Gonzo visits Iraq to offer advice on setting up legal system.

PB @ 121

I agree. The silence from the Dems at this point on anything is *deafening*…and I can’t quite tell if it’s a media shut out, or if they are indeed happily out fundraising or vacationing or whateverthehelltheydo in August…

Peter DeFazio gave a passionate speech on the House floor about spending money in Iraq, but the majority of the Democrats want to make it about tax policies, which is just plain dumb.

Name names. Cite examples. Who is this “majority of Dems”? I’ll even give you a cheat sheet, a resource with the voting records, standings on issues and issue groups ratings.

I can see the media shut out and/or its manipulation of the truth at work. If you were actively working on the ground, you’d see it, too. Like CNN’s Amy Walters last Sunday morning claiming Hillary had improved her position during the Presidential forum at YearlyKos — although Hillary was solidly booed and hissed for her dodging questions about taking money from lobbyists.

And Walters claiming Edwards remained a third tier candidate after his performance at YKos, in spite of far more solid crowd approval at YKos — and not a single boo or hiss.

Example cited. Show us yours. Just bashing Dems at large is not going to win you any friends from people like me who are shedding blood, sweat and tears to change the party from the ground up.

selise @ 41

i think this is a really important point.

why don’t the dems make this argument?

I agree. The silence from the Dems at this point on anything is *deafening*…and I can’t quite tell if it’s a media shut out, or if they are indeed happily out fundraising or vacationing or whateverthehelltheydo in August…

Peter DeFazio gave a passionate speech on the House floor about spending money in Iraq, but the majority of the Democrats want to make it about tax policies, which is just plain dumb.

OEST @ 21

Well, I guess some people feel confident to believe that nonsense, since the Democrats were too stupid after the bridge collapse to say, “this is what happens when you are on your way to spending $1 trillion in Iraq, especially after it’s been proven over and over again that the Bush strategy there is a disaster.”

Since they don’t want to continuously put the face of waste in Iraq on things like the bridge collapse and the pipe explosion in NY City, idiotic Republicans feel confident that spending on the, quote, “welfare state,” is the reason.

If you don’t define yourself, other people will define you.
If you don’t define the terms, others will.

They have a right to say it. Democrats are too stupid to use the waste in Iraq as part of the reason we can’t put money towards infrastructure in this country. Instead, they went into this foolishness about needing to raise taxes. No, you need to stop spending money in Iraq, and prosecute and recover the money from every company that received a no-bid contract for Iraq or Katrina and did nothing, as well as go after the people who were in charge of the money that went missing in Iraq.

Thank you so much for repeatedly calling us stupid, you and your straw man you brought with you.

That helps me so much, thanks a bunch. I guess I was liking myself just a bit too much lately.

I don’t recognize your name, not certain if you comment here regularly — but the Democratic Party members here along with the progressives who aren’t Dem members have consistently and frequently SCREAMED about the vast resources this administration has squandered because its rejection of government as an instrument of, by and for the people to solve problems that individuals cannot solve on their own.

The tens and now hundreds of thousands of members of DailyKos have screamed about it. The members of the HuffPo and TPM communities have screamed about it. We are only too conscious of the waste laid to our nation’s name and budget by this administration, since many if not most of us have suffered for this over the last 6-plus years, including those of us who’ve suffered losses in some way due to the Iraq War and to Katrina.

Some of the most important posts this site has ever published were about this administration’s abuses of our national resources on poor prioritization, like Christy Hardin Smith’s post about the Sago mining accident, A Question of Doing What’s Right.

And many of us commenters here in this blog are actively putting boots to the ground to take this country back, putting it to candidates who are not representing us (like HRC’s dodging the question of money from lobbyists at the YKos convention a week ago), or promoting those that do (like BlueAmerica candidates featured here each week), while phonebanking and going door-to-door and contacting our elected officials to get in their faces to change the status quo.

The question is no longer about the Dems you call stupid — I am one of those Dems. The question is what the hell you are personally doing about it, because coming here and berating all Dems with a f*cking wide paint brush isn’t going to cut it any longer.

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

And some people cannot understand why we need a break on Saturday mornings around here…

What you are is predictable.

I knew someone would mention what people have “SREAMED ABOUT” before, which is why I specifically said “after the bridge collapse.”

I watched all of these Democrats come on television after the collapse and skirt around the issue of the waste in Iraq as this country crumbles, without asking the question “WHAT ARE OUR PRIORITIES.” Barney Frank said one sentence about it, and almost swallowed his tongue, and made sure not to keep saying it. Amy Klobuchar said one sentence on Lou Dobbs and turned as red as her dress and made sure not to say it again.

The point is, the Democrats should have made it the CENTER of their argument. The American people would have agreed, but they are afraid to rock to the boat. They listen to these ignorant consultants who wouldn’t know how to win an argument if the opposition went home.

The strategy of those in Congress, as they showed, was to make it about taxes, which is just plain stupid. The bulk of Klobuchar and Frank’s comments was tax policy, which is typical of the Democrats. Talk about something that makes the American people’s eyes glaze over, instead of seizing a red meat issue and making it about priorities — infrastructure or Iraq, and then making the Republicans choose.

The Democrats know nothing.

Here’s an excerpt from his latest screed, dated July 30, 2007:

I have been one of the very few retrogradists openly calling for the elimination of women’s suffrage in the interest of human liberty, besides Ann Coulter, I am unaware of any other reasonably popular columnist who is willing to publicly state such an iconoclastic position. However, once Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is elected president with the benefit of a democratic Senate and House of Representatives, I expect that it will not be long before there are other voices joining the small choir of the inequalitarians in defense of freedom, liberty and human dignity.

America’s second president, John Adams, informed his wife that women would not be permitted to vote due to their predilection for what he described as the “tyranny of the petticoat”. Like most men over the age of 30, he was familiar with the dictatorial manner in which most women exercise whatever authority they possess; anyone who has ever heard a woman speaking to an adult in a manner better suited to small children will understand what Adams was referring to.

Umm… OK?

Just a quick drive by. I had a brief face-to-face with my congressman, Joe Donnelly this morning. The only thing I brought up was his FISA vote. He needs to realize what a horrible mistake that was.

My little town (pop approx. 2,000) had their annual parade this morning and Joe and his wife, Jill, actually showed up to walk in it.

I walked a lot of parades with him last summer when I was running for state rep and he was running for congress so he knows me and went out of his way to come over and say “hi.”

I think he wished he hadn’t when I brought up FISA. Although I was VERY civil about it.

well done! thank you!

have you email christy to let her know? i think it would give her some cheer to know.

Selise, I took it the same way Rayne did. I’m a democrat, which means (in some people’s minds) that I’m responsible for the mess. Just because our so-called leadership is not doing their jobs, doesn’t mean I’m not doing my part. I took the comment as just another way to paint all democrats with a broad brush. I’m tired of being denigrated by people who don’t lift their finger, and who just expect everyone else to solve the problems. But the problems belong to all of us, and we should all be part of the solution, instead of whining and buying into the republican frame.

Lindy, I thought I’d add another voice in defense of what OEST said. See, I’m really not mad at all Democrats, just the DINOs that did the most horrendously stupid move, strategically, morally, and practically, that I have seen from any political party for a while now. I felt like I had been hit in the gut. I felt betrayed by our own. I saw why Obey screamed at his constituents “We don’t have the votes!” I saw all thought of Impeachment of the most incompetent, corrupt, and ridiculous excuse for an Attorney General in my memory evaporate. This vote drew me a very detailed picture of what our problems really are, and the pictures are not rosy, that’s for sure.

I’m doing my part as best I can. It seems like every few days now I have a new reason to write my Congressional Representatives (including the Senators), and sometimes I’m writing to those Congress critters that are on a specific committee. I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got, but it never seems to be enough. We supposedly had a majority, now that’s not enough. The President issues edicts to Congress in a particularly insulting manner, and instead of telling him no for once, because that’s what their constituents want from them, they comply like sheep. So if some of us, in our anger and frustration, happen to slip into calling some acts of our fellow democrats stupid, please don’t take it personally. If the shoe doesn’t fit, please don’t wear it!

Bush’s Reverse Midas Reign is inspiring other countries to get more repressive.

Trickle down dictatorship.

Robert Mugabe signs electronic communications interception laws, others call it part of a dictators’ toolkit.

-GSD

Eek! My inlaws are in Zimbabwe as we speak. They’re due to come back in September, and it can’t some soon enough.

My little town (pop approx. 2,000) had their annual parade this morning and Joe and his wife, Jill, actually showed up to walk in it.

I walked a lot of parades with him last summer when I was running for state rep and he was running for congress so he knows me and went out of his way to come over and say “hi.”

I think he wished he hadn’t when I brought up FISA. Although I was VERY civil about it.