serious question:
Can someone give me a reason, other than “the republicans are worse” for voting for the democrats this year?

I’ll give it a go.

Right now the Senate is about 50-50, so it’s hard to get anything especially good through there. If you want good things put mo’ better Democrats in the Senate and Presidency.

Honestly. Serious question.

Yes, I agree. It’s THE serious question.

Cus I’m seeing Hope-a-dope leaning toward Evan Bayh, and saying Georgia should be allowed into NATO. Now Nancy’s backing down on offshore drilling (big surprise there: let’s do it in San Francisco Bay, I say).

I don’t know about the Veep choice.

I have grave doubts about the entire plan to suck all of Europe into NATO
and I felt that way in the ’90s too.

Nancy forsees a compromise bill with some offshore drilling and some good things and she wants the good things. Same reason Obama said he might consider it.

Do YOU want the good things?

And that’s on top of all the other kicks in the teeth, which would be too long to list.
Oh hell, why not:
impeachment’s off the table; michael mukasey; ignored unenforced subpoeanas; silent GOP filibusters; “you’re advocates we’re leaders”; blank check after blank check; FISA.

I have no idea why Pelosi took “impeachment off the table” except that she knew there was no way in Hell it would end in a Senatorial conviction and would therefore be a big f’in waste of time which could be better spent on getting some good things through the House.

Mukasey is Schumer’s problem. He shoulda gone with Ted Olsen.

The subpoenas is a mystery to me. I mean, what’s the history of that? Has there been trouble getting it enforced in the past?

GOP filibusters is another way of admitting we don’t have the votes to beat ‘em over the head with a blunt instrument. That’s something you have to accept…for now.

Pelosi’s “you’re advocates, we’re leaders” was clearly not well put. It thuds off your ear like Cheney’s “So.” I suspect she would apologize for that and “extend and revise her remarks” if given a chance.

The blank checks for Iraq are pretty much inevitable. First on politics we Dems would be slaughtered if we even discussed removing support from soldiers in the field. Second, it’s important to remember the President has certain foreign policy prerogatives and Congress takes the hind. That we just don’t like THIS president doesn’t change the system. You have to change the president to get a better outcome.

FISA was simply going to be one of the last Repub+DLC-Dem bills and there was really no choice. Get real. We’re simply not going to put our telecoms out of business when they were responding after 9/11. That there was the potential disclosure of Bush criminality was a shame, but still secondary.

I’ll still be very interested to see how the court handles THAT FISA provision. Has anyone heard where that’s gone? I know some senators took it to them immediately.

Seriosuly, what’s the fucking point of voting, what’s the fucking point of anything?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been in it for the sheer thrill of seeing Bush leave office labeled as “The Worst President America has ever had!”

and yes, i’ll be voting on down ticket races. I just meant nationally.
but I digress: time for some lunch.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PETITION TO MOVEON.ORG

MoveOn.org should query its members on the issue of health care for all.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, respectfully petition the leaders of MoveOn.Org to abide by its core democratic principles and ask the opinion of its members whether they support reform of the private health insurance system or replacement of private health insurance by universal single payer health care, before MoveOn continues to organizationally and financially support a new coalition which supports the former and excludes the latter.

WHEREAS, MoveOn has had extraordinary success because it has presented itself as democratic organization in which, as its web site proclaims, every member has a voice in choosing the direction.

WHEREAS, MoveOn’s leadership has not followed its democratic principals regarding the choice of MoveOn’s direction on one of the most important issues confronting the country, universal health care.

WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of activists, including many MoveOn members, have been organizing at the grassroots in support of replacing Americas fragmented and wasteful system of private health insurance with a universal single payer Medicare-For-All system that would cover everyone from cradle to grave, in which health care decisions would be made between patients and doctors and not by insurance company bureaucrats, and in which everyone would have the right to choose her or his own doctor. Medicare-For- All is embodied in H.R. 676 introduced by Rep. John Conyers and co-sponsored by 91 members of Congress.

WHEREAS, With the longstanding coalition called Healthcare NOW playing a key role, HR 676 has been endorsed by 452 union organizations, including 111 Central Labor Councils, 36 State AFL-CIO federations, and 17 national or international unions including the United Auto Workers, The National Education Association, The American Federation of Teachers, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee; such national organizations as the NAACP, Progressive Democrats of America, Physicians for a National Health Program, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Board of Church and Society; and 32 City Councils including Baltimore, Louisville, Indianapolis, Detroit and Boston.

WHEREAS, Without asking the opinion of its members, the leaders of MoveOn have chosen to join the steering committee and pledge $500,000 of its members money to a competing health care coalition with the confusingly similar name Health Care For America Now, whose Statement of Principles seeks to preserve and reform the private health insurance system (adding an expensive public alternative that businesses and individuals can pay for with their own money) and which systematically excludes supporters of single payer health care, including many of MoveOn’s own members, from its events.

WHEREAS, We, the undersigned, believe that this decision by MoveOn’s leadership to take a major leadership and fundraising role in this competing coalition to reform private health insurance and exclude single payer supporters, many of whom are MoveOn members, violates MoveOn’s core principle that MoveOn’s members choose its direction.

NOW THEREFORE, We, the undersigned, respectfully call on MoveOn to follow its core democratic principles and sponsor an online debate between supporters of universal single payer health care and supporters of reforming private health insurance with a voluntary public alternative, and then let MoveOn’s members vote on which approach to health care reform they believe MoveOn should support.