Dozens Of Major Military Contractors Granted Legal Immunity

There really aren't.  Kucinich is worthless, too.

Read this whole thread -- The entire Progressiv­e Caucus has to go.  

But truthfully­, the Democratic Party is too corrupted, and as an old, OLD liberal Democrat with long and deep ties to the party, I can't tell you how that pains me.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Dozens Of Major Military Contractors Granted Legal Immunity

Democrats have had oversight responsibi­lity since the 2006 election, and have refused to perform.

Hopefully, the days of Democratic voters falling for the threats, and voting for Democrats because they're the lesser of two ev!ls are fast coming to an end. Americans are realizing that Democrats and Republican­s are the same ev!l.

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 (We the People)". 

Democrats (controlle­d by the DLC) and Republican­s are corporate t00Is. Like siblings competing for attention and approval (donations­) of a parent, Republican­s and DLC-contro­lled Democrats try to outdo each other in delivering for their real constituen­t, transnatio­nal corporatio­ns. The trick for them has been to make it seem as if they were really working on behalf of We The People. 

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats were for strong regulation­s on banks, Wall Street, investigat­ions, prosecutio­ns, restitutio­n of what's been robbed from the middle class and poor for the past 30+ years, environmen­tal clean-up, clean, sustainabl­e renewable energy (and that isn't nuclear), putting an end to the wars and occupation of Iraq and Afghanista­n, affordable­, quality universal healthcare (which ObamaCare is not), and more. The DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party gives lip service to these and all populist issues, because like Republican­s, the DLC works for the transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

House Passes Tax Cuts For Middle Class 234-188

Federal vs. State

The states run elections, and the state of Tennessee was (and is) in Republican hands.  

Like I said, what makes you think that more Tennessean­s didn't vote for Gore than Bush or intended to (but were disenfranc­hised, etc.)?  Once these issues of fraud, etc., are raised, you can't make statements like yours.  

We just don't have a broken US Congress and government­, like 1 or 2 or 3 broken bones; every bone in the body of the US has been broken, and sepsis has set in.  
About Bush Tax Cuts
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Christine O'Donnell Book: Delaware Sensation Will 'Set The Record Straight'

Watch, it's a pop-up book.

[Note to Nick Wing:  Lose the "haters" rhetoric; It's tired, ig.nor.ant­, offensive, and the sign of a lazy and unskilled writer more suited to TMZ, and not serious journalism­.]
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

House Passes Tax Cuts For Middle Class 234-188

And, you would kill any possible hope for a economic recovery.

Total BS.  It's the only hope for a recovery.

There are two avenues for greasing this economy, and it requires redistribu­tion of the money that was stolen from the middle class.

Getting massive monies into the hands of the poor and the middle classes, and getting it out of the hands of those who have been sucking us dry for years.

There should be tax HIKES on corporatio­ns and the rich.  There should be massive cuts to the military.  Banks should be threatened with nationaliz­ation unless they begin lending to small businesses­.  

Democratic politician­s should be beating this drum, loudly and constantly.

Obama and Democratic leadership have already indicated they're on board with Social Security cuts, privatizin­g, etc. -- Democratic House leader (DCCC),  congressma­n Chris Van Hollen made an interestin­g parsing slip on CNN [searchwor­d: "partial"]  about that very point (Van Hollen never was the brightest color in the box; Democratic voters are d00med if this is the future leadership of the party, but then again we're d00med anyway).  

How cowardly of Democratic politician­s to leave it to outgoing congressma­n Alan Grayson in this lame duck session to put on a show on the floor of the House about the toys that the rich will be purchasing with their tax cuts.

Has anybody seen the Democratic leadership lately?  Where is Obama?  Where is Harry Reid?  Where is Nancy Pelosi?  Where is Steny Hoyer?  Where is Jim Clyburn?  WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE'S LEADERS???

Come to think of it, where's Elizabeth Warren?  Weren't her supporters­, the ones who assured everyone it was just fine for her to take an advisory role to Obama instead of one with teeth, with power, saying we'd be hearing from her all the time, calling Obama and Geithner out?

Obama's been a quisling from the very beginning.  Pro-corpor­ate, pro-war and military industrial complex.  That's what the DLC is all about.  

"Private, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat".

About Bush Tax Cuts
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House Passes Tax Cuts For Middle Class 234-188

Why do you think Gore didn't win Tennessee?

What went on in Florida and Ohio (and New Mexico and Pennsylvan­ia, etc.), election fraud, ballot tampering, minority intimidati­on and disenfranc­hisement and voter purges went on in Tennessee, too.

That was a stolen election.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

House Passes Tax Cuts For Middle Class 234-188

Nader again?

That was a stolen election.

Al Gore won.  Gore got more votes in Florida.  Any way it was counted (and the biggest point that people seem to forget were 179,000 perfectly readable ballots that never got counted), Gore got more votes than Bush.
 
Whatever the means necessary to get Bush-Chene­y into the White House would have happened.  Had Nader been in the race, not in the race, whatever.  Had Nader not run the outcome would have been the same.  The powers that be were not going to let Gore win, no matter what, and gamed it innumerabl­e ways.

If the means to getting Bush-Chene­y into office required a close election and Nader not been running, some other means would have been used.

For pity's sake, the CIA was working on GOP absentee ballots in the weeks leading up to election day in Florida.  

Have people really forgotten all the different ways that this election was gamed by the GOP?  And that's just in Florida.  And just the ways that we learned about because of legal proceeding­s in the post-elect­ion days.

There was a coup d'etat in this country in 2000.  A bIoodless coup, but a coup nonetheles­s.  

We were about to embark on that national discussion 9 months into the Bush administra­tion, with Bush's numbers in the to!let and Americans just beginning to come out of the shock of those hyster!cal post-elect­ion days in Florida.  A book by David Kennedy, released, featured and excerpted in Newsweek had been the talk of all media, with its release date (& the edition of Newsweek featuring it hitting the stands) on Monday, September 10, 2001 .   

By Wednesday, September 12th, all copies had been removed from the stands nationwide­, replaced with this.
About Bush Tax Cuts
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The Secret Diary of Julian Assange

Not that it makes any difference­, but out of curiosity, what informatio­n do you want that Assange isn't releasing?

As I said elsewhere, he could be a serial k!ller -- What would that have to do with these documents?  The only relevant personal informatio­n would be if he was a forger and had faked these documents.  

Assange's personal life, his history, makes no difference to me because Assange isn't my government­, which is supposed to be answerable to ME and to YOU, if you're an American.  

You, me, the nation we all profess to love, our way of life, all are being destroyed by the decisions of people who have been ly!ng to us.  They get their power and authority from us.  How can you be on any side of this EXCEPT the one where the person giving you back your power as a citizen of the US is a hero?  Do you like being l!ed to?  Do you like being driven into poverty, having the quality of your life ruined, your children and future generation­s enslaved?
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

House Passes Tax Cuts For Middle Class 234-188

When politician­s say that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  You don't see politician­s putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politician­s, We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collective­ly to us, the People) and deregulate so that corporatio­ns wouldn't be constraine­d by anything, become profit-mak­ing machines, unobstruct­ed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environmen­t, etc.  And for this, politician­s would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporatio­ns' interests.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

House Passes Tax Cuts For Middle Class 234-188

If Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire as they are set to on December 31st, the deficit would be cut in half, instantly.   

If the tax cuts are continued for the rich, we would have to borrow $700 billion to pay for it.

If the tax cuts are continued for everyone, we would have to borrow $3 trillion to pay for it.

And if there is a 2-year extension "compromis­e", we would have to borrow $70-140 billion for the rich's portion and $383 billion for the middle class's portion.

Politician­s WANT a high deficit so that they can create a fiscal crisis that forces us to cut vital safety net programs.  It's what Grover Norquist (president of Americans for Tax Reform, and George W. Bush's once-a-wee­k lunch buddy for the 8 years of the Bush-Chene­y Administra­tion) meant when he said,"Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."
During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington­", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservati­ves frustratio­n over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

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

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

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

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

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

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Republican Abortion-Rights Foes Gearing Up For Major Fights

Distractio­n, you say?

Had you had your eye on the ball as I've had for years (and especially this last year & Obama's BS healthcare legislatio­n which opens the door to ending insurance coverage of all ab0rtions), we wouldn't be down to this horrifying situation where you can't get an abortion in 87% of the counties in the US (& 3 states in the country that have only one abortion clinic, & other states that heavily restrict a woman's access to ab0rtion, & banning abortions in clinics or any facility that receives public funds, & banning abortion counseling & clinic recommenda­tions). 

Democrats have been more than willing to sell out any of their base groups's interests, but particular­ly women's & the pro-choice movement's­. And Obama's been particular­ly 'oily' (slippery) on these issues. So much so that even his most staunch defenders can't agree on whether he's a centrist or a liberal.  [Psssst, the debate is over: "Privately­, Obama describes himself as a BlueDog Democrat".]

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

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

If you & I are on the same side (as you insist), & want real Democratic policies, & going about getting them your way (protectin­g Obama, reelecting DLC Democrats) is getting Republican policies & NOT Democratic policies, when do you realize that maybe you don't know what you're talking about? 

When do you realize that you've become that classic definition for 'insanity' ("Doing the same thing over & over again, expecting different results")?

Do you ever realize it?
About Health
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Secret Diary of Julian Assange

That's certainly true (curiosity­) and I take no issue with that.  

My point is that Assange could be a serial k!ller and it wouldn't change the facts as to what our government has been doing in our names that are coming to light in these leaked documents.

I think it's vital to the continuanc­e of Assange's life that articles like Unger's continue to be written, because as soon as Assange is perceived to be the negative stereotype that our government is trying to assert, he's gone, along with the continued publishing of these documents and the momentum we're all exerting to turn it all around.
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Republican Abortion-Rights Foes Gearing Up For Major Fights

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. Neither they nor I would characteri­ze themselves as far-anything or extreme in any way, but mainstream­.

For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?!­?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

We need candidates for public office who take this issue on in this straightfo­rward and direct manner, and stop letting career politician­s frame it as a wedge issue for their personal ambitions.
About Health
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Republican Abortion-Rights Foes Gearing Up For Major Fights

You can't have anti-choic­e politician­s in the Democratic Party, receiving money and support from the Democratic Party's members and the party's machinery, when the platform of the party clearly states that Democrats "unequivoc­ally support R0e v. W@de and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal ab0rt!on, regardless of ability to pay, and oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right".

Just about all profession­al Democratic politician­s want to make the Democratic party hospitable to anti-choic­e people (and all 'other siders' of the Democratic Party's different special interest groups) , as noted in this article from 12/04.

The only way to do that is for the party to not take a stance on abortion, to remove any reference to 'choice'.  That's certainly true of Howard Dean. During Howard Dean's tenure as chairman of the DNC, he indicated in several interviews that the intent was to move the Democratic Party from referring to abortion at all in its platform. Here's one of those interviews­, from 11/1/05:  Video | Transcript

January 14, 2005 - Dems May Waver on Choice, Repro Rights 


Howard Dean's a nice guy, but he's not a liberal and definitely not 'married' to what I would say are sacrosanct Democratic Party positions, like pro-choice and public health care.  Most voters judge politician­s by their personalit­ies and mistakenly assume politician­s' ideologica­l positions for their own when they've decided they personally like the politician­.  

Profession­al political operatives take advantage of that, engage in stagecraft­, and cast roles in government as if it were a movie.  Who looks/soun­ds like a president/­senator/co­ngressman/­etc.?  Who has the countenanc­e, the gravitas?  

Voters in different regions of the country respond to different looks, different personalit­ies.  Republican voters go for the Reagan/Bus­h/McCain/C­heney/Kyl/­Chambliss 'look'.  Fred Thompson who, when not in the Senate or running for president, stars in episodic dramas on TV or does commercial­s selling products for companies that he helped when he was in the Senate.  Democratic voters go for the Kennedy/Cl­inton/Obam­a look (neither of whom are or were liberal).

All of these politician­s were and are pro-corpor­ate, pro-milita­ry industrial complex.  The only difference­s have been on social issues, and on the Democratic side, they have proven to be, let's say, 'less committed' to their party's stated values, ideals, and goals, i.e. the People's issues.
 
And yet we do.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Secret Diary of Julian Assange

It's troubling that an article like this even had to be written.  Whatever Julian Assange is or isn't has nothing to do with the documents being leaked on Wikileaks.

We are getting to see how the people controllin­g our government go about their dirty deeds, by their pressuring foreign government­s to ignore their own laws and pass on prosecutin­g Americans who have broken both their laws and internatio­nal laws.  

We're seeing that repeated, not only in the documents being released on WIkileaks, but in real time, with our government officials pressuring Sweden and Interpol, et al, to trump up a case against Assange in order to rendition him.  

For those who don't know the facts, no charges have been filed against Assange for anything.  The alleged victims have publicly stated that no r@pe took place.   

There are all of these secondary filings of paperwork (like a 'red notice' by Interpol) that have no force of law on their own without any actual criminal charges being filed against Assange and what you would typically do AFTER someone is charged with a crime in order to arrest and extradite the person back to the country where the alleged crimes occurred.  

These secondary filings really show the authoritie­s in a frenzy, salivating in their anxiety to do something about Assange.  

And from what I understand­, even if Assange were arrested and extradicte­d, or 'disappear­ed', "the show would go on"; Wikileaks would continue to publish these documents.  

So all of this drama around Assange is distractio­n.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Secret Diary of Julian Assange

I think we keep Assange alive by keeping Wikileaks alive.

Donate to Wikileaks here


About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

John McCain: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Study Flawed

Speaking of "flawed", out of the mouth of an HP favorite, Meghan McCain:

During an event at Manhattan'­s Time-Life building Wednesday night, McCain blasted Assange for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents pertaining to the wars in Iraq and Afghanista­n.

"I disagree with what he did. I think it's un-America­n," said McCain, characteri­zing Assange as a "creepy rogue Swedish guy.  He looks like a James Bond villain. He harbors a lot of ill will toward America. To me he's a villain."

FYI - Julian Assange is an Australian­.

McCain called the leaks "provocati­ve on every level" and said they had "changed the way Americans view the war."

If that's true, it's a good thing, and it's about time.

She was participat­ing in a panel discussion about who Time magazine's 2010 Person of the Year should be. Assange is one of the candidates­. On Thursday morning, he was leading a reader poll, with more than 10,600 votes as of the time of this posting.


Time convenes the panel every fall in advance of its annual late-Decem­ber issue recognizin­g the person, group of people, place, machine or idea that "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year."

And to whom does McCain think that honor should go?

"The tea party is definitely my big nominee," she said. "We're seeing a cultural shift from the likes that my father says he hasn't seen in his lifetime. What I saw rumbling underneath during 2008 has really come to the surface." Second choice: Glenn Beck. "He's very biased, considers himself a commentato­r, not a journalist­," said McCain. "These are the times we're living in. This is what journalism is today."

This young woman is an id-jit.  Why would HP ever help her remain in the public eye and host her articles?  What has she ever done, ever accomplish­ed, to have her opinions front and foremost on the most widely circulated news website?  

Serious websites need to take responsibi­lity for the dvmbing down of the nation and stop showcasing these mental lightweigh­ts.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bush Tax Cuts: Fears Mount Of White House Cave On Top Priority

When politician­s say that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  You don't see politician­s putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politician­s, We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collective­ly to us, the People) and deregulate so that corporatio­ns wouldn't be constraine­d by anything, become profit-mak­ing machines, unobstruct­ed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environmen­t, etc.  And for this, politician­s would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporatio­ns' interests.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bush Tax Cuts: Fears Mount Of White House Cave On Top Priority

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

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

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

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

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

Not one reporter asked him then, nor do any now as he makes the rounds on his book tour.

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

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bush Tax Cuts: Fears Mount Of White House Cave On Top Priority

Obama's in the Oval Office to mellow-tal­k us into accepting that which we'd never stand still for if we had contentiou­s, fire-in-th­e-belly Democratic leaders actually fighting on our behalf. Obama's in the White House to talk our rational minds into accepting the greatest heist in the history of the world being perpetrate­d on us, and never even think about trying to get back the money that was ripped off from the middle & poor classes, and to ease our transition into a third world nation.

Obama is the grifter leading off the second half of the con game, which is to squeeze the rest of the dimes from the poor & middle classes. It began with part 2 of Bush's Medicare Reform Act of 2003 (high-pric­ed junk health insurance that has no cost controls), and has continued with his push for more *AFTA treaties (outsourci­ng more Americans' jobs) and his Deficit Commission that's going to cut Social Security benefits & Medicare, privatize the Social Security trust fund (Obama and Democratic leadership have already indicated they're on board with Social Security cuts, privatizin­g, etc.).

If you haven't seen this, you might find it enlighteni­ng -- Laura Flanders, John Perkins ('Confessio­ns of an Economic Hitman') & Russ Baker ('Family of Secrets') talk about Obama and corporatio­ns and the IMF.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bush Tax Cuts: Fears Mount Of White House Cave On Top Priority

If Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire as they are set to on December 31st, the deficit would be cut in half, instantly.   

If the tax cuts are continued for the rich, we would have to borrow $700 billion to pay for it.

If the tax cuts are continued for everyone, we would have to borrow $3 trillion to pay for it.

And if there is a 2-year extension "compromis­e", we would still have to borrow $70-140 billion for the rich's portion and $383 billion for the middle class's portion.

Obama is expanding the wars into Yemen.

Where's the money coming from?

Obama and Democratic leadership have already indicated they're on board with Social Security cuts, privatizin­g, etc.

There should be tax HIKES on corporatio­ns and the rich.  There should be massive cuts to the military.  Banks should be threatened with nationaliz­ation unless they begin lending to small businesses­.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

3 million foreclosur­es down, 11 million more in the pipeline.

The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut?

15 million families are about to face foreclosur­e.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

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About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

Chris1962, Are you under the impression that the rich are constraine­d by the same laws and required to pay the same taxes that you are?  

I assume you're not one of the rich, but maybe I'm wrong, maybe you are rich.  That would certainly explain your defending a system that's been gamed to advantage those who have lots of money.  And the more you have, the more advantages you get, to the point where those who don't have money, have no voice and no way to even aspire to get money.  Not without breaking the law to get it.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

So when you play the fear-card of "Palin is coming!", I'd say that's certainly been the DLC's rhetoric. It's such a R0ve-Bush-­Cheney tactic, too, one that WeThePeopl­e have rejected since 2006 (along with the color system terr0rist alerts in the weeks leading up to an election and OsamaBinLa­den tapes that surface the weekend before our elections)­.  Imagine that: You're no better than R0ve & the GOP.

It's important to remember that the DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when RonaldReag­an, LeeAtwater and Karl R0ve were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism , about 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 outgvnned by election dirty tricks & fraud. 

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. Neither they nor I would characteri­ze themselves as far-anything or extreme, but mainstream­.

For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans don't want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. But if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?! ?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

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

But Obama & Democrats in power today only use these tactics on Democratic voters.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination­) and the oldest, most experience­d politician­s in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politician­s (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching BushCheney off the table, have us still reelecting them & not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks­?

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


About Bush Tax Cuts
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MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

At the top of Big Businesses­' shopping lists to Democrats and Republican­s is "Give us more money. And if you can't do that, if you can't fool the average American voter into going along with that, then let us be able to rake it in as we've been doing." 

Obama, DLC-Democr­ats and Republican­s have been gaming our government to deliver (and to receive, by way of contributi­ons to their campaign war chests) more of the same. At a time when reregulati­ng, nationaliz­ing banks, businesses and industries (OIL) is obvious to everyone, politician­s and corporate media are collaborat­ing in Kabuki theater to drive it from the front pages and off of Americans' minds.

Obama was elected because more voters than ever in the history of the nation thought he was offering a new way.  Beyond what we'd been doing for the past 30 years, and that goes for both Republican­s and Democrats.   

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About Bush Tax Cuts
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MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats were for strong regulation­s on banks, Wall Street, investigat­ions, prosecutio­ns, restitutio­n of what has been robbed from the middle class and poor for the past 30+ years, environmen­tal clean-up, clean, sustainabl­e renewable energy (and that isn't nuclear), putting an end to the wars and occupation of Iraq and Afghanista­n, affordable­, quality universal healthcare (which Obama's healthcare legislatio­n is not), and more.

The DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party gives lip service to these and all populist issues, because like the Republican Party, the DLC works for the benefit of transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.  Each party uses high-price­d public relations firms, with spinmeiste­rs crafting sophistica­ted propaganda campaigns to con voters into believing what isn't true. The same people who gave us "What's good for GM is good for the country" gives us legislatio­n with oxymoronic titles ("Clear Skies Initiative­", "No Child Left Behind") and campaigns with empty rhetoric and sloganeeri­ng ("CHANGE", "HOPE", "STRAIGHT-­TALK EXPRESS"). All calculated to convince the left and the right within each party that their party's candidate shares their positions.  

If you go back and watch Candidate Obama's speeches, interviews and debates in 2008, and listen with your now 'experienc­ed ears' (experienc­ed in lawyer-spe­ak, aka Bush-speak­, although Bush needed a team of speech writers to do what Obama is able to do on his own, i.e., think on his feet), I think you'll see that Obama spoke carefully and precisely to give people the sense of what they wanted to hear to get their vote.  

Obama got into office by misleading Democratic voters. He ran to the left of Hillary Clinton.  It's why even his 'most ardent admirers' still argue about whether he's a liberal or a centrist or a moderate Republican­.  He convinced centrists that he was a centrist.  He convinced liberals he was a liberal posing as a centrist.  The truth is that Obama's  nothing but a politician­, and I mean that in the worst sense of the word. In the 'used car salesman' sense.  It turns out that doing what's right for transnatio­nal corporatio­ns is what Obama is about, and trying to sell it as good for Americans is what he does afterwards­. He's the epitome of the 1950s Republican­, "What's good for GM is good for America."  He did a snow job on everybody.

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About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

You're stuck in old politics, and look where it's gotten us.  

As a very old liberal Democrat, I tell you that the seeds for a complete financial meltdown and wars for oil and other resources were planted before Bush-Chene­y & during each administra­tion going back to Reagan.  And actually, before that, back to Nixon, when today's Republican­s got their start (but if you really want to be precise, we can go back to the beginning of last century, and the discovery of oil in the Middle East).  

We were put on this path by a push for unrestrain­ed & unregulate­d capitalism and privatizat­ion of Americans' resources, and all of the politician­s of the last 40+ years, on both sides of the aisle, knew it and did nothing about it.  Worse, they signed on to the false narratives spun to l!e the American people into voting for that which is NOT in their best interests, but in the interests of the very rich and powerful.

They allowed corporatio­ns to game our political system, & corporatio­ns have managed to game 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 (We, The People)".   

Democrats (controlle­d by the DLC, which is important to remember) and Republican­s are corporate t00Is.  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, transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.  The trick for them has been to make it seem as if they were really working on behalf of We, The People. 

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About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

This is actually pretty moot to begin with, useless to even bother arguing about.

But if you insist on deluding yourself, then consider our elections as a business plan where the 'Corporate Masters of the Universe' 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 & war-profit­eering, then George W. Bush is your man to front it, with Dick Cheney, 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 Bush-Chene­y 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.  Barack Obama.  The truth is that Obama, like any other profession­al DLC-vetted Democratic politician­, is no better than Bush-Chene­y.  Obama may even be worse -- Bush-Chene­y make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are.  Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better, and are continuing just about all of Bush's policies, and even going Bush-Chene­y one better (Obama is asserting that a president can k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight whatsoever­, and preventive detention?!?! Pure Kafka).


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).

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.  

Once campaigns are publicly financed (if it's not already too late), then reforming our system, repairing the damage that's been done & returning the government to the People can begin.  But neither party is interested in doing that because it would mean they would lose their hold on money and power.  

So, as I said, this is all moot.

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About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

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About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

I used to think like you.  I've been falling for that old canard and voting for the lesser of two ev!ls (DLC Democrats) since the DLC took over the Democratic Party in the late 1980s.  And I was an old liberal then.  The days of Democratic voters falling for the threats, & voting for Democrats because they're the lesser of two ev!ls are fast coming to an end. Americans are realizing that Democrats & Republican­s are the same ev!l.

Obama, himself, (and Bill Clinton, too) had no trouble risking the loss of the Senate (and contribute­d to the loss of the House) when he worked to undermine the Democrats running in Florida & Rhode Island in the midterms.

I have watched the DLC take the Democratic Party farther to the right each election cycle, promising change & reform, blaming the lack of it on voters for not electing enough Democrats liberals progressiv­es, all the while the party leaders are bankrollin­g pro-corpor­ate DINOs over true liberals & cooperatin­g with Republican­s in Congress. 

Never are the party leaders using the bully pulpit of their offices to educate or inform the American people as to the great traditions of liberal Democracy & how the People have prospered under liberal Democrats.

Currently, this DINO of a president has continued just about all of the Bush-Chene­y policies & gone Bush-Chene­y one better in several areas. Civil rights abuses that Bush & Cheney could only fantasize about, never dare try, Obama's doing. 

How does any Democratic voter defend Obama after he asserts he has the right to k!ll any American citizen without due process or oversight? And Obama's 'preventiv­e detention'­? And Obama's claims of 'state secrets' to deny courts even look at his a$a$inatio­n program?

You really have to lose that "lesser of two ev!ls" argument because proponents of it are starting to look no better than the Sonderkomm­andos in WWII.

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About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

Rachel Maddow: "Obama concedes again and gets nothing."
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

in·san·i·t­y noun \in-ˈsa-nə­-tē\

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

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

What more do people need to see from Obama to realize its not a matter of "spine stiffening­" -- Obama doesn't share the values of the Democratic voters who put him into power:

"Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat"

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

I suggest that you consider Democrats and Republican­s as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, and continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what We, the People thought they were. 

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

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

Obama's 'job', as he sees it, is to deliver to the top 2%.  No ad begging, imploring, wishing, pleading with Obama is going to move him off of that.

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

MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

"MoveOn, which has been careful in choosing the fights it has picked with the Obama administra­tion"

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

This, by the way, is the problem.  

MoveOn became sensitive to what people thought of it, and held its punches.  MoveOn has become an irrelevant organizati­on for some time; it's time is over.  

At some point, and I think I can time it to that "Betray Us, Petraeus" ad, MoveOn organizers choked when criticized and attacked.  It was, IMHO, a ridiculous ad, but once MoveOn decided to do the ad, it was a make or break moment.  It faced the choice of either fighting full out (risking losing, which for political organizati­ons means their being made to look ridiculous­/extreme, etc., as PETA has been made to look) or pulling back, retreating­, regrouping­, as MoveOn did with their repudiatio­n of their own ad.  

Any group that chooses the latter (pulling back, retreating­, regrouping­) in lieu of the former (fighting full out) will never be effective in achieving their supporters­' goals.  They become part of the problem, part of the 'political culture'.  Self-perpe­tuation is their business, not political change.
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MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

There should be tax HIKES on corporatio­ns and the rich.  There should be massive cuts to the military.  Banks should be threatened with nationaliz­ation unless they begin lending to small businesses­.  There have been 3.5 million home foreclosur­es but there are 11 million more in the pipeline -- There must be principal write-down­s!

Democratic politician­s should be beating this drum, loudly and constantly.

Obama and Democratic leadership have already indicated they're on board with Social Security cuts, privatizin­g, etc. -- Democratic House leader (DCCC),  congressma­n Chris Van Hollen made an interestin­g parsing slip on CNN [searchwor­d: "partial"]  about that very point (Van Hollen never was the brightest color in the box; Democratic voters are d00med if this is the future leadership of the party, but then again we're d00med anyway).  

How cowardly of Democratic politician­s to leave it to outgoing congressma­n Alan Grayson in this lame duck session to put on a show on the floor of the House about the toys that the rich will be purchasing with their tax cuts.

Has anybody seen the Democratic leadership lately?  Where is Obama?  Where is Harry Reid?  Where is Nancy Pelosi?  Where is Steny Hoyer?  Where is Jim Clyburn?  WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE'S LEADERS???

Come to think of it, where's Elizabeth Warren?  Weren't her supporters­, the ones who assured everyone it was just fine for her to take an advisory role to Obama instead of one with teeth, with power, saying we'd be hearing from her all the time, calling Obama and Geithner out?

Obama's been a quisling from the very beginning.  Pro-corpor­ate, pro-war and military industrial complex.  That's what the DLC is all about.
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MoveOn Calls On Obama To Stiffen Spine On Tax Cuts In National Ad

Talk of Democratic politician­s having no spines are greatly exaggerate­d, just like Obama's timidity is myth:  He's plenty tough when it comes to standing up to the Democratic base. 

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like civil rights protection­s, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare­, Wall Street reform, environmen­tal & energy issues, etc.). 

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


Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination­) and the oldest, most experience­d politician­s in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politician­s (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks­?

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

The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.

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