Spintested: 10/31/10

Elections 2010 LIVE Updates

Sunday, October 31, 2010

I suggest that you consider Democrats & Republicans as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. One side (Republicans) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, & when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric.

Once in power, Democrats consolidate Republicans' gains from previous years, & continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertising campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what WeThePeople thought they were.

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigans & all the different ways they've been tricked & start seeing Democrats as no different than Republicans, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business -- This current one, because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc., is custom-tailored to Obama's 'bipartisan cooperation' demeanor. It's smirk-worthy when you realize they're trying to sell that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do, & that's "a good thing".
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Elections 2010 LIVE Updates

How dare you!

You're diluting MY vote. You're keeping this plutocracy that's enslaving Americans and destroying the nation with YOUR continuing to mindlessly vote for the DLC-controlled Democrats controlling the Democratic Party.

Have you gotten active within the Democratic Party, and worked to get the DLC out?

Until you have, don't tell me and others who have been hearing this same old "lesser of 2 ev!ls" garbage for decades now.
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Non-Voters Expected To Be Majority Again

Obama's already broadcast more of the same, EVEN IF DEMOCRATS REMAIN THE MAJORITY. More caving by Obama & Democrats to Republicans:

==Aides say that the president's been spending "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0," brainstorming with administration officials about the best way to revamp the strategies & goals of the WhiteHouse.

And despite the predictions that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislating power, including perhaps control of the House & even Senate, Obama isn't thinking of the next two years as a period that'll be marked with the same obstructive nature from the GOP.

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republicans] feel more responsible, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipated, & so the strategy of just saying no to everything & sitting on the sidelines & throwing bombs didn't work for them," Obama says. "Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals & work with me in a serious way."

DickDurbin says Obama's post-election agenda "will have to be limited & focused on the things that are achievable & high priorities for the American people." TomDaschle says Obama has to reach out more: "The keyword is inclusion. He's got to find ways to be inclusive."==

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/2010/10/13/obama-new-york-times_n_760774.html
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Non-Voters Expected To Be Majority Again

You're not limited to voting for just Democrats & Republicans. There are other alternatives besides sitting out the election or voting for Republicans. There are other candidates running as independents, from Green to Libertarian, in just about every race.
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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

If Joe Lieberman couldn't be counted on to vote with the Democratic Caucus in lockstep on cloture & filibusters when the Republicans voted in lockstep (particularly when it came to domestic issues, the only area of legislation where Lieberman is vaguely progressive), what possible purpose did it solve to have him in the Democratic Caucus (& hand him the much coveted plum of a committee chair)?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/us/politics/07cong.html?_r=3&ref=politics&oref=slogin∨ef=slogin

http://thinkprogress.org/lieberman-not-progressive/

http://www .dailykos. com/story/ 2008/11/8/ 17349/2244

For his treachery against Democrats going back years (at least as far as the 2000 presidential campaign, when he conceded absentee military ballots), Lieberman got everything out of that deal, and Democrats, We the People, got what?

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

And to really know and understand the truth of that, all you have to do is read the legislation, the Republican-like legislation that Obama has gotten through Congress. It's not reform -- It's corporate pork, and regulatory loopholes. It's more of the same old, same old. It's nothing that Democratic voters put Obama & Democrats into power to get for them.
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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

The Democratic leadership could've taken away committee chairs of members in their caucus that joined with Republicans and threatened to filibuster a public option for healthcare. Obama did more arm-twisting on behalf of Lieberman remaining in the Democratic Caucus & keeping the chairmanship of that committee than he did on behalf of healthcare.

The DNC could've taken away reelection funds. But it hasn't. Because Lieberman & BlueDogs (& Republicans) provide cover to Obama & the DLC-controlled DemocraticParty, to let them continue to serve corporate interests over the interests of the People.

If Obama really wanted BlueDogs' votes or JoeLieberman's vote on legislation like real healthcare reform, he would have done to Lieberman & the BlueDogs what he did to DennisKucinich (the last hold-out on the ProgressiveCaucus, all of whom had pledged to vote for a healthcare bill only if it had a public option, and who all caved). Obama flew to Cleveland and rallied Kucinich's constituents against him and he got Kucinich's vote.

Where was that mentality with JoeLieberman, BlancheLincoln, the other BlueDogs and even OlympiaSnowe? If the president of the UnitedStates had used the bully pulpit against them, a lot of progressives would have respected that and said, "You tried your best". But Obama didn't try. He cut a deal, months earlier, cutting the will of the People off at the knees. The public is powerless in backroom deals.

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

'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.

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. Obama never pressured JoeLieberman, BenNelson or BlancheLincoln, or any BlueDog. That's by their own admission. ( http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/lieberman-obama-never-pre_n_399355.html

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/02/22/public-option-dramatically -more-popular-than-senate-bill-so-obama-pushes-senate-bill-without-public-option/ )

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

Filibuster-proof Senate. 60. In the Democratic Caucus. They could all be Independents, but if there are 60 of them caucusing in the Democratic Caucus, it's a lock.

You forget, this was an immensely popular president, came into office with a mandate for sweeping change. Obama received more votes than anyone in the history of the nation. His political capital was platinum. Republicans weren't just on the ropes after the 2008 election; they were down for the count. They were in the gutter, & by not investigating and prosecuting Bush-Cheney-and-GOP activities that got us into illegal and unwarranted wars and the greatest heist in the history of the nation, Obama issued a pardon and allowed them to rise again.

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

the Dems NEVER had a filibusterproof Senate (60 Dem Senators). There were 57 Dem Senators most of the time (Blue Dogs included), and 58 for 6 months.That means that they needed ALL the Blue Dogs, two Independents, and at least one Republican, simply to have the legal right to start voting on a bill. So OF COURSE in those circumstances you can only pass centrist bills.

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

It's actually funny how Obama's 'most ardent supporters' believe that Republicans can get done with 41 seats in the Senate (stymie Obama and a Democratic -controlle d Congress, both Houses) what Democrats couldn't get done (stymie Bush as a minority party with a significantly greater number of seats than Republicans held from 2000-2006 than now, and later as the majority party of both Houses of Congress ever since).

In the election cycles from 2000 to today, Democrats had 51 senators, 49, 45, 51, and 60 in their caucus.

Democrats have everyone they need to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people. They've not only had all the t00ls needed to do what they were put into power to do, they had a clear undisputed mandate of the voters, which is something that Bush & Cheney didn't have. Yet it didn't stop Bush & Cheney from pulling out all of the stops to get their agenda through.

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Elections 2010 LIVE Updates

Not even Obama would take your advice; he's not as loyal to Democrats as you are:

Last week Obama refused to endorse the Democratic candidate for governor in RhodeIsland, because Obama "doesn't want to offend" the Independent candidate, LincolnChaffee. One effect of that is the suppression of the Democratic turnout in RhodeIsland, thus risking PatrickKennedy's seat going 'R' (Kennedy is leaving the House, not running for reelection).

If you think that not having a Democrat governor in a state house, you'd better "Remember 2000".

And had Nader not run, the outcome would have been the same. If the means to getting BushCheney into office required a close election & Nader not been running, some other means would've been used. The powers that be were not going to let Gore win, no matter what, & gamed it innumerable ways.

Do people forget all the different ways that that election was gamed by the GOP, and all of the ways that the Democratic establishment abandoned Gore? The CIA was tampering with GOP absentee ballots in the weeks leading up to election day in Florida, JebBush & KatherineHarris had been working for two years to purge legal voters from the polls. Close to 200,000 legal ballots weren't counted. And that's just in Florida, & just the ways that we learned about because of legal proceedings in the post-election days.

There was a coup d'etat in this country in 2000. A bIoodless coup, but a coup nonetheless.
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Elections 2010 LIVE Updates

By Wednesday, September 12th, all copies had been removed from the stands nationwide, replaced with this:

http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/137/166/197/RKvikIQRzgOhd8G.jpg

In October2001, eight news organizations published the findings of their unofficial recount of Florida’s disputed ballots. The recount had discovered that AlGore would've won the decisive Florida election if all legally cast votes were counted.

However, just two months after the 9/11 attacks, the news organizations chose to conceal the obvious “Gore Won” lead, apparently putting their sense of “patriotism” over journalistic professionalism.

Rather than tell already-shaken Americans that the wrong man was in the WhiteHouse, the big news outlets – including the NewYorkTimes, the WashingtonPost & CNN – structured their stories around hypothetical recounts that would've excluded some legal votes & thus still would've resulted in a Bush “victory.”

To further protect Bush’s “legitimacy” amid the 9/11 crisis, the news organizations mocked those who challenged these carefully structured stories as “Gore partisans” or “conspiracy theorists.”

Even today, some Americans angrily object when they read references made to Gore’s Florida victory. They remember that day six years ago when the news organizations sold the case for Bush’s legitimacy.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/111207a.html

You're one of those uninformed Americans. It's tragic because it enables the reduction of citizens like you to mindl3ss cheerleaders for their favorite 'rockstar' candidate, never realizing that both party's candidates are paid by the same owner(s) who own both 'teams'/'leagues'.
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Elections 2010 LIVE Updates

Had Nader not run, the outcome would have been the same. If the means to getting Bush-Cheney into office required a close election and Nader not been running, some other means would have been used. The powers that be were not going to let Gore win, no matter what, and gamed it innumerable ways.

For pity's sake, the CIA was working on GOP absentee ballots in the weeks leading up to election day in Florida. Jeb Bush & Katherine Harris had been working for two years to purge legal voters from the polls.

Do people forget all the different ways that that election was gamed by the GOP, and all of the ways that the Democratic establishment abandoned Gore? And that's just in Florida, and just the ways that we learned about because of legal proceedings in the post-election days.

There was a coup d'etat in this country in 2000. A bIoodless coup, but a coup nonetheless.

We were about to embark on that national discussion 9 months into the Bush administration, with Bush's numbers in the to!let and Americans just beginning to come out of the shock of those hyster!cal post-election days in Florida. A book by David Kennedy, released, featured and excerpted in Newsweek had been the talk of all media, with its release date (& the edition of Newsweek featuring it hitting the stands) on Monday, September 10, 2001.

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Elections 2010 LIVE Updates

Al Gore won. Gore got more votes in Florida. Any way that lawfully cast ballots were counted, Gore got more votes than Bush.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2006/jul/14/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1

And that doesn't include the close to 200,000 ballots which were never tallied, never even examined, due to undervotes.

http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5111

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2006/jul/14/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1

That was a stolen election.

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

Yes I noticed, so I already cut the space between 'huf' and 'fingtonpost' ... . Apparently that's not enough.

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

I just cut & pasted it, took out the space and it was enough.

Let's see if an HP m0d lets it go through after it sits in limbo:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/amendingangel/thousands-expected-at-ste_n_776428_65648754.html
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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

Did you take the space out between the 'huf' and the 'fingtonpost -- I had to put the space in because the f!lter scrubs the post.

Cut and paste it into the webpage address space, then backspace out the space.
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

Can I also guess that you're one of those conservatives who complains that Obama and liberals are trying to take away your "freedoms"?

What could be a more fundamental freedom than a woman's fundamental right over her body? She is the citizen; not a 2-celled zygote with the exact same genetic material as any cell that sheds from your body. If you're bound and determined to dictate your beliefs on others, you should be trying to outlaw the disposal of the thousands of fertilized eggs disposed at fertility clinics. And the hair sweepings with follicles on the floors of beauty parlors.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

"When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies."

When informed by medical scans how quickly a fetus gains their vital organs and is clearly a living "thing", no matter what you call it, an abortion is taking a life. You can say "well other humans have said that is OK, so I am off the hook, but what morality is that? The selfish, in many instances, precludes that life, choosing one's own welfare at the expense of another. Indeed one's own flesh and blood.

In this instance alone recent polls have shown that on abortion, your premise is incorrect. I would hesitate in future to start with that premise.

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

Why would I hesitate to start with that premise? Polls support it. Here's one, & I can give you many more:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx

And you prove my point: You can't even discuss this issue in any way other than trying to inject your emotional bias & make claims which have no basis in fact.

If you've got a poll that's phrased as you claim, a poll that supports that belief of yours, I'd love to see the polling data and the methodology.

Most Americans do NOT want the government involved should they find themselves in the predicament of an unwanted pregnancy.
About Barack Obama
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Arianna: Don't Overinterpret The Midterm Election Results (VIDEO)

There are only 600 registered members of the Tea Party nationally, & what they actually are is the Republican base that gets activated before every election. Any teabaggers who happen to get into office will be controlled by the Republican leadership in the Congress, won't have any kind of institutional power in office. And like Scott Brown, should any get elected and want to keep getting elected in elections to come, they'll move to the left. They're really not a "growing movement" any more than Republicanism is growing -- They're the Republican Party. They're not any more conservative than the party's been for 30 years.

No matter what the outcome of this election, Obama will spin it as a mandate for continuing a pro-corporate, anti-populist agenda. The TeaParty is an effective nemesis for him, but in fact, they're toothless. A paper tiger.
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2012 Fight

Gore won; Bush was given the office.
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2012 Fight

You should investigate this more, read up on it before you do the knee-jerk blind loyalty thing to BvshCheney. But then you would have to sincerely be a 'patriotic American' dedicated to upholding the Constitution and not a partisan political hack enslaved to 2 men & a Republican Party which has destroyed the middle class & the US for their own personal financial gain.

http://www.fair.org/activism/usatoday-recount.html

The Media Consortium Florida Ballot Project, an independent study [PDF] by a media/academic consortium posted at the "conservative" American Enterprise Institute showing that when all the ballots in the state of Florida were counted --- by any standard (hanging chads, swing chads, pregnant chads, etc.) --- Bush lost and Gore won. By. Every. Conceivable. Counting. Standard. Period.

http://www.aei.org/docLib/20040526_KeatingPaper.pdf

http://www.bradblog.com/?cat=2 5

http://makethemaccountable.com/coverup/Part_01.htm

http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=249

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/flor-a20.shtml

http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=181

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/KEE501A.html
About Barack Obama
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2012 Fight

Al Gore won. Gore got more votes in Florida. Any way they legally cast ballots were counted, Gore got more votes than Bush. And that doesn't include the close to 200,000 ballots which were never tallied, never even examined, due to undervotes.

http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5111

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2006/jul/14/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1

In October2001, eight news organizations published the findings of their unofficial recount of Florida’s disputed ballots. The recount had discovered that AlGore would've won the decisive Florida election if all legally cast votes were counted.

However, just two months after the 9/11 attacks, the news organizations chose to conceal the obvious “Gore Won” lead, apparently putting their sense of “patriotism” over journalistic professionalism.

Rather than tell already-shaken Americans that the wrong man was in the WhiteHouse, the big news outlets – including the NewYorkTimes, the WashingtonPost & CNN – structured their stories around hypothetical recounts that would've excluded some legal votes & thus still would've resulted in a Bush “victory.”

To further protect Bush’s “legitimacy” amid the 9/11 crisis, the news organizations mocked those who challenged these carefully structured stories as “Gore partisans” or “conspiracy theorists.”

Even today, some Americans angrily object when they read references we make to Gore’s Florida victory. They remember that day six years ago when the news organizations sold the case for Bush’s legitimacy.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/111207a.html

Sadly, you're one of those dvmb Americans.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2012 Fight

Hey, braintrust, this is the GENERAL election. Not the primaries.
About Barack Obama
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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

You're wrong; read the thread for why:

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/social/amendingangel/thousands-expected-at-ste_n_776428_65648754.html
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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

Thank you.

The only chance progressives, liberals, REAL democrats (little 'd's, We the People) have now is to vote third party. That is the only way to break the lock that the DLC-controlled Democratic Party and the GOP have on the system.
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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

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

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid & relentless in your sales pitch & tactics. It's not that Bush & R0ve were geniuses & knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve 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 US 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 Bush & Cheney off the table & have us still reelecting them, not marching on Washington with torches&pitchforks?

Obama & Democrats 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 shared objectives.
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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

I suggest you consider Republicans & the DLC-controlled Democratic Party as partners in crime; they work together as a team, on the same side, tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. One side (Republicans) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, & when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric.

Once in power, Democrats consolidate Republicans' gains from previous years, & continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertising campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what WeThePeople thought they were.

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigans & all the different ways they've been tricked & start seeing Democrats as no different than Republicans, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business -- This current one, because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc., is custom-tailored to Obama's 'bipartisan cooperation' demeanor. It's smirk-worthy when you realize they're trying to sell that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do, & that's "a good thing".

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

Do you think that if Republicans take control of Congress next year that the Democratic minority, with greater numbers than the Republican minority has now, will be as effective at thwarting the Republicans as the Republicans have been in thwarting Democrats?

If you say yes, I say, "Where were they during the 8 years of Bush?"

Let me remind you that during BushCheney administration, Barbara Boxer (an alleged liberal, who campaigned for Joe Lieberman against Ned Lamont) wrote two murd3r mysteries, because "It was always something I wanted to do if I had the time." She's chair of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee -- What's she achieved?

During BushCo, Pat Leahy expanded his Grateful De@d collection and got to act in his favorite comic book hero movie, Batman. He wound up shepherding Roberts' & Alito's names out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and to the floor for confirmation.

I can give you bullet points on how Democrats in Congress have betrayed the People these past 8-30 years all day long.

How about you give us something other than "The other guy's worse".

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

It's also incontrovertible that Obama, RahmEmanuel, the DLC, DavidAxelrod, DavidPlouffe, all have worked their butts off to PREVENT real progressives getting into office. One example right off the bat is BlancheLincoln.

The WhiteHouse put its full weight & support behind Blue Dog BlancheLincoln over the true progressive candidate in the primary, union-backed Lt. GovernorBillHalter.

This wasn't unlike when Obama made a deal with ArlenSpecter & put the full weight &support of the Democratic machine behind Specter during the 2010 primary in Pennsylvania, trying to buy off (among other alternative candidates Democratic voters in PA might have wanted to vote to have representing them) JoeSestak. Consider that -- Obama actively went about trying to prevent Democratic voters from choosing their preferred candidate for the US so that a DINO, Republican ArlenSpecter, could retain the seat.

Last week Obama refused to endorse the (progressive) Democratic candidate for governor in Rhode Island, because Obama "doesn't want to offend" the Independent candidate, LincolnChaffee. One effect of that is the suppression of the Democratic turnout in Rhode Island, thus risking PatrickKennedy's seat going 'R' (Kennedy is leaving the House, not running for reelection).

If you're still thinking Obama's not working at cross purposes with progressives & liberals, and you should keep supporting Obama & the DLC no matter what, how are you NOT the classic definition of '!nsane'?

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

If Republicans are so bad (and I think they are), why is Obama blocking all investigations and prosecutions into the Bush-Cheney administration? Perhaps if Bill Clinton hadn't done the same thing for the Reagan-Bush administration, we wouldn't have been saddled with Bush-Cheney at all.

When Obama came into power, the GOP wasn't on the ropes; it was down for the count. And Obama issued them a pardon. He expresses absolutely no remorse or plan to do anything differently.

Obama's not the Democrat that you think he is. He's not any kind of Democrat; he's a DINO. And that's important to keep in mind when you consider what else he's been up to, if you think that the answer isn't voting third party, but for us to get "more progressives and liberals into office.".

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

Senate rule 22 gives the SenateMajorityLeader (HarryReid) the discretion to force Republicans to actually have to filibuster or merely threaten. Reid lets them merely threaten.

HarryReid has had no problem forcing the GOP to actually filibuster when it's something that the DLC wants & perceives it needs. For example, when Democrats needed unemployment benefits to continue because the masses were becoming 'critical', Reid had no problem calling Republican Jim Bunning's bluff to filibuster. Reid said, "Bring in the cots, do it" and Bunning and the GOP caved. Benefits for unemployed workers continued.

Senate rules can be changed at any time, and not just at the start of a new Congress - It can be done at any time (see page 6 - http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/45448.pdf ).

Nor is there just one way (or even two) for Democrats to get bills passed without Republican votes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ 2010/07/27/ezra-klein-how-to-end-the_n_661234.html

http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid='0E%2C*P%2C%3B%3F %22%20%20%20%0A

http://yglesias.thinkprogress. org/2009/08/hertzberg-on-the-constitutionality-of- the-filibuster/

Democrats have had everyone they need to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people. They don't want to do it.

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

When Obama said he could work with Republicans in spite of the bad blood between the two parties over the previous 2 administrations, did that not also include the Blue Dogs? The only conceivable meaning then for "work with" is that Obama intended always to cave, to drive Democratic legislation to the right, make it conservative, make it legislation that Republicans could have written themselves. Because Republicans made it perfectly clear that they wouldn't be the ones doing the compromising.

The rightwing attacks on Obama, their refusal to work in "a bipartisan manner", should have pushed Obama to play hardball and move populist legislation through Congress quickly and decisively. To undo the Bush-Cheney abuses, especially with the tentative hold on a filibuster-proof majority Democrats were given in the 2008 election.

Instead, Obama let Republicans dictate the pace and shape a debate that was already done and voted on and won by Democrats in 2008. Obama & Democrats gave Republicans even advantage & allowed their obstruction by not only letting Republicans merely threaten to filibuster, but not changing the supermajority threshhold number required for cloture if it was, indeed, a problem.

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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.

Democratic voters gave Obama & Democrats what they said they needed: 60 in the Senate. 60 in the Democratic Caucus -- We are a 'party government'. There was no way that 60 wasn't going to include Blue Dogs (Blue Dogs that Obama & the DNC campaigned with, for and funded yet).

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

It is clear now that there is no other way to get the government & politicians working on behalf of the People, for the citizens' best interests & not for the corporations' bottom lines, than to vote third party.

If you're true to the DLC's rhetoric, you'll say, "No, the answer is that you have to elect more progressives/liberals".

We gave Democrats the best that's possible, not just for now, but forever, given the political climate & ideological layout of the population geographically, the state of our educational system and a media that keeps voters ill-informed, AND the rules of government which have been gamed to keep the status quo of corporate-control of government and legislation written by lobbyists. With Citizens United, corporate 'personhood', and 2 political parties unmotivated to outlaw any of it, 2008's 60-member Democratic Caucus with 2 Independents & 7 Blue Dogs was the best it was ever going to be.

And Obama deliberately sabotaged any chance of delivering on the CHANGE he was put into power to deliver.

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

Obama & Democratic leadership have already said that even should there be a Democratic victory on Tuesday, they're caving more to the right:

==Aides say that the president's been spending "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0," brainstorming with administration officials about the best way to revamp the strategies & goals of the WhiteHouse.

And despite the predictions that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislating power, including perhaps control of the House & even Senate, Obama isn't thinking of the next two years as a period that'll be marked with the same obstructive nature from the GOP.

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republicans] feel more responsible, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipated, & so the strategy of just saying no to everything & sitting on the sidelines & throwing bombs didn't work for them," Obama says. "Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals & work with me in a serious way."

DickDurbin says Obama's post-election agenda "will have to be limited & focused on the things that are achievable & high priorities for the American people." TomDaschle says Obama has to reach out more: "The keyword is inclusion. He's got to find ways to be inclusive."==

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/2010/10/13/obama-new-york-times_n_760774.html

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

How do you think a win by Democrats next week will be interpretted by Obama, Democrats & the media? What do you think they will think they have a mandate to do?

Criticism & failing numbers in the polls have done nothing to persuade this president or this Congress to move to the left. What makes you think they're going to do in the next 2 years with less of a majority that they refused to do with a filibuster-proof senate?

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In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

No, here's the problem:

We've been doing it your way (the DLC's way) for 20 years now, & the government & the Democratic Party keeps moving farther to the right. If you & I are on the same side (as you insist) and want real Democratic policies, & going about getting them your way (protecting Obama, reelecting DLC Democrats) is getting Republican policies & NOT Democratic policies, when do you realize that maybe you don't know what you're talking about?

When do you realize that you've become that classic definition for 'insanity' ("Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results")?

Do you ever realize it?

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Sarah Palin Responds To Karl Rove's Latest Swipe: Reagan Was On TV Too (VIDEO)

I don't know how any of you people, on either side, manage to listen to Palin speak. The shrillness of her voice is like nails on a chalkboard, and it gets worse the closer we get to election day.
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2012 Fight

You should investigate this more, read up on it before you do the knee-jerk blind loyalty thing to BvshCheney. But then you would have to sincerely be a 'patriotic American' dedicated to upholding the Constitution and not a partisan political hack enslaved to 2 men & a Republican Party which has destroyed the middle class & the US for their own personal financial gain.

http://www.fair.org/activism/usatoday-recount.html

The Media Consortium Florida Ballot Project, an independent study [PDF] by a media/academic consortium posted at the "conservative" American Enterprise Institute showing that when all the ballots in the state of Florida were counted --- by any standard (hanging chads, swing chads, pregnant chads, etc.) --- Bush lost and Gore won. By. Every. Conceivable. Counting. Standard. Period.

http://www.aei.org/docLib/20040526_KeatingPaper.pdf

http://www.bradblog.com/?cat=25

http://makethemaccountable.com/coverup/Part_01.htm

http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=249

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/flor-a20.shtml

http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=181

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/KEE501A.html
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2012 Fight

Al Gore won. Gore got more votes in Florida. Any way they legally cast ballots were counted, Gore got more votes than Bush. And that doesn't include the close to 200,000 ballots which were never tallied, never even examined, due to undervotes.

http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5111

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2006/jul/14/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1

In October2001, eight news organizations published the findings of their unofficial recount of Florida’s disputed ballots. The recount had discovered that AlGore would've won the decisive Florida election if all legally cast votes were counted.

However, just two months after the 9/11 attacks, the news organizations chose to conceal the obvious “Gore Won” lead, apparently putting their sense of “patriotism” over journalistic professionalism.

Rather than tell already-shaken Americans that the wrong man was in the WhiteHouse, the big news outlets – including the NewYorkTimes, the WashingtonPost & CNN – structured their stories around hypothetical recounts that would've excluded some legal votes & thus still would've resulted in a Bush “victory.”

To further protect Bush’s “legitimacy” amid the 9/11 crisis, the news organizations mocked those who challenged these carefully structured stories as “Gore partisans” or “conspiracy theorists.”

Even today, some Americans angrily object when they read references we make to Gore’s Florida victory. They remember that day six years ago when the news organizations sold the case for Bush’s legitimacy.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/111207a.html

Sadly, you're one of those dvmb Americans.
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

Do you think Americans are really all that different from each other? Do you think human beings are all that different from each other?

Do you know what the DLC is and who is in it?

The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when Ronald Reagan, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism, and how liberals were responsible for creating the largest middle class in the history of the world, a strong regulatory system that provided clean water systems and nutritious affordable food for everyone, a public education system that led the world, etc., the DLC convinced Americans that liberals could never win another election. The DLC attributed to ideology what is more accurately explained by lousy campaigns outgvnned by election dirty tricks & fraud.

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. Neither they nor I would characterize themselves as far-anything or extreme, but mainstream. For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicament of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?!?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritarian intimidation are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

This is about a president who hasn't even tried to make the appeal of those that "brung 'im".

Obama instead has schemed to sell the pro-corporate policies that have bankrupted the middle class.

Both his healthcare and finance reform legislation proves this.

And trying to sell these pieces of legislation as "landmark" and "populist" afterwards. Only those who are ig.nor.ant of the actual legislation are persuaded.

There's nothing in the finance reform legislation that would have prevented the economic meltdown or that will prevent another meltdown in the future. The healthcare legislation doesn't do what Obama & Democrats were put into power to get: Affordable, quality medical treatment for all. Having insurance doesn't mean getting medical treatment affordably. Your insurance company isn't required to cover all medical treatment. You have to learn how to actually read legislation and more importantly, how to listen to politicians and understand what political-speak (or in Obama's case, lawyer-speak) means.
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

You've got a nasty obsession with me going, chum, bordering on the unhealthy.

Clearly I've hit a nerve. I have absolutely no intention of "beating a different drum", so get over it or move on. Or don't. It makes no difference to me (although I can see myself growing to enjoy your agitation).
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Bad News for Blue Dogs is Bad News for Progressives

In doing so, Obama became the first sitting president to interfere with the citizens' very limited rights in this democratic republic to select who they will trust to make laws to which they consent to be governed. 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). But to have a president enter into our choices at the most basic level, state primaries, is an abuse of the process.

We're not limited to voting for just Democrats & Republicans. There are other alternatives besides sitting out the election or voting for Republicans. There are other candidates running as independents, from Green to Libertarian, in just about every race, and any one of them has a stronger connection and desire to work in the interests of the People than the corporate Democratic & Republican t00ls.
About Elections 2010
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Bad News for Blue Dogs is Bad News for Progressives

Last week Obama refused to endorse the (progressive) Democratic candidate for governor in Rhode Island, because Obama "doesn't want to offend" the Independent candidate, LincolnChaffee. One effect of that is the suppression of the Democratic turnout in Rhode Island, thus risking PatrickKennedy's seat going 'R' (Kennedy is leaving the House, not running for reelection).

Obama, RahmEmanuel, the DLC, DavidAxelrod, DavidPlouffe, all have worked their butts off to prevent real progressives getting into office. One example right off the bat is BlancheLincoln.

The WhiteHouse put its full weight & support behind Blue Dog BlancheLincoln over the true progressive candidate in the primary, union-backed Lt. GovernorBillHalter.

This wasn't unlike when Obama made a deal with ArlenSpecter & put the full weight &support of the Democratic machine behind Specter during the 2010 primary in Pennsylvania, trying to buy off (among other alternative candidates Democratic voters in PA might have wanted to vote to have representing them) JoeSestak. Consider that -- Obama actively went about trying to prevent Democratic voters from choosing their preferred candidate for the US so that a DINO, Republican ArlenSpecter, could retain the seat.

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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2010 Fight

Dear grasshopper,

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

http://www.energygrid.com/spirit/the-prophet/chap08.html

;-)
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2010 Fight

I think you're exactly right. I'm not sure, however, that he thinks most people are unintelligent and will swallow whatever is force-fed them. I think he and his handlers hope that he's smooth enough (and with enough support & backup from other key players, specifically the media) to carry it off. He doesn't need to convince everyone; just enough for critical mass to be reached. You see how that plays out around here, when his fans overwhelm & drown out dissenters, and their lies become part of the cloth of the collective's consciousness.

How the media aids him is, IMHO, the saddest tragedy of the failure of the US.

I heard Lawrence O'Donnell on Bill Maher last night lie through his teeth for Obama. He said that everything that Obama's done he campaigned on. Not true at all. One thing Obama didn't campaign on: A mandate. That was what Hillary Clinton campaigned on. Obama took a lot of heat from Elizabeth Edwards during the campaign, for mandates not being part of his plan for healthcare reform. If Obama could change his mind about mandates after getting into the WhiteHouse, why didn't he also change his mind about SinglePayer, or a PublicOption?

Obama came into office with a plan for shepherding through a massive corporate welfare scheme that has no relationship to healthcare reform. It's Bush's MedicareReformAct of 2003, Part 2. And the media lets these pro-corporate Democrats spin this legislation (& more) as something it's not.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2010 Fight

demanding idealist, to a depressed realist

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

There are more states beyond that; a 'depressed realist' is merely a transitory state.

Welcome to discovering the reason for your life, and what you were meant for. You're in for a wild ride. It does get better. And worse, and better. And worse. And better. ;-)
About Barack Obama
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

One example of the folly of 'pragmatists' & their ig.no.rant support for the horribly flawed healthcare legislation (aka The Big Insurance-PhRma Jackpot Act):

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli/richard-trumka-afl-cio-ch_n_503323_42473911.html

Again: Cut & paste the links above -- Make sure you take the space out between the 'huf' and the 'fingtonpost -- I had to put the space in because the f!lter scrubs the post.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

And as no discussion on the internet is complete without the mention of H!tIer or N@z!s, I think you should read this. I wrote it a long while back, about the lessons of the past benefitting us, how they're the only things to save us, but first we must learn them:

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli/richard-trumka-afl-cio-ch_n_503323_42475312.html

Again, Cut & paste the links above -- Make sure you take the space out between the 'huf' and the 'fingtonpost -- I had to put the space in because the f!lter scrubs the post.

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About Barack Obama
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

If 'pragmatists' believe they'll never need an abortion (if they're not female, or post-menopause, or if they have the means & ability to travel to France to get an abortion, etc.), then assaults on a woman's right to choose aren't 'deal-breakers'.

If 'pragmatists' are employed, if they don't own a home (or if they do own a home & able to make mortgage payments), if they have healthcare insurance through their work, if they're young & living in their parents' garage, if they haven't had any significant health problems, if their parents/grandparents are dead, if their parents/grandparents are alive & supporting them (or not supporting them, & able to support themselves), etc., IT'S NOT THEIR PROBLEM.

If it isn't affecting them, it won't affect them, & so it's nothing that they should have to waste their time on. Or in their 'bottom line'.

There's nothing "pragmatic" about these people. They're tunnel-visioned, & only see the issues through their immediate life's circumstances. Some might say that they're in denial. Others might say they're selfish, "narcissistically-inclined". Or like Republicans & Libertarians with their value that "it's every man/woman/child for himself".

But it's certainly not a Democratic value.

Until you recognize that what you're calling 'pragmatism' is the problem that prevents solutions for our working together & coming to agreements that serve to benefit all of us, any "solution" I offer you is going to be met with out-of-hand dismissive arguments & derision.

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About Barack Obama
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

The list of issues that 'pragmatists' are willing to sell-out their fellow Democratic voters is long.

If they're not gay, repealing DOMA and DADT doesn't affect them (or so they believe), so they tell those whose lives are being devastated by those laws, "Relaaaaaaax, it's no big deal. Obama will get around to it (sometime in the next 8 years)."

And if he doesn't, if it's 2016, nothing substantive has changed either legislatively or culturally (hom0phob!a still rampant, bullying continues, etc.), will 'pragmatists' still be saying about the Democratic Party's candidate, "He's with gays on these issues, and once in office he'll end discriminatory laws & practices, but he can't say or do anything now during the campaign or he risks losing the mushy middle or Republican crossovers who don't support it", as Obama's FISA vote in July 2008 was peddled to the Democratic base?

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About Barack Obama
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Obama Rally In Chicago (LIVE VIDEO): President Hopes To Energize Voters Ahead Of Elections

The best recent examples of the Obama Administration's use of the 'pragmatic' argument were Jonathan Alter & David Axelrod during the months that Obama & the DLCers schemed to get a corporate welfare program disguised as healthcare reform past the People and into the law of the land.

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli/health-care-the-final-wee_n_499318_42281151.html

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli/inewsweekis-alter-accuses_n_264374_29464605.html

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli/ed-schultz-takes-jonathan_n_385040_35963802.html

http://www.huf fingtonpost.com/2009/08/01/jonathan-alter-our-heathc_n_249280.html

Cut & paste the links above -- Make sure you take the space out between the 'huf' and the 'fingtonpost -- I had to put the space in because the f!lter scrubs the post.

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About Barack Obama
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