Mike Lux: 'Dems Need To Drop Culture Of Caution'
Mike Lux tries to tell the Blue Dogs and the Ben Nelsons of the Democratic Party to get out of President Obama's way and let him govern.
Politicians like them have always held back real change in this country for far toooo long.
You would think that with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Democrats at least would get that we need to make big, transformative changes as soon as possible.
And most of them do. Certainly President Barack Obama's economic recovery bill and budget -- as well as calls for fundamental reform of health care, education and energy policy -- show that he does. Certainly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does: On Tuesday, she said in a meeting I attended that the House would pass Obama's major reform legislation in 2009. Most Democrats in the House and Senate understand that the moment for big change has arrived.
Not so much for a small minority of Democrats in the Senate. In Wednesday's Politico, 14 Democrats are identified as having concerns with Obama's policy plans. They're saying, "Hold on; not so fast; let's go slow; let's be cautious; Americans didn't want big change." Said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.): "The American people and businesses are tightening their belts. I think we need to show that the government can economize, as well." Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), asked when he'd reach his breaking point, said, "Right now. I'm concerned about the amount that's being offered in [Obama's] budget."...read on
To me it's not "caution" they are practicing, but conservative ideals. And look where this country is now because of them.
If their concern is genuine - about economizing the Federal Budget - then they should all be onboard for Nationalizing the Banks.
Stop throwing (future) taxpayers' dollars down the Black Hole of Greed that is Wall Street ..
Seize the Banks!
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
i daresay, by the time this fight's over, somebody's going to wake up with 3 black eyes, and i don't think it'll be lady liberty.
one punch from the left, one punch from the right, and one punch right down the middle.
They're definitely a problem. Don't they see the polls? The American People are behind this president - they need to get behind him as well. I don't expect them to though - they INTEND to be a problem as far as I can see.
You can pick them out on the floor though - they're the ones with their hands buried in the front of their pants.
I hope Rahm is REALLY good at twisting arms.
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The Media and Investigative Journalists also need to drop their culture of caution when investigating crimes of the state. Everyone has been to cautious when it comes to fighting terrorism and muckraking of crimes.
You beat me to the punch, but I dig your vibe.
Glad you do to.
Word.
I don't know who Mike Lux is, but he's right.
I can't understand why the "party leaders" can't understand this.
How much more screechy can Sean Hannity get?
Obama has done next to nothing controversial and he and Beck are trying to get anti-commie lynch mobs together.
The Democrats are not going to get the "loyal opposition" to act like grown-ups. Its time to advance the agenda that the American people sent them to do.
Speaking of, maybe we can get a fucking special prosecuter to go after the torturers in the previous administration, Mr. Holder?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090307/ap_on_go_...
Didn't somebody tell Congress that there had been only three cases of waterboarding used? Well, now they've admitted over 30 - which means the real number is closer to 300.
waterboarding is a red herring. it's far worse. electrical shocks, genital mutilation, raping of young boys, and outright cold-blooded execution.
the info dam's about to break; brace yourself.
there are a lot of sick, little fetishists in the CIA, who could barely contain their glee over the torture tapes, and that there are countless copies, in spite of what was destroyed...
shows that for most Democrats, and some Republicans, its just business as usual.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/us/politics...
care for nothing except getting elected again.
They also care a big deal about the feelings of the GOP.
drop the culture of entitlement first. The proverbial "it's our turn now cuz look how the Repubs f*cked things" is more about political posturing than actually making changes. Actually changing things will gain them more politically, than playing "it's our turn and we are in power, so STFU."
What do they have to lose? Things cannot get much more screwed up if they do decide to make drastic changes, and playing politics instead of actually changing things, will only lead to them being decimated at the polls, and yet another bunch of stupid Repubs back in power.
Let's try disaster socialism!
as DINOs do.
Or something.
Things like this are reminders that progressives are NOT in control in the current Congress. Far, far from it. One has only to watch Pelosi and Reid piss and moan about Obama's initiatives to understand that.
This Congress reminds me of the ones under Jimmy Carter - nominally Democratic, but actually reactionary.
And when is Pelosi going to be tried for her war crimes anyway?
HellooooOOOOooooo? It is congresses job to question the presidents plans. Just like it is the presidents job to questions congresses plans. If they aren't doing that they aren't doing their job!
Not asking questions in times of crisis and doing whatever your leader asks of you is what got us the patriot act, 2 costly wars, and loss of civil liberties.
but Ben Nelson and the Blue Dogs are just barking up the wrong tree in this instance and worrying about their own political future first before worrying about what is right for this country at this time.
If I thought Ben Nelson had a leg to stand on or a brain to think with I would support his right to question. He is being as much of an obstructionist as a Thugly.
He is a fool.
Does it get any sicker than that? 666
finally find support at 6660.00 next week.
I haven't heard a lot from Obama on health care. What I heard was he wanted to throw $600B over 10 years at it. But, according to Bill Clinton, the systems in Europe and Japan cover everyone at 11% of GDP while our system leaves 48M people uncovered, and costs 16% of GDP. The way forward is to copy what Europe and Japan are doing, and we would not have to pay a penny extra. We would probably be able to save money over what we currently pay. That money could now be spent elsewhere. That would be change I could believe in. Borrowing from the Chinese to pay for consumption is poor fiscal policy, and could be avoided by converting to the approach to health care that the Europeans and Japan use, eg. National Health Insurance.
I'm not hearing a lot of sense on the banking bailouts. I hear that "Government shouldn't be in the business of running banks" instead of a rationale why continuing the current bailouts is cheaper and more effective than nationalization. It looks like we're pouring money down a toilet.
The AIG bailout is another matter. PBS cited the derivatives amount at $750B there. What's the deal with that, are we going to attempt to pay off all the derivatives? They're approaching this big dig style, with piecemeal bailouts. Kinda hard to support policy that isn't clearly articulated.
I don't think we have a lot of attempts at turning this around. All spending needs to be effective. The GOP is socially conservative, but they abandoned fiscal conservatism quite a while ago (except for their rhetoric).
I see a false dichotomy here, with the corporate Democrats versus the Republicans. We need a dichotomy between the corporate Democrats versus the non-corporate Democrats to reach a consensus. I think that Rush and the Republicans are largely irrelevant, and their usefulness is similar to a fart in an elevator.
or we are all going to be in a real world of hurt.
I think part of the shellshock he seems to be in, and this is my theory. Is that the current administration is realizing the obvious: By the end of the summer Bush and Co. realized there was not going to be a 3rd GOP term, and having already sucked our treasury dry after 8 years of nonstop looting... the Bush gang ran a scorched earth campaign during the last quarter of 2008. Which sort of coincides with the timing of when things started to go to shit.
I think the Obama team is still trying to even comprehend of the magnitude of the Bush fuckup. And in the mean time, they seem to be trying to add some stability... until they can figure an actual course of attack. Basically, to me, the piecemeal bailouts Obama is coming up, are just an attempt at buying more time.
Interesting. Obama could also be compared to a deer that freezes in the headlights of an incoming car.
Anyhow, I don't think it's a grand GOP conspiracy (although GOP fiscal ideology hasn't helped). I do think Bush ran up the deficits in order to roll back the FDR programs, such as Social Security.
The problem is white collar crime. Specifically, fraud, and conspiracy to defraud. While the FBI has gone after some low hanging fruit, a couple of mortgage originators, they haven't gone after the rating agencies, who graded the mortgage backed securities "AAA", even as the Republicans complained that the banks would never have lent the money, had not the obligation to do so been foisted upon the banks by a Congress intent in expanding home ownership by low income people. Without that AAA rating, this matter would never have scaled to the scope we see today.
Once the mortgaged backed securities were out there, then an industry in credit default swaps developed. Essentially, credit default swaps is insurance, but renamed to avoid insurance regulations. The rationale for this is analogous to renaming "torture" to "enhanced interrogation techniques". Renaming to the latter relieves the perpetrator from the legal requirements pertaining to the former.
Our democracy has been manipulated by our corporate media into a corporate oligarchy. Obama seems to me to be a corporate Democrat. I have to say that Obama, in his "not the state of the union" speech did a magnificent job in recapping the problems. But, other than energy, I didn't see any solutions. At least, in health care, the resolution seems still up in the air, but remember, that national health care doesn't require a $600B allocation over the next 10 years.
I also think the longer that Obama leaves the banking situation as a festering wound, the longer that the economy will disintegrate. What we need is some kind of financial genius that can chart a way to disconnect the derivatives from the bailout, because they constitute a ponzi scheme, and there is no way that even the Federal government, as last participant in this ponzi scheme can pay off the amounts, which is $750B at AIG alone.
We're in uncharted waters, and we only know what didn't work, which was Hoover's policies. We don't know what will work. My sense is that we have to become as efficient as possible, with health care, energy consumption, and so forth. What's with the inflation in education? Hasn't technology been able to lower the costs of education? I don't buy into this inflation of the costs of education. I think something is wrong there, too.
Other issues, spending 50¢ for every dollar spent in the world on defense, the expensive war on drugs approach, which is causing Mexico to go into a failed state status, and so forth. I haven't seen any change I can believe in so far.
They all suck, completely out of touch with the American pot smokers.
Note from which states these A holes are from , they have one foot in the Democratic Party and one foot in the Republican party , they are the problem more so than the Repugs at this point . As for "fixing the problem " it amazes me the lock that the Wall street and banker crowd has on government even now after they have sabotaged us with their greed and corruption but then again these same " types " run the government don't they . Real geniuses , the Ivy league crowd , so out of touch that it's hard for us mortals to even imagine . They refuse to even consider let alone admit that the only way to " fix this problem " is from the bottom up , not from the top down , billions are being poured into a sieve and " the problem " is only getting worse by the day .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
The culture of caution I refer to; the GOP has played the DEMS like a fiddle with the way they bitch and moan about Liberals. Liberal media, liberal laws, liberals this liberals that; liberals are ruining the world.
They make people afraid the bullies will get you kicked out of office for admitting you're a liberal. Or by admitting you're a liberal you get kicked out of your job. This has been going on for decades.
It's time to let their festering, rotting, good for none of us capitalistic system suck. LET THE BANKS FAIL. LET WALL STREET CRASH. LET THE RICH JUMP FROM WINDOWS. The air will then begin to clear.
and by all means?
ADMIT YOU'RE A LIBERAL AND TELL THE WORLD THE GOP DID THIS TO AMERICA. THEY ARE THE BLACK HEARTED PARTY OF LIARS THE THIEVES.
I'm socially "liberal", but, fiscally speaking "conservative". But, what's in a label? Take health care. I support "national health insurance", similar to what is being practiced in Europe and Japan, because it's the fiscally conservative approach. Yet, our "conservatives", the corporate welfare proponents, would argue that national health insurance is "socialism".
I think we've been channeled into thinking that there are only 2 sides to an argument. The corporate media has excelled in switching these 2 sides into false choices. Remember that there are a lot of choices, and our corporate oligarchy FCC regulated media will try to eliminate all but 2 false choices. Right now, health care has been switched into status quo or government infusion. But national health insurance, modeled after Europe's or Japan's system is the answer. No government infusion required.
Liberal and PROUD!
I love how these dinosaurs always preface their bullshit with phrases like "The American people don't want..."
As IF they know what the "American People" want! There are, what, 360 million people in America? How the hell would they know what 360 million people want?
they usually come from (red) states, where GOP radio rules.
Many people I talk to about the state of our economy have the attitude "damned if you do and damned if you don't"
The only option for Obama and the Democratic leadership is to govern by policy NOT politics AND do it BOLDLY. Anything less than bold action will be dead on arrival and open itself up to the hackery we have already been witnessing take place with regards to the Omnibus Bill. The GOP is going all out political in their opposition with no regard to policy.
This slow bleeding economy crap needs to stop. At least one positive about just going bust and restructuring is we don't have to expend all the energy of figuring out who is screwing who for what. The more time we are on the slow bleed path, the better the chances for many of the people who have been screwing up the system on purpose can hide what they have been doing and still maintain leverage they undoubtedly gained through loopholes and deregulation.
That is our manufacturing plants and Jobs back home...
This free trade BS , means destruction of U.S. for the benefit of Global Corporations and foreign nations.
We have to stop this Global Corporations which is just a term used for Monopolization corporations around the world for World control over wealth , jobs and power...
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For the last 30 years this country has been living like a drunken sailor on shore leave. We act like there are no limits and there will never be a reckoning for the debt we have stacked up. When the average debt for a family is $60K and there are 2-3 cars in the garage of a house with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, that is an indication we are living a shared delusion.
Here is my point: it doesn't matter what the dems do. They could get really tough and piss off all the repigs. They could roll over and let the fat cats steal more money from everyone. It doesn't matter. The solution to the problem of living beyond your means is to pay your debts and live within your means.
Things are NOT going back to the dream days when you could charge anything you wanted and didn't care about it. If you can't afford to live in the house you have, then you move. Neither party is going to wave a magic wand and fix this problem that started back in Reagan's administration. There is going to be a lot of pain and hardship, unless we are willing to become a socialist country, there will be many millions of homeless jobless people in this country in a few years time.
You danced the dance, now the piper has come to be paid.
We voted out the most divisive, corrupt, and destructive administration ever, AS WELL AS its congressional rubberstamp, but we didn't want big change?
Way to keep your finger on the pulse of the nation there, Senator Bayh.
You are a dissatisfied voter of the losers McCain and Palin...
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Where in the h... Were the Blue Dogs and Bill Nelson when Bush and the republicans were selling our manufacturing plants , jobs , resources , land , social programs , buildings , military for hire and our economy overseas...
Where were the blue dogs and Bill Nelson when Bush and the republicans were dropping all oversight on corporations and feeding them welfare tax breaks and other goodies for our tax money funds and putting us in a depression... California has people living in tents as they were in the depression in 1920 thru 1930 something.
BILL NELSON and THE BLUE DOGS were supporting and funding every program which Bush and the republican wish for caused this destruction. So I tell Bill Nelson , the blue dogs to run on the ticket of the party they belong to and support in their criminal and destructive policies.
Tell Bill Nelson and the blue dogs to go to .....
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