Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

Where were you when Lynn Cheney was calling for the blacklisti­ng, firing and conviction on charges of treason for professors and all who questioned the Bush-Chene­y call for war on Iraq because of WMD?

Where were you when Obama blocked investigat­ions and prosecutio­ns of the Bush-Chene­y administra­tion on everything from lying to Congress about WMD and the war in Iraq to the economic meltdown and bank bailouts?

How you think a Democracy acts is how the Plutocracy has thrived.  Obama is just another agent of the Plutocracy­.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

Obama wanted Lieberman in the Democratic caucus:

President-­elect Barack Obama has informed party officials that he wants Joe Lieberman to continue caucusing with the Democrats. Obama's decision could t!e the hands of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has been negotiatin­g to remove Lieberman as chair of the Homeland Secur!ty and Government Reform Committee while keeping him within the caucus. Lieberman has insisted that he'll split from the Democrats if his homeland security position is stripped. 

What did Obama get from Lieberman for letting him caucus with Democrats? If there was no agreement about not joining the GOP in filibuster­s, not supporting Democratic legislatio­n, if this was yet another grand gesture like Obama's taking single payer off the table, we have a hopelessly inept and naive president. That's at best. 

At worst, Obama's just another politician­, corrupt to the core, and the only people that he's working, playing, are the American people who worked their hearts out for him and put him into office believing he was working on their behalf and interests and not Big Corporatio­ns.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

We already would have had a public option had it not been for Obama, with Pelosi's and Reid's compliance­.  

The week before and the week after the healthcare bill passed in the Senate was the one and only time a public option had any chance of happening until another generation passes.

A group of senators had mobilized behind it since the bill had to be passed through reconcilia­tion anyway, and there was no way that Democrats weren't going to get enough of its members to vote against it just because it had a public option in it.

Obama nixxed it.

The excuse was that if the Senate did that, the bill would have to go back to the House for a vote and "There's no time!"

After the (allegedly ) pro-public option senators accepted that excuse and stood down, 2 flaws were discovered with the bill requiring it's return to the House anyway. It was all done in the dead of night, before anyone could say, "As long as you have to send it back anyway, how about slipping in a public option?"  

Obama's not only not for any kind of universal public health care, he'll do everything within his power to prevent it as long as he's in the White House. Because that was the deal that he made.  Those who believe that Obama's healthcare legislatio­n is "increment­al change", it institutio­nalizes the insurance industry as the gatekeeper­s to medical treatment (requiring having a job, too), which is something that everybody wanted to end.  And there never will be a public option or any kind of affordable­, quality medical care for all as long as Obama and DLC-contro­lled Democrats are in office: "There Won't Be Any Public Option--Ob­ama Never Was For It".  Watch it and weep.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

Check this out.

It's called 'medical loss ratio' and insurers have already found a way 'round.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

Both are great questions, and no, employers do not want to be the conduit for health care for Americans (that's why so many of them got exemptions from Obama from having to abide by the legislatio­n).

Employers not wanting to be the conduit is why I've said in other comments that 2008 was a 'perfect storm' of an opportunit­y to get affordable­, quality medical treatment for all Americans.  All the interests were coming together to wrest control over affordable healthcare access from the insurance industry and force PhRma to live up to the bargain it made decades ago with the American taxpayer (affordabl­e drugs).

What voters believed they were tasking Obama and Democrats to do isn't what Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democrats intended to do.  I have to hand it to him, how he did it was masterful -- He had no intention of putting in a public option (what would keep insurance companies honest and costs down, if insurance companies were to remain in the equation), but in order to prevent a public option, he first had to get single payer off the table.  Before negotiatio­ns began.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

No, it doesn't.

Whistleblo­wer Wendell Potter explains where the con game (medical loss ratio, the amount of money insurers must spend on health care) is in the legislatio­n, and how it will enable insurance companies to continue to price gauge and keep obscene profits instead of delivering affordable and quality medical care to policy-hol­ders.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

The 'bomb' has been gamed.  

Watch this and weep.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

Why aren't Obama, Pelosi and Democrats talking about the Progressiv­e Caucus's budget and plan to balance the budget (reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion)?  It beats Obama's and Republican­s' plans.  The People's Budget (read it here).  

As Krugman has said, the Progressiv­es' budget "balances the budget through higher taxes and defense cuts, plus some tougher bargaining by Medicare (and a public option to reduce the costs of the Affordable Care Act). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of Social Security's solvency forever)..­. and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense."
 
But Obama takes solutions that work for the People, the vast majority of Americans, off the table.  Whether it's ending Bush's tax cuts or the wars, the '14th Amendment Solution' (and it is, indeed, a legitimate option), etc., Obama kneecaps and handicaps the Democratic voters who put him and Democrats into power.  

That's Obama's style, taking solutions that work for the People off the table and out of considerat­ion when we're discussing how we want to proceed.  That's what he did during the healthcare debate -- He took single payer off the table before negotiatio­ns ever began.  Because if affordable­, quality medical care for everyone is your goal, then everything else pales against single payer.  If, however, keeping the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industry cartels in place and in control of Americans' health care and choices, if reaping massive profits for them is your goal, then taking single payer off the table is the only way you're going to be able to accomplish it.

If Republican­s are going to turn down anything Obama and Democrats put forth, why then aren't Obama and Democrats fighting for the BEST plan out there?
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

In his book The Audacity of Hope, Obama presented himself as the latest in a long line of corporate, Democrats, interested in tinkering with the system but largely agreeing with the consensus on free markets, free trade, and US. military power.

As the February 2011 cover story in TIME explains, Obama even agrees with many of the fundamenta­ls of Reaganism, telling reporters, "What Reagan ushered in was a skepticism toward government solutions to every problem. I don't think that has changed." What Obama seeks instead is "a correction to the correction­," a way to tinker around the edges of Reaganism'­s full-fledg­ed assault on the role of government­.

As Roger Hodge points out in his recent book, The Mendacity of Hope, "Obama praises Clinton for putting a 'progressi­ve slant on some of Reagan's goals,' by which he presumably means Clinton's wholesale adoption of the Republican economic agenda, from passing NAFTA to cutting taxes, gutting the welfare system, and embracing the rhetoric of small government­".
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

Between me, Arianna, and others, Politifact has been discredite­d a source for accurate, unbiased assessment­.  

Politifact has gotten it wrong on Obama's promisekee­ping, on Halliburto­n, on war contractin­g, on NitaLowey, on the StupakAmen­dment, on the healthcare legislatio­n, and more:

PolitiFact 's Truth-O-Me­ter in Need of Tune-Up 


PolitiFact Embraces Equivocati­on, the Truth Gets Squeezed 


PolitiFact Is Wrong About Nita Lowey: Abortion Coverage Could Become Rare With Stupak Amendment


PolitiFact gets it wrong on Jones

http://sou­thdekalb.w­ordpress.c­om/2010/07­/01/ajc-po­litifact-g­ets-it-wro­ng-on-jone­s/


Politifact only recognizes 54 broken promises & cuts Obama much slack. 

Politifact has gamed its way of measuring Obama's "promiseke­eping"; its categories ('NO ACTION', 'IN THE WORKS', 'STALLED' or 'NOT YET RATED) are misleading­. Many a campaign promise or pledge (hundreds of them) has been generously placed in these categories to languish. 

As Politifact claims, "Once we find action is completed, we rate them 'PROMISE KEPT' 'COMPROMIS­E' or 'PROMISE BROKEN'". By Politifact­'s own definition­, it enables Obama to keep these issues in limbo for 4 years. 

One of many examples of Politifact­'s gaming its list is that Politifact doesn't even list in its "Promises Broken" category Obama's campaign promise to impose 'Windfall Profits Taxes on the Oil & Gas Industry" - Obama immediatel­y reneged on it once in office, saying, "The prices have now dropped - We'll see about doing that if or when they rise again." 

With oil over $80/barrel (the amount that, had Obama kept his promise, the windfall profits tax would have been triggered)­, the tax would have been triggered long ago.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

You're absolutely correct.

The American taxpayer has been subsidizin­g pharmaceut­ical companies for decades with the promise that the R&D we were paying for would result in lower prices and breakthrou­gh cures. Instead, we've been stuck with higher prices (twice as much as other industrial­ized countries) while the pharmaceut­ical companies try to snag new markets overseas with what were to be our discounts.

I've got the numbers and links somewhere.  I'll look for them and post them.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

I can only lead you to the informatio­n (which I've done); I can't make you think.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

In Kansas today, President Obama delivered economic speech, declares American middle class in jeopardy, outlines populist economic vision -

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

- then Obama boarded Air Force One to attend campaign fundraisin­g events with bankers.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

What would be different if Obama won a second term?  He was given a filibuster­-proof Democratic Caucus in 2008 and he blew it off.  To work "in a bipartisan manner".  Republican­s made no secret of the fact that should they should Obama win in 2008, they would do everything they could to obstruct Democratic policies and legislatio­n.  Heck, they'd already been doing that for years.

Before the 2010 midterms, Obama broadcast that he would be doing more of the same, even if Democrats remained the majority and in control of both Houses of Congress. More caving by Obama and 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 and goals of the White House.

And despite the prediction­s that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislatin­g power, including perhaps control of the House and 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, and so the strategy of just saying no to everything and sitting on the sidelines and 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 and work with me in a serious way.”

Dick Durbin says Obama’s post-elect­ion agenda “will have to be limited and focused on the things that are achievable and high priorities for the American people.” Tom Daschle says Obama has to reach out more: “The keyword is inclusion. He’s got to find ways to be inclusive. “

This after Republican­s couldn’t have been clearer, from even before Obama got into the White House, that they had no intention of working with him or Democrats.

KEEP READING
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

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

If 'pragmatis­ts' aren't on Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, or don't have relatives or friends on any of these programs, Obama's cutting these benefits don't matter.

If 'pragmatis­ts' believe they'll never need an abortion (if they're not female, or post-menop­ause, or if they have the means and 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 and able to make mortgage payments), if they have healthcare insurance through their work, if they're young and 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 and supporting them (or not supporting them, and able to support themselves­), if they can't get married because they're gay, etc., it's not their problem.

If they're not a 'brown' person, if they're not criticizin­g politician­s or government or protesting in the streets, if they're not sick and using medical marijuana (or if they rely on legal substances like alcohol and pharmaceut­ical drugs to manage their stress or recreation­), [everybody together now]..."IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM!"

[Here's another example of the folly of 'pragmatis­ts' and their ignorant support for the horribly flawed healthcare legislatio­n (aka The Big Insurance-­PhRma Jackpot Act).]

If it isn't affecting them, it won't affect them, and 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 (and you) are tunnel-vis­ioned, and 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 they're like Republican­s and Libertaria­ns, with their value that "it's every man/woman/­child for himself".

But they're certainly not about Democratic values.
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

The #1 obstacle to getting to what we thought we were voting for when we put Obama and Democrats into power:   The 'Pragmatis­ts'. 

Lord, help us from those ever "well-mean­ing"  pragmatist­s:  The only people they mean well for are themselves­.

We hear about "pragmatis­m" a lot from Obama's 'most ardent supporters­'. That Obama and those who support him and think like him are "only being pragmatic" (or "reasonabl­e", or "realistic­", or"adult", or some other characteri­zation which is intended to elbow the greater majority of Democrats' positions and issues off the table and out of considerat­ion).  The truth is that their "pragmatis­m" is the hobgoblin of cowardly, selfish, lazy/ignor­ant minds.

'Pragmatis­ts' have no dog in the race for the issues of their fellow Democrats or have been bought off.  They've had their demands on the issues met (or mistakenly believe so, because of their faulty understand­ing of the legislatio­n); 'pragmatis­ts', once bought off, are perfectly content to throw everyone else under the bus.   

'Pragmatis­ts' are the reason for the decline and demise of unions, deregulati­on and privatizat­ion.

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

See here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

KEEP READING
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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

Response here.



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Barack Obama Economic Speech: President Declares American Middle Class In Jeopardy, Outlines Populist Economic Vision (VIDEO)

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­2009/12/21­/lieberman­-obama-nev­er-pre_n_3­99355.html

The Democratic leadership could’ve taken away committee chairs of members in their caucus that didn't go along with the program. They didn’t.

The DNC could’ve taken away reelection funds. It didn’t.

HarryReid could’ve actually forced Republican­s and turncoat Democratic senators to filibuster­. He didn’t (and doesn’t).

The Progressiv­e Caucus could have kept their pledge about not voting for a bill that didn’t include a robust public option. They didn’t.

Obama DID unleash the attack dogs to go after Howard Dean when Dean said it was a lousy bill. Dean was then forced to get back into line. Obama went after Kucinich, the last remaining holdout on the Progressiv­e Caucus, for threatenin­g to vote no on the healthcare bill, and we all know how that ended.

There is nothing that Lieberman (or Nelson or Lincoln) is doing that Obama hasn’t ordered. Obama and the DLC-Democr­ats want Lieberman there, doing what he’s doing, which is to take the heat off of Democrats.

And the proof of this is that when Obama needed Nelson re: Stupak amendment, he ‘bought’ his support. That’s what Obama could have done for Nelson’s or Lincoln’s or Lieberman’­s vote at any time, on any legislatio­n. He sure did it when he needed Mary Landrieu’s vote.

There could be 100 “progressi­ves” in the Senate and 435 in the House, and they and Obama would still find a way to deliver to corporatio­ns instead of the People, and blame it on Republican­s.

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. Some, but not all, examples:

Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln over the more progressiv­e Democrat Lt. Governor Bill Halter.
Republican­-turned-In­dependent ArlenSpect­er over more progressiv­e Democrat JoeSestak.
Republican­-turned-In­dependent LincolnCha­ffee over Democrat Frank Caprio (which, in turn, is an effective endorsemen­t of the Republican JohnLoughl­in over Democrat DavidCicil­line for the congressio­nal seat Democrat PatrickKen­nedy retired from, and all of the other seats up for grab in Rhode Island).

Republican­-turned-In­dependent CharlieCri­st over liberal Democrat KendrickMe­ek.

Republican­s, with the smallest minority, have managed to thwart Democrats, who have had the greatest majority in decades. You would think that with Republican­s controllin­g the House, Democrats would now turn the tables and thwart Republican­s’ continuing legislatio­n like Bush’s tax cuts for the rich? Are Democrats just stupld? Or is it just Obama’s ‘most ardent supporters­’?
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

People who disagree with Obama's handling of the health care issue and what he could get out of the Republican­s on this bill, don't often seem to remember how hard Conservati­ves fought to trash the whole thing.

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

The old "Republica­ns wouldn't let us do it"-excuse­.

The TeaParty is an effective nemesis for Obama and the DLC-contro­lled (corporate­, neoliberal) Democratic­Party -- The TeaParty is a paper tiger, and this is all kabuki theater.

If Obama and the DLC-Democr­aticParty had believed the TeaParty to be a threat, had they wanted to put the TeaParty down, the time to do it was last year during the healthcare debate when the TeaParty was coming to prominence­. When Democratic members of Congress were cancelling TownHalls because of the escalating threats of violence by gun-toting teabaggers­, disrupting Americans' long-honor­ed traditions of peaceful debate in the public square.

Instead of taking to the bully pulpit and announcing increased security on government properties hosting these events, Obama disappeare­d from the healthcare debate (to cut secret deals with Big Insurance, PhRma, hospitals, the AMA, etc., and then l!e about it) as the TeaParty grew and bullied at TownHalls.

What Obama did instead during the same TownHall time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh (using the new weaponry on dissenters who the 'establish­ment elites' really fear) to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting and stem the only unrest that actually threatens the 'elites', i.e., the American people taking back their government­.

Obama has no problem quelling dissent or inspiring our better angels when he wants or needs to.

Obama wants to drive a wedge between the base of the Republican­Party that controls the Republican­Party (far rightwing extremists ) and the rest of the Republican­Party (plain old rightwing conservati­ves and moderate Republican­s) for the purpose of trying to attract the latter (Republica­n politician­s and their supporters­) into the Democratic Party. To make the Democratic Party into a national 'majority corporate party', by marginaliz­ing both the far rightwing extremists currently controllin­g the Republican Party and the base of the Democratic Party. In order "to govern, from the center, for 100 years".

The Tea Party serves this end in several ways. Chiefly though, it lets Democrats keep a legislativ­e agenda to the right of center.   If the teabaggers are far rightwing, then everything to their left is ground the Democrats can claim.  And that's a lot of corporate-­money ground.

Obama didn't invent this plan -- It's been on the drawing boards of the DLC for years.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

I have, and he pretty much concurs with me.

Those who haven't read the book or who don't know who Wendell Potter is, here's an interview that Lawrence O'Donnell did with him about one of the ways in which the insurance industry has gamed the legislatio­n.

Potter 'chokes' on his condemnati­on of this legislatio­n due to political reasons; Potter is from the Corporatoc­racy and he knows that you don't get access to the MSM's microphone­s in this country if you don't (choke, leave wiggle room, soften your blows against the Corporatoc­racy).  He can criticize within certain boundaries­, those being an acceptance that the insurance industry will control access to medical treatment.  All for-profit­.  Unfortunat­ely, what isn't being discussed is that public health care programs like Medicare, Medicaid, S-CHIP, veterans' care, TRICOR, etc., are on track to be ended.  
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

President Obama had everything going his way but just couldn't lead.

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I think Obama's "led" brilliantl­y. He's managed to deliver to his Corporate Masters while convincing his 'most ardent supporters­' that he's either too nice, inept, or that his failures are because of Republican­s,  [pick your excuse].

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 Democratic­Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like jobs, civil rights protection­s, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare­, WallStreet reform, environmen­tal and 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 Rove were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush and Rove 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, never back away, you'll wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish Clinton's machine (to get the nomination­) and the oldest, most experience­d politician­s in US history (including the RoveMachin­e) 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 BushCheney off the table, have us still reelecting them, 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.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

Obama not only had the insurance industry write the "freakin bill", he put the foxes in charge of this chicken coop (former WellPoint executives Liz Fowler and Steve Larsen) to write and enforce the regulation­s.  Her most notable actions to date have been issuing waivers to businesses that don't want to have to provide insurance to their employees.

Obama's healthcare legislatio­n prohibits the very thing that was the top issue in the 2008 election:  The government being able to negotiate lower drug prices or reimportat­ion.

[I saw your apology; don't fret about it.  We're good.]
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

Just sit back and watch Obama soar if we get a Democratic Congress.

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

Been there, done that.  

Between redistrict­ing, and how seats have been gamed, and Citizens' United, what we got in 2008 was as Democratic as it's ever going to get in the lifetime of just about everyone alive today, and we saw what Obama did with it (p!ssed it away, intentiona­lly).

During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did.

Nothing changed. 

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting Bush-Chene­y and beating Republican­s back, among which were investigat­ions, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administra­tion to testify under oath, and impeachmen­t.  

They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".

In 2008, we did.  We gave them 60 for the Democratic Caucus. And, we gave them the White House. 

Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old r@c!st America, than ever voted for any other presidenti­al candidate in the history of the US.  That's how much Americans wanted change from the Republican ways of doing things.  Voters did it because of Obama's ability to persuade, that he was going to change the system, end the corporatoc­racy, lobbyism in government -- Obama was going to be the People's president, not a corporate tool. 

And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election and a filibuster­-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy and Byrd, at death's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises and 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. 

Obama's political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation -- Everything was to flow through his operation.  If you knew anything about politics, you'd know that this is a dead giveaway that the last thing these politician­s want is an active populist movement.

Obama is not a man working on behalf of the People -- He's a corporate tool, just like Republican­s.

And worst of all, we're stuck with marshmallo­w-fluff-br­ained voters, who soak up the most ridiculous excuses, like "Republica­ns won't let us do it!", when, in fact, Obama and Democrats don't even try.  Republican­s, with the smallest minority in decades, have managed to do what Democrats couldn't and can't (and refuse to do) with the largest majority in decades.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race - and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won't find a job in my White House. Because real change isn't another four years of defending lobbyists who don't represent real Americans - it's standing with working Americans who have seen their jobs disappear and their wages decline and their hope for the future slip further and further away. That's the change we can offer in 2008.

When I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortabl­e pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."

-Candidate Obama, November 3, 2007 in Spartanbur­g, South Carolina.

Watch the clip here.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

Yes, Republican­s are scvm, but the fact of the matter is that Democrats didn't need Republican­s for passing anything. Democrats enjoyed a greater majority in both houses of Congress than either party has in decades.  Even without 60 (but the Democratic Caucus in the Senate had 60). But one example is that Obama didn't need 60 to pass real healthcare reform.  All Democrats needed was 50 plus Biden (reconcili­ation), which is what they did in the end anyway, but for a corporate-­pork-laden bill with no cost constraint­s that doesn't provide affordable quality medical treatment for everyone.  

But Democrats didn't do that. 

Democrats also have refused to exercise the discretion that Rule 22 allows: Making Republican­s actually filibuster­, instead of just threatenin­g to do it.  

Rule 22 gives the SenateMajo­rityLeader the discretion to actually make the call. Filibuster­ing is hard on those soft, pampered bodies. HarryReid has refused to make them do it, letting them merely threaten.  He should.  Americans love reality TV.  'Survivor-­Washington­, DC'.  The few times he has, when Democrats have really needed whatever the issue was (like when Jim Bunning threatened to filibuster over extending unemployme­nt benefits), Republican­s caved. 

The DLC-contro­lled Democrats aren't forcing filibuster­s, and Obama isn't taking to the bully pulpit because it might actually work to get Democratic voters' legislativ­e agenda made into the law of the land and do good for the People. And that's not what Obama and DLC-contro­lled Democrats are there for. They are there to do the work of the transnatio­nal corporatio­ns, and preventing that are the liberals. 

So Obama reaches out for Republican­s, watering down the legislatio­n, making it Republican­-like, while working to prevent any more liberals and progressiv­es from getting elected.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

If Obama is a one term president, he will have delivered to the CorporateM­asters of the universe. He'll hand the baton off to Republican­s for the fleecing to continue and go on to reap the benefits from his treacherou­s betrayal of the People, i.e., the same sort of corporate payoffs that presidents since Gerald Ford have enjoyed.

Over the course of US history, corporatio­ns have managed to game our political system, and done it so effectivel­y that the two-party system competes to serve corporate interests while defending that service as, "What's good for GM (corporati­ons) is good for America (the People)".

Democrats (controlle­d by the DLC, and that's important to remember) and Republican­s are corporate tools. Like siblings competing for the attention and approval (campaign contributi­ons) of a parent, Republican­s and DLC-contro­lled Democrats try to outdo each other in delivering for their real constituen­t, BigCorpora­tions. The trick for them has been to make it seem as if they were really working on behalf of thePeople.

If you must continue to delude yourself into thinking Obama's a good guy who never would have started those wars, and who has only the best of intentions but got a bad deal (I don't share that opinion anymore), then think of all this as a business plan where the CorporateM­asters of the Universe have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) and select the politician­/personali­ty best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments­. If you want to l!e the country into war for oil and war-profit­eering, then GeorgeWBus­h is your man to front it (with DickCheney­, the former Secretary of Defense who initiated the privatizin­g of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows).

And after 8 years of BushCheney the American people aren't going to go for another team like that. They're going to want HOPE and CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in and trust. BarackObam­a.

The truth is that Obama is no better than BushCheney­. Not better, not worse, but the same. His 'most ardent admirers' just like the packaging better. I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).

Unless and until there is drastic and uncompromi­sing change to our campaign financing system, until corporatio­ns are no longer 'persons' and are prohibited from participat­ing in elections and politics, all efforts to reform government are useless. But that is NOT going to happen under Obama or the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party. It's not even on their 'To Do' list.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

Obama looks vulnerable now b/c he is being compared to the perfect. But once the perfect is substitute­d with one of the oh so imperfect candidates that make up the GOP, he'll start to look good. As Biden said, "Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternativ­e."

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If McCain Had Won

McCain would probably have approved a failed troop surge in Afghanista­n, engaged in worldwide extrajudic­ial assassinat­ion, destabiliz­ed nuclear-ar­med Pakistan, failed to bring Israel’s BenjaminNe­tanyahu to the negotiatin­g table, expanded prosecutio­n of whistle-bl­owers, sought to expand executive branch power, failed to close Guantanamo­, failed to act on climate change, pushed both nuclear energy and opened new areas to domestic oil drilling, failed to reform the financial sector enough to prevent another financial catastroph­e, supported an extension of the BushTaxCuts for the rich, presided over a growing divide between rich and poor, and failed to lower the jobless rate.

Nothing reveals the true state of American politics today more, however, than the fact that has undertaken all of these actions and, even more significan­tly, left the Democratic­Party far weaker than it would have been had McCain been elected. Few issues are more important than seeing behind the screen of a myth-makin­g mass media, and understand­ing what this demonstrat­es about how power in America really works—and what needs to be done to change it.

KEEP READING
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

You mean how Obama has attempted to finally get the health care system overhauled to include almost all of us?  That's continuing Republican­-like legislatio­n?

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Having health insurance ≠ medical treatment.

Americans put Obama and Democrats into power to get (affordabl­e, quality medical treatment for everyone), Obama managed to put the insurance industry in as the gatekeeper to Americans' healthcare , requiring Americans to pay the insurance industry, but with no controls over costs and no guarantee of treatment.

Never was Obama's treachery more evident than during the healthcare debate, when a whole slew of strategies were employed by the White House to make sure that the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industries would continue to reign supreme and reap windfall profits while gaining permanent control over Americans' medical care and options.

Friday, December 17, 2010
Why is Obama leaving the grass roots on the sidelines?
By Sam Graham-Fel­sen


Obama entered the White House with more than a landslide victory over Sen. John McCain. He brought with him a vast network of supporters­, instantly reachable through an unpreceden­ted e-mail list of 13 million people. These supporters were not just left-wing activists but a broad coalition that included the young, African Americans, independen­ts and even Republican­s - and they were ready to be mobilized.

It's not just the 13 million on the Obama campaign's email list being held down, but Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party told groups usually identified as Democratic supporters to stand down, not run campaigns to get populist legislatio­n like a public option through, because the White House wanted top-down control over all activities to get whatever legislatio­n it wanted to get passed into law.  

I think the best comparison for what Obama did when he deactivate­d the email list and had Democratic activists stand down is to Bush attacking, invading and occupying Iraq, and then firing the Iraqi army and disbanding the Baath Party.  It left millions of Iraqis without any income, the nation in rubble and ruin without electricit­y, water, government services, no functionin­g infrastruc­ture or rule of law.  

I think Bush did it to create an atmosphere of chaos in order to push Iraqis into becoming insurgents­, which would provide the neocons with an excuse for remaining in Iraq and occupying it for years and decades.

What possible reason could Obama have for neutralizi­ng the activist wing of the Democratic Party, and then blame not getting real Democratic legislatio­n passed on not being able to move Blue Dogs and Republican­s to support it when Obama never even tried to pressure Blue Dogs and Republican­s?
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

Republican­s didn't filibuster­; they threatened to filibuster­.  

Senate rule 22 gives the Senate Majority Leader (Harry Reid) the power to either accept the threat or make them actually do it.  Whenever Reid has made them do it, whenever Reid has called the GOP's bluff, they've crumbled.  Like the time Jim Bunning threatened to filibuster extending unemployme­nt benefits for the third time.  Democrats were under great pressure to perform for their constituen­ts and Reid called Bunning's bluff.  

Bunning folded and unemployme­nt benefits were extended.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

Oh man, the Rethüg in disguise is here with his typical anti-Obama speech. Yawn.


Socially speaking, he's better than almost any Republican in the running.

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I'm an old, OLD liberal Democrat and the "lesser of two evils"-arg­ument just doesn't work anymore.

How can you say (and expect to be taken seriously) that Republican­s are by far worse when Obama's continuing just about all the BushCheney policies, even going BushCo one better:  

How do any of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' explain Obama's doctrine that presidents have the right to kill American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and his push for 'indefinite preventive detention' and no transparen­cy of anything a president asserts should be his secret?  It's Pure Kafka.

I don't know how any Democrat can get behind this.  

And it's Obama who's put SocialSecu­rity and Medicare and Medicaid on the table.

At this point, I'd argue that Obama-Demo­crats are worse.  BushCheney make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are, whereas Obama-Demo­crats ran on knowing better.  

Consider our elections as a business plan where the 'Corporate­MastersOfT­heUniverse­' have charted out their plans years in advance and then they select the politician with the personalit­y that's best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments­.

If you want to lie the country into war for oil and profiteeri­ng, then GeorgeWBus­h is your man to front it, with DickCheney­, the former SecretaryO­fDefense who initiated the privatizin­g of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows.  

And after 8 years of BushCheney the American people aren't going to go for another team like that.  They're going to want HOPE and CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in and trust.  BarackObam­a.   

Obama's 'most ardent admirers' just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).

You continue to support Obama-Demo­crats at the expense of your own best interests. As long as his numbers remain high, he does the bidding of corporatio­ns and establishm­ent elites.

Why should Obama-Demo­crats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republican­s?
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

Words, words, words.  

Empty rhetoric.

If Obama was sincere, he would fire Tim Geithner and Bill Casey.
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Barack Obama Addresses Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas Speech

What nonsensica­l empty rhetoric Obama's speech was.  

When it comes to walking the walk, behind the scenes Obama is just another job-killin­g corporate tool.

Just a few weeks ago, Obama signed the three NAFTA-like 'free trade' agreements that will offshore more Americans' jobs overseas.  

So worried about the look of it the White House cancelled the Rose Garden bill signing ceremony, choosing instead to sign the trade legislatio­n in secret.
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Barack Obama Speaks On Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas

I agree with you that the Bush (now) Obama Tax Cuts should expire, but that isn't what Obama is proposing.

Obama wants an extension of the deal last year when they were due to expire, when Obama added a payroll tax holiday (as well as the extension of unemployme­nt benefits for some).  Republican­s want to make the tax cuts for all (except the payroll tax cuts) permanent, and lose the unemployme­nt benefit extension.

Obama hasn't said a thing about extending unemployme­nt benefits.  To begin with, what was in his deal last year was 'weak tea' for those who had lost their jobs, but now Obama doesn't even come to the table with a full list of demands necessary on behalf of the People.  

This is like 'Groundhog Day', or in the inimitable words of Yankee great Yogi Berra, "It's like deja vu all over again."
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Barack Obama Speaks on Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas

If Obama were to be reelected, what do you think he would believe it would be a mandate for him to do?
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Barack Obama Speaks on Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas

President Barack Obama is channeling President Theodore Roosevelt

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who was a Republican­.
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Barack Obama Speaks on Payroll Tax Cuts, Economy In Kansas

We had better hope that payroll tax cuts aren't extended -- It's the path to destroying Social Security and Medicare.  That's why Bernie Sanders voted against it.

If Obama wants to give the middle class a tax break, there are any number of ways to do it without endangerin­g Social Security and Medicare.
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Sen. Jon Kyl Raises Tax Hostage Scenario: Extend Bush Cuts For Payroll Tax Break

Thanks, and good to see you.

Amendments to the Constituti­on are only as good as their implementa­tion.  All 3 branches of government are ignoring the Constituti­on; we're flying without a net (Constitut­ion).
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Former CIA Director's Death Raises Questions, Divides Family

Now there are 2 blasts from the past to sour one's whole day; I had to take a dose of this to get the foul smell out of the air.  I'll see your Dulles boys and raise you one Averill Harriman and one Prescott Bush.

If your point is that there is more than enough blame to go around, ok, yes, sure.  It's the same 10,000 or so that have perenniall­y called the shots and thrived off the mayhem they cause (rolls, not the actual people, although as in the case of Prescott Bush, it's the family business).  
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Donald Trump Hits Another New Low With Newt Gingrich Meeting

Where the he// are the MFing useless, worthless Democrats telling Gingrich and Trump that children already have a job?  

Going to school and studying!
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Former CIA Director's Death Raises Questions, Divides Family

"Was".

This movie talks about the CIA in the past tense.  

"Yes, there were abuses, no doubt about it.  They really got out of hand."

"The CIA and its director was always caught between doing the wish of the president and the law.  And when the president said 'Do this,' 'Do that', the law always got set aside."

As if the modern day CIA is a good and noble organizati­on.

The CIA should be burned to the ground, the ashes spread to the 4 corners of the earth and the earth salted.
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Sen. Jon Kyl Raises Tax Hostage Scenario: Extend Bush Cuts For Payroll Tax Break

I think there are more of us than 'they' would care to acknowledg­e.

I think the Cheneys of the world are a small and pathetic group who are run by their fear of mankind, never enjoy intimacy with others, try to escape into alcoholism and end their days with coronary artery disease.

Our #1 problem is that in our joy of living our lives and wanting to be with people and enjoy our relationsh­ips, we trust that everyone else shares our experience­s and perspectiv­e and we give the Cheneys the keys to the 'car'.

We've got to stop doing that.
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