Slow Dancing in a Burning Room with Dianne
The Massachussets election is being recognised as a ‘wake-up’ call by Obama and Democrats, but the immediate knee-jerk reaction by Democrats is baffling – like watching hapless animals woken from a sound sleep and, blinded by the light, scurrying madly and bumping into the furniture. Only not quite so amusing.
First, we had Senator Jim Webb (D) breathlessly insisting that the Massachusetts results was a 'referendum on health care reform,' and the way to restore the respect of the American people for government was to ‘suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.’
…say, whut?? Capitulating to the right-wing demands, with Mitch McConnell and the rightwing hooting with delight is going to restore my respect for government leaders? Remind me again, Senator Webb – who won the last election? You’re sure not acting like a winner.
I’m still shaking my head in disbelief when Senator Dianne Feinstein pipes up with her equally peculiar reading of what exactly is the message voters in Massachusetts were trying to send to Congress… apparently, when the boat is sinking, that’s the time to slow down bailing out the rising water.
'I can tell you the situation has changed dramatically,' she said. 'And I think it’s a sweep across the country (…) everything is jobs and the economy and education. People are worried about education. You see anger. People are worried. And when they’re worried they don’t want to take on a broad new responsibility.' Like health care reform. Oh, and climate change, too, far too much trouble with the economy in such bad shape. So much for any legislation on capping carbon emissions.
Besides – and this is where I bristled – us poor little ordinary folk aren’t smart enough to understand things like health care reform or climate change. 'It is so big it is beyond their comprehension. (…) In my view when people are earning, when their home is secure, when their children are going to school, and they are relatively satisfied with their life and there’s a problem like health care -- they want it solved. It doesn’t threaten them. The size of this bill threatens them. And that’s one of the problems that’s got to be straightened out.'
Riiiiiight. Lemme see if I’ve got this – the bill for health care reform, which started out with what the vast majority of people on just about any poll you want to name said they wanted, namely single payer, then got bipartisanized and watered-down and added and subtracted and amended and debated and distorted and delayed to satisfy all those lobbyists and Big Pharma and health care insurers by gutless Democrats is now too bloated and complicated for the poor brains of us little people. Dianne, you’re doing my head in.
The Democrats are still not listening. The people (that’s us over here, the little people standing by the ballot boxes) don’t want you to 'slow down' on health care or climate change. Or the economy, or financial regulation of corrupt banks, or reforming oppressive labour laws, or working on solutions for unemployment relief and job creation, or restoring civil liberties, or ending the war in Iraq and Afghanistan or any of those issues you all ran on. That’s what we elected you to do – not to decide what issues are too complicated for voters to ‘understand’. Because we understand all too well when we’re being patronized – something Coakley found out the hard way in Massachusetts.
Us little people might not like what you’ve been doing over the past year, but that doesn’t mean that we want you to not bother doing the job at all. The health care bill may be a piece of crap – because you made it a piece of crap. So, go ahead, scrap the bill. But don’t slow down on health care reform. Wake up and listen to what the people in this country are desperately trying tell you! We’ve had enough of Democrats dragging their feet. We’ve had enough of ‘going slow’. Going slow is killing the country, and is killing the Democrats. The United States is the only western industrialized nation that does not have universal health care for its citizens, the only one – and we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for it since 1912. How much slower can we possibly get?
It can’t be that complicated, as Norway has it, and Japan, and the UK, and Sweden, and Italy, and Portugal, and Cyprus, and Spain, and Iceland, and even Kuwait and Bahrain and Brunei and the United Arab Emirates, for crying out loud! It is unconscionable, it is inhumane, it is a dire neglect of duty for Democrats to tell the people who voted them in on the promise of health care reform (among so much else) that America cannot do what Iceland can do. What Spain can do. What the UAE can do.
Slow down? The people of Massachusetts just gave the Democrats the biggest kick up the rear they could and that is the message Feinstein heard? Slow down?
Somehow, I don’t think it’s the little people of this country who are having trouble with issues beyond their comprehension.
The GOP wants everyone to think the MA vote was a referendum on health care.
Do they think for one moment if Teddy were still alive, Brown would have beaten him?
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
"The GOP wants everyone to think the MA vote was a referendum on health care."
So does Howard Dean and everyone else pimping that idiotic DailyKos exit poll.
It's time everyone figured out that Howard Dean is a POLITICIAN. He is only interested in HIMSELF. HIS self interest.
He went along with the elimination of the public option and acceptance of the "Medicare buyin" switcheroo because he was and still is trying to wedge his way back into the Democratic back room.
He will say and do whatevevr is politically expedient in order to serve his own self interest.
It is just like the whole Grayson scheme regarding yesterday's SCOTUS decision. His little web tirade comes out right when the decision is made. So he collects names, LOOKS like he's a progressive, so he can put this pointless and USELESS talking point on his campaign flyer. He strokes off the progressives, they cum, he gets reelected and NOTHING changes.
It's called POLITICS, children.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I'll just take my vote and go home, then. Sit on the floor and cry in my beer or something.
you're supposed to help elect Republicans (or at least gloat and say 'I told you so!')so the Feinsteins will learn their lesson and come to Jesus...regardless of the damage done in the interim.
in these two approaches. One does damage. The other makes perfectly good beer salty.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
... 'perfectly good beer' in America?
(Okay, maybe Anchor Steam and Sam Adams ...)
I have no basis to assume you would not choose the perfectly good variety. Unless you buy based on advertising budgets.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Took a liking to dark beers and imported stouts.
Beats 'making love in a canoe' type beers any day.
with my partner in a separate footed bathtub on a beautiful forested hillside. Because I never like Elvis or Vegas.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
My point is don't become enamored with words and ideas, become enamored with actions. The actions...real identifiable ACTIONS...legislation...that YOU want...gets rewarded. This Democratic majority is doing NOTHING. The so-called "liberal" representatives from my state of NY may TALK a good game, but what have they done? Who's arm are they twisting. The silence is deafening. What...did Anthony Wiener have a stroke? Is he paralyzed? All of a sudden even the rhetoric has stopped. And please don't tell me he's "working behind the scenes". A year has gone by and we've gotten NOTHING.
Republicans get elected cause they not only stay on point...but they actually ACT and push shit through. Even if it's lousy legislation, they still get reelected. The Democrats got the majority because they PROMISED to actually DO things. They've done dick. It's time for the lot of them to go.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I don't think I've ever read a more condescending post from you.
Grayson was late, no doubt, but don't you think he may actually be pushing some of the right legislative buttons?
Yeah...he's pushing the "its time to work on reelection so I'll put this bullshit out there that will never get acted on but I can sell to the rubes for their vote" red herring.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
would he care to get info on people from well outside his district?
My eyes are a bit jaundiced to the process as well, but while they all seem to be in the same ocean, they are not all in the same boat.
It's called POLITICS.
Using national issues to win local elections happens ALL the time. Uhh...guns, abortion, teh gay.
Politicians play to single issue groups to get elected.
It's called...divide and conquer.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
you have to be SOME side of the issues.
If standing on one side that a particular rep also stands on is divide and conquer, then this is much simpler than I thought.
I get your point, but with all the fervor from "groups" about their pet issue, what choice does he have?
He has to speak on SOME side of the issue or nobody will know where he stands.
Now whether they actually DO something about the issue is another story, and maybe where your point logically leads.
Yes...that's my point. Talk is cheap. These politicians TALK..but at the end of the day...they do NOTHING.
The GOP has been leading the fundies on for decades with abortion. That's why the abortion portion of the healthcare bill is so infuriating...the Democrats are enabling people that are really closet Republicans and pissing off the base. All to help low life bluedog dems win elections. I say...FUCK THAT. Let them change parties.
Democrats are going to campaign on "we tried we tried"...well...ya know what...FUCK THEM.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
All this talk of 'damage' and other such nonsense. Nobody seems to be looking around to see that the damage is getting done no matter who you vote for and nobody's going to jail when they need to be.
Yes we could get out the troops and march on DC, and it'll get ignored in favor of Teabaggers just like every other center-left protest.
Yes we can go and vote Democrat and the little weasel corporatists like Ben Nelson will still put their thumb in the eye of their voters to make sure that their masters stay fat and happy.
I wonder tho, how much does it cost to buy a Senator these days? Maybe we could form a progressive voter lobby and buy a few politicians the same way the big boys do it. Apparently they're not all that expensive if you look at opensecrets.org. At least then maybe the Democrats would pretend to give a damn about their voters.
asking me for donations just because I signed their lousy petitions.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
.
The DEMOCRATIC Party...the supposed party of mainstream progressives and liberals is now using GOP talking points...shit you hear from Sean Hannity and O'Reilly...on US...telling liberals to "stop crying in their cappucinos".
You have Bill Clinton telling us to "get in line".
And yet you guys think I'm being condescending or patronizing?
Democratic leadership has forgotten that without labor, minorities, progressives and liberals there wouldn't BE a Democratic Party.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Show us on the doll where the politician touched you.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Fuck the Democrats. If my vote doesn't mean anything anyway then why cast it?
It looks like somebody's been paying attention!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
in my snarky kind of way I have been pointing out that the post Massachusettes analysis (AKA Spin) is very much like the blind men and the elephant. I am the blind guy at the rear who is saying it is all bullshit.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
... a baseball team losing an important game doesn't mean the fans think they should take up competitive crochet instead.
They think it means the team needs to get its shit together. Maybe fire a manager and get rid of a prima donna player or two.
by blaming different position players they have always hated when the loss might have been due to a relief pitcher giving up a three run lead by walking the bases loaded then letting the number nine hitter knock one out of the park by throwing a hanging one high and over the middle.
But I have always liked to use my sports metaphors in politics on the game (election) in question.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
and it's basketball.
Well, Kennedy is not alive and the Democrats did what the Democrats do: they ran a DLCer who said she was for "the public option" (after it was killed) and hob-knobbed with the very corporate insurance lobbyists in D.C. that people in Massachusetts are sick of.
I lived in Massachusetts the better part of last year when all this was going on. I was driving on the freeway away from Logan International in the summer after Kennedy died looking at all the signs lit up on the road paying their respects to Kennedy.
I attended town halls where people were ANGRY about the Mass Plan and it's penalties and MANDATES and rotten coverage and high deductibles and estate recovery, especially while people were losing their jobs and homes.
As "progressives" we need to take our collective heads out of the sand and face the facts.
Coakley is NOT liked in Massachusetts. She's just another elitist POS in many people's eyes. When Obama went there to campaign for a woman who took a vacation at the height of her freakin' campaign in the Caribbean (maybe she thought the election was NEXT January???), who had practically no public "meet and greet" events (compared to Brown in his pick-up truck), didn't like "shaking hands or kissing babies "it's not MY baby!", the voters could see that to Obama and Rahm and Axelrod, Coakley was just another "go along to get along" vote for the insurance corporations who are trying to rob the American People just the way Wall Street got to rob us blind in the fall of 2008.
Only instead of a simple 3 pager that was handed to Bush/Obama by Paulson, Bernanke and Geithner, AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans) handed the voters a 3000 page despotic ball and chain to be worn for the next ten years (LIKE IT OR NOT!!!!), and when these voters tried to complain to Kerry and Kirk they were IGNORED!
Just like I've been ignored by Harman, Feinstein and Boxer.
Just like all of you have been ignored by all the rest of them.
Thank God the voters in Massachusetts had the BRAINS and COURAGE to elect Scott Brown to the Senate and to upset their little fucking apple cart on the Hill.
Of all the people who contribute to the pages of this website, I would be the last person to ever support a man who believes waterboarding is an acceptable practice to be used for interrogating a suspect. And he's a LAWYER!!! and should know better.
But he voted for the Kennedy/Romney Mass Plan and he knows it has become fiscally insolvent. He knows there's a major hospital in Boston suing the plan because the payment system is too low. He knows the natives are restless with the mandates/fines/penalties/high deductibles.
When he stood up and said, "We need to start over with the healthcare legislation to make it BETTER," I believe he was merely echoing the sentiments of all the voters who just elected him over the Kennedy endorsed candidate!!!! Hello??!!
Maybe rather than hate the guy we can lobby him! He'll be having a new phone a new email. Why not take advantage of the fact that someone has just been elected to the U.S. Senate who is willing to listen to the people of Massachusetts and others. Don't forget. He had people all over the country giving him money and phone banking for him.
For me, I hope the Democrats get the message the voters sent Tuesday night. When they were chanting, "41...41...41...41!!!!!!" it was obviously because he had barn-stormed Massachusetts promising to be the 41st vote to kill the bill. We deny this simple fact at our own peril.
We don't need more corporate arrogance in Congress. They need to take a pause and listen. Maybe Obama's "Organizing for America" team should take out all the notes they took from their "listening tour on healthcare" they did back in December of 2008, dust them off and actually READ THEM.
The group I attended while living in Westhampton Beach, New York in December of 2008 (Tim Bishop's district...and he's in deep trouble right now) made it OVERWHELMINGLY clear that we wanted REAL healthcare reform where the insurance corporations would be kicked to the curb.
It's time to scrap what AHIP came up with and do what the PEOPLE WANT for a change.
A simple bill that could be read in the course of one hour that is FAIR, AFFORDABLE and assures every American QUALITY HEALTHCARE with NO MANDATES AND FINES should do the trick for everyone.
Where all payments come out of the general fund and we are all taxed according to our incomes and the payments go right out of our checks. We all get the SAME CARD and there will be no more need to have insurance corporations involved in the healthcare of the American people. NO DEDUCTIBLES. NO CO-PAYS. WHOLESALE DRUG PRICES. VISION AND DENTAL COVERED!!!!
As soon as Scott Brown has a phone number in the Senate, we should start calling it.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Sounds like some in DC are now willing to let people like the tea party crowd dictate what they should do to keep their asses in office. Kind of like giving up before the battle begins, if you ask me. Instead of slowing down, how about we go all out full speed ahead. Those weak minded tea party people won't be able to keep up, unless we slow down and allow it.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
how many of the Democratic leaders started pumping their fists and saying, "Yesss...!"?
It sure sounds like the corporate tools are coming out of the woodwork
saying..."Well, we tried...but it's all over and you folks who voted for us are screwed."
The reason the corporate tools are acting like this
is because NOW ALL CORPORATE PROSTITUTION IS LEGAL.
I wonder if the day will ever come when politicians are more scared of the voters than of the corporations....
"The Massachussets election is being recognised as a ‘wake-up’ call by Obama and Democrats"
Wake-up call about what exactly? Cloakey ran a poor campaign and was a poor candidate.
I guess by the same logic - progressive radio needs to turn (right left or center) because "Air America" went bust?
The M$M is feeding the meme and the progressives seem willing to follow in lock step - every bit as insane as the teabaggers following Beck/Limpballs and Slanthead.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
a target audience which would rather announce which advertisers they will boycott on FOX, which they claim not to watch, than produce revenues for Air America, which they claim they listen to. But I could be wrong. I am not giving money to National Public Repugnicanradio anymore or ever voting for the two party system.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
... because it tried going toe-to-toe with a better funded opponent. This is the same thing that's going to fuck us over with the Citizens United ruling. Facts don't matter, cash does.
Coakley. It is never a bad product. It is always a better funded
alternative.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Brown $5 Million to $1 Million?
I am Sr. Snark. As they learned at RJR-Nabisco, spending millions on smokeless cigarettes is futile when the product tastes like shit.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
it all the more validates my position that the voters in Massachusetts chose the populist candidate who was promising to put the brakes on a bill that is The Mass Plan on steroids.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
It's the Single Party System in action. It's not that Feinstein and her ilk don't get it; it's that all but a dozen or so of our elected representatives work for Wall Street.
BigDaddy's right when he says that it's not our individual representatives stupidity or lack of comprehension that is screwing all of us, it's that they're all doing EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED TO DO TO STAY WHERE THEY ARE. They are also doing what every other congressperson is doing - working for the corporations that put them where they are and can ruin their careers in a heartbeat. With the exception of Dennis K., they all hang out with lobbyists and go for jaunts paid for by Exxon Mobile or big pharma and bit FARMa.
Big Pharma and Big Insurance Companies are educating every congressperson on the correct way to vote on each and every bill.
Why don't we hear that it's bankrupting our country to pay for our wars but are reminded every single minute about how we can't afford universal health care or good schools or great public transportation.
Our population is dumbed-down to the point of imbecility. Who could blame them when all they ever hear and see is a bunch of crap talked by people who are talking very fast.
I agree that it's the single party system and that DiFi and her ilk understand perfectly what's going on and are mainly engaged in putting up a smoke screen to hide behind.
Joan of Oak
Polling of voters in Mass. show that people are mad because the democrats have not done enough not that they are going to fast.
make sure that your reps know that. Your rep will try to frame the results in away to benefit thier corporate clients not thier constituents.
It is time for a show of force from the people. If the goddam tea baggers can organize protests why can't the democratic people?
Let the white house know we meant change.
"if you want something you've never had, you are going to have to do something you've never done"
Feinstein...another dinosaur that has been around too long and is waay past due to be put out to pasture.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Dick Nixon, S.I.Hayakawa, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Prop 8 and Prop 13 will find a REAL Progressive to replace that bad old Dinosaur. Perhaps someone who has raised organic free range chickens will appeal. Maybe Henry Waxman. At 70 he is 6 years younger and he has served in Congress since 1975 so he has sevetneen years more experience getting good things done.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
... Steve Poizner wouldn't mind buying himself a Senate seat.
As for the intelligence of the California voter...
I'm from that state and totally agree with you. The worst part is that most Californians think Prop 13 was a great piece of legislation and would defeat any attempt to repeal it.
I think we all have to move to Cleveland so Dennis can rep. us.
I have a pretty good congressperson here in Oakland, Barbara Lee (only person to vote against war in Yugoslavia) but she's still a long way away from my views, i.e., the CORRECT views.
Joan of Oak
... change the order of that headline a bit? (You figure it out.)
Feinstein is a corporate shill. I really came to hate her during the Bush Administration, because she bought into the whole War on Terror thing.
Her husband (Mr. Blum, the military contractor) WAS PART OF IT.
She didn't have to buy into anything.
Charity begins at home, don't ya know (wink)?
the MADD kool-aid like it was champagne.
... because of insurance companies trying to get around it.
You want simple, Dianne? Medicare for everyone.
Very simple.
You Congresswhores get what you give us average Americans.
Personally, I think your pay needs to be downsized, too. Too much corporate transfat is bad for you, y'all need a healthier diet. And some exercise.
* FIRE Geithner
* NOT reappoint Bernanke
* Get the audit of the FED underway
* Put controls that prevent to big to fail banks or other companies from selling idiot derivatives.
* Healthcare (as a first step which Republicans can't argue with) make huge incentives for competition against the big providers which will force lower rates.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
... won't work.
AT&T, among other telcos, is required to lease/license a portion of its network to smaller providers to allow/enhance competition. Seen your phone bill drop recently?
lines got much less expensive. The reason they appear to be higher is because companies added a load features that did not exist before. Long distance rates dropped drastically with competitive calling plans. I've worked in IT at two different telco's for a number of years. When Local Exchange Carriers (LECS) were able to start selling long distance (PICS) long distance rates dropped and high volume international rates drops drastically. The quality of our lines improved and new technologies boomed. Internet lines have also dropped drastically, we're seeing 20Mbps going for the same price as early 5Mbps, so technology is improving while rates stay low.
So leveling the playing field in healthcare would help. We still have state by state restrictions, the biggest no brainer would be to get rid of those. The Republican's would have stop their immediate bitching because it was their idea.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
PASS. THE. DAMN. BILL. NOW.
No one likes the bill in it's current form. They pass it now as it is, Obama can kiss a second term goodbye.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
a year's worth of time, money, and aggravation for nothing even less.
Pass the damn bill and start fixing it.
Bad idea.
The process needs to be corrected. This is the same mentality that the Senate passing the bill would allow better things to reenter during conference... If they're going to hold their breath in the Senate until they get their way, why would they play nice later?
I liked things better when 41 people didn't constitute a Senate majority.
It's a turd wrapped in gold foil.
The only good thing in that bill in the 12 billion dollars for FQHCs -- and that could easily pass as another bill.
This thing is a serious albatross in its current form. Come back with something stronger, or maybe we'll just have to vote you guys out in the primaries.
Oh, wait, I'm sure all that sweet, sweet corporate money that you can now accept makes us completely irrelevant. Sigh.
"Come back with something stronger". HCR is fast turning into the 2nd 3rd Rail of American politics.
The Democratic Party - the only option of the 2 that will EVER be willing to attempt HCR - can only gain the majority with centrist and conservative Dems, but far left progressives won't allow them to do what it takes to retain their seats.
So what will happen if this thing dies now is a lot of lip service to both wings of the party with no action.
Irresistible force v. immovable objects, and all that.
Pass it now and fix it later.
without a super majority. The Dem's just need to grow a spine, they have been missing one all my life going back to Carter. Well Kennedy had one, but I was too young to remember.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
for the exact same reason as I described. Out of 435 seats in the House, there are only 83 in the Progressive Caucus. that's just a fact that we have to live with.
Now. Pass. The. Damn. Bill.
Lack of Democratic spine is the concensus position around here. The solution, however, is growing a pair. We all know spineless critters get things done faster when weighted down with a big set of hairy ones.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Inquiring surrender monkeys want to know.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
.
Brie???
... starting with your thumb, '4' is an extended middle finger, and '1' is a thumbs-up.
So 4 1 is a FUCK UP. Good going, Demofails!
no one is quite sure what message the voters of Mass. were trying to send beyond a distress signal. Career politicians are those who believe the noblest thing they can do for their country is to get re-elected and their fundamental instinct is to freeze until they discern from which direction the fire is coming.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
is to remember running for cover while under fire on the airport tarmac. But that is when they are not running for re-election, but running for President instead.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
From a secret email:
DO you remember the Reagan Democrats.
Let me count the ways…
Forget your health care reform, forget your climate change, forget your EPA, forget your OSHA, forget your retirement accounts, forget retirement altogether, forget your Social Security, forget your Medicare, forget everything.
Forget the working class dupes of the Republicans, forget the working class dupes of the Democrats…
It is JOBS JOBS JOBS…
When we have gotten our American Sweatshops® wage scale down to 38¢ an hour…
WE WILL HAVE THOSE JOBS…
If you don't like the jobs here, you can move to Haiti. Take a boat, a small boat, a very small boat, with 20 of your neighbors.
Signed
WE, THE OLIGARCHS
A subsequent comment here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
is not, as many here like to allege, sinister. It is stupid. What we often fail to address is that these folks are not evil manipulating geniuses. They are generally not as bright as the high office they have acquired would make one assume. What is particularly galling is how little they demonstrate they know about electoral politcs. But that is what representative democracy produces as often as not.
To argue otherwise would be to argue that George Bush deliberately wants to destroy the economy or Obama deliberately wants to piss off his voters. I find the latter charge as amusing because of its embrace and repetition around here by people who denounce claims by Palin et al that Health Care reform was designed to kill old people.
Nonny said it well: Somehow, I don’t think it’s the little people of this country who are having trouble with issues beyond their comprehension.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
pennies more than my monthly health insurance premium, I'll have to pass until the SITE MONIOTR DELETES YOU. How was that presentation?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
as an a-hole? Clean up is everyone's responsibility.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
That, sir, is merely a diversion from the corporatists to make me focus on an annoying but commonplace hazard of life on the
high speed information highway.
No, I shirked. But if you click on his link you cannot get back. At least I'll admit to stupidity and provide a warning.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
delighted to flag him for you. Proceed with corporatist deconstruction.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
But that is the ex-Catholic tool in me, not the corporate one.
Update: Say, given that it has been up an hour without removal, does this mean it is safe to say really politically incorrect things about Ann Coulter?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I think it is well time to remind people in congress that we are Americans and NOTHING is too hard for us. We have a history of overcoming obstacles just becuase we can.
If only we framed the Health Care debate as:
(to be read in your best Teabagger voice)
if he wasn't dead.
I might have the same effect on voters as Blutarsky's speech. The difference is that some Deltas here want to settle for a brilliantly executed futile gesture instead of a workable message.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Senator John Blutarsky indeed.
from Cleveland, myself.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
"The Weimer Democrats" Excerpt: " The currently prescribed role of the Dems is the "Party of the People." But they can't attain or retain office without cash flow from the very corporations that are the people's worst enemy." http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman01212010...
The Dems saying maybe they should cut back on the Health Proposal and have more bipartisanship is ludicrous. It's that kind of shit that lost you a seat you f&*!n idiots.
Most voters figured if the Dems in power are going to act like Repug light they may as well go for the real deal. I am sure many Dems just stayed home as they perceive this Pres and Congress to be a failure.
It is no time to go into a shell as that will definitely lose 2010 and 2012. Do what you f*&^n well promised; do what has to be done you morons. Like they will ever get the Repukes to help in anything the gov't might propose. Act like the liberals and progressives that campaigned then maybe your followers might care more than they do now.
WAKE THE F*&# UP.
from her SF experience. I mean look at Massachusettes and Haiti.
Why do anything when the unexpected can flatten you in an instant?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Basically to force some 50 percent of the population into compliance (under the threat of violence, never forget) with liberals' chosen bureaucracies and pet projects. So why kick when the vile republicans force you into compliance with their bureaucracies and pet projects? If you talk to them, they can make a very compelling case for what they believe in, just like you can.
I haven't yet met a liberal, or progressive, or democrat who can explain this fundamental philosophical contradiction. You're arguing, vehemently, for the few to control the many--by force! You're just think good intentions, or let's be honest, the appearance and rhetoric of good intentions, justifies your position.
As you say in this piece, you certainly aren't smart enough to grasp all the aspects that affect "health care reform" and "climate change" legislation. Not until you understand that such seemingly noble causes can be used to make painfully confused liberals argue in favor of authoritarianism--which they thought they were against.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
we argue for allowing the public to go ahead and play on the freeway if that is what they want. Which is the case with you.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
This assumes that without being policed, people will wander onto the proverbial freeway. Do you really believe this? Based on what? In fact, in all likelihood, without the threat of arrest for absurd legal technicalities or forced participation in mind-numbing government programs "for our own good," people will become more cautious, thoughtful and active, and take responsibility for themselves and their families.
What a terrifying prospect.
Another liberal arguing from a fantastic worst case scenario to justify running their neighbors' lives.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
But loved you work in Wagon Train.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
the petulant and panicky chicken littles that constitute the right wing base have ever evinced anything like the characteristics of caution, responsibility or even thought.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I say we remove all those high fences and guard rails and see what happens.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Since your answer isn't complete rhetorical nonsense...
I would just say read history and check your definitions of left wing, right wing, etc. You and I would probably agree on who the idiots are, and we would find them doing the same idiotic things on both sides of the imagined political fence.
But first go back and read Orwell and understand the folly of assembling your thoughts from prefabricated ideas.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
Extremes on either side of the political spectrum have said and done some pretty terrible things. We just have the last Presidency to look back on some of the worst parts of a heavily Neo-Conservative philosophy.
I think characterizing all right wing people as "panicky little chicken shits" is going overboard. They have a different point of view. The biggest problem I see with that point of view is that certain parts seem to be centered around disinformation points ("death panels" and "government incompetence" being two of them). It doesn't mean their opinions are any less valid, or that they don't put thought into them.
for them if the thinking that led to their opinions were based on some sorts of facts. As you have pointed out in two compelling instances their opinions are based on disinformation not information. How can anybody say that such opinions are equally valid?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I was just arguing for civil debate. People can have their opinions and though they disagree with you, they can still be *valid* opinions.
Some points based on serious disinformation do get to me, though. That "death panels" one has been trotted to death already.
The first point that I always make is that the working class people who adhere to conservative principles, in the economic realm, are being duped.
Seriously duped.
The minds behind the conservative principles in in the economic realm belong to the rich and powerful.
I call them the Oligarchs, you can call them what you will.
They find it useful to mingle socially conservative issues in the message and thus conscript as it were people who having nothing to gain and everything to lose in the economics of the matter.
We have an extreme inequality in the distribution of wealth and it has gotten much worse in the last thirty years. It is a new Gilded Age.
They have been doing very well with their program to deceive some sectors of the working class. And hold the rest at bay.
They have had and continue to have a sophisticated program of propaganda to sell their interests to those who should not be interested in them in the slightest.
Ronald Reagan after the economic ideology of Milton Friedman and Friederich von Hayek, discussed here, was the great front man for the propaganda program.
How more insidious could a person be standing after taking the oath of office of president and saying that government was the problem. How vile indeed thereafter.
The propaganda program is my main concern, that and deprogramming those unfortunate dupes.
Of course the Democrats have their own working class dupes and that is another problem, though it is somewhat easier to address.
----
On another note, but in fact one which is very much related to the inequal distribution of wealth.
Peter G expressed concurrence with everything on my list here except for the realistic practicality of nationalizing the banks, his comment is here.
But I should say, Nationalizing the Banks was the only thing on the list that was fully proposed by front line people.
Joseph Stiglitz and James K Galbraith both came out very early for nationalization, there were others but they come to mind first.
Now Obama has come forward with Volcker's Rule, so called, which is promising as far as it goes. He should have started there but better very late than never,
Unfortunately the fat cats get even fatter after their gorging on $149 billion of the peasants money.
Previous comment here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I always found it amusing that we elect people to serve in government who think that government can do no good.
I wonder if they'll run it poorly *this* time.
Few to control the many?
Look, it's representative democracy. If you don't like that, go for direct democracy. People are appointed to run things by the people.
We socialize things that are for the common good (defense, potentially healthcare, fire and police services, roads, etc) and have a capitalist system to allow you to do whatever the fuck you want.
Human nature is human nature. There will be abuses, private or public sector. The difference is that healthcare does not coexist with a system that profits by denying said healthcare. That's the contradiction that the "free market" can't handle with healthcare... As long as health insurance companies are beholden to profit interests, they will *never* provide better care/coverage than a socialized system which is only beholden to the people it cares for.
Cite abuses if you want, but the premise is sound. This isn't about authoritarianism. We already have that, in the form of private insurance companies, which not only are not accountable to anyone, but which we are about to be mandated to pay money to ...
You really do need to define "free market" My definition says that you're full of balogne.
There isn't a "free market" for healthcare insurance. They're holding your money, skimming off the top, and handing it back. Where exactly is the "added value" you see in that service?
The disadvantage to private companies is that they obviously want more people paying in than receiving pay outs (as they have no social contract to actually provide money for sickness in any tangible way). So the logical thing to do from a business standpoint is to eliminate the sickest people from your roster of clients, as they require the most care. "Recission" anyone?
I don't understand how any of this is arguable at any level ... the private insurance industry has been shoving HMO-based insurance care down our throats since Nixon, and every measurable metric says that it hasn't worked. Look, if you think some large company gives a crap about you, good for you. The reality is they would roll over your corpse in a second if it got them more money. Without some sort of tangible benefit from improving services, companies have no desire to improve them.
Human nature is human nature, as you say. So your premise that the *control* and *power* that comes with government-enforced (under the threat of violence, don't forget) monopolies on *anything* is going to turn out well, is absurd.
The issue isn't healthcare, it's who's going to run it and how. That's where it will inevitably and agonizingly fall apart. Just like has happened with the other area you attempt to cite, national defense. Criminals using the power of government will always have a wonderful and flowery reason to take your money and free will, at gunpoint--and idiots whose pet causes are served will always cheerlead while their neighbor is robbed as well.
Don't forget, the healthcare disaster we have now is a result of the marriage of government and the healthcare industry through various control mechanisms, so there you go. Government CANNOT control big business. But big business can certainly control government.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
correctly...do you believe that government is capable of running any system of citizen welfare effectively?
Yes. If that's in comparison to a for-profit company.
For profit companies don't care about people, as long as they make money for the people who own them.
That works well for competitive industries like consumer goods and some commodities, but does really poorly for "citizen welfare", as you so succinctly put it.
The meme that government is somehow less competent than private industry is really destructive -- they're all made up of people, some more fallible than others.
Private healthcare concerns have trumpeted abuses at an ill-funded VA hospital as proof that gov't can't run healthcare... but how many abuses at privately run facilities do we hear about? I'd wager far more, and far more frequently.
Start here: What is government? Government is by its nature a system of force, not for one second reason or goodwill, as so many people assume. Its principle device is force. Do you follow me? That's how the government remains the government, because it can kill or imprison its subjects. That threat underlies everything it does, or it would be ignored, utterly. What kind of people do you think such a system attracts--not exclusively, of course, but consistently? Good people or bad? This is why the worst human rights disasters, genocides, mass atrocities, etc., etc., in history come always always always by way of governments.
To imagine that the notion of democracy, or that our supposed degree civilization, or merely good intentions is a buffer against abuse of the power that government implies is, to put it mildly, naive.
So, yeah, "government" could run the most efficient, spectacular and loving healthcare, welfare, national defense, etc., etc., systems ever imaginable. The only trick is to make sure this government we're talking about is going to be run by Jesus and Gandhi, and manned by genetic clones of them who are educated by them and free from all outside influence. Failing that, I can guarantee you corruption, lies, theft and violation of your rights.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
the critter one step above the monkey that discovered
that with the rock he could keep others out of the cave
and let them get eaten by the tiger instead?
Or is it the critter that used the rock to chase the tigers away so everybody could get a little sleep in the cave?
Either way you need a box of rocks to buy your argument whole
and we are more sophisticated here. We want to decide if hammers belong in bags or sacks.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
If I read it correctly, he's saying that people are bad, therefore government, being a collection of people, is also very likely to be bad.
This says nothing for public vs private sector, just that you can't trust people to do anything in anyone else's best interest.
Same thing. Forget public v private sector. Government is a fictitious entity called The People, but actually an organization of people with private interests and private agendas, same as Enron or Wal-Mart. Same as Enron or Wal-Mart, government must try to maintain the illusion of legitimacy through lies and PR. Fact remains, it's a handful of people, usually power-hungry and corrupt, getting their kickbacks and living above and separate from 99.99 percent of their fellow man.
Unlike corporations, government can't be challenged in court, generally, and can kill and imprison, start military campaigns abroad, etc., etc. Government is nothing more or less than blind, dangerous force.
Start with that, or you're absolutely nowhere.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
Au contraire, government can be challenged in court.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
let's see you sue the gov to stop the wars, the patriot act, the central banking scam. Let's see it.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
And let's see someone win against a large insurance company. As it was pointed out elsewhere on this site, if they can delay paying you for long enough to recoup interest payments, they can fight you until your resources run out.
I agree, banking scam and wars are the result of corruption -- the undue influence of large industrial complexes on a government system. Which makes the case for creating at least one system which doesn't use contractors (as the Fed does for banking and people like Blackwater do for the militar) to avoid the vested interests which people are more likely to meddle in. Insurance companies, much like Blackwater, don't particularly do a very good job, and charge too much for it.
One way or anther, the ability to sue a government agency or not sue a government agency doesn't affect the previous argument that insurance companies have no added value to put into a healthcare system, yet pull profit out of it ...
Insurance companies add excellent value if they have no access to government force. If they're in the position of competing with each other and offering a service people want at a price people are willing to pay, there's no problem with it at all. If people go willingly and consciously into the bargain, more power to all parties involved. The only problem anybody here is talking about (whether they understand it or not) is once again, when these or any companies have access to government coercion.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
I was comparing public and private systems, whereas this seems to attack the ability of *people* to do anything correctly. See more about this below.
The point I had been making was that a social system of healthcare is far more likely to be socially conscious than a private one, for the profit motive. Nothing you've said has disproven or even taken a swipe at it, other than to say that people are intrinsically bad, for the most part.
I can agree with the idea that people are intrinsically bad for the most part -- but I'd rather deal with healthcare from a collective of people than from a few who want to pick the money off my bones.
I'm going to have to assume you're either a Libertarian or an Anarchist.
The labels will kill it every time, because you will think you have a built-in summary of someone's ideas, and your thought will grind to a halt.
I try to only use labels to point out their misuse, such as when someone obviously or overtly defines themselves as a liberal, it's appropriate to point out the deep flaws in liberal boiler plate philosophy. Same with right wing labels, anarchist, libertarian, or anything else.
I'm just trying to figure things out and come up with a solid answer.
No, people are not intrinsically "bad" but they are instrinsically selve-promoting and self-protecting. It's our animal heritage... And some are indeed bad, or at least immoral to an unnerving degree. Combine these people with government power--and these people are likely to seek government power in one form or another--and you have potential for disaster. *Completely* subtract government power from the equation, and you force these people to use semi-legitimate means to protect and promote themselves, because they are now subject to legal and social repercussions. Government power is the factor that decides whether "bad" people's agendas are going to be the exception or the rule.
Government healthcare is noble as a hazy theory. So is the federally controlled military, CIA, etc. So is welfare. The practical realities are an entirely different discussion as we've seen in all these areas. There's always a very reasonable excuse to take your money and your lessen your free will. Always.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
Right. That's why they can do it in other countries, but not here? France and England are completely socialized in that respect, but Canada is closer to the "single payer" ideal we were looking for.
My wife has a fair amount of family up in Canada, and they love the healthcare system up there... Most people in Canada wouldn't trade their "lessened free will" for our crap excuse for a healthcare system.
What I don't understand is how you can say that people are intrinsically self-promoting and self-protecting (which is true), and use it as an argument against governmentally distributed resources for essential services as compared to privately distributed resources.
Governments are companies without the profit motive. That can be seen as good / bad depending on the particular issue you're looking at, but in this sense, they are intrinsically better able and willing to provide health-related services for their citizens in a universal fashion. Otherwise you're just advocating a "pay for play" system where if you have no money, you get sent out to die -- which is (minus the ERs that you and I already subsidize) what we have now.
Anecdotal accounts of people loving their socialized healthcare system in a given country is no different than people in the US saying they love their unparalleled freedoms. You must ask in both cases, compared to what? Is a relatively functional socialistic system better than insurance companies and other profiteers and criminals openly running healthcare via government? Sure. Is it better than what you might have if there was no government interference? This you can't answer so quickly, and this is the question I raise.
Is the fact that our government must at least work around the bill of rights and constitution preferable to the situation in countries that have no bill of rights or similar constitution? Sure. Is it preferable to how society might be if our government was actually restrained by these documents? No.
Okay, now do the math with me here: People are given to self-serving behavior. The worst and cleverest will seek to gain as much control and power over their fellow man as possible, in order to serve themselves as much as possible. Government provides the opportunity for the greatest, most complete, and most irresistible control one or a few people can have over their fellow man. Therefore, government is bound to attract the least moral and most clever. This combination of circumstances is a formula for fascism or tyranny to one degree or another, whatever kind of government you're talking about.
So the notion of using government to defend society against the most selfish and least moral in society has that built-in flaw, i.e., that government will sooner or later, to one degree or another, become a tool of the most selfish and least moral. That's the nature of "bad" people, and that's the nature of power that can't be challenged.
And again, instead of Canada you must imagine a world where everyone in any business, no matter how big, is subject to legal and social repercussions without no government protection whatsoever. Then you must try to project the result of this circumstance logically. I know it's difficult to imagine, because we're conditioned to believe we must be micromanaged for our own good, but this is what I'm talking about.
The question isn't whether government can occasionally do good. It can. The question is whether it's playing with fire to put your faith in government, and whether actual people, not bureaucracies, can't do much, much, much better.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
The Hot Air Club.
Meant to go somewhere else in response to LAP and the discussion on Grayson...etc.
My bad.
a Utopia in government that all of us here (I believe) are certain will never exist.
Yet the choice between the current system which already has all the downfalls you describe and something which could do much better in terms of costs and outcomes as proven by such powerhouse countries as noted in the starting post is what most of us believe can work.
Even with the downfalls and human nature foibles that are bound to exist, a national health care system is a better choice than the failed market-based calamity in place now.
I have already answered the question.
Thanks. Hope we get a national system.
The system we have is a corruption, basically a reversal of purpose, of government regulations that were put in place to control business and protect private parties. Business wound up controlling government. Big surprise.
So the only solution you can conceive of is to create more and vaster government control mechanisms and just *cross your fingers* that the power doesn't end up in the wrong hands. You really can't stretch your mind enough to predict the outcome of this?
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
Some would argue that people with a motive only to produce profit for themselves are not the best people to be controlling a government.
It strikes me as more of a *sad* argument about the pathetic state of our ability to regulate industry. More of a state of disarray formed by allowing unfettered capitalism to trump the ability of men to govern themselves.
Confirmed, of course, by the supreme court, recently.
is exactly the same position the right wingers take when they want to compel people to go to war or stop a woman from having an abortion or funding some ludicrous and useless weapon system or pushing their religion down everyone's throat. Welcome to our world.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Nice try on trying to get them to look in the mirror. They seem to have a zillion excuses not too.
is currently being used in the new Windows ad campaign. We all imagine ourselves slightly better looking and smarter. (Of course the tag is that we are really so stupid we will buy the new OS.)
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
the tenor of their new campaign to peddle the latest crap they're setting up their customers as being responsible for this POS. It was all "their" idea Microsoft tells the world. It's nice to see them getting proactive about shifting the blame before the bugs are even discovered.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I was told He made man free to choose between good and evil.
I've noticed Divine Pefection must involve sadistic maniupulation.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I can agree that forcing people to buy or having insurance is pretty stupid. If you don't want to see the doctor, that's on you, you have every right not to go.
Financing a single payer system with public money does rely on the idea of everyone being put into the "pool" of source money, in the same way that you can't turn down spending your tax money on national defense ... but I rarely hear conservatives barking at that particular concept, even though healthcare and defense serve the same basic purpose, that of keeping people safe i.e. life liberty, yada yada.
Mandates to have insurance are stupid, I can agree with you guys on that.... But I don't think that the private insurance industry is going to stop fucking the rest of us until there's a decent public health framework in place.
is code speak for "I don't know what I'm doing. I'm scared and I need time to think of the best strategy for survival."
You know, sometimes the fighting sports pass people's ability by very quickly.
Feinstein may be a case in this regard as politics is a fighting sport for certain.
a really good grill?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
that took charisma. Nobody ever accused her of being charismatic.
She should either get in better shape to bring a better fight in the bouts she has remaining or retire.
and a deep love for cheesburgers. To feed the twenty odd kids you have named George. And taking a lot of punches.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Actually, that would be 3 1, but good thought.
You give Feinstein et al. way too much credit. They didn't get the message of the Massachusetts election wrong. The message they got came from their corporate "Johns" who want them to stop all governmental reforms. These whores are not moved by the will of the people, but the will of their owners: the wealthy and the big corporations. We are the ones they let eat cake, or, more specifically, crumbs.
Candideinnc
who said liberals are against authoritarianism?
we elected a leader(authority figure)to change (through regulation)
the way things were/are being done.
while conservatives like to say that the tree of liberty needs to be replinished from time to time in order to eliminate big government, liberals are not averse to such manouvers as well, maybe just for different reasons.
That sums it up. I'm gonna come crack your skull with a brick, rifle your pockets while you lay unconscious, and take your money and credit cards. But don't worry, you'll feel pretty good about it. The proceeds go to charity. The thuggery is grand because I'm doing it for different reasons.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
what only right wingers are allowed to hate liberals, why can't liberals hate rightwingers?
you're the one who said liberals are too soft to govern with a strong hand.
the fact is liberals do not nessacarily believe in big government.
we believe in effective government. you get big government in trying to be all things to all people.
BTW are you saying that conservative actually would kill beauracrats to get smaller government, i stated they only "say" that, most of the increases in federal employees came during republican rule.
the only thing that is hazy is your tortured logic.
That's okay, I guess, because I don't think you do either.
Because I accuse, accurately, liberals of being in favor of force and violence, doesn't mean I support popular Republican ideology, numbskull. It means I'm opposed to the use of force and violence for anything except self defense.
I interpret force and violence also as the *threat* of force and violence, which is how public healthcare has to be implemented. There's no other way. Same way the patriot act, corporate welfare, or anything else the government does is implemented. Money to make it happen is confiscated freely, or just printed as debt, and any real dissent from the practice is met with real violence.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
no donations.
I am going to change registration to independent. I'm withholding my former regular contributions to the DCCC, and I'm going to wait for what USED to be my party to grow a spine.
Though not in the way they think.
Yes this was a 'referendum' on Democrats. The reason why the Democrat lost to the Republican was they ran a weak ass candidate who didn't really want to be campaigning and touching the hoi polloi against an equally weak and ineffectual candidate on the right.
But unlike the Republicans (or Scot Brown specifically), the Democrats didn't really do anything to make sure she got elected. Obama himself didn't come out until the last minute. Nobody endorsed her. No body funneled her money. Nobody did shit.
The result was that most of the people who might have voted Democrat just to keep a Republican out of office didn't even show up to vote.
This doesn't of course cover those of us, like myself, who are sick of death of voting for Democrats and getting Republicans anyway. I voted a straight Democratic ticket last time because I thought the Democrats would stand up against the Republicans and get their agenda going. It was as much a method of punishing the Republicans for the Bush years and ensuring that John McCain / Fox News Analyst never sat at the Resolute Desk as it was to ensure that a progressive Democratic agenda was pursued at all levels of government to FIX the shit Bush broke.
But then the Democrats let us down AGAIN - and I'm not even talking about the economy. I'm talking about how even from the minority the fucking Republicans are still in charge. Still setting the agenda. Still running things in the House and Senate. We're still in Iraq. We're still in Afghanistan. We're still worried about the little shithole that is Iran and still ignoring the actual threat that is North Korea.
Bush and Cheney are still walking around free despite having broken numerous federal, state, local and international laws. John Yoo's still making speaking appearances. Alberto Gonzales, Don Rumsfeld and the rest. Hell Mr. Horse Traininer head of FEMA hasn't even gotten a criminal negligence slap on the wrist to go with his Presidential Medal of Incompetence. The people who kidnapped and tortured. The companies comitting fraud. Blackwater murdering civilians. KBR allowing rape and actively trying to cover it up. The fricken Peanut guy who sent out millions of peanut products he knew were contaminated and freaking KILLED people hasn't even seen any time. Not to mention the billions upon billions of tax payer dollars that were pissed away or just lost (Anyone remember those shrinkwrapped pallets of cash any more?).
Even those fuckers who conveniently lost 3 million fricken emails and destroyed 92 interrogation tapes despite it being a FELONY to do so are still walking around free.
They're free, yet under the PATRIOT act we ourselves can at the President's authority be kidnapped in the middle of the night and be renditioned to another country where torture is no big deal. You think those with unfettered power and no oversight are going to bother checking credentials? What's going to happen when in 2012 the next Republican President gets into office and decides to start yet another fricken war? You think he'll be as restrained with political dissidents like those on this sight as Obama is? Especially with his voters and past Vice Presidents (and their vacuous offspring) cheerleading for torture?
The Democrats should have been out there from fricking day ONE reminding people that everything bad that they're experiencing now is wholly the result of 8 years of absolute rule by the Republican party. When it came to legislation they should have told the Republicans to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up, and when one of them decided to filibuster that moron Harry Reid should have hauled out the cots and set up the podium. Hell at the very least when McCain was at the podium whining about comity Franken or someone else should have told him "You did the same thing in 2003 to Senator Byrd when we were discussing invading Iraq". It shouldn't have to fall to Maddow and Olbermann and bloggers to do that sort of crap. The Democrats should be doing it themselves. Do you think the Republicans would hesitate for a second before sticking a knife in your eye? Hell no. THAT's why they're losing.
And it must be said that There IS NO RULE that says bills require 60 votes to pass the senate. They require 51 unless someone filibusters....which the Republicans do every time a bill comes forward. Yet they pay no political price for it. They do this because they know the Democrats are weak and will let them get away with it.
Specifically - Harry Reid is weak and lets them get away with it. Because it is at the whim of the Senate Majority Leader to decide whether or not someone can just say 'filibuster' or if they have to haul out the cots. If Harry Reid were to actually have grown a pair of balls some time in 2004 , 2006 or last year we wouldn't be having all of these problems now. At the very least the filibuster rules need to change so that we're no longer at the mercy of a Queen Snowe or Queen Lieberman. Don't even get me stated on all those asshole corporatists like Ben Nelson.
The last thing the US needed was a watered down trillion dollar hand job to the health insurance assholes that are already screwing us like Ron Jeremy. Meanwhile we're still out of work, climate change is still ocurring no matter how many bullshit expose's Fox runs, Bush still put both wars, his tax cuts and his prescription drug program on a Chinese credit card, Detroit is still floundering and we still don't have a decent American car that can match a Prius. We're also STILL dumping money down the pit of abstinence only education and faith based initiatives too even though both programs are complete bullshit and exist solely for the purpose of sucking off the right wing bible bangers. Is anyone even taking a look at coal slurry? Or making sure the states are actually repairing bridges before they fall over?
What sucks is that through all of this pandering the Democrats are doing they're not even going to score one vote. So really they're screwing us for no reason at all other than sheer cowardice. None of those Teabaggers out there are going to vote Democrat no matter how many hand jobs you give them. All this is going to do is erode the support of the people who put these idiots in office in the first place.
....And when they Republicans get back in charge again, they're going to repeal everything anyway. So what's the point? They don't want clean water or air. They don't want honest news. They don't want an educated public or safe borders or sound international policy or a sound economy. Because those who have an investment in misery have a vested interest in prolonging it. Do you think all those donations from Exxon and Signa come in by chance? and now that the SCOTUS has ruled on corporate first amendment rights America's for sale to the highest bidder anyway. Exxon can easily plunk down a billion dollars to put an other Oil man in office. Hell the CEO can find that in the corners of his diamond studded gold couch.
American politics for a long time now has been the choice between buying an moldy orange and buying a tangerine only when you buy the tangerine you find out it's actually just a mislabeled orange that's slightly less moldy. Democrats and Republicans both at least used to have SOME sort of honor and respect for the law back in the day. These days it's all you can do not to see criminals like Dick Cheney and Bush clogging up every airwave with their justifications as to why a Republican President should be allowed to break the law whenever he feels like just because. Not a Democrat tho. I'm surprised they haven't tried to impeach Obama yet.
No, the Democrats have let us down in every possible way and all because they don't have the guts to actually fight for what they supposedly believe in. Meanwhile Americans are still suffering while they play their bullshit games of bipartisanship. They have proven that quite literally don't deserve our votes. If I'm going to vote for Democrats and get the Republican agenda anyway then why the hell should I vote for Democrats? I might as well cut out the middle man and vote for John McCain and whatever idiot the RNC decides to put next to him in 2012.
Screw the Democrats. I'm voting 'None of the Above' in the next election. The only way to wake up these simpletons up is to let the country burn under another decade of ExxonMobile's Republican party.
the *ahem* Honorable *ahem* Ms. Feinstein should hear this.
I've sent similar rants to my own idiots in the Senate and House and you know what I get back? A standard bullshit form letter telling me how they voted on X issue or Y issue and how they oppose Z issue.
I march. I blog. I've called. I've written. I've emailed. I've faxed. I've even tried to schedule appointments so i can scream at them in person. I've written to my own 'representatives' and I've written to Franken and Grayson and Reid, and Pelosi and dozens of others. Both when they were still in the minority and Bush was Emperor and when they were in the majority but still whining about not being able to do anything. But you know what? The Democrats don't give a damn.
And it's not like they have to do anything intellectually or morally complex. They just have to make an effort and they don't. Meanwhile the Republicans use every bit of propaganda and parliamentary dirty trick they can to stymie them. Yet when the Democrats were in the minority they didn't do that (at least not on the same scale).
Since they can't possibly think that conservatives are going to vote for them and thus be afraid to lose those votes the only possible explanation is that they don't give enough of a damn about the votes they already got. In other words its time old tradition of "What are you doing to do, vote Republican?". They think they have us over the barrel and they can get away with it. Well the hell with that. I'm tired of being ignored and mocked and having my good will abused and if I'm going to be ignored and abused anyway no matter who I vote for then there's absolutely no point. Only the insane or addled keep doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result.
or retard,
or fucktard
or all 3 of the above.
Wut? Me no unnurstand. Big big bad words, too much, too much. Scare me. Slow slow. Stop stop.
far left loon >.<
uh nonny, the Norwegians are very capable and up to the task of working out complicated matters...You know, they got got Sweden out of their hair in 1905, then smashed Nazis for years and blew up a heavy water shipment, chased and sunk a Nazi battleship up a river outside Narvik, live well above the Arctic circle in many cases. They also live in the dark part of the year, and the country looks great during the thaw, which is something the Alaskans have not gotten the hang of...I'd say that making healthcare available to everyone in their country was a friggin dawdle, comparatively speaking. And was the most simple, cost effective and humanitarian way of dealing with the needs of one another.
;)
me-oww!
Twas no slam on the Norwegians, who are indeed formidable people. I would just like to think that American have equal the brains, and heart, that the Norwegians do. We're the only industrialized nation that doesn't, and seems fundamentally incapable of doing what CUBA can do, for chrissakes.
Man, we must have the laziest, stupidest, greediest bunch of politicians in the entire world, they can't craft something so basic and simple - what is so gobsmacking is their smugness about it all, adding insult to injury.
'Too complicated to understand', my ass.
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