Progressive Critics of President Obama Must Go All Out to Defeat Romney
I'm an old OLD liberal Democrat and the old "lesser of two eviIs" argument just doesn't work anymore.
Obama's continuing just about all of the Bush-Cheney 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 kiII American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and his push for 'indefinite preventive detentlon' and no transparency of anything a president asserts should be his secret? Pure Kafka.
As a Democrat, I don't know how any Democrat can get behind this.
At this point, I would argue that Obama and Democrats are worse. Bush-Cheney make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are, whereas Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better.
It was Obama who put Social Security on the table, and I expect that should he win reelection, he's going to embrace Simpson-Bowles for some drastic cuts in social programs.
Just as Obama ran on SinglePayer, then backed down, then said he wouldn't sign any legislation that didn't include a public option, and then reneged, I'm sure that should Obama get reelected he's going to be cutting more secret deals with Republicans, just like the one he cut on Bush's Obama's tax cuts for the rich, that ends Great Society programs.
He goes after undocumented aliens with a vengeance, then backs off to get the Hispanic vote. He pledged not to use his Justice Department to interfere in States' medical marijuana programs and then shuts down legal dispensaries. It's Obama's MO. It's how he operates.
Obama is nothing but a politician, and in the worst sense of the word. He is not a man of the people; he's a tool of the Corporations.
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Grover Norquist To George H.W. Bush: Americans Don't Like 'When Politicians Lie To Them'
There's a real easy way to deal with this, to get politicians accountable to the people who elect them: GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS.
1.) End corporate personhood
2.) Publicly financed campaigns.
Any politician who doesn't have that as his first and ONLY priority is corrupt to the bone. Both sides of the aisle. A pox on both their houses.
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Republicans' Obamacare Stance Is 'Height Of Hypocrisy,' House Democrats Say
It is in retrospect that Obama's corruptness, his treachery, should be obvious for any willing to open their eyes. Obama never wanted a public option or single payer. But to get both off the table, he had to do it in stages. Single payer first, with big talk about "I will not sign any legislation that doesn't include a robust public option". That had to happen right off the bat, before negotiations even began. To make sure that there wouldn't be a public option in any final legislation (and that there really wouldn't be any reform of the system, that the insurance and pharmaceutical industries would continue to be able to make massive profits), single payer had to be taken off the table before negotiations ever began. Out of sight, out of mind. And that's exactly what Obama did.
Once that happened, then a public option was used as a bargaining chip, to be given up, and we know that from several sources, including Tom Daschle and Richard Kirsch.
A caller on CSpan not long ago asked Richard Wolffe, who was out plugging his latest book written from his special access to the Obama White House, if we're ever going to get a public option to keep costs down.
Wolffe makes it clear that Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats never had any intention of going with a public option or expanding public healthcare in any way (although Wolffe is mistaken when he says that Obama never ran on supporting a public option -- Not only did Obama campaign on "a public option", he campaigned on single payer, universal health care -- Here's a campaign ad featuring Obama himself -- See the part where he says he has a plan to "cover everyone'? That's 'universal coverage' -- There's even a graphic in the ad that says "The Obama Plan - UNIVERSAL coverage for all Americans". Obama ran against mandates, and criticized Hillary for them in her campaign promises -- Here is Candidate Obama on mandates -- Here again -- Obama campaigned on public option).
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The Selling of American Democracy: The Perfect Storm
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.
Corporations have managed to game our political system 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 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 as we'd hoped when we put them in power in 2008; it's not even on their 'To Do' list.
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The Selling of American Democracy: The Perfect Storm
We like to think of Democrats as, at least, champions of civil rights and freedoms, but between the Democratic members of Congress piling onto warrantless wiretapping legislation and Obama expanding executive power and NDAA, Democrats are as dangerous as Republicans.
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Republicans' Obamacare Stance Is 'Height Of Hypocrisy,' House Democrats Say
Where we disagree is your exempting Obama and the DLC-controlled Democratic Party from the clean-up.
Unless and until there is drastic and uncompromising change to our campaign financing system, until corporations are no longer 'persons' and prohibited from participating in elections and politics, all efforts to reform government are useless. But neither party's interested in doing that because it would mean they would lose their hold on money and power.
Any party that doesn't have that as their first order of business (particularly after the Citizens United decision and the overwhelming public support for reform) is dirty, rotten and corrupt to the bone. Overhauling campaign finance reform isn't on Obama's or Democrats' agenda.
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Republicans' Obamacare Stance Is 'Height Of Hypocrisy,' House Democrats Say
The old lawyers' adage:
When the law is on your side, argue the law.
When the facts are on your side, argue the facts.
When neither the facts nor the law are on your side, make an ad hominem attack.
You're in violation of HP policy:
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Get with the program, discuss the issues and not the commenters, or get out.
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Republicans' Obamacare Stance Is 'Height Of Hypocrisy,' House Democrats Say
Nothing was stopping 26-year-olds from getting insurance before ACA.
Yes, those with preexisting conditions will be able to get insurance under ACA, but with no controls over deductibles and co-pays. But, it's not as if you're now going to be able to get treatment. For example, if a treatment for cancer costs $100,000, are you going to be able to afford the co-pay?
health insurance ≠ medical treatment
Obama Health Law Unlikely to Stem Medical Bankruptcies
When President Obama kicked off his health reform push, he highlighted our research finding that 2 million Americans suffer medical bankruptcy each year, promising to end this disgrace. Our latest figures warn that his reform won’t stanch the flow of medical debtors.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed by Congress in March 2010 was modeled after Massachusetts’ 2006 health reform plan – a plan that’s now been up and running for more than three years. So Massachusetts offers a preview of what to expect when the ACA is fully implemented in 2014.
Unfortunately, medical bankruptcies haven’t dropped much – if at all – in Massachusetts. When we surveyed bankruptcy filers there in August 2009, 53 percent cited illness or medical bills as a cause of their bankruptcy, a percentage that’s statistically indistinguishable from the 59 percent figure we found in early 2007. Indeed, because the total number of bankruptcies soared in 2009, the actual number of medical bankruptcies increased from 7,504 in 2007 to 10,093 in 2009.
Why are so many people still suffering medical bankruptcies despite Massachusetts’ health reform? While only 4 percent of the state’s residents remain uninsured, much of the new coverage is so skimpy that serious illness leaves families with crushing medical bills.
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Republicans' Obamacare Stance Is 'Height Of Hypocrisy,' House Democrats Say
It's not compromise when it's going in the wrong direction. Not when the finances are coming from my pocket and going into yours. That's the direction it's been going for years, decades, and that pocket has been tapped out. It's empty. Your pockets, on the other hand, are DEEP and STUFFED.
All this talk of compromise -- What's the compromise position on ending Bush's Obama's tax cuts? Do Obama's 'most ardent supporters' know that Obama offered in these negotiations to make those tax cuts permanent?
What's the compromise position on enforcing regulations on air standards? Not enforcing them?
What's the compromise position on a woman's right to choose? Make it impossible for her to actually obtain an abortion?
What's the compromise position on Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and veterans' care and SCHIP, etc.? Empty out the trust funds to pay bond holders and war profiteers so that there's nothing left for those who paid into into the trust funds?
What's the compromise position on getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen and Libya and Somalia? Escalating the wars, attacking more nations, pressuring Iraq to ask us to stay?
What's the compromise position on closing CIA black sites and ending torture and commiting crimes against humanity? Prison Ships, Ghost Prisoners and Obama's Interrogation Program? Ending habeas corpus and a president indefinitely detaining anyone he believes might be thinking about committing a crime, American citizens included, and killing them with no due process, no oversight?
There is no 'center' on most issues. We're 'centered-out'. The left has done more than 30 years of compromising. You either believe in Social Security and Medicare and a woman's right to choose and gays' right to marry and clean safe food and water, and a safe workplace, and living wages, etc., or you don't.
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