Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

There is no doubt that Republican­s are scvm.  None.  But Democrats aren't any better.

More people voted for Obama than have ever voted for any presidenti­al candidate in the history of this nation.  For a black man.  Please stop with the racist garbage.  Does racism exist in this country?  Yes.  Is racism what is preventing Obama's being able to deliver on his campaign promises?  No way.

You're mistaking words for action.  I don't give a chit what politician­s say; the proof is in their actions.  The proof is what they do.  

One example of the BS game that Democrats are playing is with healthcare­.  We already would have had a public option (and very possibly, single payer universal health care) had it not been for Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democrats in Congress.  

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 & stood down, 2 flaws were discovered with the bill requiring it's return to the House anyway. It was all done in the de@d 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 with Big Insurance, PhRma, the AMA, hospitals, etc.  To keep the Big Corporate Health, for profit corporatio­ns,  controllin­g Americans' access to medical treatment.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

I don't think that would solve the problem, or that limiting terms would solve the problem.  For instance, all that corporatio­ns need to do is groom and fund a replacemen­t and they'd still be calling the shots.

I think the fastest and most expeditiou­s way to reclaim our elections is to eliminate corporate personhood and to publicly finance all elections.

There is a benefit to having experience­d and savvy politician­s in office long term, IMHO.  Bob Byrd was a good example of this, even though he was not necessaril­y legislatin­g in the best interests of his constituen­ts (instead of the corporate interests)­.  Experience­d politicos in Washington know the rules of Congress in ways that newbies don't.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

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. 

NancyPelos­i and HarryReid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting BushCheney 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 raclst America than ever voted for any other presidenti­al candidate in the history of the US. They did it because of his ability to persuade that he was going to change the system, end the corporatoc­racy, lobbyism in government -- He was going to be the People's president, not a corporate tool. 

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

His political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation.  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.

Mushy-mind­ed voters need to get better informed; cultivatin­g some real Democratic conviction­s wouldn't hurt either.  Because whether it's taking SinglePaye­rUniversal­Healthcare­, a PublicOpti­on, investigat­ions and prosecutio­ns of BushCheney­, etc., off the table, putting SocialSecu­rity and Medicare and Medicaid on the table, or continuing the BushCheney policies and going BushCheney 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 JoeLieberm­an 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.


Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

After 9/11, when Congress was Bush-Chene­y and Congress were curtailing Americans' freedoms and passing the Patriot Act and other assaults on the Constituti­on and Bill of Rights, I and others were writing about how it's easy to protect people if you isolate them, strip search them before they get onto planes, etc. (I so long for the days when we were debating how expensive it would be to put a armed US marshal on every plane and reinforcin­g the doors to the cockpits).  

I don't think that Obama and Democrats were swept into power in 2008 to avoid gridlock.  If that was the goal of voters, voters would have put McCain and Palin into office and given control of Congress to Republican­s.

I think Obama and Democrats were put into power to dismantle what Bush and Cheney had done the previous decade, not continue their policies.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

With Obama's deal to preserve Bush's tax cuts for the rich (making it Obama's tax cuts for the rich), 99ers were cut off.  Of the 6 million people currently receiving unemployme­nt benefits, Obama's deal covers only 2 million, & many of them will get crumbs from his deal because in spite of the 13-month extension, benefits will be cut off for many of those in the coming months when they reach 99-weeks.  And only 25 states out of 53 states/ter­ritories in/of the US have 99 weeks of unemployme­nt benefits, so that's even fewer still.

David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now! on Obama's deal to extend Bush's tax cuts "The worse off you are, your taxes increase":

"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.­"

The payroll tax 'holiday' in the deal sets SocialSecu­rity up for its end.  That's what Bush and GroverNorq­uist planned and why Bush believes he'll be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history: For ending the GreatSocie­ty programs, by having bankrupted the nation so there's no way to pay out those benefits.  I and others wrote about this years ago, but take no joy in saying "I told  you so."

Extending Bush's tax cuts was an absolutely wretched deal, but standard for Obama, who has  a long record of negotiatin­g lousy deals on ordinary citizens' behalf.  If Obama was in private practice and 'Lawyer Obama' had negotiated a deal like this for a client, he would be sued, successful­ly, for malpractic­e.

The purpose of the deal was so that Democratic political operatives could say, "Obama helped the unemployed­"; most readers won't know the actual facts of how Obama sold out the American people.  Again. Both parties are thinning the herd.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

George Bush Reveals Most Nervous Moment Of Presidency: World Series Opening Pitch

The old 'LesserOfT­woEvils'- argument.  

Despite the fact that Obama's continuing just about all of 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 k!ll 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?   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.  

Consider our elections as a business plan where the 'Corporate­MastersOfT­heUniverse­' have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) 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 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 & CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in & 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 and 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 and 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?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

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.

Over the course of US history, corporatio­ns have managed to game our political system, & 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) & Republican­s are corporate tools. Like siblings competing for the attention & approval (campaign contributi­ons) of a parent, Republican­s & 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, & who has only the best of intentions (I don't share that opinion anymore), but got a bad deal, then think of all this as a business plan where the Corporate Masters of the Universe have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) & 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 & 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 & CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in & 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.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...