As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Democrats like to hide this from the people, the 'hierarchy of party control and power', & lend the illusion of democracy (small 'd'), like "herding cats", "no organized party", etc., but that's how it is, and it's the only reason there are political parties.



If you do not get behind what the leader of your political party tells you to do, you're going to find your life really cold and lonely for the duration of your term in office. And come reelection time, you will NOT have the party organization behind you either at a state or national level -- That is certain de@th for your time in office, not to mention your overall career in politics.



There are all kinds of other 'carrots and sticks' you use to keep your party (& those caucusing with you) together, and if Obama really wanted to, it would have happened. Remember, we're talking about Obama, a man who ran a pitch-perfect campaign for the presidency, out-strategizing the most canny political operatives in the business, first within the Democratic Party to get the nomination and then in the Republican Party to win the general election. Obama's intent was never to put real Democratic legislation, progressive legislation, through.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

'Party government' runs the US Congress, has since the late 1790s, and the Democratic Party has controlled both Houses of Congress (with a supermajority in the Senate) and the White House since 2008.



That's what being in the majority party's caucus means -- You get the perks of the power by caucusing with the majority party. If you want to keep that committee chair, you do as the leaders of the party tell you to do.



There is nothing that Democrats in Congress are doing that Obama hasn't signed off on, much less ordered.



When you're the president, you are the head of your political party. When your political party controls both Houses of Congress & the White House, you do what the head of your party tells you to do. The only people who don't understand this are those who have never worked in politics or in government.



KEEP READING
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

The Fed's New Bubble (Masquerading as a Jobs Program)

This election is about what Obama and Democrats did with the mandate given them in 2008. They're not even running on what they did, it's that bad. They're running on witchcraft & issues that will never come up in Congress, except as lightning rods to galvanize the masses. It's fear again, over candidates unlikely to win (O'Donnell is something like 18 points below Coons). If a fluke happened and any Teabagger won, he or she would be controlled by the Republican leadership. Any Teabagger winning would most likely do what ScottBrown did when he won TedKennedy's seat: Moved to the left, said, "SarahPalin, who???"



Brown's voting as a Republican (which is how he ran and all Teabaggers are running), which is how DLC-Democrats, Blue Dogs and even Progressives in Congress are voting (Pat Leahy voted to confirm John Roberts, pushed through the notaries'-foreclosure bill that would have made it easier for banks to foreclose; Joe Biden voted with Republicans for the Bush Bankruptcy Reform Act, and against amendments by liberals to soften it). If you're not afraid of Evan Bayh, you have no business being afraid of Sarah Palin.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

The Fed's New Bubble (Masquerading as a Jobs Program)

Martial law is already here. It doesn't look like you thought it would, but make no mistake, if the American people ever do pick up pitchforks & torches in significant numbers, if will look worse like you thought it would look. Like when Obama went AWOL publicly on healthcare reform, saying, "Oh, that's Congress's job", all the while he was undercutting the congressional committees writing legislation, cutting secret deals with phRma, the AMA and hospitals. And all of last summer, as teabaggers brought gvns to the Town Halls, & members of Congress were canceling town halls. Obama didn't take charge & send out federal marshals to protect the democratic process. Obama didn't hit the air waves, saying, "There will be gathering in the public square to do what we do in America: Debate and discuss the issues facing us!"



What Obama did instead during the same time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting, test out the new weaponry to use on the growing disquieted masses - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2009/sep/25/sonic-cannon-g20-pittsburgh



KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Democrats watered it down. To attract Republican voters. When none came aboard, Democrats passed it through reconciliation, something that they could have done with REAL Democratic legislation, but had refused to -- Because these aren't REAL Democrats -- These are DLC, DINOs, moderate Republicans.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

The Fed's New Bubble (Masquerading as a Jobs Program)

Do you think that members of Congress and the president have no will of their own?



Start holding THEM to account.



Citizens have little enough of a Constitutionally-guaranteed role within this democracy as it is. We have the right to vote, but not to have our ballots counted. The founders were nothing if not ironic. Every two years is the window, that re-upping or opt-in/opt-out period. Vote incumbents out who have failed to achieve on their campaign pledges. For whatever reason, they are not capable of achieving what they claim to be their own and their constituents' shared objectives.



Criticism and failing numbers in the polls have done nothing to persuade this president or this Congress to move to the left.



Right this very period, the weeks leading up to an election (voting's already begun and it may be too late) -- That's it for making our deals with the candidates. Vote against them now or forever (in another 2 years) hold your peace.
About The Recession
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Why are Obama & Democrats blocking investigations & prosecutions of the economic collapse?



Obama's DoJ has filed briefs defending DOMA in the court challenge of DOMA advancing legal arguments that, if pursued by the courts, could greatly damage gay and lesbian rights (that homosexuality is the equivalent of incest and pedophilia/child rape).



Contrary to what Obama's 'most ardent supporters' excuse and what an Obama spokeswoman at the DoJ said, "Obama opposes the law, and the administration was defending the statute because it was obligated to defend federal laws when challenged in court", the DoJ has no obligation to file a brief in favor of DOMA ( http://www.americablog.com/2009/06/choice-to-defend-doma-and-its.html ).



Obama could end DADT tomorrow but just not filing an appeal.



How does a Democratic president, on the heels of the most criminal and corrupt administration in the nation's history, not replace Bush-era US attorneys? Presidents may fire US attorneys, and they do so routinely at the beginning of a new administration. It is unusual to fire US attorneys in mid-term (as Bush did) except in cases of gross misconduct (which wasn’t the case during the Bush administration). This is what Obama's US attorneys do instead of returning the democracy to the American people -- Instead we get Bush-style obscenity prosecutions:



http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_691667.html



As a liberal Democrat, I don't know how any self-respecting Democrat can defend Obama.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

I'm a liberal Democrat. What is it to you?



What is an issue for you?



If Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Feith, Bybee, Yoo, et al, are the scvm of the earth (and I think they are), why is Obama blocking investigations and prosecutions into the Bush administration?



How does any Democratic voter defend Obama after he asserts he has the right to k!ll any American citizen with no due process or oversight? And 'prevention detention'? And his claims of 'state secrets' to deny courts even look at his a$$a$$ination program?



If Obama didn't have a 'D' after his name, anyone looking at his actions would know that his most ardent supporters' belts don't go through all the loops for supporting what they claim to loathe about Republican. But the 'D' after Obama's name is a brand they believe and trust in (as did I), despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product) as what Bush & Cheney gave us. And worse.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Obama passed Republican-like legislation.



He & Democrats aren't running on it because it opens them up "fact checks".
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Democrats have everyone they need, to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people.



During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did. Nothing changed.



Democrats said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate". In 2008, we gave them the 60. And the White House.



Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in America, than ever in the history of the US. They did it because of his ability to persuade that he was going to change the system, end the corporatocracy, lobbyism in government -- He was going to be the People's president, not a corporate t00I.



And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at d.e.a.t.h's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & sloooooowed everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republicans", after Republicans had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything, in lockstep.



There were many routes to getting real Democratic legislation through, but Obama & the DLC-controlled Democrats in Congress refused to do any of them.



Obama's a DINO, & until his 'most ardent supporters' get that, we're d00med.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Obama's timidity is myth; he's plenty tough when it comes to standing up to the Democratic base.



Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that ObamaAndDemocrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled DemocraticParty gives lip service to all populist issues (like CivilRights protections, restoring HabeasCorpus, ending the wars, PublicHealthcare, WallStreet reform, environmental & energy issues, etc.).



If the Bush years taught us nothing else, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid & relentless in your sales pitch & tactics. It's not that BushAndR0ve were geniuses & knew something that nobody else knew; BushAndR0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians & the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans.



Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination) & the oldest, most experienced politicians in our nation's history (including the Rove machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching BushAndCheney off the table & have us still reelecting them, not marching on Washington with torches&pitchforks?



ObamaAndDemocrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.



The trick for them's been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to deliver on any of our alleged
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Hillary is no better than Obama -- He ran to her left, remember?



The problem is the DLC. It controls the Democratic Party. We thought we were getting rid of the DLC in 2008, but it turns out that Obama was a ringer for the DLC.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

The House under Pelosi has been the champion of Progressive causes, yet they will be the most punished. They have done most of the heavy lifting, while the Senate stalled.

==========================================



No, you don't get away with making that r!diculous claim when legislation like the healthcare 'reform' bill, with its Stupak amendment (http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/11/17/gwu-study-yes-the-stupak-amendment-would-end-coverage-of-abortion-services-over-time/ ) and no public option, has become the law of the land.



Democrats in both chambers of Congress work as a team. They identify what they hope to achieve (pro-corporate legislation) and then strategize how to get it while saving each other's hides with constituents come election time.



Those in liberal districts get to talk a good game about being champions of the People, but when push comes to shove, if their votes are needed to cross over and k!ll liberal legislation (like a public option or access to ab0rtion), the DNC will make sure they are covered come election time, with massive infusions of money into their campaign war chests and crushing any principled challenges to them from the left in their primaries.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

No, you don't get away with making that r!diculous claim ("The House under Pelosi has been the champion of Progressive causes") when legislation like the healthcare 'reform' bill, with its Stupak amendment (http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/11/17/gwu-study-yes-the-stupak-amendment-would-end-coverage-of-abortion-services-over-time/ ) and no public option, has become the law of the land.



Democrats in both chambers of Congress work as a team. They identify what they hope to achieve (pro-corporate legislation) and then strategize how to get it while saving each other's hides with constituents come election time.



Those in liberal districts get to talk a good game about being champions of the People, but when push comes to shove, if their votes are needed to cross over and k!ll liberal legislation (like a public option or access to ab0rtion), the DNC will make sure they are covered come election time, with massive infusions of money into their campaign war chests and crushing any principled challenges to them from the left in their primaries.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

As Democrats' Message Lags, GOP Awaits Huge Wins

Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats in Congress should have zigged (gone left) instead of zagged (gone even farther right than the DLC has taken the Democratic Party in the past 20 years).



All the conditions were ripe for undoing the pro-corporate legislation that has destroyed the middle class since Reagan (and really since Nixon), but Obama blew the political capital bestowed on him in the 2008 election, pardoned Bush-Cheney and gave the GOP a pass to resurrect itself.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama: End Tax Breaks To Stop Overseas Hiring

However, back in July 2008, then Candidate Obama told the UnitedSteelWorkers that, "Change is ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas & giving them to companies that create good paying jobs here in America; it's putting people to work...making the materials we need to rebuild America; it's...creating millions of new jobs - jobs that we want to be good union jobs - & giving our workers the skills to do them."



So there you have it: 24 months after Obama's speech to the Steelworkers and 18 months after his Inauguration, we hear from RahmEmanuel that "Made in America" & "ending overseas tax breaks" are finally to be Obama's upcoming themes for the Fall 2010 Congressional campaigns.



And political commentators & pollsters wonder why so many of us on the progressive, pro-worker side of American politics are so frustrated & cynical.



http://www.hu ffingtonpost.com/leo-hindery-jr/better-than-nothing-but-w_b_668618.html
About Taxes
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama: End Tax Breaks To Stop Overseas Hiring

This latter number unfortunately is but a small fraction of the 22 million jobs we're missing today in order to 'fully employ' (i.e., a 5% unemployment rate) the 30 million real unemployed workers stuck in one of the four unemployment categories: "official", part-time-of-necessity, marginally attached, & discouraged & out of the workforce because they believe no jobs are available for them.



According to RahmEmanuel, "Made in America will become the big theme" of the President's pre-election push in coming weeks, & he will "focus on [sub] themes appealing to the economically battered electorate, including policies aimed at keeping jobs in the US". Emanuel says that this push will go beyond creating "clean-energy jobs to include more traditional industries such as automobiles and railroads", and, according to RobertGibbs, Obama "will also seek Senate passage of proposals to change tax provisions that he says encourage businesses to ship jobs overseas".



KEEP READING
About Taxes
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama: End Tax Breaks To Stop Overseas Hiring

For the entire 8 years of the Bush administration, those of us on the left learned to live with the legislation & policy 'standard' of "better than nothing". Heck, they pretty much hated us, & "better than nothing" was, well, better than nothing.



But it's beyond disappointing that in just 18 months this standard which is usually reserved for the minority party has largely become Obama's standard on what he promised were going to be the most immediate & urgent priorities of his new administration: job creation & reordering our global trading, especially our trade with China which has been eating the average American worker's lunch for more than a decade.



We're stuck in a jobless recovery with a real unemployment rate of nearly 20%, with even the 'false-positive' indicator of GDP growth that the administration wrongly relies on as its sole measure of economic vitality now at only a meager 2.4 percent annualized rate, versus the revised 3.7 percent rate of the previous few months. Yet the administration finds laudable - & seemingly sufficient - the 3.0 to 3.5 million jobs that it contends the 2009 federal stimulus bill will have "created or saved" (mostly just saved) by the end of this year, and, even more concerning, the relatively few 5 to 7 million jobs which it believes its three major jobs initiatives will create over the next five years.



KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...