under the shrub and his gargoyle has to end, and you are not allowed to let us all down.

When you hear the term “Swiftboat” what comes into your mind?

I already know your answer, but it isn’t the meaning for those who served on nor any Navy Personal who served In-Country Vietnam.

Not to far back a small group of misguided Navy personal, who served aboard ‘Swiftboats’ in ‘Nam, took that once proud name and used it for their political purposes and gains, with some others joining them, who not only never served on  swiftboats, and the extremely dangerous missions they were sent into, but some never served at all, in the Military nor In War/Occupations!

Your word has turned to slime, hope the business world is paying attention, though you’ll always find

snakes like you to deal with and make some bucks, and I’m sure many already have learned about you

through your years of building your billions.

What’s this all about? Well,

In the days leading up to the March 4 primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island, millions of residents of those states (and of America) saw a now infamous advertisement from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Brought to you by…

News Corpse

The Internet’s Chronicle Of Media Decay.

Greyhawk had this posted at ePluribus about the Military breaking ranks with the White House on the propaganda about the Successful Surge with only this one snippet

“Don’t let the quiet fool you,” a senior defense official says. “There’s still a huge chasm between how the White House views Iraq and how we [in the Pentagon] view Iraq. The White House would like to have you believe the ‘surge’ has worked, that we somehow defeated the insurgency. That’s just ludicrous. There’s increasing quiet in Iraq, but that’s happened because of our shift in strategy – the ‘surge’ had nothing to do with it.”

And just a few sentences, so I followed the link. Here’s abit more to hopefully get you to drop over to the Asia Times online and read the rest.