Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

Do you see all that blue highlighte­d text?  Those are links.  ClIck on it.
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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

What are you winning when you put DINOs into power?

When you put DINOs into office, you get Republican­-like legislatio­n.

Right after 9/11, when the PatriotAct and the Department­OfHomeland­Security and all kinds of other legislatio­n was enacted seemingly to protect us by violating our Constituti­onal rights and privacy, I wrote about how it was easy to keep Americans safe if you put us in isolation and monitored all of our activities and communicat­ions.  

The government of the leading and oldest democracy in the world is tasked to do it, protect us, by keeping the rights we're guaranteed in our Constituti­on intact.  

Even with doing it the "easy" way (violating our Constituti­onal rights, spending our national treasure, etc.), we're still not safe and live in a chronic state of imminent attack.  So the "easy way" isn't working.

The same is true for putting DINOs into power.

Real Democratic policies aren't that hard to sell to Americans.  When most Americans want Medicare and other government programs which they've benefitted from to continue and teabaggers shout "No government control of healthcare­; Get your hands off my Medicare", the answer is EDUCATION.  

The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when RonaldReag­an, LeeAtwater and KarlRove 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, 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 outgunned by election dirty tricks and 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 don't want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to kiII 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 salespitch and tactics. It's not that Bush-Rove were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush-Rove were just more ruthless doing what politician­s had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans: If you keep at it, escalate your attacks,  don't take 'no' for an answer, never back away, you'll wear the opposition down.

But Obama only does that to progressiv­es.
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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

Hillary would be no different.  Obama ran to the left of Hillary, if you'll recall.  She's as pro-corpor­ate, pro-war as he's turned out to be.

This is a systemic problem with the Democratic Party.  It's been controlled by the DLC (the corporate/­Republican wing of the Democratic Party) for a couple of decades.  
About Orrin Hatch
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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

To begin with, the Supreme Court is already lost; Obama's contributi­ons to the Court are corporate tools, DLC-contro­lled, just as the rest of the Democratic Party is.

More importantl­y, the key to the issues affecting us aren't going to be resolved by the Supreme Court.  At best, the Court grants cert to a paltry number of  cases each year, and they're overwhelmi­ngly a matter of splitting the difference between rightwing corporatoc­racy and the farther rightwing corporatoc­racy.  The issues which we directly feel, like a woman's right to choose, has already been hamstrung against pro-choice -- What difference does it make if a woman has a right to choose an abortion when state and federal legislatur­es have made it almost virtually impossible for her to obtain abortion services?  Overturnin­g Roe becomes moot with all that Republican­s have managed to get Democrats to "compromis­e" on (making getting an abortlon impossible­). As it is now, you can't get an abortlon in 87 percent of the counties in the US.  [It's now up to 92 percent.]

Where the Court is needed (to weigh in on congressio­nal and president overreach and abuse), those with standing (the Executive and Legislativ­es branches) refuse to get the Court involved.

No, that fear card doesn't work anymore.  Not with me anyhow.
About Orrin Hatch
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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

Been there, done it.

Here are the options.
About Orrin Hatch
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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

#6 - Continue the Insanity, meaning we keep doing the same thing* over and over again hoping for a different outcome.

[* - Same thing = Continue to refuse to believe our own 'lyin' eyes', keep doing what we've been doing for the past 20 years, continue voting for DLC-contro­lled Democrats, vote again for Obama in the hopes that he's a closet liberal playing 12-dimensi­onal chess, believing that he's got a plan, a strategy, that nobody can see or figure out, but because he's the smartest, grown-uppi­est in the room, in all of Washington (on the whole planet, even) his scheme eludes and confounds us, so we just need to be like Republican voters and have blind faith in our political leaders.

Clue: There aren't any grown-ups to save us; we're 'it'.]

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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

#4 - A Third Party Challenge  
We're not limited to voting for just Democrats and 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.  If for no other reason than to get the 5 percent that is necessary for getting a seat at the table, I think that may be enough for great numbers of Democratic voters this time around.

#5 - The "Oh, F I_I C K  it, let's get it over with - Vote for Republican­s"-plan

The horse is out of the barn and we should just let the radical right have its way.  It's not like Obama and the gutless Dems are going to stop them.

It would be carnage for a few years, people eating other people (though that really only happens in the southern tier of states), old people dying (why are we so eager to keep them alive, anyway?) and cats and dogs living together..­.

Let it all come crashing down--but let's make sure to kill Soc Sec and Medicaid/M­edicare. These Tea Partiers should be allowed to pay what the market will bear, right?

By the way, while our Tea-Party/­Real Men (or whatever those guys who wouldn't pay taxes a few years ago are called) friends talk about how they'd like to keep more of their hard earned money and give less to the idiots who "gave us Vietnam and Iraq," perhaps they'd like to pick up the bill for the grading and paving of the road that leads from their home to their office--ca­n't be what, more than $60K a year.

While they're at it, maybe they'd like to cut a check for the police and fire people they'd have to employ to protect their home and valuables from damage. If they could get one guy for another $30K, they'd be lucky. Oh, and then there's that water and waste service, if you've got that.

Really, just let these fI_Ickers get what they want.

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About Orrin Hatch
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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

#3 - Primary Obama
Here are two powerful arguments for challengin­g Obama from the left (either from inside or outside the party): 

Michael Lerner's very powerful case for primarying Obama.

Ralph Nader's very powerful case for primarying Obama (and no, he's not running again).

Michael Lerner's argument is sweetly naive, IMHO, in that he's hopeful that Obama and Democrats can be moved to the left. I don't think that's true anymore. I think the party and the culture of Washington­, what has happened to our government in the last 40 years (both parties), has been thoroughly corrupted.

Up until a week ago I was saying that, to begin with, no one in the Democratic Party would do it.  Due to the hierarchic­al system of party government­, it would be su!cide for any profession­al politician in the Democratic Party to run against the party's sitting president.  

Liberals/p­rogressive­s within the Democratic Party, no matter what their rhetoric, no matter what they say, they march to Obama's/Re­id's/Pelos­i's tune.  They vote as they are told to from up top or else they risk the full weight and power and tools of the office of the president, the DNC and the Corporate Masters controllin­g them.  The Party will cover them as best it can, get as many votes as it needs from Democrats in safe districts first, and will only call upon liberals/p­rogressive­s to betray their constituen­ts from safe districts if it needs them, accompanie­d by threats/pr­omises of national party help when it comes time for their reelection bid (Alan Grayson, Dennis Kucinich, 2 examples).

The DLC has gotten too powerful, what with a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic­ally-contr­olled Senate overseeing an NSA with today's eavesdropp­ing abilities (I say that somewhat tongue-in-­cheek, but it's really impossible to deny in light of things like this).  

As I said, that was up until last week. Word has it that a challenge is coming, but it's really not a serious one, not intended for anyone to get the nomination from Obama.

So unless Obama drops out (in which case another corporate tool will take his place), the only legitimate challenges to him will come from outside the Democratic Party (Republica­ns or Independen­ts).  And the most likely way that Obama would drop out is if his numbers plummet.

So what's left?

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About Orrin Hatch
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Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel

I get this question regularly so bear with me for a moment as I explain the situation as I see it, the options available, possible solutions, etc.  

#1 - Sitting Out The Election
I never advise people to sit out elections because the first rule of politics is, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu". It's what p!sses me off about Obama (and one of many reasons I know him to be a con man betraying "them that brung 'im") because by shutting out liberals, the Democratic base, from his administra­tion, by taking single payer, a public option, off the table, by putting Social Security and Medicare on the table, by eliminatin­g regulatory oversight from finance reform legislatio­ns, he's given pro-corpor­ate, Republican­-like policies an inside line. The People's advocates can't even get in the door of this government much less a seat at the table.

#2 - Getting More Liberals/P­rogressive­s Into Congress
A 'Tea Party'-lik­e challenge from the left within the Democratic Party is the obvious next step, but IMHO, it's a waste of time which would accomplish nothing for the People.  Obama and the DNC have been working their butts off to prevent real Democrats, real progressiv­es, from getting into office - Their strategy for getting more Democrats into office has been to run Democratic candidates who believe in Republican ideology and support Republican policies and legislatio­n.   


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About Orrin Hatch
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U.S. Credit Downgraded: S&P Reduces Rating To AA+ [UPDATE]

I yearn for leadership that protects and defends living, breathing human beings' needs and interests instead of legal fictions (corporati­ons) that, if they were people, would be diagnosed as sociopathi­c character disorders.   

Back at the founding of the the US, a corporatio­n's charter was required to be dissolved after 40 years, so suspicious and cautious were the earliest Americans about corporatio­ns.

Now, corporatio­ns are immortal, which is another abzurdity about their being considered 'persons' under the law.

Following the reducto ad absurdum of corporatio­ns as people, if you look at them as people, the vast majority of them could be diagnosed as sociopaths­. They're completely self-absor­bed, their only motivation is profit and destroying competitio­n (other corporatio­ns or by the same legal definition other people), they have no conscience­, no capacity for empathy. The only time they do something that could be construed as generous or for the greater good is when their consultant­s tell them it's good for business. It's like they display all of the lower qualities of human beings - greed avarice predatory nature. The same behavior in a flesh and blood human being would elicit cries of shame in the community, but somehow it's just fine for a corporatio­n to behave that way. Somehow it's just fine for a corporatio­n to behave in ways that if displayed by a flesh and blood human, it would be considered appalling.

And they can't be criminally prosecuted­.
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U.S. Credit Downgraded: S&P Reduces Rating To AA+ [UPDATE]

"We may congratula­te ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. 
It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . 
It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but 
I see in the near future a crisis approachin­g that unnerves me and causes 
me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, 
corporatio­ns have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places 
will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong 
its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth 
is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. 
I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety 
of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. 
God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless­."


-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
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