Spintested: 12/15/10

Are Progressives Losing Touch With Reality?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Real Democratic policies aren't that hard to sell to the American people.

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.

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks, don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination) and the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the R0ve 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 and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.

And why they don't want to doesn't require a Ph.D from MIT to figure it out.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Are Progressives Losing Touch With Reality?

We've been doing it your way, the DLC's way, for 20 years now, and the government & the Democratic Party keeps moving farther to the right. That's because your way is to l!e to the American people & put Republicans-in-Democrats'-clothing into office. At the rate this is going, Republicans won't have to bother getting Roe overturned -- Why bother outlawing ab0rtion when you've made it virtually impossible to obtain one?

Old Democrats like me have some serious doubts about the 'Democrat-ness' of people like you. Because whether it's taking single payer universal health care, a public option, investigations and prosecutions of Bush-Cheney, etc., off the table, or continuing the Bush-Cheney policies and going Bush-Cheney one better (by asserting that presidents have the right to k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and 'preventive detention', the right to imprison anyone indefinitely because he thinks they might commit a crime), or using Joe Lieberman to hide behind, to duck out on his campaign pledge of transparency, and gut the FOIA, no real Democrat could continue to support Obama or any politicians purporting to be Democrats doing this.

If you and I are on the same side (as you insist), and want real Democratic policies, and going about getting them your way (protecting Obama, reelecting DLC Democrats) is getting Republican policies and 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 & over again, expecting different results")?

Do you ever realize it?

About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Are Progressives Losing Touch With Reality?

If there are any real and true Democrats left in the DLC-controlled Democratic Party, they might stage a rebellion and a revolution within the party itself, but there's no role for the People in that unless Democratic voters are willing to get active, join and participate in the Democratic Party en masse now.

It's more likely that an internal purge (without the outside new blood of Democratic voters joining the party and becoming active internally within the party) would just be a bloodbath, leaving the Democratic Party in ruins.

There's something to be said for that, but it would revitalize the Republican Party, by driving the DLC Democrats to the Republican Party, swamping and taking over the GOP from the extreme rightwingers that are controlling it now. That may be the only way for a third party, encompassing the values and ideology of the left, to emerge and become viable.

KEEP READING
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Are Progressives Losing Touch With Reality?

Primarying Obama and/or running liberal candidates against imcumbent Democrats in primaries isn't going to solve the problem (if it's even possible to solve it and save us all, if the whole of the political establishment hasn't managed to game the entire system to keep them in place until we descend into banana republicanism).

Obama and the DLC have worked their butts off to PREVENT more progressives/liberals from getting elected. Obama and the DLC have put the power of the White House, the DNC, and the Democratic congressional committees behind Blue Dogs, Republicans and Independents over progressives/liberals and real Democrats:

Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln over progressive Democrat Lt. Governor Bill Halter.

Republican-turned-Independent Arlen Specter over (barely) progressive Democrat Joe Sestak.

Republican-turned-Independent Lincoln Chaffee over (not progressive) Democrat Frank Caprio (which, in turn, is an effective endorsement of the Republican John Loughlin over Democrat David Cicilline for the congressional seat Democrat Patrick Kennedy is retiring from, and all of the other seats up for grab in Rhode Island).

Republican-turned-Independent Charlie Crist over liberal Democrat Kendrick Meek.

By the way, by getting involved in the election at the primaries' stage, Obama became the first sitting president in US history 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 without a president usurping them. 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.

KEEP READING
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Are Progressives Losing Touch With Reality?

From day one, Obama schemed to make sure that single payer advocates were blocked from the national discussion and legislative process. And once that was assured (through the dangling of the possibility of it happening later, down the road, through the expansion of a public option which would be part of the current healthcare reform), Obama then worked a secret backroom deal undercutting the congressional committees working on the legislation. In the final weeks, when a public option was about to be slipped in, Obama blocked it. Obama's 'most ardent supporters' still insist Obama is going to get a public option through. They're the only ones who do, and refuse to believe even this.

Obama's been particularly 'oily' (slippery) on all Democratic groups' issues. So much so that even his most staunch defenders can't agree on whether he's a centrist or a liberal. [Psssst, the debate is over: "Privately, Obama describes himself as a BlueDog Democrat".]

The fact is that Republicans can't do anything without Democrats crossing over. Faux Democrats are the problem. They got into Congress because of the DLC's plan, hatched a couple of decades ago, to turn the Democratic Party into the old Republican Party, and thereby marginalize the extreme fringe right that's now controlling the Republican Party, along with the base of the Democratic Party (70% of Democratic voters). All so these power-hungry, greedy DINOs (who couldn't gain traction within the RepublicanParty had they begun their careers there) could prosper from a "centrist" (right-of-center) Democratic Party. Then they'd "govern the country, for 100 years".

KEEP READING
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Are Progressives Losing Touch With Reality?

Dear Bob Cesca,

Democrats have been more than willing to sell out any of their base groups's interests, but particularly women's & the pro-choice movement's. Obama's healthcare legislation opens the door to ending all public healthcare programs as well as ending insurance coverage of all ab0rtions. Since trusting the DLC's triangulating on issues, we're down to this horrifying situation where you can't get an abortion in 87% of the counties in the US (& 3 states in the country that have only one abortion clinic, & other states that heavily restrict a woman's access to ab0rtion, & banning abortions in clinics or any facility that receives public funds, & banning abortion counseling & clinic recommendations).

You argue that "not one serious Democratic presidential candidate has ever proposed single-payer. Ever." Who defines "serious"? While each candidate had their own plans and ideas, the challenge posed to them by the citizens, by voters, was to get affordable quality medical treatment for all. It's not an impossible task -- It's doable. Single payer. But each of the "serious candidates" (DLC-approved) saw their 'client' as the corporations and not the actual citizens of the United States. Their allegiance was to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and to make certain that no serious competition interfered with either industry making as much profit as they possibly could.

That meant no public option, either.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Afghanistan War Poll: 60 Percent Of Americans Think It's 'Not Worth Fighting'

So what?

Obama is unmoved by what the American people want.

He's picked up the worst of Bush's habits.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Sues BP For Gulf Oil Spill: U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Nine Companies Involved In Disaster

No.

It took forever to get the first $3 billion installment, and about the rest of the $20 billion total, it's to be in installments over years, it's not worth the paper it's written on (it's not written at all), it's non-securitized, and BP has been blackmailing Obama, threatening that if the US doesn't give BP carte blanche to operate anywhere in US waters as it pleases, it "may go bankrupt and won't be able to pay the rest of the money".
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sweden's Serial Negligence in Prosecuting Rape Further Highlights the Politics Behind Julian Assange's Arrest

You have a link for that?
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Great Disconnect

Let's look at the "words" coming out of this administration:

xMoonWalkerx 2 hours ago (4:21 PM)

My understanding is that wikileaks tried to work with the US govt to redact sensitive info but was rebuffed

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

Yes, and most interestingly was the reason given for the government's refusal, that it would be akin to cooperating with hostage-takers.

Not weeks later, Obama said of his 'deal' over retaining Bush's tax cuts for the richest 1%:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me use a couple of analogies. I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

No wonder the American people are confused about the true nature and character of Barack Obama, and keep his approval numbers relatively high. Relatively, that is, in that the numbers keep Obama working against the best interests of the American people and on behalf of the transnational corporations and the richest 1%.

Until those in positions of influence (the media, op-ed writers) stop coddling these corrupt politicians and political parties by showing deference and respect, we can expect the US's continued slide into ruination and obscurity. It shouldn't be too much longer now.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Mr. President, Put Up Your Dukes

A president's job, "words".

Let's look at the "words" coming out of this administration:

xMoonWalkerx 2 hours ago (4:21 PM)

My understanding is that wikileaks tried to work with the US govt to redact sensitive info but was rebuffed

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me use a couple of analogies. I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

No wonder the American people are confused about the true nature and character of Barack Obama, and keep his approval numbers relatively high. Relatively, that is, in that the numbers keep Obama working against the best interests of the American people and on behalf of the transnational corporations and the richest 1%.

Until Michael Winship and others in positions of influence stop coddling these corrupt politicians and political parties by showing deference and respect, we can expect the US's continued slide into ruination and obscurity. It shouldn't be too much longer now.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

<em>Time</em> Person of the Year Mark Zuckerberg Changing How We Share Information

Let's share some information:

xMoonWalkerx 2 hours ago (4:21 PM)

My understanding is that wikileaks tried to work with the US govt to redact sensitive info but was rebuffed

That's true, and most interestingly was the reason given for the government's refusal, that it would be akin to cooperating with hostage-takers.

Not weeks later, Obama said of his 'deal' over retaining Bush's tax cuts for the richest 1%:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me use a couple of analogies. I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sweden's Serial Negligence in Prosecuting Rape Further Highlights the Politics Behind Julian Assange's Arrest

xMoonWalkerx 2 hours ago (4:21 PM)

My understanding is that wikileaks tried to work with the US govt to redact sensitive info but was rebuffed

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me use a couple of analogies. I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' Alleged Leaker, 'Very Annoyed' At Solitary Confinement

xMoonWalkerx 2 hours ago (4:21 PM)

My understanding is that wikileaks tried to work with the US govt to redact sensitive info but was rebuffed

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me use a couple of analogies. I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

WikiLeaks Bummers for Lefties

Yes, and most interestingly was the reason given for the government's refusal, that it would be akin to cooperating with hostage-takers.

Not weeks later, Obama said of his 'deal' over retaining Bush's tax cuts for the richest 1%:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me use a couple of analogies. I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

WikiLeaks Bummers for Lefties

Julian Assange bail decision made by UK authorities, not Sweden
Swedish prosecutor's office says it has 'not got a view at all on bail' and that Britain made decision to oppose it
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' Alleged Leaker, 'Very Annoyed' At Solitary Confinement

Sweden's Serial Negligence in Prosecuting Rape Further Highlights the Politics Behind Julian Assange's Arrest

Hamtramck's Budget Nightmare: Michigan Town Left With Nothing Else To Cut

What do you think happens then?

Our biggest creditor is China. 1.3 Billion people to our 306 million.
About Financial Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' Alleged Leaker, 'Very Annoyed' At Solitary Confinement

Controversial Drug Given to All Guantanamo Detainees Akin to "Pharmacologic Waterboarding"
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Sues BP For Gulf Oil Spill: U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Nine Companies Involved In Disaster

There's no $40 billion in a liability fund. There's barely $3 billion.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' Alleged Leaker, 'Very Annoyed' At Solitary Confinement

Glenn Greenwald gives us a peek into how Obama's 2012 campaign slogan might as well be "Change Washington, the Bush-Cheney policies, & way of doing things? We don't need no stinkin' changes!":

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to W!k!Leaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he's been detained at the US Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months (& two months before that in military jail in Kuwait) under conditions that constitute cruel & inhumane treatment &, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

Interviews with people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, including Quantico brig official Lt.BrianVilliard who confirmed much of what others conveyed, establishes that Manning is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning's been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "MaximumCustodyDetainee," the highest & most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning's been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 hours every day -- for seven straight months & counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising & is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. He's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he isn't & never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he's freed from this isolation, he's barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions aren't "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he's in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he's taken out.

In sum, Manning's been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig's medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Facebook Rated 'Best Place To Work': Glassdoor.com

Let's thank our lucky stars you're not the boss of me or HP or the first amendment.
About Facebook
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Hardest Vote I've Taken

If you don't live in an open primary state, if you change your registration to Independent you won't be able to vote in the Democratic primaries and get real liberals/progressives into office instead of the incumbent DLCers. Should some authentic liberal/progressive run against Obama, you would have no opportunity to help make that happen.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Sues BP For Gulf Oil Spill: U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Nine Companies Involved In Disaster

Sure.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Sues BP For Gulf Oil Spill: U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Nine Companies Involved In Disaster

Marcospinelli 37 minutes ago (3:30 PM)

Where are the criminal charges?

it davidpkronmiller 33 minutes ago (3:34 PM)

What were the crimes exactly other than incompentence? Oil work is dangerous - all those who work in that industry know there is a risk. I don't know if there really is any clear cut criminal case to make against them unless you can prove they covered up something. In this specific case it appears to be a series of incompetent individuals and laxed policies that caused the disaster. You don't get to have everyone's head just because they made mistakes or were incompetent. now money you can get and BP is already to doll out 30-40 billion - this lawsuit is on top of that amount.

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

At the very least, have you ever heard of 'criminal negligence'?

How does anyone who isn't a political operative or a BP lobbyist come to defend this?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Sues BP For Gulf Oil Spill: U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Nine Companies Involved In Disaster

Who pays BP’s disaster bill? You do:

If you thought the multi-billion dollar costs of destroying refineries and oil rigs (and killing workers, ruining livelihoods and wrecking the environment in the process), might have a chastening effect on BP, you might need to think again. BP is forecast to pay about $10bn less tax over the next four years as it meets the costs of its huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, hitting the revenues of Britain and the US that receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the company each year.

READ MORE HERE
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tax Cut Bill Passes Senate On 81-19 Vote

David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now!:

"The bottom roughly 45 million families in America or households in America—and there are a little over 100 million households—they’re going to actually see their taxes go up. Republicans got an extraordinarily good deal, that raises, I think, basic questions about the negotiating skills of the President."

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Hardest Vote I've Taken

What things do you think that we want that we can't pay for?
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Pennsylvania Company Lays Off 365 Workers The Week Before Christmas

"The Worse Off You Are, Your Taxes Increase": Journalist David Cay Johnston Slams Obama-GOP Tax Deal
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Sues BP For Gulf Oil Spill: U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Nine Companies Involved In Disaster

Where are the criminal charges?
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Sues BP For Gulf Oil Spill: U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Nine Companies Involved In Disaster

Where are the criminal charges?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange

Glenn Greenwald gives us a peek into how Obama's 2012 campaign slogan might as well be "Change Washington, the Bush-Cheney policies, & way of doing things? We don't need no stinkin' changes!":

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to W!k!Leaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he's been detained at the US Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months (& two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait) under conditions that constitute cruel & inhumane treatment &, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

Interviews with people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, including Quantico brig official Lt. BrianVilliard who confirmed much of what others conveyed, establishes that Manning is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning's been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "MaximumCustodyDetainee," the highest & most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning's been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 hours every day -- for seven straight months & counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising & is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. He's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he isn't & never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he's freed from this isolation, he's barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions aren't "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he's in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he's taken out.

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig's medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Facebook Rated 'Best Place To Work': Glassdoor.com

"Facebook, Best Employer?"

Certainly better than Barack Obama's military.

Glenn Greenwald gives us a peek into how Obama's 2012 campaign slogan might as well be "Change Washington, the Bush-Cheney policies, & way of doing things? We don't need no stinkin' changes!":

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to W!k!Leaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he's been detained at the US Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months (& two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait) under conditions that constitute cruel & inhumane treatment &, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

Interviews with people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, including Quantico brig official Lt. BrianVilliard who confirmed much of what others conveyed, establishes that Manning is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning's been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "MaximumCustodyDetainee," the highest & most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning's been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 hours every day -- for seven straight months & counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising & is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. He's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he isn't & never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he's freed from this isolation, he's barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions aren't "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he's in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he's taken out.

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig's medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

<em>Time</em> Person of the Year Mark Zuckerberg Changing How We Share Information

"Changing How We Share Information":

Of course TIME would choose Facebook over W!k!leaks. Today Glenn Greenwald gives us a peek into how Obama's 2012 campaign slogan might as well be "Change Washington, the Bush-Cheney policies, & way of doing things? We don't need no stinkin' changes!":

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to W!k!Leaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he's been detained at the US Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months (& two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait) under conditions that constitute cruel & inhumane treatment &, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

Interviews with people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, including Quantico brig official Lt. BrianVilliard who confirmed much of what others conveyed, establishes that Manning is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning's been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "MaximumCustodyDetainee," the highest & most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning's been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 hours every day -- for seven straight months & counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising & is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. He's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he isn't & never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he's freed from this isolation, he's barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions aren't "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he's in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he's taken out.

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig's medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Time Person Of The Year 2010: Mark Zuckerberg

Of course TIME would choose this upbeat capitalism tale over real news of value to us (the W!k!leaks story, which today Glenn Greenwald gives us a peek into how Obama's 2012 campaign slogan might as well be "Change Washington, the Bush-Cheney policies, & way of doing things? We don't need no stinkin' changes!":

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to W!k!Leaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he's been detained at the US Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months (& two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait) under conditions that constitute cruel & inhumane treatment &, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

Interviews with people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, including Quantico brig official Lt. BrianVilliard who confirmed much of what others conveyed, establishes that Manning is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning's been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "MaximumCustodyDetainee," the highest & most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning's been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 hours every day -- for seven straight months & counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising & is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. He's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he isn't & never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he's freed from this isolation, he's barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions aren't "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he's in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he's taken out.

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig's medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Jon Kyl: Harry Reid Would 'Disrespect' Christmas By Extending Senate Session

It's just Kabuki theater. Harry Reid has no intention of extending the Senate session. Kyl and Reid are working hand-in-glove to help Reid out, and push the Obama deal on making the Bush tax cuts permanent through.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Jon Kyl: Harry Reid Would 'Disrespect' Christmas By Extending Senate Session

Because they work so hard as it is, and need yet more time off.

I know who could do their jobs! The 99ers! As luck would have it, they're available.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Glenn Beck Hypothetically Calls For Fareed Zakaria's Death (AUDIO)

Opponents of Beck and Limbaugh should be working to be as powerful and get the same results as rightwingers who were able to get the FCC to take action after Janet Jackson's n!pple was exposed on the nation's air waves.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

"I'll take the other option, fighting hard in the primaries to defeat him, crush him so he's not the candidate."

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

That won't happen, for a variety of reasons, but mainly because there won't be any challenge to his nomination from within the Democratic Party. No professional Democrat will run against him unless the power behind the DLC decided that he was no longer effective for their purposes. That would mean that whoever replaced him, whoever ran against him, was just more of the same.

This is now true for all Democratic candidates, all Democratic politicians.

Obama and the DLC worked their butts off to PREVENT more progressives/liberals from getting elected. Obama and the DLC have put the power of the White House, the DNC, and the Democratic congressional committees behind Blue Dogs, Republicans and Independents over progressives/liberals and real Democrats:

Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln over progressive Democrat Lt. Governor Bill Halter.

Republican-turned-Independent Arlen Specter over progressive (barely) Democrat Joe Sestak.

Republican-turned-Independent Lincoln Chaffee over Democrat (but not even progressive) Frank Caprio (which, in turn, is an effective endorsement of the Republican John Loughlin over Democrat David Cicilline for the congressional seat Democrat Patrick Kennedy is retiring from, and all of the other seats up for grab in Rhode Island).

Republican-turned-Independent Charlie Crist over liberal Democrat Kendrick Meek.

By the way, by getting involved in the election at the primaries' stage, Obama became the first sitting president in US history 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 without a president usurping them. 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.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

in·san·i·ty noun \in-ˈsa-nə-tē\

1. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

It's the only thing that will.

It's really the only thing that the establishment elites are frightened about and go to great lengths to tamp down.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

I was being ironic.

We tend to see what we want to see, what reinforces our preconceived notions.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

Yawning is an indication that your brain isn't getting enough oxygen.

Get up from your keyboard and get some exercise.

Take a walk and open your mind. Literally.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

They pay next to nothing of what they're making.

The rich and the corporate get tax breaks and write-offs that aren't available to the average American. What they're able to shelter is obscene.

What they pay is wildly disproportionate to what they take in.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

"I will never vote democratic again, until HP gets more African Americans on her staff, and truly represent the base of the party. Until you progressives hear this, and really hear it, you will continue to use African Americans as foot stools, included our president."

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

I don't know what the story or your issue is (or what the hiring policies at HP are), but rumors of Obama being an African-American are greatly exaggerated: He's as much white as he is black, and was raised by a white banker (his grandmother was one of the Bank of Hawaii's first female vice presidents).
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

Talk of Democratic politicians having no spines are greatly exaggerated, just like 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 Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like civil rights protections, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare, Wall Street reform, environmental & energy issues, etc.).

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks, don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination) and the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the R0ve 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 and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.

The trick for them has 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 achieve our alleged shared objectives.

Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters') to understand that Democratic politicians have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

If only campaign finance reform and election reform were the same obsessions for Democrats that tax cuts and ending ab0rt!on is for Republicans.

We would see the same successes as Republicans have had. The rich and the corporations pay almost nothing in taxes, and access to ab0rt!on has been so restricted that in 87% of all of the counties of the US, a woman can't exercise their right of choice.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

Watch this.

Then this.

And this.

And this.

Then let's talk.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

Say it here, say it now:

"I will never vote for another Democrat if Obama's deal to extend Bush's tax cuts for the rich passes into law".

Unless and until they hear this in Washington, really HEAR it, Obama and Democrats will continue caving to Republicans and serving the corporations and the rich.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

"My heart goes out to this man,"
===================================

For your heart to go out to this man, you have to believe he's a victim; weak and stvpid or ins@ne (isn't the definition of ins@nity "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"?).

The man is Iy!ng to you, to us, trying to get us to obediently and quietly walk into the g@s chambers.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

Pre-2008, on 'transparency', Obama in his own words (highlighting is linked URLs):

"We need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich well connected friends and high-priced lobbyists, but as a defender of fairness and opportunity for every single American. That's what this country's been about and that's the kind of president I intend to be"

"Transparency Will Be Touchstone"

"On transparency", "About inviting the people back into their government again", & "Part of the job of the next American president is making Americans believe that our government is working for them, because right now they don't feel like it's working for them. They feel like it's working for special interests and it's working for corporations"

"Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public, no more secrecy.....No more secrecy....."

"Clintons did health care the wrong way, behind closed doors":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU0m6Rxm9vU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBtIKgGHYPQ

"The American people are the answer"

Obama's Transparency Problem

More documents were classified and fewer were declassified in FY 2009 than in FY 2008.

Obama's administration is less transparent than Bush's.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=22720

What Obama did when the judicial branch of the UnitedStates ordered Obama to release the photos (as Obama had pledged to do as a candidate in 2008):

Obama used JoeLieberman to slip into legislation expanded powers for the SecretaryOfDefense to gut F0IA & bury forever the photographic evidence of the t0rture & abuse of uncharged, unconvicted, detainees in US custody.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

What we're dealing with is a corporate takeover of both parties.

Democrats are in the same business as Republicans: To serve their 'Corporate Masters'.

Think of them 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 American people, and 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, and continue on with Republican policies, but renamed, with new advertising campaigns. They throw the American people a few bones (like in this latest deal, an extension of unemployment insurance) , but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what we thought they were (like this, and this -- ).

Whenever the American people get wise to the shenanigans and all the different ways they've been tricked, and start seeing Democrats as no different than Republicans, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the American people's, business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the American people's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal", etc.) is custom-tailored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisan cooperation' demeanor. It's smirk-worthy when you realize that what Democrats are trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude is somehow "a good thing".

Obama's 'job', as he sees it, is to deliver to the top 1%. No amount of begging, imploring, wishing, pleading with Obama is going to move him off of that, as we've already seen with his plummeting job approval numbers.

Start shopping for 2012. And not in the Democratic Party -- It's been corrupted.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that we'd still be battling all of the Bush-Cheney-Republican policies coming out of an Obama administration?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: People Don't Feel I've Been Successful In Changing Washington (VIDEO)

The only question to consider is: If faced with Sarah Palin as the GOP's nominee in 2012, will you not vote for Obama?

That's what Obama and the DLC are counting on -- The fear of Sarah Palin and Republicans.

That's what lets Obama and the DLC continue to ignore the average Americans' needs and continue serving the corporations and the top 1% at the expense of the poor and middle classes.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Hardest Vote I've Taken

"They were supposed to have learned the lesson about reckless, runaway spending."

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

Supposed to have?

Politicians WANT a high deficit so that they can create a fiscal crisis that forces us to cut vital safety net programs. It's what Grover Norquist (president of Americans for Tax Reform, and George W. Bush's once-a-week lunch buddy for the 8 years of the Bush-Cheney Administration) meant when he said,"Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaigning on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservatives frustration over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understanding that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentious 2000 election (when Republicans stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war".

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservative in history.

Even conservatives didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicating him. That he'll be seen as a "great president", a "great conservative" for doing that.

Not one reporter asked him. They still don't, as he makes his rounds on his book tour.

Democratic politicians knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.

KEEP READING
About Bush Tax Cuts
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

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