A Note to the Ideological Purists

This was written as a post in the comments on Alternet.:

I often wonder how many of those who post here are paid operatives of the Corporate Right. All of the concern trolling… ‘oh, I fell for Obama and now I see the light’; ‘both parties are the same’; Obama let us down and proved that he is beholden to corporations, just like dubya and Romney’; ‘I’ll use my vote to send a message to the Democratic Party’ [what message? That you are better than the rest of us? more ideologically pure? more reality based? All of these messages are good – but they are not morally superior, because any kind of morally superior judgment would know that no message will be sent and that every one of your friends, neighbors, family and fellow countrymen & women will be irretrievably fucked when Republicans are installed in office due to your morally superior message sending.]

I have been reading back through publications from early 2009. By April of 2009 many on the Progressive Left had already written off Obama and convinced themselves and others that he was a traitor because he did not live up to every single one of their ideals. I have felt the same way often, and have expressed the same concerns to the WH, my congressional rep, my Senators, my local government, friends, family and anyone else that would listen.

Now, however, during this election, I do not have the luxury of ideological purity. Neither does our country.

Obama said one thing during his acceptance speech that I have seen get no play in the analysis. “As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government.”

Catch that? Self-government. Hard and frustrating work of self-government. Not, I’ll send twenty five bucks to Obama, give him my vote and expect him to fix everything that has been fucked in this country for the last 35 years. And, I will give him, alone, 3.5 years to do it.

That is not how it works in self-governance. Not how it works. We must be involved every step of the way. We are the government. We send representatives to DC to represent us. However, we need to do the very hard work of staying on top of them every step of the way and ensuring that they are doing the work that we want done. This requires direct involvement.

I talk to a lot of Progressives and most of them are filled with the same dour frustration of the comments here. Most are rightfully and righteously frustrated with the BS that has not been fixed and the BS that has been continued. I get it. [Many of them also seem to have been only paying attention for the last 4 years and do not get the institutional structure or broken-ness of our congress, elections and campaign finance structure.]

However, to a person, most of them have not been involved. They do not attend party meetings. They are not involved in Progressive groups. They do not attend protests (or start them.) They do not sign petitions or write letters or make phone calls to their reps. They do not do, and have not done, anything to move the course of decision making in the right direction or the direction they want it moved. If we are not actively involved and do not continually use our voices and our power, then we lose our power and the moneyed interests are the ones who are heard. We need to be loud and louder. Our elected representatives need us involved. They need to be pushed by us.

I do not understand those, who have not pushed over the last four years, thinking that withholding their vote or voting third party will all of a sudden be the needed push. In self-governance you have a lot more responsibility than voting once every four years – yet many do not even do that. Your vote is powerful, but it is not your only responsibility.

The corporate masters are counting on you getting discouraged. They are counting on you thinking that ‘both parties are the same.’ They are counting on you sitting this one out or voting third party. They want this and need this. Michael Moore is right, they know that they cannot win if more people vote and so they are taking away the vote from whoever they can get away with taking it away from. We need to vote just to make up for the millions disenfranchised.

It is high past time for those of us who feel powerless to exercise our power where ever we can. Sitting out the election is not exercising power. Voting Green is not exercising this power. Not now. There is way too much at stake.

I am not a Democratic apologist. I am just as pissed about many, many things that have been done or not done. When I look at the Party Platforms, though, it is the Democratic Party that is closest to my beliefs. When I look at the demographics, it is the Democratic Party that most resembles true representation. When I look at the last 80 years of law making in this country it is the Democrats who have supported Women, Unions, Civil Rights, Peace and the Social Safety Net. It is the Democratic Party that says that We are All in This Together [The Right would have us jumping from windows of a burning factory because we are all just means to an end for the factory owner – not actual people, actual people all created equally.]

We are at a major fucking turning point. We do not have the luxury of waiting for the candidate who believes in everything that we believe in. We need to ensure that Obama is reelected and do everything that we can to get him a congress that will not block his every move. Then we need to be involved to push our representatives to enact laws for the people, undo the damage done over the last 35 years, enact laws that remove the power of the financial elite, restore our Rights and Civil Liberties and prosecute those who have screwed us. We need to elect them, then we need to push them.

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Anyone Watching?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is amazing television. Truly amazing.

Though I have it on the SPAN because I get sick of the MSNBC bastards thinking that their comments on what is going on are more important than what is actually being said.

Dammit. Work phone rang when Slaughter was speaking. Louise Slaughter is my hero...I will have to watch her later.

Use the thread to tell me what you think. Are you pissy? Do you think that Obama is losing this debate?

Or, are you keeping an open mind and listening to what the experts are saying?

Let me know.

I believe that real health care reform will be passed. I believe that it will happen because the Dems know that they will lose their shit in November if it doesn't. I just hope that they heed the words of Dr. Dean and make it go into effect now!

President Obama is looking like the adult and the Pukes, of course, look like the tools that they are. Heh.

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YES, It Has Come to This

Will Marry for Health Insurance dot com.

Not a joke. The real deal. Desperate woman with a story that I can very much relate to.

Fuck.

H/T to Thom Hartmann for interviewing her today.

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Thank You Mr. President

If you have not seen it (or even if you have) please watch the President take on the GOPpers. He is brilliant and in command. He is calm, cool and collected. He has a patience and a professionalism that is unmatched.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Then, if you have a minute and are so inclined, please send him a thank you note. I think that it is important to reward good behavior and to let him know that we support him and have his back when he takes them on.

(I have certainly been letting him know when I disapprove.)

Thank you, in advance, for your support.

Cross posted at PAS.

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Hey Dumbasses – The Healthcare Bill Will Create Jobs Too!

The ‘conventional’ (by ‘conventional’ I mean the Beltway) wisdom seems to be that the healthcare bill is dead. The media seems to think that the election of Scott Brown and the SOTU indicates that healthcare reform is taking a back burner or being restructured or some such shit.

Then there is the NY Times article that has the ominous headline that HC is “stalled” – and an even worse headline on the link to it at HuffPo that reads “Rahm: Health Care on Back Burner.” However, when I read the article there is no quote from Rahm stating that health care reform is dead.

Here is where the article 'quotes' Rahm:

With Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul stalled on Capitol Hill, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview that Democrats would try to act first on job creation, reducing the deficit and imposing tighter regulation on banks before returning to the health measure, the president’s top priority from last year.

How I read that paraphrase is simply that he will sign a jobs & financial reform bill before he signs a health care bill.

Obama has repeatedly said that he can do more than one thing at a time. Obama has repeatedly said that “everyday he focuses on the economy and on job creation” – even during the healthcare debate. Imagine that, a President who can multi-task.

Not only is health reform still very much alive, the bill might get a whole hell of a lot better. Especially after Obama took on the GOP at their retreat this morning.

Obama called the GOP out on their crap – even going so far as to remind them that the more that they demonize him and the Democrats, the harder that it will be for the GOP to support policies that the Dems put forth. They cannot even support policies that they might agree with. The stupid Pukes in the Senate even voted “no” on the pay-go rule yesterday. How they can say that they are “fiscally responsible” and vote “no” on pay-go is beyond me.

Health reform is an enormous jobs bill. Look at all of the potential jobs that will be created when 40 million more people have health insurance: doctors, nurses, health care billers, health care transcriptionists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, office staff, health care IT, construction workers (to build more clinics and hospitals), etc, etc, etc. Millions of fucking jobs.

Health care reform is not dead. It is now time for the Progressives to be louder than we have ever been. We need to “scream bloody murder.” We need to call our Reps and ask them to support the public option. We need to call our Senators. We need to call the Whitehouse. We need to tell them to use reconciliation or do whatever is necessary to get it done.

We need to call and write and send letters to the editor and we need to be loud. It is time to march in the streets and raise holy hell.

Health care reform is a jobs bill. Health care reform is necessary for deficit reduction. Health care reform is a moral issue – the civil rights of our time. Health care reform must be passed now.

Cross posted at PAS.

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The Obama Presidency is Officially Over

At least that is what one would have to believe if they had listened to any of the media reporting over the last 24 hours.

OK, Coakley ran a shitty campaign. Democrats took the seat for granted. The DSCC dropped the ball. And, the votes have not even yet been counted!

There are major problems with the MA election, and I am waiting for it to be certified before I cry defeat. (I get it that certification will probably come without the full investigation of the funny machines or the BS ballots, but I can always dream.) I do not understand why Coakley jumped so quickly to concede…I do not get it, unless she planned to lose. Her concession will make it a lot more difficult to actually count the ballots.

Enough said about Massachusetts. It does not mean shit. With Bayh, Landrieu, Lieberman, Nelson, Nelson and the others, we really never had 60 votes anyway.

I spend a lot of time listening to a lot of media. I have Left Wing radio on and MSNBC almost all the time. I never miss the Sunday shows. I read endlessly. I pay attention to what is being said and how it is being said. They are working overtime right now to spin this MA election as the end of the Obama Presidency and they are wrong.

We need to call and write and make clear why it is that the Dems lost the MA seat. We need to tell our representatives the truth. They will not be hearing the truth inside the beltway because the beltway common fucking wisdom is that the problem with Obama and his presidency is the DFH.

Maybe they are correct, but not in the way that they think.

The beltway press wants to spin this that the liberals were getting too much of their way, that Obama was too far to the left, that the Dirty Fucking Hippies ruined the Obama Presidency.

They’ll say that we have to move to the ‘center.’ That we have to act like the principle-less right wing. They are blaming MA on us; it is the DFH’s fault.

The only way that it is our fault is because we have not insisted loudly enough that the Congress follow the Progressive Principles that got them elected. We worked in 2006 & 2008 to send people to congress to get it done.

We want real healthcare reform (and we want it now.) We want a real jobs package, a New New Deal (and we want it now.) We want the Employee Free Choice Act (and we want it now.) We want the banksters thrown out of the corporate world and we want their seats removed from the table at the Whitehouse (and we want it now.) We want control over our own bodies (and we want it now.) We want the ERA (and we want it now.) We want an end to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (and we want it now.) We want marriage available to any committed couple who wants it, gay or straight, (and we want it now.) We want the banking industry reformed (and we want it now.) We want the wars to come to an end (and we want it now.) We want Gitmo closed (and we want it now.) We want fairness for our people and accountability in our government (and we want it now.) We want the bankruptcy laws fixed (and we want it now.) We want the Bush Admin held accountable for their crimes (and we want it now.)

These are the messages that we need to impart to our congress critters. This is what we need to tell them. This is why we lost (if we really lost) Massachusetts. This is what we need to say to our friends and colleagues and representatives and President. This is what we need to tell them; the Obama Presidency is not over, we are just getting started. We want a Progressive congress and President (and we want it now.)

Cross posted at PAS.

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The Status Quo Is Not Acceptable

My folks primary health care providers, the Mayo Clinic "strongly supports President Obama's" Health Care reform...

Mayo Clinic Reaction to President Obama’s Speech – September 9

Mayo Clinic strongly supports President Obama’s call for health insurance reform and health care delivery reform, and agrees with the President’s position that the status quo is not acceptable. We believe that a bipartisan, collaborative approach is essential to achieving significant, patient-centered health care reform.

Mayo Clinic and the many organizations and individuals working with us in the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center are strongly in favor of reform of both health care delivery and health insurance. True health care reform is getting better results for the money spent. Better results for money spent is what we meant by high value health care: better outcomes, safer care, better service and at lower costs over time. And this will translate to better access to medical services for all Americans.

We agree with President Obama’s focus on insuring all Americans and reforming the health care payment reform.

Pretty solid endorsement. Of course the cynical part of me is wondering if they aren't happy because they will be making huge profits from the reform plan.

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You Can Do Better Obama

I thought Obama was making a major error or was trying to appease republi-cons when he... "announced his intent to nominate" Ignacia S. Moreno to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Department of Justice.

However, after this current report of apparent republi-con obstruction... GOP plans 450 climate bill changes, it confirms Obama is making a huge mistake. He needs to appoint a battler on the environment in the Dept. of Justice, not one who fights for corporate environmental rights. If Obama goes through with this appointment, it would appear to me that Obama is in bed with corporations and could really care less about serious issues involving a Progressive stance on the environment.

His latest turns towards the center, military tribunals, stopping the release of torture photos don't have me as near upset as this chance view on the environment.

Let me clarify... I'm off his mailing list for now. Don't get me wrong, Obama is still 100 times better than bu$h/cheney, but it does appear he is channeling his inner Bill Clinton.

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Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary!

After 61 days of waiting, Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis finally gets past "The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee". Finally *raises hands towards the heavens*, if she is approved by the full Senate... a pro-Union, pro-safety, pro-green job, pro-healthcare Labor Secretary.

Could this be President Obama's Frances Perkins? I hope for all of us she is half what Perkins was!

Of course for me it's the sheer happiness I get from watching the Repbuli-cons worst nightmare become Labor Secretary... an empowered, pro-Labor, petite Hispanic Woman (reminds me of my wife). Hilda Solis is the polar opposite of these republi-con slimeballs. She had to work twice as hard to achieve her position, is probably the poorest member of Obama's cabinet and truly cares about working class Americans.
Let's have a big shout out for Hilda Solis!

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Share Your Story

Share your economic hardship story.

Do it with an email, photos, phone call or upload a video. Obama is asking us to tell him our stories so that the fuckwads in the Congress can be shown that we are not numbers - we are real people with real problems and we are scared.

Sorry guys - I am done with the naysayers and the cranky pups. Fuck 'em.

I know that everyone has a grand idea about how this should be done and every single fucking blogger knows better than our President and our Congress. I also know that it is so much easier to pontificate and theorize than it is to roll up one's sleeves and get to work to make the world a better place. Ya, I get it. And, I am not going to do it, I am not taking the easy way this time.

This President, Our President Barack Obama, needs us to support him more than any other President since FDR. He needs our support and our guidance. We can get involved at the grassroots (not the Netroots) or we have no room to bitch. It is an absolute in my book. I do not have the energy to be a cranky whiner.

I worked too hard for the change from the Pukes to the Dems - we all worked hard to throw those bastards out. We have the Dems now - in both Houses and the Presidency - and our work is just beginning. I am not going to throw up my hands just because some negotiations that I do not like are occurring. Until I sit in the Congress I will not know what it is to actually be a Congress Member and I will not know what has to occur to get shit done.

For now, I support my Country, therefore I support my President. This does not mean that I will turn my back on wrongdoings - it means that I will pick my battles and choose the wrongdoings that are immoral not the ones that I just do not like.

Also, I will tell them what I do not like. We are being offered more opportunity to share our ideas and participate in this process than ever before. That is what I do not get; these bloggers should be sending their posts to Obama - complete with the comments, not just posting to post. Let's get organized and participate. It is easier to bitch outside of the tent than it is to dialogue inside of it. As long as we are invited inside, let's go.

We are fucked. This country is teetering on the edge and to slam my Party and Obama - to be willing to write them off already - because some things are not right in this package seems a little histrionic to me. It seems way over the top and I do not understand. Especially when Obama is calling for us to be involved. How many of those bitching held or attended an economic recovery house party this weekend? (And, no, I did not either - but I am also not flushing them down the toilet.)

Let's pull together and quit ripping everyone apart. Maybe we are all just too used to being angry at our government to stop for a minute and realize that we have an opportunity right now to do it differently. It will take a while - you cannot turn around a ship this large in 3 weeks with one piece of legislation - there is a ton of damage to correct and a ton to repair. Let's get out hammer and nails instead of pitchforks and torches.

UPDATE: And, what this guy said. h/t to p-dip for posting this at TLC.

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Obama at the DOE

Obama sold the stimulus package at the DOE yesterday and unfortunately the media has failed to replay this speech on a loop. It is an excellent speech and should be posted in full. Follow the link to read the whole thing. Stoopid media.

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Apoplectic

First of all, I love that word. There are some words that are just plain fun and some that are fun to say (one of my favorites is "Odierno" - say it a few times with the emphasis on the "o"s - fun, isn't it?) Secondly, apoplectic is what every single pundit was today, over the gawd damned Daschle withdrawal.

What is the deal?

I do believe that Idio was correct, this is Monica on steroids and it is bad. I hope that the Dems wake the fuck up now and do not try to deal with the Wingnuts. The friggin' Wingnuts and their buddies, "The Liberal Media," are just falling all over themselves to see who can say that the Obama Presidency is an abject failure first.

It is the media's fault that they are so quick to grab the GOP narrative on everything rather than report the stoopid news as it really is...and they do not even report the fucking news. We have to find the actual news ourselves because the media is so busy trying to make scandals where none exist [target: Democrats] and so busy ignoring actual scandals and catastrophes [target: Republicans.]

I was so furious today because our fucking country is going down the shitter and it is going down quick - due to the Republican hacks who fucked us endlessly. The People got busy and threw the bums out. The media seems not to notice that the villagers are restless and instead of reporting on what is really wrong, what we are really mad about, these pricks spend all of their time creating problems where none exist. Why do the media dumb asses hate this country??

Listen, and this is to us impatient Liberals too, Obama was handed over a shitstorm of nasty that he has barely even had the time to uncover, the GOP are being the obstructionists that they are (I do not think that they are capable of being anything else - even when they are in charge,) the GOP has managed to block Obama's Cabinet on top of their other sabotage activity, the media is reaming him endlessly and the whole fucking country is asking him why everything isn't better yet and because the whole world has not miraculously changed in the two fucking weeks that he has been in office does that mean that he has broken his campaign promises?

Jeebus people. Everyone is freaking out because Bushco has not yet been indicted and is not yet sitting in prison when Obama's Attorney General was not even sworn in until today! Crap!

Let's all just take a deep breath, settle down, relax, take a chill pill and at least allow Obama to have his staff in place and sworn in before we demand that all things be better. Apoplexy be damned!

/Rant over.

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Daschle Withdraws

Well I am sure happy that all of the "let the perfect be the enemy of the good" holier than thou, goody two shoes, never made a mistake, media-obsessed talkers got their way.

I think that it is bullshit.

The three people who had tax problems were mistakes. They were mistakes that were caught and corrected. BTW - Every bit of those back taxes have been paid. The errors were found and the taxes were paid. Geithner paid more taxes than he even owed - he had previously paid all that the IRS said that he owed because the other ones were older, pre-statute of limitations, and when, during the vetting process it was discovered that they were not paid, Geithner went ahead and paid them even though he did not have to.

I do not believe that anyone is exempt from paying taxes or following the law, but I think that this was much ado about nothing. I think that the goddamned media went way overboard with this crap and went on and on and on about "the big tax problems" of the Obama nominees and it was a huge double fucking standard.

Where was the outrage over Bushco lying this Country into war and authorizing torture? If the media had held this standard up to the Bush Administration (oh wait, I forgot, it is a big deal with the Obama Admin because Obama "promised to bring in a new era of accountability,") if the media had spent this amount of energy on Bush, perhaps we would never have went into Iraq and Bush would have been impeached as was necessary.

The media is claiming that this is Obama's fault because he promised to change the culture in Washington. OK, so, because Obama promises to be different, he is held to a different standard.....a different, impossible standard.

I do not know if Daschle was the best guy for the job. I just think that it is crap to drag down Daschle and the whole Obama Administration over a couple of legitimate errors that were rectified.

I would like every single one of these media fucks and the Republican Senators who were calling for him to step down to volunteer for IRS audits going back 10 years - further than the statute of limitations.

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This is New

Yesterday Coyote reminded me to tell Obama what for on his site Change.gov. When I went there, I was redirected because Change.gov was only in effect until January 20th - now, Obama's site is actually Whitehouse.gov. (I was afraid to visit Whitehouse.gov during the Bush Administration because I did not know what enemies list that I would end up on.)

The site is pretty cool and he has an Office of Public Liason which is dedicated to involving the people in their government - I like that.

This morning when Obama had his presser after his meeting with the business community he announced Recovery.gov.

Recovery.gov is all about this stimulus package and allowing us to see where every penny of the money goes and the results of that investment. That is new. That is totally new.

If the people pay attention then they cannot get away with the kind of crap that the Bushies did. No more cost plus contracts for Halliburton and their other buddies.

It will be a searchable database just like the other website that Obama and Tom Coburn created with their legislation "Google for Government."

If we can say anything at all for this first week of the Obama Admin, we can say that it is transparent. I personally believe that transparency, access to information, is the greatest tool that the people have to be involved in and to watchdog our governement. I like it.

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Fuck Bi-Partisanship

I am done. It is only one week into this new flowery world of getting along with the rabid Right and I.Am.Done.

(Rest of the rant on the flip side.)

These bastards are spreading their lies and their fairy tales all across the TeeVees all weekend and the gawd-damned Democrats – who we elected to stand up against these dickwads – are clueless as to how to play this game of political theatre. Do we not have one single friggin’ Democratic spokesperson who can speak in sound bites? Is there no one on that Hill who can get our message across? What is wrong with these people? Jeebus.

Then, I hear on the MSNBC this morning, and also find it here, that the Democrats might drop the Medicare change provision from the stimulus that waives the waiver waiting period for contraception to be included in state programs. Are you kidding me?! Just because gawd damned John Boehner released a sound bite about birth control that freaked the Dems out they are going to cave rather than explain to the sheeple what this provision really does? That pisses me off to no end. (What you are reading now is an only slightly expanded upon version of what the staffers at my Senator’s and Representative’s office heard this morning…)

I realize that that the pundits spun this provision to sound like we were becoming China in advocating birth control…but, it was not a mandate for Christ sake – it was offering people choices! When people have to cut costs what is the first to go? Usually it is medications that we justify that we can “skimp” on. After you have cut every other friggin’ thing out of your life that you can, then we start to look for things that are “luxury.” And, unfortunately, birth control can end up on that list because people play the denial head games like “I’ll be careful.” Well, gawd damn it you stupid Right Wing pricks, it only takes one!

Then, your cut of the $25 dollars - that we might pay for birth control pills - turns into thousands and thousands of dollars to pay for a child that was not wanted to begin with. Then you have a kid growing up in poverty who has to deal with all of the crap that poverty brings and will, quite often, end up in the “system” where we are paying for them in one way or another – either through institutions or because they end up having babies while they are still babies and the friggin’ cycle continues just because you tight assed “conservative” freaks cannot abide by paying for a low income families birth control. Gawd you are stupid!

I realize that Obama’s goal of “one Country” and “we are all in this together” is a noble one. I get it. I also get that it makes sense when we are dealing with reasonable people. I can do that in my personal life with some Right-Wing people who are human and who understand compromise. Yes, it can work.

However, the Republican Hacks on Capitol Hill are not reasonable. They still cannot even take responsibility for the disaster that they caused. They cannot admit that they were the ones who screwed everything up. These assholes do not understand that it is their philosophy that wrecked everything.

President Obama: You cannot work with these people to restore good government because the core of their philosophy is that “government does not work.” Sorry, Dude, but this is what they believe. When you go to them, to work out this legislation and “compromise” you will never, truly, find any common ground.

You are standing on different fucking planets…Ours is the planet of a government that can work for the people, theirs is a planet where government’s only role is to give “tax cuts” to the wealthy and the corporations. They do not give a shit about the majority of us – we are only here to make their beds and serve their meals and cut their lawns and fill their privately run (but federally funded) prisons. These people are criminal hacks and they are Anti-American. Sorry, but you cannot “work with them.” There are only a handful of reasonable, moderate Republicans left and they have no voice inside their caucus; the rest of them are Fascist Pigs. To hell with them.

The American people get it. The American people took the 8 years of Bill Clinton and compared them to the 8 years of George Bush and said “hey, I rather liked the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years…let’s do that again.” And this – Democratic Party – is why you were elected. This is why we worked our asses off and dug deep into our pockets to elect you assholes. Now, our request is friggin’ simple: Act Like the Democrats That We Elected You to Be!

/Rant Over

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A Couple More Ways to Fight the Obstructionists

The only way, I believe, that we can fight the obstructionists is to call them on their bullshit. (BTW, I do not limit this to Republican hacks, if there are blue dogs who want to fight the stimulus package that we need or there are Democratic dumb assess who knew about the domestic spying or torture and rendition policies and did nothing – we need to hold them accountable too.) We need to let these assholes know that we are watching and that we are paying attention.

Yep, there is more.


We are not powerless and these are not people with power in high up places that are untouchable; not with the power of information. SoS posted a link to the criminal behavior of Jon Cornyn yesterday. We have the power to share this information with the sheeple – including their Republican constituents who are so frightened right now, that they too do not want obstructionists, and they do not want criminals in the Congress.

Especially not now; the sheeple are being shown what it is like to have someone of integrity and intelligence in the WH, they are seeing what public service is about. It is not supposed to be about power and enriching oneself – it is supposed to be about sacrifice. The dicks who treat it as their own personal ATM need to be sent home, hopefully in shackles. It is up to us to work towards that.

The Republicans are moving farther to the Right. There are very few moderate Republicans left. We need to elevate the moderates and tear down these extremists. I know that people think that a phone call to the office of a Senator or Congressperson does not make any difference - but it does.

The staffers in the office really do keep a log of calls from constituents and if there is a particular piece of legislation up for a vote or a person to be confirmed – the staffers keep a Yea and a Nay call log. The Right has their phone trees and their electronic calling machines and their Right Wing Radio and Faux News that encourages their sheeple to call in. We have the Internet.

We need to use the tools that we have and fight their crap. The Daily Show last night had a rundown of Faux News on the first day of the Obama Administration. The anti-Obama and anti-Democrat and anti-American people and and Anti-American-Values crap that was spewing from the montage was frightening. They are working hard to take him down and we need to take them down first. We are still at war and we are on the right side of history and the good side of the issues.

Here are a few petitions to fight the Republicans and to congratulate Obama:

Thank Obama for ordering Gitmo shut down.

Don’t block Obama’s Attorney General because you support torture. I really cannot believe that Cornyn is such a transparent dick.

Bail Out People thinks that the stimulus package is too conservative. I tend to agree on many points; however, I have not read the actual package so I am reserving judgment. I think that Obama is playing “good cop” with the Republicans, knowing full well that the House and the Senate are totally Dem controlled and the package will be far more Progressive than what Obama has to pretend to support.

Demand that immigrant children and pregnant women are not excluded from SCHIP.

If you can make it to Colorado next week, go to camp!

Right Wing Myths about the stimulus.

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Republican Obstructionism Day 2

It is back to CSPAN 24/7 - the Congress is really interesting right now - especially the lost little Republicans. It did not take long for these creeps to show their true colors. It makes no difference that they pretend to be supportive by prefacing their obstructionist bullshit with the line "We want Obama to succeed but..."

They are not fooling me and I doubt that they are fooling anyone else. Click “read more” to see what I mean.

Oy. Because the Senate is so collegial and has all of these entrenched rules which respect the minority Party – a Democratic Majority of 59 Senators is not enough to stop the Republicans from certain acts of obstructionism. We also have the benefit of Democratic Senators who still believe in tradition and “bi-partisanship.”

[Yes, I did say “benefit” because I believe that it is. As much as I cannot stand these rabid Right-Wing hacks, the last thing that I want is for the Dems to behave like they did. And, as much as I (so far) like a lot of what Obama is doing and I really like his style, I do not want a Democratic Congress that rolls over to him like the Republicans did with Bush. I do not think acting like them benefits anyone.]

This is one of the types of things that I was referring to when it comes to policing the Congress (and the Administration.) The Congress is a co-equal branch of the government and because they have been so impotent, and because the friggin’ Bush Administration ran right over the Congress, they are now (suddenly) flexing their muscles to show the Obama Administration that the Congress has equal power. I am actually happy about this. Regardless of Dem control in both Houses and the Presidency I still want the Congress to show that they are back and to remove the precedent set by Bush. I want them to restore the co-equal status.

As a result of this equalization, the Congress is acting a little tougher than they would in normal circumstances. In normal circumstances they might just take the President’s Package and run with it, but they are not. In addition, the Democratic Congress’s stimulus package is better than Obama’s - in that it does not rely so much on the Republican religion of tax cuts.

With the [too long] preface over, the preface explaining a little bit of the power-play dynamics occurring, let’s get back to the gist of this post: The Goddamned Right Wing Republican Hacks Are Using Every Tool in the Rule Book to Obstruct Cabinet Appointees and the Stimulus Plan. Jerks.

The Republican Party is going through some pretty intense adjustments. They have no idea who they are or what they stand for and they are acting like Tourettes Victims; they just stand there obstructing shouting out epithets like “Ronald Reagan,” “Tax Cuts,” “forced lending to the poor!”

They really are pitiful when we see them for what they are. Their entire philosophy of existence has been proven a failure and they still do not want to change. Like an alcoholic sleeping in a ditch, they still think that all will be well if they can just get their next drink. Unfortunately, their disgusting behavior affects far more people than just them; we all suffer for their philosophy and we are the ones paying for their decisions. That is why it is still easy to hate them – rather than pity their useless souls.

Not only are they trying to block Obama’s Appointees to the Cabinet, they are also using every procedural tool that they have to try to stop the new stimulus package. What makes this worse is that they are using their “constituents” for cover. They preface every one of their whiny proclamations with “our phones are ringing off the hook with our constituents calling because they are concerned about…” Fill in the “about” with whatever policy or appointment that they are trying to block.

This is where we come in. We need to contact our Senators and our House Member and tell them what we want. The Pukes say that their people are calling them, we need to make damned sure that our people are actually calling them. Enough of this crap. We need to show these dicks for the obstructionist hacks that they are. We need to make sure that their constituents know exactly what it is that they are doing.

Progressive Future has a petition up telling the Republicans to stand down. I am sure that more petitions are coming and I will make them available as I come across them and time permits. We are a bit more tenacious than they are and we are on the correct side of history. Enough of their crap; the world has suffered enough.

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Where Were You?

Where were you when Senator Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States? Did you go to any parties? Any balls? Did you get to dress up? Was it enjoyable or do you wish that you would have done something different?

I hope that whatever you did that it was marked with many memories. This will be one of those events that people will ask in the future, "Where were you, what were you doing?"

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Peace, Love and Understanding Part 2

Dammit. I am so blown away by the kindness of the people in this country. Last week I put up a post about the Obama organization, USA Service.org. I talked about all of the events on the website and all of the millions of people who have signed up to attend those events. I talked about the feel good, warm fuzzies that viewing all of that left me with.

There's more.

Yes, there are more warm fuzzies. Kiddo and I noticed that the event that we signed up for had more people signed up than were necessary. We signed up to help serve lunch at Tent City. Tent City is a homeless encampment in our county; there are actually many of them. It is good that they are available for the people who live on the streets to gather together and look out for each other (there is safety in numbers) but it sucks that they are needed at all. I think that they should be called "Bush-Villes" - regardless of what you call them, homeless people live there.

So, we decided that it might be good if we gathered items together to leave with them that will last a lot longer than the lunch that we have volunteered to help to serve.

We typed up the following and gave it to the people in our cul-de-sac.

*********

Thank You In Advance

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the National Day of Service we are going to tent city in xxxxx on Monday, January 19, 2009 to help to pass out food to the homeless. There are numerous volunteers for this event already so Kiddo and I thought that it might make more sense to use our time gathering up items to leave with the people at tent city; things that they will need long after the lunch is over.

Please donate any of the following (and anything else that you can think of that would come in useful for people trying to live in a tent during a long, cold winter.):

• Coats/Sweatshirts/Warm Sweaters
• Blankets
• Shoes
• Sleeping bags
• Baby Items/Diapers
• Tarps
• Toiletries
• Books
• Non-perishable food items
• Socks
• Flashlights & Batteries


If you have any items that you are able to donate, please gather them together and give us a call. (We are just now digging in our closets. We know that money is tight for everyone; used items are gladly and gratefully accepted.) We will pop over and pick them up. Thank you so much.

Husband, Anjha and Kiddo xxx-xxx-xxxx

To find out more about service events in our area go to www.USAService.org

********

We handed it out to the 8 homes in our cul-de-sac and by 11 AM this morning, my car was full of boxes of items. This is so unbelievable. Seriously. I am blown away by the kindness and generosity of the people in our neighborhood, county and this country.

And honestly, I am not really doing a damn thing but passing information along to people, making a couple of phone calls and dropping off the stuff. Even I can handle this kind of involvement.

I hope that this does keep going. That people continue to participate and that Obama uses the bully pulpit that he has to continue to guide people into service and to paying attention to what is going on in their communities. This is truly a bottom up movement. And it is about friggin' time.

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Hello, Hello, Hello

Is There Anybody Out There?!

I get it, everyone is busy and sick and completely bored by the blogosphere. The fight was won. Bushco and his criminal crew are gone in just a few short days. We are on to a new chapter in this country...a blissful new chapter of Peace and Love. [Pay no attention to the multiple wars and the economy in the crapper.]

There is nothing left to fight for. Right?

Wrong.

Dammit. We have more work to do than we did when we were fighting the criminality of the Bush Administration and the corrupt Republican Congress over these last 8 long fucking years.

Obama needs a movement.

And, the thing is, Obama recognizes this. Obama knows that he will not be able to implement any significant change unless the people are louder than the lobbyists. It is not enough to police the Democratic Congress and then bitch about it when they do wrong. This will not get us anywhere except for providing us a place to come and bitch and agree with each other. This is not what we need.

This is what Change.gov is all about. It is also why Obama continues to send us a zillion emails. It is not about fundraising right now...we won. There will not be an election for President for four years. All of this communication with us is not for show - it is because Obama needs a movement. Without us screaming louder than the frickin' lobbyists the change will not happen.

There is also Change.org which is a division of Democrats.com. This is the people's side of the Change movement. (Don't go to change.com unless you want to jack-off; change.com is the underwear manufacturer.)

The bottom line, even though we are tired and we are bored, we have work to do. I warned about the let-down and people seemed to agree with me that it would happen. I thought that it would have happened earlier and been over by now...but, I am thinking, the Holidays might have postponed it and might have added to it (family really is a pain in the ass.)

Consider this the pep-talk. (I can only give them, I have a hard time actually following them up with action - so I expect you all, my friends, to call me on it when I start whining...) We have work to do people. Our blog should be more active than it was while fighting the GOP. There are hearings to watch and policing of the Congress to do. Phone calls to make and letters to write. Volunteering to participate in. Movements to initiate. Media to watchdog.

Just nod if you can hear me - Is there anyone at home?

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