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Politics 
Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 17:00:00 PST
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Jane Hamsher at FDL took more hyperbolic criticism at GOS for calling out Lynn Woolsey on her political naivity Lynn Woolsey: Closing Barn Doors Since 1993
Lynn Woolsey writes an op-ed in Roll Call today on her commitment to a public option, pandering to liberals who would indeed have to be "f*#king re#!rds" for it to make any sense. It comes on the heels of her public announcement that she will break every single pledge she's ever made to vote against a health care bill without a public option.
It's a paean to the importance of said public option, but the kicker is at the end:
Piecemeal tweaking of the health insurance system will not address this growing problem. We need to reform our health care system, and the public option must be included.
I will fight to include the public option in the final version of the health care reform legislation.
If it is not included, however, it will rise from the dead once again.
The day after the health care legislation is passed, I will introduce a bill calling for the public option.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Well, I agree with Jane. If either Woolsey is that politically naive about the Senate or thinks that progressives are that stupid to believe that a stand alone bill with a public option has a snowball's chance, then she should step down as the chair of the Progressive Caucus.
But there is more that really had me amazed at those who so loudly claim that this bill is the beginning of health care reform
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Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 13:54:38 PST
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It seems like everywhere you look these days, someone's trying to spread...The Fear.
All around us...in every town...on every corner...a massive Army Of Fear is standing by, according to the Messengers, ready at a moment's notice to obey the dictates of some unappointed Czar or another.
Just ask Glenn Beck: concentration camps for the white people, jackbooted stormtroopers ready to snatch the guns from your cold dead fingers...Socialist Government-Controlled Healthcare That Threatens Your Not Socialist Medicare...it's all coming, my friends-and unless we organize, as a community, to return to the values of the Founding Fathers, The Government, meaning that awful Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and George Soros and all the other Evil Community Organizers, will win.
There's no government, we're told, like no government.
You know who would find all of this fear of self-government just entirely bizarre?
The Founding Fathers.
In today's conversation we'll consider the fundamentals of American patriotism, we'll ask one of those Founding Fathers how he saw the role of Government-and we'll toss in a few words from Abraham Lincoln, just for good measure.
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Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 13:38:41 PST
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(noon. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
In a previous diary I discussed the notion of progressive ideology, which suggests that basic tenets of "progressivism" prevent it from articulating any sort of meaningful political resistance to neoliberalism, which in this era is the one ideology which has triumphed over all of the others, and thus the one ideology which matters.
In today's discussion I will put forth the political meaning of this ideological formation: political economy in free-fall.
(Crossposted at firefly-dreaming)
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Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 03:12:55 PST
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(6PM EST - promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
Four score and twenty betrayals ago, when Barack Obama was posturing as a transformational leader, when he was promising government of the people, by the people, and for the people, he spoke of the core values progressives have always believed in as the solution to America's problems . . .
That spirit of looking out for one another, that core value that says I am my brothers keeper, I am my sister's keeper, that spirit is most evident during times of great hardship, but that spirit can't just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe. Because as I stand here and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there's some folks who are going through their own quiet storms.
Hurricane Ike had just hit the gulf coast of Texas, Wall Street was about to implode, the foundations of the economy were crumbling, Americans everywhere were losing their jobs, their homes, their last remnants of trust in the government . . .
All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we're an independent people. We don't like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves, but you know what we understand is that every once in awhile, somebody's going to get knocked down.
Every once in awhile . . .
Yes, and every once in awhile, the sun comes up. Then, every once in awhile, it goes down again.
Low income Americans get knocked down every day, middle class Americans get knocked down every day, seniors on fixed incomes get knocked down every day. Republicans knocked them down for 30 years, and now Barack Obama and that gang of corporate enforcers that used to be the Democratic Party are doing it. A punch in the face is a punch in the face. Analyze that, Beltway Republicrats. When Americans are flat on their back all the time, they don't give a damn whether the fist that knocked them down was a Republican fist or a Democratic fist. A corporate fist is a corporate fist. Whistle past that graveyard, Obamabots. Have an "ideologue" diary contest, fill that wreck list of yours with "ideologue" ravings and let's all see who can clap the loudest.
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Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 22:19:10 PST
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(10PM EST - promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
"Remember the Maine!"
That was the slogan used by William Randolph Hearst and The New York Journal to stoke American public opinion into war with Spain after the U.S.S. Maine sunk in Cuban waters in 1898. However, Hearst started in the publishing business in 1887, when he took over the San Francisco Examiner.
William Randolph Hearst bought the failing New York Journal in 1896. His sensational journalism style, now called "yellow journalism", drove the failing paper to prominence. While there is no historical evidence of collusion between the government and the Journal to get public support for the war, and, in fact, the government wanted no part of going to war with Spain, there is plenty of evidence that there was collusion later. After spending time in the House of Representatives from 1903-1907, Hearst started several new papers in various cities with the help of the Democratic National Party in the 1920's.
The story of William Randolph Hearst is now history, but, history has a way of repeating itself. You see, Hearst saw profit in the Cuban revolt that occurred in 1895 and had been selling papers for years sensationalizing the Ten Years War in Cuba.
War meant selling papers and that meant profit.
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Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 19:30:57 PST
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(10 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
No, this is not an essay on some X-rated movie. It is about how the government and Wall Street have continually conspired to take and use any new money it can get its hands on, which, now means YOUR money.
The latest new "idea" floated by FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair is to have state pension funds buyout failed banks.
Now, I am not totally ignorant about economics, nor, am I a studied professor on the subject. However, I'm not sure who could glean any meaningful information out of the following:
In a speech to the National Association for Business Economics Washington Policy Conference, FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair outlined what she called "a pre-funded resolution mechanism," but did not specify what exactly that is. She instead said it would be "similar to the FDIC's receivership authority for failed banks," exposing only shareholders to risk, as opposed to the bank bailouts that saw billions of taxpayer dollars funneled into a near-crippled financial system.
"Shareholders and creditors would bear the losses, not the public," she explained. "But, the process would be orderly and help prevent a catastrophic collapse of other firms."
Go ahead, do your head shake to clear the cobwebs, and let's talk about the latest plan for the government to get their hands on YOUR money.
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Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 23:40:27 PST
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(9 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
The state of South Carolina continues to disappoint its citizens from its elected politicians and its state law enforcement division down to its media. Politician's in South Carolina simply have no fear of being held accountable, and thus, continually take actions from openly lying to its citizens to brazenly breaking the law.
The only accountability these politicians fear is that they will lose their elected positions. That accountability, however, rarely happens as voters are continually left uninformed about the actions of these politicians by a media unwilling to damage the dominance of the GOP in the state.
The most egregious example of this circle of corruption stemmed from the arrest of Republican State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel. Thomas Ravenel was elected to office in 2006 and had been office six months when he was arrested for the purchase and distribution of cocaine by the FBI. What makes this case so egregious is what it actually took for Thomas Ravenel to be held accountable for his actions, and, what his accountability turned out to be for his actions.
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Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 08:12:22 PST
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(11 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Oh I missed it again last night, but I did catch part of it. Thank goodness it's all online. The full transcipt is here. And the link to the video is here.
(for Nada Lemming)
MARCIA ANGELL: And what do you think they're going to do? If you were an insurance company, you would say, "Well, thank you, Santa Claus. I've got all of these captive customers. Young ones are healthy. They probably won't even use the insurance. There's nothing to stop me from raising my premiums. I have all of these subsidies coming in." Don't you think that the prices would go up? I think it would be remarkable if they didn't.
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Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 06:24:38 PST
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As part of a recent assignment, I was required to write up short, snappy summaries of candidates who are running this election cycle for political office. In so doing, I had to make sure to showcase their legislative accomplishments as well as to provide a bit of the personal to ensure that they seemed human and approachable, rather than robotic policy wonks. In the course of my work, what I couldn't help but notice was that, regardless of how Progressive a candidate claimed to be, he or she was always very careful to highlight his/her strong support of the military and of those who either currently served or had served in times past. To back up this claim, close family members and other relatives who had served in combat were visibly invoked, as were the specific bills proposed to assist both veterans and military families. This deliberate posturing was true to a person, even candidates who were bold enough to promote themselves as peace-loving doves.
As a rule, Quakers are strict believers in pacifism. Though I was not born into the faith, I have often attempted to reconcile my original thoughts on war with those which I believe now. I find, as is sometimes the case, that the two of them are often in conflict. Those who have studied wars in much detail, as I have, know that there is something about them that translates well to stirring narrative and romantic retelling. In time, the horror of battle subsides, as well as its impact upon the civilians caught in the middle, and we are left with a sort of gloried nostalgia that any sports fan can understand as he or she recalls in conversation some past victory and close defeat. Perhaps this is what Robert E. Lee meant when he said, "It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it."
Two choices lay before me. I could go out of my way to mention that this particular section of the work went against my religious beliefs, but doing so would draw attention to myself, perhaps unduly and to no good end. I would then be obligated to specify why I found it so objectionable, and while I have no doubt that my reservations would be noted and taken seriously, I'm not really sure that anyone would truly understand why I found the matter so odious and offensive. Or, instead, I could choose complete the task in full, not feeling especially good about it, and simply pass the baton to someone else so that it would no longer be my problem anymore. I regret to report that I chose the latter, since delegating an additional task to someone else already overburdened with work would cause delays and potentially result in resentment from whomever had to pick up where I left off.
Life, of course, is full of such compromises. I have no doubt that those of you reading this have run up against similar circumstances in your own lives. It may be a simple matter of, pardon the expression, knowing how and where to pick our battles. Few of us are fortunate enough to have the ability to be purists in all circumstances. In politics, only those fortunate few who run for office in cities, districts, or states overwhelmingly in support of one particular way of thinking ever truly get the ability to present a public face anything in line with their own private convictions. The game of politics as we know it states, in part, that one is only really indebted to one's last position statement, and moreover, anything said today can be compellingly rationalized away tomorrow if needed. It isn't just politicians who have a genius for rationalization. Humans have managed to become masters at the process.
Returning to the earlier point, my own inward leanings against war of any sort take me once again to the Sermon on the Mount and those old, familiar passages that many have committed to heart.
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus doesn't equivocate here. He doesn't give us any wiggle room. He doesn't say, "Forgive your enemies, unless you're in danger of losing your job." He doesn't say, "Some of you were taught that if someone were to pluck out your eye, you have a right to pluck out theirs in retaliation, but don't do that, unless, of course, the laws on the books tell you otherwise." He doesn't say, "Love those who hate you, but I certainly concede that there are some people who simply aren't able to be loved without turning on you." Jesus wasn't exactly someone who practiced the art of Triangulation or who talked out of both sides of his mouth.
Emerson famously mentioned that to be great was to be misunderstood and I have always been uncomfortable with the phrasing and the sentiment. It can be easily construed as a justification for egotistical conduct and as a crutch to forgive deplorable behavior. I'd much rather put it another way alogether. To be a servant, putting yourself last and service to your fellow person first, is to be misunderstood. To live a spiritual life is to be misunderstood. To chart a course between pragmatism and idealism is to be misunderstood as well, but don't forget that to be fully misunderstood is to stick to your convictions even when others don't understand them. After all,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
"Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons and daughters of God.
"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
These words are as shocking now as they were then and just as applicable.
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Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 03:41:59 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Over at Daily Salem Witch Trials, where Jane Hamsher has been burned at the stake so many times they've run out of stakes, someone set their torch down long enough to deliver a sermon about the dangers of fire . . .
Obama Warns Progressives We Will Go Down In Flames . .
President Obama told progressives that if this healthcare bill fails, not only will the democrats go down in flames but his presidency. I think those who are not satisfied with this bill need a come to jesus moment. We democrats need to realize that we can't get everything we want.
I'll have a come to Jesus moment if you stop sniffing glue. While drinking a case of beer. While posting a diary from a rabbit hole somewhere deep beneath the surface of Obamabot Land.
Someone needs to understand the basic difference between flying and never getting off the ground. You can't go down in flames when you never even got the damn plane into the air. It didn't even make it to the runway, because there aren't any runways. It's still in the hangar. At the No We Can't International Airport. Where there's no runways, where there's no control tower, where there's no departure gate because nothing ever departs, where the only thing in the air is Rahm's middle finger.
Did I mention the plane doesn't even have a pilot? No? Well then I'd better mention that.
THE DAMN PLANE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A PILOT.
Hopey McChange talks about flying, he talks about it all the time, he talks about soaring high up into that Sky of Change, soaring high above the status quo, high above those red states and blue states, way up into that Heaven of Bipartisanship, where the Centrist Angels play their harps and halos glow above every Republican head.
He talks so much the wind never stops blowing . . .
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth . . .
Blowing down the backroads heading south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe, it's a wonder,
That you still know how to breathe.
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Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 23:55:44 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
For a brief time I was angry at the Nader voters that could have given us President Gore instead of the King Kriminal Bush.
These days, not so much.
Nader, when asked if he felt responsible for the Bush years said something along the lines of ...Hey, it's not my fault. If I hadn't been on the ballot, the people who voted for me probably wouldn't have voted at all...
I can't argue with that.
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Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 07:24:58 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
I went out seeking a herd of cats so I could finally meet "the left". You know ...."the pussies".....
Because the word "pussy" is not a derogatory term you know. But you knew that right? And don't you dare get offended. Because it means you are a wimp. Politically correct. Because that is the absolutely worst human trait one can have on the left apparently. Being politically correct. Oh. Sinful. You can be a serial killer and we will lap you up as long as you are not politically correct.
There.Is. No. Left.
It doesn't exist in the United States. It is a largely and invention of the right to explain all those people who disagree with them.
There are certainly people who espouse leftist ideals/progressive notions/alternative points of view. There are certainly people who engage in community action and volunteer work that could be broadly termed leftist because in one way or another they are oppositional. They wish to oppose current economic and political structures. They participate in blogs which apparently isn't pure enough to be considered real. They are cowards and slackers because they aren't bashing heads and blowing shit up.
But we don't have a left. We don't have an organization, no structure, no leaders, no official spokespersons. There are various reasons for this a lack of unionization, no funding sources which the right has plenty of, a lack of cohesive identity, a mythical belief in America that class either does not exist or does not matter, divisions in the working class along region, gender, and race. Nobody speaks for me. And nobody speaks for you.
Right now, the left is a unicorn and it is either naive or pompous to start making declarations about who we are. If we exist.
Over at Alternet an interesting article declares that the left is lacking.
There is an astonishing lack of anger among liberals, progressives and radicals who have abandoned emotion to the right.
If DD is any representative sample there are plenty of angry people. There is plenty of be angry about. But we did not abandon that emotion to the right. The right have always been angry. This isn't something new. They will always be angry. When they have power they aren't happy. We know many of them either require therapy or have gained nothing from it. And anyway who has insurance if one has any at all that even covers therapy. We are all self medicating these days. Except maybe in movies about select American cities where everybody seems to have a therapist and they still don't learn a damn thing about themselves.
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Wed Mar 03, 2010 at 20:10:40 PST
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(9 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
The election of 1994 was a referendum against Democratic rule. The House saw a 54 swing in votes from Democratic to Republican. The Senate saw an 8 seat swing from Democratic to Republican. It was an election where Republican politician's promised, through the "contract with America", that members of Congress would be held to the same standard as the rest of the country. America responded to that promise.
By 2006, America came to the realization that Republican's had broken that promise. The lies from the Bush administration, about the secret energy task force, the Iraq war, spying on American's, and torture, had finally taken its toll on the GOP with voters. In the 2006 election, the power of Congress again changed hands because a political party had lost its credibility with the public.
The 2008 was a continuance of the 2006 election for the fact that the Democrats in Congress seemed unable to govern with the slim majority they had gained two years earlier. The excuses were that they didn't have the votes, they didn't hold the Presidency, and without those things, they simply could not govern against the GOP. Voters responded by giving the Democratic Party the majorities necessary in Congress and the White House.
Now, it is the Democratic Party that is again facing a loss of credibility with the voters, and, it started with President Obama's decisions and actions that, once elected, were contrary to what was promised on the campaign trail.
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Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 14:45:51 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
This is pure political punditry, iow, I'm bullshitting.
But what a perfect topic to bullshit over. Not a completely unrewarded activity.
We're somehow supposed to figure out how the folks in the Executive Branch are getting along, how many people working in the Executive Branch other than President Obama are acting in such a way, politically, that their action affects our lives insofar as the politics of legislation and governance.
Now if we had some transparency in government, I suppose we could just find that out and move on.
Alas, we don't.
So we are reduced to speculating about our Executive Branch.
Are we witnessing a power struggle?
Probably every day, given the culture of D.C.
So in my opinion (as after all this is an opinion piece), until we have some real, honest transparency in our government, we as citizen bloggers will have to publicly bumble around until we get the answers ourselves. And we will, oh we will.
Ha!
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Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 18:43:02 PST
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(10 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Crossposted at Daily Kos
George W. Bush
Tax Cuts for the rich
Strategery
Invading Iraq
"They will welcome us as liberators"
"The oil will pay for the war"
WMD's
Mission Accomplished
Torture isn't a war crime cause my lawyer says so
Hurricane Katrina
"The fundamentals of the economy are strong"
Sarah Fucking Palin
Katie Couric - But are you ready to become the leader of the free world?
Sarah Palin - Totally. I will totally lead the world. Any world. I will lead Mars or whatever too if those guys need a world president. Or just a Mars president. I took on the ole' boys club in Alaska and I can take it on in Mars.
Katie Couric - But I'm not asking about being president of Mars.
Sarah Palin - But I am answering about being president of Mars because a president person needs to be prepared for anything. I like to reform.
open.salon.com
Conservatives don't deserve respect. They deserve shame and to be loudly and openly mocked in public.
More ranting below the fold
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Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 10:40:15 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Yah.
... for Teachers.
War Criminal Torture Champions roam free, teach Law, and show up as guest/experts on the Sunday Talk Shows, but failing to teach all those brown kids to pass those tests is just ... wrong!
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - President Barack Obama says a Rhode Island school that recently fired all its educators is an example of how there needs to be accountability.
He made the comments Monday in Washington at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He called for "accountability" if a school continually fails its students without improvement.
He said that is what happened at Central Falls High School, where the school district's board of trustees voted last week to fire 93 teachers, administrators and other staff. No more than half could be hired back under federal law.
Obama pointed out that just 7 percent of students at the high school have tested proficient in math.
Right. That'll fix it. Fire them. Just fire them all.
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Sun Feb 28, 2010 at 15:01:00 PST
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Political Poem
by
Nightprowlkitty
as tho there is
any reality
to politics
that can be
grasped ever,
ever, never,
it is smoke,
it is elaborate
costume of
deception created
to capture
our attention
in spiderweb of power
enchanting us to believe
there is separation
between ourselves and each other
and the sky and the earth.
politics cannot contain
our fierce fire,
our fresh air,
our loving waters,
our humble earth,
our limitless space
with no boundaries
never boundaries
always free
always liberation.
Old tales
are helpful,
stories of humanity
from every corner
of the world
leading to the roots,
waiting for us,
waiting to feed us,
to welcome us home.
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Sun Feb 28, 2010 at 09:41:43 PST
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LANGUAGE WARNING: Today's story is uncharacteristically blunt, and from this moment forward we will be using lots of inappropriate language in making our points.
Gentle Reader, you have been officially...warned.
With that in mind, if you take offense when confronted with language strong enough to knock a fuckin' buzzard off a shitwagon, please stop reading now.
It is by now fairly well known that Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's White House Chief of Staff, had a bit of a blow-up with liberals who were ready to start running ads against "blue dog" Democrats who were working very hard to shut down the health care reform effort.
Now we're not gonna get in the middle of that argument today; instead, since we're finally getting a chance to talk, I figured me and Rahm could get a few other things out of the way that have been on everyone's mind for the past year or so.
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March on Washington
Saturday, March 20
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