Hello, my dearest Dharma Bums. My name is Jesse LaGreca.
and I have ridden the mighty moon worm that is American talk radio
and let me tell you, Rush Limbo, Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs really suck at their jobs. Either they suck at their jobs or they work very, very hard at sucking as much as they do.
Well, let me just say, on behalf of Progressives and Liberals everywhere that I came, I saw, and I YELLED LOUDER.
In my last diary, I asked the Progressive Caucus to explain, precisely, what constituted a “robust public option.” Is a “robust public option” the one currently in HR 3200, or is it the one originally demanded by Jane Hamsher among others?
But I don’t think anyone in the campaign to defend a “robust public option” understood what was at stake, for none of them took the time to define the term for me. If the “robust public option” is the public option now in HR 3200, then it can be anything one wishes; co-ops, triggers, whatever.
This appears to be the delicate stage of negotiations for a health care bill. As War On Error has shown so thoroughly today, the House bill as stands is a pure giveaway, because the “public option” it offers is only available to the self-employed, and then only by 2013, by which time the insurers will have (maybe) a bit firmer control of the Federal government than they do today.
We should understand, then, that we will have to be in this for the sake of building a historic bloc, a larger social movement with a political aim. If we can do that, we can say that it’s not over when Congress decides to vote, and we will not have to wait another sixteen years to get what we want. Voting down all sellout bills will, in this light, be our first victory as a historic-bloc-in-formation. It is still early in the game — it is not “now or never.”
When he was asking Americans to vote for him during the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama said . . .
We’re looking to fundamentally change the status quo in Washington. It’s a status quo that extends beyond any particular party and right now that status quo is fighting back with everything it’s got, with the same old tactics that divide and distract us from solving the problems people face, whether those problems are health care that folks can’t afford or a mortgage they cannot pay.
Before Obama appointed Wall Street insiders to run his economic policies and a Blue Dog to be his chief of staff, he told us . . .
Make no mistake about what we’re up against. We’re up against the belief that it’s all right for lobbyists to dominate our government, that they are just part of the system in Washington. But we know that the undue influence of lobbyists is part of the problem and this election is our chance to say that we are not going to let them stand in our way anymore.
Obama’s not only letting them stand in our way, he’s helping them stand in our way. He let lobbyists write the Senate Finance Committee bill. He campaigned for the public option, but now he’s caving to the Republicans and Blue Dogs who are telling us we can’t have it. They’ve viciously attacked the public option from the very beginning and they’re continuing to viciously attack it.
When he needed our votes, Obama condemned the very people he’s caving to now . . .
There are those who will continue to tell us that we can’t do this, that we can’t have what we’re looking for, that we can’t have what we want. But here is what I know. I know that when people say we can’t overcome all the big money and influence in Washington, I think of that elderly woman who sent me a contribution the other day, an envelope that had a money order for $3.01 along with a verse of scripture tucked inside the envelope.
I’m not sure what you think you know, Obama, but here’s what she knows–she knows what Democrats used to stand for, she knows what they must stand for again. She remembers when FDR showed America what real change looks like, she remembers him winning the fight for economic and social justice . . .
From a wheel chair.
FDR’s legs were paralyzed, but his moral courage wasn’t, his heart wasn’t, his determination to fight for the Americans who elected him wasn’t. Unlike you, Obama, FDR wasn’t paralyzed by moral cowardice, he didn’t reach out to Republicans, he didn’t compromise with the liars and hypocrites of that degenerate party, he governed as a Democrat because that’s what he promised he would do.
That elderly woman who sent you $3.01 remembers when Democrats were actually Democrats, she knows how desperately America needs another Democratic President like FDR. She believed in you, Obama. She trusted you. She had faith in you. She believed you when you told her last fall, when you told all of us last fall that . . .
We’re up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election. But we know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics. This is why people don’t believe what their leaders say anymore. This is why they tune out. And this election is our chance to give the American people a reason to believe again.
You’re throwing that chance away, Obama. You’re letting the losers of that election kill reform, you’re shattering the trust so many Americans had in you, you’re giving us no reason to believe that anything will really change.
Last week the Dog wrote a post about laying out the difficulties of starting a new political party to the Left of the Democratic Party. If you want to read it you can find it here. The challenges are extensive to say the least. Since the Dog thinks that is a bad idea he urged those who might be thinking of this path to stay and work within the Democratic Party. While not everyone agreed (we are all Liberals after all) there were a couple who pointed out while the Dog was showing a problem, he did not really offer the means to a solution. This is a fair observation and so the follow is some practical advice for those who want to take over the Democratic Party and move it more to the Left.
We have the moral responsibility to restore what was given to us, to take back what has been taken away by corrupt politicians of both major parties. If the Democratic Party won’t restore American democracy, it will be up to Progressives to restore it. If Democrats cave again and pass a travesty of a health care reform bill without a strong public option, there will no longer be any doubt that the two-party system has been corrupted beyond salvage. If that happens, I believe progressives will have no choice but to dissolve all ties with the Democratic Party, establish the Progressive Party, and ask progressive Democrats in Congress and across this country to join us.
A Netroots Declaration
When in the course of Democratic betrayals it becomes necessary for Progressives to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with the Democratic Party, and to establish ourselves as a New Party in the political system, our respect for the Constitution and the rule of law compels us to declare the causes which impel us to this separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that the Democratic Party is complicit in war crimes, that it is complicit in illegal NSA spying, that it is complicit in massive Wall Street fraud, that it no longer believes that all men are created equal, that it serves only the corporate masters of America, that it has granted them unalienable Rights, that among these are the right to plunder the Treasury, the right to control the media, the right to subvert the banking system, to corrupt the electoral system, to ravage our economy and reap the illicit profits of shock doctrine capitalism.
To enable the voices of citizens to be heard in the corridors of power, political parties have been instituted among Men, deriving their power from the support of their members. Whenever any political party becomes destructive of these ends, its supporters have the right to withdraw their support, and to establish a new party. As Progressives, we have no choice left but to establish a new party, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in accordance with our responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the progressive values upon which it was founded.
Present circumstances dictate that a political party long established should not be rejected for light and transient causes; but when a long train of abuses and betrayals, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce an entire nation under corporate Despotism, it is the right of Progressives, it is the duty of Progressives, to condemn that party, and to establish a new party for their future security.
Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past ~ George Orwell, 1984
In the face of the revisionist historians on the right who would have you believe that Jesus was more important to the founding and building of America than our founding fathers, or that our founding fathers were in some way actually Religious and Fiscal Conservatives, I submit this theory for your approval.
The founding fathers were progressives
The Tories who supported the King of England were Conservatives.
If the Founding Fathers were Conservatives, we would still have a King.
Conservatives are never revolutionary, not unless that revolution is intended to halt progress and go backwards to the natural state of power in a nation.
Thus, conservatives conserve power and progressives seek change and progress.
We are beginning to see a labor/netroots alliance. Jane Hamsher is announcing that Richard Trumka, who likely will be leader of the AFL-CIO and is now Secretary-Treasurer, will be on firedoglake on Monday to talk with us.
Along with Howard Dean, Trumka is one of the only leading figures to defy Rahm Emanuel’s decree that “f&!ing liberals” leave Blue Dogs and ConservaDems alone on health care.
snip
We’re excited to have Richard Trumka on FDL on Monday at 4pm ET/1pm PT to discuss health care reform.
“But they vote to represent their Conservative districts!” some say.
“But those voters won’t vote for a candidate that is that liberal/ much of a Democrat!” other say.
Bullshit.
No one woke up on 11-4-08 and said “I want to vote for a Democratic Congressman who will undermine Presidential Candidate Barack Obama and side with Bush Conservatives on every major issue! Yay! Change!”
Screw speaking softly. I say it is time for the Big Stick.
So . . .
Riddle me this. Why isn’t House Representative and Liberal Progressive Dennis Kucinich (D-OH10) a Blue Dog with Conservative Concerns?
More below the fold, and contact information where you can tell the Blue Dog Democants’ what you think of their Conservative Concerns.
I have had many questions asked about my screen name and sig. Some people have accused me of being a Right Wing troll. Others have doubted my sincerity because of the meaning of my screen name. I thought I might explain my choice and point out a few facts, for those who may be interested.
We have replaced the two minutes hate with the 24/7 hate/lie cycle.
My hope is to challenge that, and to bring truth to light as best as I can.
One of the first books I read as a young man was George Orwell’s 1984. Politically it opened my eyes and unplugged me from the matrix. I re-read the book once a year and every year since then. It serves as a reminder for what is at stake.
But many would like to tell us that Government is always evil. They fail to recognize that the same can be said of Big Business.
Big Business can be Big Brother too.
In fact, Big Business may be worse than Big Government sometimes. Good Government can check Bad Business. Good Business has not once stopped Bad Government, and both Good/Good and Bad/Bad can exists as well.
The question is how we keep both accountable. If we kill good government to save Big Business, Big Business will become Big Brother. That is the heart of true Mussolini Fascism, a combination of Big Business and Bad Government.
And the wall between the reality of that and the reality they would sell us can be called the Ministry Of Truth.
The Ministry of Truth – Minitrue, in Newspeak – was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, three hundred meters into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. The were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided: the Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts; the Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order; and the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.
The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within a half a kilometer of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons.
Each day we see a precept from 1984 personified before our eyes. Part of my purpose in writing is to educate people to the real truth, as I perceive it from my progressive liberal perspective. Many may not agree with my views. I do not place a premium on agreement. Rather, the importance I place is on the FACT. That is where the truth shall be found.
No one in their right mind who is not a fool can look at our Corporate controlled media and not see a similarity to Orwell’s Ministry Of Truth. The Right Wing Noise Machine is fully aware that their policies are not in the interest of the Average citizen of Earth. In order to convince the poor that they want free market fiscal conservative economic policies they have created a place that can be best described as the debate between fact and false. To deny fact, science and reality and equate it with falsity and lies. This is an important part of their agenda.
Thus
Ignorance = Strength
The issue is whether you will make your own decisions, do you own research and form your own opinions, or if you will allow programmers to pre-program you.
If we remain ignorant, we give strength to those who would exercise total power over us, whether they are Business or Politically oriented
This year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans will declare bankruptcy. Many people may chalk up that misfortune to overspending or a lavish lifestyle, but a new study suggests that more than 60 percent of people who go bankrupt are actually capsized by medical bills.
Bankruptcies due to medical bills increased by nearly 50 percent in a six-year period, from 46 percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2007, and most of those who filed for bankruptcy were middle-class, well-educated homeowners, according to a report that will be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
1.5 million Americans x 60% = 900,000 Americans
that’s about 2500 more people per day
… going bankrupt from medical bills, which were NOT covered by our broken Health Insurance system
