The New York Times this morning offers an interesting bit of poll analysis:
Among registered voters, 33 percent said they planned to support for Republicans, and 52 percent said they would vote for Democrats. . . .
Coming at the conclusion of a contentious midterm campaign, voters said that neither Democrats nor Republican had offered a plan for governing should they win on Tuesday, the poll found. Yet Americans have some clear notions of how government might change if Democrats win control of Congress: Beyond a quicker exit from Iraq, respondents said they thought a Democratic Congress would be more likely to increase the minimum wage, hold down rapidly rising health and prescription drugs costs, improve the economy and — as Republicans have said frequently in these closing days of the campaign — raise taxes.
. . . Nearly 75 percent of respondents — including 67 percent of Republicans and 92 percent of Democrats — said they expected American troops would be taken out of Iraq more swiftly under a Democratic Congress.
Well, so much for that "no one knows what Democrats stand for" meme, huh? And to think that the voters polled by the NYT figured this out all by themselves, without any great help from the corporate media.
But as the manufactured controversy surrounding John Kerry over the last couple of days has shown, the Democrats' overall image problems are far from solved — even if next Tuesday's elections go as well as we all hope. When I began writing about "the language of a Democratic realignment" a month and a half ago, I quoted Paul Waldman:
If there's one thing Republicans have understood and Democrats haven't, it is that politics is not about issues. Politics is about identity. The candidates and parties that win are not those aligning their positions most precisely with a majority of the electorate. The winners are those who form a positive image in the public mind of who they are (and a negative image of who their opponents are).
So, if you're wondering why the GOP seemed to be running against John Kerry all of a sudden, just look at this loathsome Republican Party web ad and you'll see exactly what Waldman is talking about.
The unspoken, but obvious message of the ad is that Republicans are the kind of people who love and honor our nation's soldiers, while Democrats are the kind of people who sneer and make jokes about them. Forget the issues — which kind of people do you want running this country?
This is the identity-based appeal that the GOP has polished over the past few decades… and despite their momentary success in conveying the policy changes they would make if they take back Congress in 2006, it's the gap Democrats need to fill if they want not just to win an election, but to begin a genuine political realignment.
I've done my share of writing here and elsewhere on exactly what kind of distinction I think Democrats should draw: that Republicans are the kind of people who betray fundamental trusts, while Democrats are the kind of people with enough common sense to recognize the moral duty of solving real problems. It's not just a matter of the "closing message" for the last week of the election campaign, but the kind of issues Democrats choose to set the agenda if they regain control of one or both houses of Congress.
What actions would restore the fundamental breaches of faith wrought by the GOP? What legislation would truly represent doing the people's business, rather than pursuing a partisan agenda? As I noted in the latter post:
If you think of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, you've got exactly the kind of identity that Democrats should be projecting — not ideologues wanting to revolutionize the world with grandiose schemes, but honest, morally centered men and women who want to do the right thing and are smart and determined enough to get it done.
Granted, the ad for Ned Lamont at the top of this post (via My Left Nutmeg) might… umm… be taking this advice a little too literally. But at least it's thinking in the right direction.
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Kazuza
Swopa!
Mike Stark!
Hey Swopa!
Can someone please pour Campbell Brown on MSNBC a nice, steamin’ cup of STFU? She is hanging on to the “Kerry Incident” and refusing to let go.
I wish someone would ask her what her “Heckuva Job Hubby” Dan Senor is doing these days.
Jacqrat @ 3
She must be getting the word from her ReTHUGlican husband to keep it alive.
ACTION ITEM: Lamont Friends, Family and Neighbors Program
http://www.familyfriendsandneighbors.com/
Someone over at the official Lamont blog had a great idea to reach out to many more people in Connecticut!
Go to the friends, family and neighbors website and look up everyone in Connecticut who has the same last name as you, then send them postcards!
I think the recipients would consider this a fun and novel piece of personalized mail, not just more junk.
Please hurry – the deadline for Friends Family and Neighbors is 11pm tonight. After that, you can no longer send postcards.
Here is the exact post from the commenter at the official blog:
“I’ve been going over the main roads in our neighborhood, then had a thought – why not contact everyone in the state with my last name? OK, it seemingly is not very common, which helps – but I still am accumulating quite a list. I just changed slightly my standard message from “I’m your neighbor at” to “I’m another *** in CT [Hamden]”. If your name is common, maybe find everyone with your exact name; kinda fun, too!
As we frantically try to beat the deadline, maybe other creative ideas can be posted as replies here(?). Anyway, hopefully this might help.
Rock the boat!”
The unspoken, but obvious message of the ad is that Republicans are the kind of people who love and honor our nation’s soldiers, while Democrats are the kind of people who sneer and make jokes about them.
That may be but it’s not going to fly. If anything, the Reps have probably knocked out the one person they’d like to run against in 2008
Whoops!
Bingo!
Seems a little late to be sending post cards.
I love the ad. I just saw Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Ned reminds me a lot of Jimmy Stewart. For all you guys in CT, keep you chin up. Pay no attention to the polls. Make your own reality and make it infectious. This is the last weekend going in. Ned ran a great campaign. He should be proud of himself and have a good time.
Go, Ned! Go CT!
Good post, Christy. I also liked the YouTube you posted last thread…about what Americans have accomplished in the past and what Americans can do together.
that add makes me want to go to the cheese factory for diner tonight
LindyH, that’s Swopa.
I think the Democrats have a plan, of sorts, for what they want to do if they take over Congress. Nancy Pelosi has explained what she wants to do in her first week as Speaker, and Henry Waxman and John Conyers have made it clear investigations are in the offing for the wasteful spending in Iraq and electronic eavesdropping, among other things.
What the Democrats need to do, assuming they take power, is to attempt to do those things. Then they need to prove by their actions what they are about. We’ve learned that words are cheap in Washington DC.
I’d say more, but to say I’m in a bad mood right now is an understatement of epic proportions. I can’t separate my own sadness from the pessimism I feel about America and its politicians right now.
Thanks for thinking about this, Swopa, and let’s hope that Democratic politicians take the things people write here to heart.
Swoopa – Democrat identity. We do need to work on that! Watching this entire election cycle pass with so many establishment Dems gambling on the stfu strategy is both frustrating and a nail biter.
EPU’d
Why is MSM ignoring Iraq or the Stark/ Allen Wrench fiasco or Hasterts predatory favoritism or has Bob Ney resigned?
Aside from Iraq the elephant in the room…
In Arkansas we already have major problems with early voting on electronic machines. Predictions of final election results could be delayed into Jan ‘07. How many other states are having similar problems?
snip
snip
Sounds to me like about as much of a plan as one can hope might survive contact with the Beltway. As for raising taxes…well, let’s start with some progressivization: drop the cap on SS taxation so the rich are paying their way, and then we can talk the next day about Bush’s regressive “cuts.”
T- @ 12
That’s what I get for trying to sneak a peek at work. Good post Swopa.
I agree with Cujo.
There needs to be a relentless, tenacious fight for transparency into what went on the last 5 years. Just imagine what we don’t know…
This is the perfect storm for the GOP. Their brazen disrespect for the rule of law presents the Democratic House Majority a once in a lifetime opportunity. It is time to smash their political worldview into a million tiny pieces wielding nothing but the powers granted by the Constitution in pursuit of the truth.
Cujo at 13
Suggest that early-on they also take a good look at media consolidation — including the exhumation and forensic exam of the fairness doctrine’s rotting corpse.
My slogan:
If you want more Iraqs and Katrinas, vote Republican!
By your logic, Swopa, shouldn’t we then focus on all the crooked Republicans so that we can show what kind of people THEY are? Who wants to be governed by a Republican crook?
On a seperate note: What is it with the Republicans calling the Democratic Party the Democrat Party? Is this some shortened nickname? Should we start calling them the Republic Party?
Even for voters who have remained utterly ignorant of the evidence for Diebold machine tamperability (and tampering!), that should be apparent enough. With a paper ballot, one can see exactly where they’ve put their mark.
Dem agenda will mostly be show. No dem bill will get past the veto pen unless Clusterfuck agrees with it- so forget about tax reform.
The oversight, however, will be very real and badly needed.
Goopers have to be just a little nervous at the thought of dems with subpoena power and Clusterfuck still in the White House- OOPS- wasn’t supposed to end up that way. HOLY SHIT Mein Gooper- Hands in cookie jar?
T- @ 17
let me tell you somethng, we have allready won majorities in both houses
will the result reflect the actual vote?
that is our only concern right now
of course we need lamont to win, lieberman is a republican calling himself a democrat and he will bring everything we try to do down claiming some kind of mandate if he gets elected
the conneticut race is much mroe important now then before
he will get away with anything he wants if he wins
Carrying over from the last thread, the despicable general I couldn’t remember was Major General Barbara Fast. She was the chief intelligence officer in Iraq, a representative and protegee of General Geoffrey Miller, who was responsible for the interrogators at Abu Ghraib and who ordered the Gitmo-ization of the intelligence unit there.
retirin’ in five @ 18
this is the most important order of bussiness, break up the media moguls using anti trust law
Cozumel @ 6
Nah. They want to run against Hillary. This is why their pundits and enablers in the MSM keep saying that she has a lock on the Dem primaries.
OT/
Mark Foley’s acting debut — it went straight to dvd release.
sorry if it was posted before, but I needed a pick me up and thought I’d share.
“Today with horror I read in the Washington Post that Michael Chertoff is receiving the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Henry Petersen Award, the most prestigious award for the DoJ’s Criminal Division. Besides being my grandfather, Henry Petersen was the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, chief prosecutor for Watergate, and career employee at the DOJ. What makes this situation so horrible, besides the fact that Mr. Chertoff is a political appointee, an ass, not a career employee at the DOJ, and probably the exact opposite of my grandfather: I moved to New Orleans from D.C. a couple months after Katrina to do volunteer legal work. I staff a free legal clinic in the 9th Ward with the Common Ground Legal Collective as well as several bankruptcy/debtor relief clinics in and around New Orleans as part of The Pro Bono Project. As you can imagine, I deal with Mr. Chertoff’s mess on a daily basis. Normally, I go out to lunch with all the heads and award recipient and to the award ceremony (being held tomorrow [today -ed] at the DOJ) every year with my grandmother and mother to present the award. It’s probably best that I don’t go as they would have a tough time holding me back.”
http://www.wonkette.com/politi…..211941.php
it’s all about meme.
EvilDrPuma @ 15:
I’ll second your call to drop the cap on Social Security taxation. If people with six-figure incomes want to collect from Social Security, they can contribute on their entire income (less 401K), like the rest of us.
I get tired of people who are well-enough off to be able to talk about retiring at 55 with a full pension, bitching about taxes and SS. I heard one of them this morning, on the train, talking about it (minus the tax complaint, I will admit), but he couldn’t understand why so many people say they can’t afford to buy a house, in a state where the median house is out of reach of 70 percent of the residents.
MayDaze @ 27
We’ll know who they want to run against this time around by who they take out pre primary. Just like they did last time ; )
Titanyum @ 20
I think Christy wanted to call them the Republican’ts. Works for me.
I just want to see some Democrat, ANY Democrat ask a borrow-and-spend Credit-Card Conservative where the revenue comes from without reworking the tax code, and ending the giveaways to the richest Americans (aka according to Beloved Leader, “His Base”).
I suspect that even the densest (well, maybe not Club 4 Growth) republicans will start to break the code that the money doesn’t come from the No-Tax Fairy…she died along with Saint Ronnie.
Democrats: for fiscal responsibility and bringing the American Dream to Everyone…
Republicans: for fiscal insanity and bringing their version of the American Dream to those who can pay them the most.
Republicans stand for a richer nation, but don’t care as much if only a few make it at the expense of others.
Republicans will use the power of government to favor the privileged at the expense of the working and middle class; they will use the economic/regulatory power to favor the largest corporations over consumers and small business people; and they will use the military to protect the global interests of the most powerful corporations, and to this end they will use military power unilaterally at the expense of international institutions. They also support government intervention in people’s lives to impose a narrow religious view of acceptable behavior, and they will trample on the Bill of Rights to achieve their goals.
Democrats stand for both a prosperous and fairer country, in which economic success is defined by how well the working and middle classes are doing, and how compassionate we are to those less fortunate.
Democrats will use government to provide economic security to working and middle class Americans, to provide health security for all and economic security for the elderly. They will use the power of government to protect these Americans from abuse by large, impersonal corporations and to ensure that competition and corporate behavior are fair and in the public interest. Democrats will pursue international institutions and cooperative solutions to foreign problems and avoid unilateral military interventions that are not essential for national security. They oppose government intervention in peoples’ private lives, and are more supportive of the Bill of Rights.
The thing the Democratic leadership and advisers need to “get” at the gut level is that the Republican party is perfectly willing to shoot anyone who stands in their way in the face…and lie about it.
We just don’t fully comprehend the idea of not being fair. We can’t conceive of living in a world of totalitarian power and thinking it’s a good thing. They can and do.
Until we create a media response team and a media message structure that is more aligned with the take-no-prisoners attitude that many bloggers have, we can expect that the GOP will be able to not only steal the direction of media messages, but do it by unchallenged bold-faced lies.
Uh-oh. Foley’s still in rehab, but he is the gift that keeps on giving……
The NYDN
Jane Hamsher is a liar and a hypocrite.
[CHS notes: What are you, a seven year old with no imagination? You come all the way over to the blog and THIS is the best that you can do. Sheesh. What ever happened to the troll quality control standards?]
A fellow worker asked me this morning what I found so objectionable about Senator Clinton. I reflected for a brief moment and decided it was Clinton’s arrogance which I found most offensive. By this I mean her apparent assumption that if she can lock up the Democratic nomination soon enough, that Democrats and progressives, etc., will have no other place to run. I so want to prove the Hill wrong on this.
Hugh – Thanks for the list of names. Putting the (new to me) names on my research list.
T said -
How are Dems going to conduct oversight without changes in secrecy laws? Cheney’s early energy meeting and who actually attended in the white house is still a national security secret.
Gee Cujo, does this supplant my comment as the stupidest?
FJM @ 38
I’m a movie buff, and when I watched the Lamont-Loserman debate in July, I said to my spouse,”gosh, he could be Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith!”. And that’s exactly what Ned is! This race has become an obsession with me(Nutmeg Stata native). I cannot BELIEVE that CONN voters would send that tw-faced, pompous, Republican ass-licking sack of crap back to the Senate for SIX LONG YEARS! Please, God, NO!
FJM @ 38
Agree 100%!
on the air now!
raven @ 41
Raven — feed the trolls, nevermore. (Please.)
FJM @ 38
We’ve told you before, Joe. We won’t troll your web site if you don’t troll ours.
Cozumel @ 32
Well, I can go along with that. But I’ll bet dollars to donuts that they won’t try to take Hillary out – at least until after the primaries! ; )
Montana senate race moves to toss up..
Shit- somethin we did’t need just now.
A little off target but…
We lost a great writer in William Styron.
I liked his 1990 memoir “Darkness Visible” which chronicles (sp) his bouts with depression.
A great quip… in the fall of 2000, he had a relapse that led to a hospital stay…
When leaving the hospital he said “I got out just in time to see the election, which almost put me back in.”
How true…
Jack
FJM @ 38
Do you have a kick me sign on your back that you’re not aware of?
rwcole @ 48
for a more optimistic view see DKos re early voter survey:
punaise- thanks- I needed that!
Fully
Jaundiced
Mediocrity
rwcole @ 52
we’re here to help.
tommy yum @ 44
This is sooooo cool.
Cujo – Hang in there. We are in it for the long haul.
Why won’t she allow comments that disagree with her to be posted on HuffPo when she attacked Lieberman for censoring comments on his blog?
[CHS notes: That will be enough name calling — (a) it is bad form to bring a disagreement from one blog to another; (b) HuffPo has some sort of weird comments issue — mine don’t get posted for days. It’s not Jane, it’s the way that comments get posted over there. But, as this is not HuffPo, bitching here — especially rudely on a post that is not even Jane’s post, so you owe Swopa an apology — is just not appropriate. ]
If a president lies (knowingly) about the reasons for taking this country into war, is this then impeachable? Is it criminal?
Tommy and Ken are being interviewed right now on WKZE.com (streaming) or, for Macs, go to Shoutcast.com and search for WKZE (it’ll open in iTunes.
Last week Dick Cheney went on talk radio and said using waterboarding as a technique to gather intelligence was a “no brainer.” The next day the press corps jumped on the issue and asked Tony Snow about it. Tony Snow said that Dick Cheney does not misspeak and Cheney had not condoned waterboarding in that interview.
Dick Cheney is by any definition a loathsome figure in American politics. Yet by the end of the Snow press conference the story was over as far as the corporate media was concerned. No need for Cheney to make a clarifying statement. Fast forward to this week and the Kerry matter.
Democrats are not going to sell a positive image until they take on the corporate media. Trying to thread a needle with the right sound bites to create the right image is a fools errand for Democrats. Dems have to declare and declare incessantly that the corporate owned media is forever promoting the corporate owned Republican political party. Dems, at every opportunity, have to accuse members of the main stream media of being corrupt corporate tools who provide an overwhelming advantage to Republicans by forever lionizing or covering up for Republicans and vilifying Democrats and promoting faux outrage over trivial matters.
When I click on WKZE’s listen Live button, all I can get is the horse ad–no further. What am I doing wrong?
tommy and ken are kewl!
amazing.
FJM @
57
Not that I don’t LOVE to say “I told you so….” but I TOLD YOU SO.
FJM at 57 — (a) it is bad form to bring a disagreement from one blog to another; (b) HuffPo has some sort of weird comments issue — mine don’t get posted for days. It’s not Jane, it’s the way that comments get posted over there. But, as this is not HuffPo, bitching here — especially rudely on a post that is not even Jane’s post — is just not appropriate.
Was Cheney’s remarks a “slam dunk”?
That idiot should be on trial…
Tony Snowjob is a laughable plunderer of the truth
Jack
mutzali @ 61
You must be on Mac. For Macs, we have to go to SHoutcast.com, and “search” for wkze
mutzali @ 61
Ditto.
Not on a MAC
FJM @ 57
OK, I’ll bite.
1. Not her blog.
2.There are comments disagreeing with her there.
3. Maybe you’re right – it is all about you.
4. There is no FJM in Team. Um. never mind.
angie @ 62
That was really fun — and they got plugs in for Lamont, Hall and Gillibrand!!!!
rwcole @ 48
I keep reading that Burns is a hard closer in tight races. But Kos quotes Tester’s org:
Kos says
That’s a decent lead out of the starting box.
Wow. I didn’t realize Jane ran this place AND HuffPo. Where does she find the time?
Swopa says:
“Iraq’s Shiite government to the U.S.: Fight our enemies, or get out of the way so we can do it”
http://www.needlenose.com/node…..a755a1fb71
The whole Middle East is ready to blow up! The feeling here is one of helplessness.
I am also in a foul mood and wonder if all this talk by the pollsters is only setting up the dems getting only 14 seats and Rove declaring he won.
Awhile back there were only 12 seats where dems lead outside the margin of error. So why suddenly do we believe that we can get over 30. Or even 20 seats?
Actually the push this Sat., Sun and Monday will be enormous. Just when everone is so tired, then the Rovians will come out to play in their dracula customes and accuse one and all of [fill in the blank].
And this cycle we did some good work. Got some good people noticed and we need to help them prepared for next time. Because, no matter what happens on Tuesday, we will not give up. No one in America before us has given up and we should not either.
mutzali @ 71
707
The above is only partly true. I won’t repeat previous discussions on “identity” being = to Maslow’s “membership” on the hierarchy of psychological needs.
But, ultimately, issues are more important b/c whether the “identity” is real/true is determined by actual issues.
Identity is myth creation and marketing (which I’ve posted on at length and won’t repeat myself), and repugs were good at it, but only so long as actual issues didn’t come along to expose those self-created myths as myths (i.e. lies).
If politics were simply about creating an identity, then Chimpco and repugs would be sailng along in this election. Obviously that is not the case, and it is not b/c their self created myth and marketing have changed, it is b/c the issues that dominate the election (whatever they may be for a particular voter) destroyed the myths upon which the identity was based.
UptownNYChick @ 69
and FDL and Howie Klein and DWT! Plus more than a few good words about GOTV and how this country has been hijacked!
Woohoo!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 72
Yeah, it really is awful. I was listening to Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post last night… he just got back from Iraq a week or so ago, and “helpless” basically sums up how he felt as well.
mutzali @ 71
FJM @ 57
And how does the mighty Kos feel about all this?
CMike @ 60
Someone else thinking the same way, generally.
Two things the Democrats could do to ameliorate the situation, both of which they’ve previously acceded to in hope of attracting campaign cash. First, reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. Second, actually begin to, once again, see that the Sherman Act is enforced, as it was intended.
Just heard something interesting in an Idaho Congressional debate:
“I used to have money in my pocket and friends around the world. But not anymore.”
Domestic impoverishment, and international disgrace, thank you Republican party.
I would change the above to read “…whether the identity is real/true or regardless continues to be salable as an identity…”
It doesn’t matter if the identity is “real,” just whether it is salable.
Caller to Randi Rhodes:
Bush Administration’s policy should be called “Stay the Intercourse,” because we are getting screwed.
I think that is a T-shirt
If groups like the DLC and people such as Hillary Clinton and Lieberman are the big winners between this Nov. 7 and 2008. What have we really won? Party identity is extremely important. I want the sun to shine bright between the two dominate political parties.
Evil Parallel Universe @ 75
Yes, exactly. The point I’m trying to drive at is that this collapse is an opportunity for Democrats to define an new
mythnarrative of their own.Swopa @ 77
swopa – where were you listening to shadid (and is it still available)? he was the go to guy in the early months of our war against iraq and i’d like to listen to what he has to say now. thx.
punaise is quicker on the draw. Quick pun.
Man, this is gonna be a crazed weekend, trying to keep up on this election by pure force of will and frantic mouse clicks. May have to cook a few trolls just to keep the energy up…
What would a Dem majority do?
Swopa @ 77
for more joyless analysis, see Dana’s chat today
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..00895.html
and just for more depressing news, go here wrt to Gaza. ET told us about this interview today and buried in the abject horror and misery is this:
http://www.democracynow.org/ar…..02/1451201
By the way, Fox News’ ratings are dropping, thanks to their ties to the Bushies: Live by the lie, die by the lie.
Swopa – I agree, since I am a Dem b/c I prefer their policies on many issues. That being said, I hope that whatever they create it is not necessarily based simply on myth creation and marketing – or if it is, that if they talk the talk, they also walk the walk.
What would a Dem majority mean for Wall Street?
Why does big pharma like Joe?
jeffreyw @ 91
Fact – Historically, the market has done better under Dems than Pubs.
Christy – I just wanted to say “thank you” for the great post from this morning. Truly an inspiration. My wife asked me last night why I was so passionate about politics and such a true-blue Democrat. One word immediately blurted from my mouth: JFK. Your post summed up what I tried to explain to her last night. I just forwarded it to her.
Here is what I posted as a comment:
This is WAY EPU territory.
I also was born after JFK was gone but I have felt his spirit throughout my life.
My first book report was on PT-109.
Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon soon after I was born. JFK was the man who inspired America to go to the Moon.
JFK died for what he believed. His brother Robert suffered the same fate. As did Martin Luther King and Malcom X.
Men who inspire Americans to do the right thing also inspire fear in those who would hold power at all costs.
Several years ago there was an older gentleman who lived across the street from me. Nice guy. Tall. Played college basketball for the University of Utah. His wife had passed years earlier and he was suffering from a sort of bone cancer. Terminal. I would watch him pull dandilions from his front lawn and wonder: “you only have months or weeks to live and you’re pulling weeds from your lawn?”
I was increduleous about it. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Habit I suppose.
During one of my visits with him before he died, I noticed a framed print of JFK hanging on his wall. I inquired about the print and he informed me that he bought the print after Kennedy had been elected. He went on to entertain me tales of being a lifelong Democrat, volunteering on many local Dem campaigns, and of the sorrow he and the Nation had when Kennedy was killed. One of his mottos was: “When in doubt, vote Democrat!”
After he passed away his kids came and had a yard sale when they cleared out his house in preparation to sell it. I bought the JFK print for 50 cents, and would have paid much more. It hangs in my office and I always get comments about the cheezy frame with the lime green velvet liner. Vintage. As in when truth, good government, and a clarion call to service in the name of the public good was in fashion.
Vintage.
Let’s bring back JFK’s vision.
Again, thanks Christy.
jeffreyw @ 91
In medicine, unregulated growth (a.k.a.
“cancer”) is considered dangerous to the organism. I think the principle may be applied here, too.
Some loan outfits may worry about a Dem majority.
CMike @ 60
It’s a chicken-and-egg thing. What you say is correct, but they also won’t break through the media’s addiction to the GOP narrative until they supply a replacement narrative of their own.
Both things need to happen.
Jeffreyw @ 87
I want the no-bid contracts stopped or thrown out. I’d like to see them illegal for any dollar amount over $1000 (and no getting multiple contracts in order to consolidate them into a big deal, either). Also bring back the Fairness Doctrine, mroe local media ownership, genuine anti-trust investigations, and real oversight by Congress.
Then I want a starship.
jeffreyw @ 91
This is just more BS. HOW could unsupportable debt via no-limit deficit spending be smart economic and business management?
If Bush ran a company I was invested in, I’d call for his head at the next shareholder meeting:
-> Backing a losing product line with no development, marketing, or support plan,
-> Spending the company into bankruptcy to continue to market the losing product plan,
-> Lying to the market, the employees, the shareholders, and the regulators,
-> Wiretapping and lying about any director that dares to challenge management’s position,
and so on and on and on.
Wall Street has it’s mind so fixated on quick profits by trading on this quarter’s and this FY’s earnings, they can’t look up long enough to see that this crazed weasel behavior will bring down the whole top-heavy economy. Stupid.
OT / aside – not to jump the gun on the 2008 horse race, but the November issue of Harper’s (not available online yet) has a cover story on Obama that is not particulary encouraging. Short version: nice guy, but one who quickly became an establishment insider and will not make waves in the centrist puddle. talks the idealist talk – to some degree – but knows which side his bread is buttered on (ADM, etc.)
Barack Obama Inc.
The Birth of a Washington Machine
Just saw the Diane Benson TV ads for the first time. They are on the air thanks to YOU good folks here at fdl, we raised $7,000 which covered radio ads and the initial TV ads.
Because we raised so much, the state party and other candidates with money to spare have pitched in. Now she can afford the critically important television ads to cover the whole state. It’s a really big Congressional district.
There is a photo on her website of her and her son which just breaks my heart. That little boy grows up to be sent to Iraq 3 times, be stop-lossed, and during the stop-loss have both his legs blown off.
I have HAD ENOUGH. How about you?
I have a son with two good legs and I think I’ll go have that forest sanity walk right now, with tears in my eyes, thank you.
Our children! They are killing and crippling our children! and FOR WHAT???
[there followed a long string of unegregious-like curses]
The mentioned story describes Democrats very well. But I think Democrats can be much more, because people do change very often and are consitently under emotional influences which are related to news and personal history.
Thank you for sharing this story with me !
Phoenix Woman @ 89
Interesting, I have been able to switch a few friends over to Olbermann (from where I try not to ask).
Selling Olbermann to many men is so easy. Just mention he was once a sportscaster and speaks the truth like a sportscaster with facts on hand.
egregious @ 101
Linky, please?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 29
I disagree. I think it would be best if you DID go and said exactly what you think.
This shit goes on when no one calls them on it.
I will never forget when Ron Reagan Jr. called out Shrub on stem cell research at his own father’s funeral.
This is YOUR legacy from your grandpa that they are besmirching. No one (except your grandma and your mom) has more standing than you to protest this travesty.
I have known Mike Chertoff since he was a line assisatant in SDNY, you are so correct that this is a travesty. He he is the antithesis of what this award stands for.
Please, be your most eloquent tomorrow –and give the press a head’s up to cover it.
I keep seeing this theme come up, scrutiny,oversight,etc. They seem to be scared to death of a Democratic majority because we might start looking into all the unscrupulous activities of many different players.
I say, come Wednesday, we chip in and buy magnifying glasses to give to the new Dem majority. Thats is one of my most fervent hopes,looking back and putting the looking glass to the shady,criminal things that have been going on.Then, a lot of long prison sentences and preventive legislation to get some common decency back in this country.
egregious @ 102
Killing and crippling our own… and others. There will be a lot of people carrying scars of all sorts for a long, long time because of these maniacs.
selise @ 85
It was a book signing in Berkeley, although I was told he was on the radio (NPR?) earlier in the day. He was on his way to the airport after the event, so I’m not sure what city he might be in now.
Here’s ET’s post with links
Hey jeffreyw, it’s about unsupportable greed vs. good business.
A good business and a good economy works to keep the market fair and the products both safe and honest.
This administration is in ZERO way interested in any of this. This administration is interested only in the fastest, fattest profits via quick trading, windfall sales, regulations that benefit their friends and investments, and favored no-bid or greased contracts.
It’s all about the greed for a very few, and the rest are going along hoping to pick up a few crumbs along the way.
It’s like watching sea gulls at a bait barge. Smells that way, too, IMO.
Wow, the Republican’ts really will do anything for votes. The latest story on TV is that Brad and Angelina are in fear of being snuffed by Al Qaeda!
That was fun. Don’t forget gang, we’re gonna be on Maddow in the last half-hour of her show tommorrow evening. 7:30 PM eastern, I think, but don’t hold me to it.
We’re gonna tear it up. Mean it.
oops (via Raw Story)
jeffreyw @ 96
Good. They need more regulation. Of course, this will eventually effect the stock markert, not only because of a decrease in consumer spending when all the option arms readjust at the same time because of new lending guidelines, but also because the MBS securities that are the basis of so many institutional portfolios are going to be the junk bonds of the 2000’s. Considering the current growth numbers, its only a matter of when the recession starts, not if. Pessimistic, I know.
montag @ 108
yep.
http://gorillasguides.blogspot.com/
MayDaze @ 112
Mr. and Mrs. Smith go to Washington
new thread
P J Evans @
98
And a pony!
retirin’ in five @ 18
I agree. The Fairness Doctrine, in retrospect, was a very necessary thing, particularly in the massively consolidated media markets we now have.
raven @ 41
raven, I apologized for my outburst in the thread in question and I apologize here as well. Hopefully, you’ll catch it this time.
P J Evans @ 98
While I don’t agree with your upper limit, any no-bid contract of more than a few million dollars or a few months’ duration should be forbidden. I think there’s actually a reg like that in place now, but it apparently allows exceptions. I’m not a contracting expert, but there are rules about what kind of contracts are allowed at what budget sizes, etc.
I continue to be amazed at how little the rules I was used to working under for the DoD seem to apply here.
I wonder if Ned will perform with Tom and Ken. He’s pretty good on keyboards.
http://www.videoegg.com/video/ehyTI
Cujo359 @ 122
I’m flexible on the upper limit; it’s just that I don’t want someone being able to get, say, five hundred very-small-amount no-bid contracts for the same thing as a way of getting one much-larger no-bid contract. I know someone will find a way around just about any rule or regulation designed to prevent this kind of – well, I don’t know that illegality is the best word for it – but I’d like to see better use of controls on these things. Starting with making politicians sell stocks or put them in a genuinely blind trust upon being nominated for office, as a pre-condition for election. (No, I don’t like Cheney or Frist.)
Not as well as this guy can.
Kinda looks like Ned, if you look at the face. :)
Yes, lying us into war is impeachable. There just hasn’t been a sufficient majority who would do it. After this election there probably still won’t be, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Polls: I suspect the Republicans are so desperate they’ll try anything to muddy the waters. The polls have favored Dems for some time now, so it’s not terribly surprising they’re posting different numbers — trying to keep their voters interested in voting. Just ignore the polls from here on in. This is all out war all over the country. If we’re winning any seats in Idaho (of all places) then we should even be in Georgia and Alabama kickin ass and takin’ names.
There should be focus in the tight senate races, but any House race within -5 points should be considered a tossup we could win.
If there are about 100 races contested and maybe only 80 seriously, then let’s take 90% of ‘em — that’s 72 seats! Go for it!
Good ad. Of course, Jimmy Stewart was a Republican. ;-) But the film is a (non-partisan) classic.
Um, you mean like Jane Hamsher claimed only yesterday on this very blog?–
Anti blog b.s. @
128
Uh… Your Point?
Is Hillary the only Democrat in existence?
Or is she the only one you really notice?
Both points that Jane makes are valid. Clinton did triangulate the party out of its identity with the American public (a p.r. issue), but that doesn’t mean Democrats stopped standing for anything. They didn’t. They stand for plenty of things, and even the public know what those are, despite a near-blackout of the Dem message from the media.
Why don’t you take the anti-blog out of your name and just go by b.s., because that’s all you’ve offered here.
Message to Lieberman, the GOP, and the Pentagon: Better trolls, please.
Tony Perkins just told Chris Matthews that Democrats have no regard, haven’t never had regard for people in the military. Great! Have the people in charge served? Bush? Cheney? Rumsfeld? Libby? Hastert? Frist? Lieberman? What is the evidence of their regard? Draft dodging? Who has regard? John Kerry!
That Lamont ad is SPECTACULAR.
And the GOP ad is spectacularly awful. The soldiers at the beginning of the ad look dead, fer chrissake.
Of all the registered voters polled: “33 percent said they planned to support for Republicans, and 52 percent said they would vote for Democrats” why then does Lieberman seem to be ahead in the polls?
LIEBERMAN’S NOT A DEMOCRAT ANYMORE.
Is CT an exception to this poll?