Tag: elections

Maybe I’m nuts or unhinged or maybe I’m not. Perhaps its stress or the nerves acting up.  I need to lay off watching the news and politics.  Though something tells me I’m not gonna shake off this feeling I keep getting. Maybe some of you have felt this weird sense of dread too.

This diary was prompted by the debate that circulated here around Senator Obama’s vote on telecomm immunity in the FISA bill, especially in Keith Olbermann’s diary of 6/26, and thereafter.  Olbermann’s rationalization was that Obama’s vote was a pragmatic move to attain power for the greater good.  The debate about Obama’s vote culminated in a defense of “purity trolls” (as such) in a diary listed here: “I’m calling out purity trolls by name,” incl. the Founding Fathers.  Since this “pragmatic” justification is endemic in politics today, I think it behooves us to examine it, and to specify and explain a “bad pragmatism” that comes of the uncritical acceptance of social “reality”.  I will also specify an antidote to “bad pragmatism,” in the concept of utopian dreaming.

(crossposted from Big Orange)

Thanks to Linda Milazzo at Smirking Chimp for posting these.

That is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, effectively admitting on Larry King’s program that she is chummy with a mass murderer and dictator.  That is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, dissing the mother of a soldier killed in her friend’s war of choice, because she has “a day job.”

And what job is that, exactly?  Aiding and abetting tyrants — war criminals — as they continue to torture, wage illegal war, spy on us, and collapse our economy.  And that’s not even half of the list of crimes committed by the shrub-gargoyle regime.

http://www.shirley08.com/index…

Shirley Golub is a Democrat challenging Pelosi for the California-8th District primary in June.  She has the guts to say what no other member of the Democratic Party will: that the Speaker of the House is a craven coward.  I think Pelosi is beyond cowardice; she is complicit — an embodiment of evil, the very kind now doing so much damage to our country and our world.

http://www.cindyforcongress.org

Cindy Sheehan was the face of the anti-war movement in America as it helped propel the Democratic Party back into political power for the first time in over a decade.  And when she reaized that the Democrats had simply used us to obtain power, that they had no intention of changing the status quo, she was compelled to act in the only way she could: campaign to unseat Pelosi.

I am urging each and every member of this web site to donate to these two Ladies, to make every effort to help them defeat Pelosi and send her sniveling back to the dog house she shares with Barney the Scottish Terrier.  No one who professes friendship with the dictator who has wrought so much pain and suffering should be allowed to hold power.  No one who so callously and arrogantly dismisses the mother of a slain soldier should be allowed to walk the halls of Congress.  No one who so criminally undermines the duties placed upon her by the Constitution of the United States should be allowed to show her face in D.C.

Ms. Golub and Ms. Sheehan are the best chance we have of removing the biggest obstacle to impeachment, and the most prominent enabler of the occupation and the regime that is dismantling our democracy.  Let’s help them topple Pelosi.

From Obama’s Website April 27, 2008:

Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.

Earlier this year I decided to take a break from the bullshit. This site and and a few others have been outposts of sanity in a medium literally choking in crap. Is it just me or has the level of all round mendacity reached the point where it all blurs into a numbing howl of white noise?

Anyway, as I understand it all opinions are welcome as long as nobody is intentionally trying to piss anyone off. If you’re looking for the same old screams about evil Republicans you won’t like this piece.

by BlackAgendaReport Managing Editor Bruce Dixon.

This is an interesting point-of-view of Obama’s campaign:

Ever hear of Saul Alinsky?  He was the writer and teacher of “pragmatic radicals”.  His book, Rules for Radicals, is excellent reading if one wants to be any good at organizing.  As a matter of fact it is a book that Obama has said made a difference in his life and in his activism.  As an old hippie, pinko, commie from my days of protests in the 70’s, his book was an excellent resource for action and planning.

I think that maybe Obama should have kept his admiration for Alinsky to himself.  Just as in the Vietnam War, Giap’s book, People’s Army, People’s War, was required reading for the special operations guys doing the crappy work in the country.  I do believe that Clinton’s campaign has done the same thing with Obama.

I will bet that one is asking what the hell I am talking about.  Answer:  Alinsky had 3 tactics to use.  They were, 1–The real action is the enemy’s reaction, 2–The enemy properly goaded and guided in his action will be your major strength, 3–Tactics, like organization, like life, require that you move with the action.  So far both candidates have had to deal with these three tactics.

My advice would be, if you are using a game plan from a certain source, then you might want to keep it under lock and key, so that your opponent does not use it to bite you in the ass.  Just a thought.  

I watched Obama give one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard today. In a week from Hell. When we barely escaped the collapse of Wall Street while still not addressing the needs of Main Street. I watched a man stand tall and draw a line in the sand with diplomatic skills unseen in American politics in my lifetime. I watched a man stand by a friend, while making it absolutely clear that even though ‘context is everything’ some of Wright’s statements were completely unacceptable. I watched a man I want to be my President.