It’s been a year today. Where are the nominations? Or is this a good excuse for that, too?

Oh please. Point the finger at the person in the mirror.

I’m pointing my finger, alright, but it’s to hail a cab and call it a night. I needed a good reason to finally give up completely on DC, and Brown’s victory was it. I’m tired of hoping that the Dems will stop behaving like Dems. We effectively have NO representation in DC — “we” being people who actually give a rat’s ass about American principles and values (and health). DC is a money-making conduit for the rich and corporate — period. The Dems spent the last 12 months securing themselves lucrative lobbying and consulting gigs and making concessions to Baucus, Lieberman and Snowe, and now they’re acting like a 59-vote majority, which never slowed Republicans down, is the end of everything. Well, it is for me. Fuck this, I’m outta here. Maybe if I’d spent the last 12 months trying to get laid instead of trying to get Obama to do his job, I’d be less frustrated. Frankly, at this point, trying to find someone with whom to have meaningless casual sex seems like a step up from sending unread emails to the White House… and less ultimately frustrating. See ya, y’all.

(Oh, and any hypertribalist sociopathic Republicanite scumbags reading this — fuck you for helping to ruin America. Word of warning: don’t you ever start spewing your shit to my face in person. Stay hidden behind your keyboards where you can feel safe and thin.)

Clearly this is my fault. I believed that Obama would actually change things in a way that would make a difference within a year. Because I was so gullible, I became even more cynical, and unwilling to donate my time and money. If the Democrats can’t do shit with 60 votes, why should I bother, I allowed myself to think. So I didn’t make any calls for Coakley, ignoring the two robo-calls I got from Obama’s Organizing for America. Whenever I see or hear Obama, I have an adverse reaction, I think “fucking liar!” “fucking torturer!” “fucking theif!”. I think of FISA lies, NAFTA lies, Public Plan lies, expanded wars, his facist Treasurers, and I just can’t bring myself to want to help him at all. If I would have made calls, maybe 100,000 more Democrats would have voted for Coakley.

My bad everybody. It is certainly not the President, or the Democrats fault for failing to enact any meaningful changes – after making that the sole thrust of their campaign. I should have known they were frauds, and just given my support to them unconditionally, because you know, the Republicans are worse.

I should eat my shit sandwich with a lil sugar, and be happy it is not a shit sandwich without sugar.

You think that’s the lesson the conservadems learned from tonight? Wrong baby. They are running like the rats they are. The opposite of what people here wanted. It’s over.

That’s what this guy said also. The 60 vote supermajority was acting more like a curse than a blessing.

This one is pretty convincing also, as to the why it happened part.

I think it’s pretty clear what the lesson is though: The WH could have just forgone the holy grail of “bipartisanship” from the start and the health care bill would be law by now. Harry Reid said “Lieberman double-crossed me, and Olympia Snowe wasted our time, for months”

No one could have predicted that, of course, said with the obligatory eye roll.

Progressives called this one from the start, what Lieberman would do, what Snowe would do, and how fragile and essentially useless the 60-vote margin was if it included right wing extremists like Lieberman.

Maybe it’s time to start listening?

May I add Obama’s refusal to sign the treaty banning land mines to your excellent list? You’ve about summed everything else up perfectly.

However, I’ve been eating shit sandwiches for 30 years. The bread is beginning to affect my waistline. Think I’ll just take my shit sans bread with perhaps a dollop of ketchup.

My above comment was meant for captainobvious@4, but I am so distraught that a republican ass will be sitting in Sen. Kennedy’s seat that I can barely function.

One year into this mess and already the question is how can, or can Oh Bummah! “save” his presidency.
Maybe he could close Guantanamo in a year, re visit FISA, re visit NAFTA, repeal don’t ask don’t tell, pass a real health care reform bill, withdraw from Iraq, withdraw from Afghanistan, curb the influence of lobbyists, regulate the financial institutions, initiate transparency in government or maybe just start to live up to his campaign promises.

Frankly that Coakley woman in Massachusetts was pretty terrible so her losing is no great loss. The best news from Mass is that now we can get rid of this ridiculous InsurPharma bill and blame it on the GOP. It will also clear the way for a real health care reform measure that, frankly, the Dems will, with the understanding that they could all go the same way Coakley did, pass with 51 votes. (Wishful thinking is allowed early in the morning as long as you pretend it is still dreaming.)

I am sure the Oh Bummah! apologists will have some lame excuses and try to blame everyone but their own incompetence but the intelligent voter will not buy that, can see where the blame lies, and will keep voting “not lying democrats” on their ballots.

Try this. One part habanero to six to eight parts ketchup. (By the way, this is actually pretty good on scrambled eggs in a warm tortilla if you feel like hot&spicy in the morning.)

be sitting in Sen. Kennedy’s seat

Kennedy was a great man, he helped many, many people including me but I do have to say that it is not Kennedy’s seat it is Massachusetts’ seat and belongs to the people and the people have spoken.

Coakley, sitting in the seat once occupied by Kennedy, would have been a disaster. She is a political whore, ready to do anything necessary to further her political ambitions, bought and paid for by the DLC.

I was a registered Democrat until a few months ago and, stupidly, I voted for people just because they were not Republicans… no longer. I am a registered independent and will only vote for candidates that are Progressives. Thanks to Oh Bummah! I have seen the light.

The People have spoken. Ha, ha, ha. The revolution has begun.

One year into this mess and already the question is how can, or can Oh Bummah! “save” his presidency.

Unless Rahm is back in Chicago looking for his next gig by the end of the month “his presidency” will be beyond salvation.

Clavis, I’m with you. I have changed my party identification from Democrat to Progressive Independent. Barack needs to have a primary challenge. Harry Reid just needs to go away and Lieberman needs to be exposed to the sunlight so he can disintegrate into ashes like all good vampires. And as you suggested, I did have a surprisingly high quantity and quality of meaningless sex tonight. Loved every bit of it. Actually, for those of us who want to try to place some meaning on the shards of what’s going to be left of the Democratic party, we need to have an organized undervote in all 2010 primaries. Even if there is no challenger to a democratic incumbent, there will still be a primary. We register to vote (if you’re not registered already), go to the polls on primary day, and simply cast a blank ballot for your House race and any Senate races. This way the politicos know you went out to vote, but preferred to vote for no one. Maybe this will awaken a few of the self serving of our party to the fact that just because they may be the only name on the ballot, doesn’t mean they’ll get our vote. An undervote is half a vote against them. Consider it. Now let’s all get laid (again) and take a Xanax.

-Tim in Atlanta

Looking for someone to blame? Blame me! I did this thing, even though I didn’t get a vote in Massachusetts. It was necessary for the Democrats to wake up from the illusion (delusion?) that they somehow had a 60 vote super-majority in the Senate when in fact they did not. One of those 60 votes belongs to Joe Lieberman, who is dedicated to sabotaging all progressive initiatives for the benefit of his party (the Republicans) and his wallet. Another one belongs to Ben Nelson, who is likewise subservient to corporate graft and loyalty to our political enemies. That means that on a really good day, Democrats had 58 votes in the Senate. Now they have 57. So Coakley’s loss does not mean the loss of a super-majority, because they never had it.

We can see the results of Democrats THINKING they had 60 votes in the debacle which was health care reform. All of the weaseling, grandstanding, and horse-trading which we saw unfold was the result of several Senators realizing that they would become a very important person able to make outrageous demands if they merely threatened to withold the all-important 60th vote. And we saw each of the holdouts make drastic, unacceptable changes to the major features of the legislation under the threat of witholding that vote. The end result is the Senate’s HCR bill which is very much worse than no change at all.

And I could see this very same scenario playing out for each and every important progressive initiative. Reform of Wall Street, climate change, DADT, all of the ongoing wars, everything was going to be squeezed through Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, and any other Senator who decided it was his turn for some kickbacks or earmarks. And every time, the calculus would be the same: sacrifice any and everything in order to “preserve” the 60 votes. The Democrats appeared to be willing to bargain away the substance of reform in order to maintain the illusion of checking off items on the progressive agenda as “complete”. Health care reform? Done! Mission Accomplished!

Time for a new strategy. Like maybe changing the rules surrounding the filibuster. Or whatever it takes to pass meaningful legislation in the absence of a super-majority. But I wasn’t willing to sit and watch Joe Lieberman stab us all in the back time and time again while Senate Democrats (and Rahm Emanuel) trade away everything worthwhile just to get Joe’s vote.

So yeah, I did it; I made Coakley lose. Everybody can blame me. But I don’t care, because today is a new day, and the game has changed, but it’s still on. We’re going to need a different plan of action, but that’s okay because the old plan wasn’t working anyway. No point mourning the loss of something we never had. Better to regroup and make plans to replace Blue Dogs with progressives in November.

Alright, folks. We’ve had our night of self-pity. Let’s knuckle up and get to work. Either that, or let the clowns on the other side loot what’s left of what our parents and grandparents built. You choose.

Yea, well Mornin Joe’s dick is hard as a railroad spike.

And this information was obtained how?

Good morning, pups. It’s Dowd and Friedman today. MoDo is in San Francisco. She’s trying to get us to believe that the pap she’s serving up this morning, “The Trials of Gavin Newsom,” is an actual interview. Yeah. Right. “Playful wince” sounds a bit twee, so I’m calling this fiction. The Moustache of Wisdom gives us “Is China an Enron? (Part 2)” in which he says if China forces out Google and suppresses the nation’s flow of knowledge, then it will be time to short the Chinese Communist Party.

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got a selection of bagels with cream cheese. I’m politicked out, so I’m going to feed the cats and get another cup of tea. Have a great day.

I’m hoping this will make the Democrats in the House and Senate stop marching in lockstep for every shitty policy Obama pushes. Maybe they’ll realize they don’t work for him, and they’ll listen to their constituents. When we say we don’t want mandates without a public option, we mean it, and when we say we don’t want them to use taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street, we mean it. Vote for every stupid thing Obama’s corporate contributors want, and we’ll vote you out.

The same way some jerk here determined that all volunteers during the Vietnam war were psychopaths, I just made it up. How ya like me now?

Tips for the future:

–Never vote for a candidate who is adored by the corporate media. The media never likes Democrats, but they loved Obama. This was a giveaway. If the media likes a candidate, he/she is a bad candidate.

–Never vote for a candidate the Clinton-bashers like. There is an overwhelming correlation bewteen progressives who hate the Clintons and progressives who got snookered by Obama. The rule is simple: if a Clintophobe likes a candidate, he/she is a rotten candidate.

–Never call your fellow Democrats racists in order to win a primary. Despite what you might think, this is not a good party-building strategy. It is in fact party treason.

Our constitutional law professor feels the presidency was best defined by Millard Fillmore. Any progress over the next few years will be through Congress.

And in 2012, we’ll have to elect a President that wants to use the powers of the office. 1852 is gone forever.

My wasted contact with my elected (bought reps)—————

Haiti is a metaphor for Obama and Dems
BOTH ARE DISASTERS

No one I know has benefited from govt in the last year.
Reform is nothing more than a way for you guys to get more money as you deal away everything behind the scenes before your breath is dry.

Corruption-Extortion-and Failure are the standing orders ,

I sit here and know personally 3 families, with working middle class jobs in medical bankruptcy and near loss of life in the last year.

Yet bankers, insurance companies, lobbyists and congress are better than ever–making more money and power than ever before.

Health insurance industry is delirious with joy and still with better exemptions, walls and mandated new customers.

The financial
industry has castrated you even more.

Lobbyists
are on crack with congress–everyone of you.

God you are bad and unethical at the most minimal level of decency and a blight on democracy.

And the person reading this is laughing if anyone reads this at all because they are in the elite and are showing the latest caustic remark to another staffer.

Morning all.
Everyone is trying to lay all the blame at the feet of Coakley but the reality is that the alledged leadership of the Dems needs to be examined.
Between the Baucus debacle and culminating in the Nelson giveaway the entire thing in the Senate has been a fiasco.

Joe Lieberman will say that Obama has to go to the Center more as if thats possible dropping the Public Option which had more support in the polls than Healthcare without it was a loser.
Forcing people to buy insurance when unemployment is 10% mega loser and those were all Center Dem ideas.
Obama is a politician I’m sure the Dems are reading the polls.
Obama needs a win best idea I can think of is forcing a vote on price controls on drugs make the GOP vote against that make all the Blue Dog Center Dems vote against that in an election year. Take a stand on TV and push this idea.

I like you alot Raven. You,SD, and most everyone else here. How’s that?

Guys we lost this one our job is come up with new ideas and Hope Obama listens hopefully this will be a wake up call like getting a DUI is that maybe you should stop drinking so much. We have an opportunity Obama tried it Rahm’s and Joe’s way losing Ted’s seat means no Dem seat is safe unless we get jobs and help for people trying to keep their homes.

I fault the “progressive” elements in the Bay State for not fielding an alternative “third party” candidate.

The absence of a meaningful choice allows both branches of the one-party-with-two-names to spin the election results to justify ever more extreme corporatist positions.

If progressives are going to do anything besides complain about the results of no-win-possible elections, I humbly submit that now would be the time to start. Work the primaries and nominate independent candidates in a ground campaign. Do it today.

Progressive types will grow old and die before the one-party-with-two-names puts forward acceptable candidates. Complaining E-mail messages and internet postings will not make an iota of difference. Grassroots organizations can’t afford massive ad campaigns but human-to-human politics can win eventually with time and effort.

Obama needs a win best idea I can think of is forcing a vote on price controls on drugs make the GOP vote against that make all the Blue Dog Center Dems vote against that in an election year.

Absolutely. The drug bill would be a start but rather than have the Repubs shoot it down he should force it through with 51 votes and to hell with Reid. But he is going to need more to “save” his presidency. How about ditching Rham?

I’m not at all upset that Coakley lost or the Dems lost their worthless 60 vote majority.

This morning I read Sen. Kennedy’s speech at the ’80 convention…..”the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die”. The dream has been on life support for many years. Obama effectively pulled the plug and this morning the dream is dead.

As far as voting goes, the whole fucking system is corrupt. Once even the purest of heart arrives in the DC cesspool it becomes soiled. When Bernie Sanders ripped my heart out and threw it in the dirt by voting for the piece of shit healthcare bill, I realized voting is pointless. We should take note of our brothers and sisters in Iran rioting in the streets and take notes.

*g*

After the GOP and Blue Dogs vote against price controls on drugs Obama needs to put out commercials before the election. Commercials like Senator Orin Hatch thinks its great that Americans pay more for Viagra than Kim Jong, that Americans pay more for kidney medicine than Ossama.
We need Obama saying that in public! Then we force another vote on drug price controls right before the election.
Cripes I’m twice the Chicago Pol that Rahm will ever be:)

Like it wasn’t in 1980? right? You must not be that old! :)

[sigh]…welcome to PUMADogLake.

Thanks for the laugh.
I need one…

You think we got 51 votes Cool! my 33 is the back up plan always have a backup plan. And yes get rid of Rahm I want his job:)
Ditch Geithner, Summers and Helicopter Ben change course on the economy and get the Best Keynesian Economist we can find our new economic policy it worked before for FDR why mess with what works!

Make way, Nazi America is coming through, brought to you by the devil worshipers the republicans.

At Seattle Town Halls I saw more than a few posters with Pass Healthcare in His Name. I’m guessing Ted’s home state had a bunch more of those people with the posters how did they vote would be interesting.
I think that could give the blogs cover Rahm needs a scapegoat to blame for this mess. I wonder if the Trojans blamed Pandora for losing the Trojan War?

One assumes that in a few days it is going to occur to some of the pundits that our disintegrating healthcare system is still in place, bleeding us dry, and that it is preposterous to let one wingnut jackass and one Party stand in the way of doing something about it. It is going to occur to the private insurers that the tens of millions of subsidized customers they wanted have gone a-glimmering because of one flukey election.

Silver lining: Al Franken is no longer the juniormost Senator in Congress!

Idea number 2 make the miminum wage adjust to inflation the GOP says we lose jobs we say tariffs. Tariffs to protect American jobs will go over great in this economy I want the GOP to vote against jobs. Targeted Tariffs would be good there is no reason we should allow any car to be imported into America that doesn’t get 40 MPG.
I’m open to other targeted tariff ideas any case where a government is dumping product below cost to put American manufacturing out of business works for me.
Tom Friedman screams Global Economy we ask him how much his wife used to be worth.

Who counted the votes…Diebold(R)

To give a sports analogy to this mess,your team has went to the superbowl and lost.So now you start firing those reponsible,first to go your chief of staff,2nd Giethner,3rd Summers.
The you go in the back room,kick yourself in the ass about 40 times and come out swinging.

Then you bring a real team of progressives,for the next 3 years are going to be Hell!!

This man Scott Brown’s nude picture gives new meaning to the politics of “Bush”.

Idea 3 end the embargo to Cuba sugar imports help soft drink makers cut costs and might bring back the candy industry . Also sugar rather than corn syrup cuts diabetes. What do we do with the extra corn? Well end the Cuban embargo and American farmers get another market for their crops increase demand you increase price. Also many older Cubans I’m sure want to see their families back before home before they die.
Plus we can sell the Cubans on a huge influx of American tourists would make it easier for the CIA to slip in agents.

Thanks, thanks, I’ve been trying to convey that reality, but most
folks think (probably rightly so) that I’m nutso…

Here is the DEMS salvation:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/25093

Check Brad Blog he owns the Diebold story.

The Mass vote cannot be blamed on Diebold. This mess belongs to the WH and the mendacious bastards therein besides it is all one damn party anyway Corporate Amerika will do what the hell they want and to hell with the citizenry.

And now to shovel yet more snow.

Several supporters of Democrat Martha Coakley were injured during her rush to get to the phone as quickly as possible in order to concede the race for the U.S. Senate in MA to Scott Brown even before AP called the race in favor of the Republican.

That, while some 25% of the precincts had yet to report even how Diebold’s easily-hacked, oft-failed optical-scan machines (which are in violation of federal voting system standards and programmed by a company with a disturbing and criminal background), had even reported their tabulation and, more disturbingly, while 0% of the voters’ cast ballots in Massachusetts had been counted or examined by any human being on the face of the earth.

http://www.bradblog.com/

Front pagers I think you might want to look at this.

Agreed. Congress has to quit worshipping Obama and begin showing a little humility. They don’t work for Obama. Geez, I thought the Republicans were terrible with their lemming-like behavior. Even true Progressives in the House and the Senate crumpled up and voted against their beliefs every time Obama asked them to a closed-door meeting. Except for Kucinich.

UT Journalism Prof on NPR…ripping the US history in Haiti, pointing finger/naming Bush, Bush, & Clinton….among other things

Might I add I have an uncharacteristic “I told you so” attitude about what’s going on in Washington. I voted for Obama (instead of McCain) with certain confusion, like “Why am I voting for someone when I don’t know who he is?” I guess because so many other people did. It’s an American tragedy of historic proportions. (Hillary would have kicked ass!)

The several updates to my previous report on the allegations of ballots pre-marked for Brown said to have been given to voters in “at least” three different jurisdictions;

http://www.bradblog.com/

Nice Catch TJbs I never would have thought Diebold would after everything thats happened still be counting votes.

And that Croak. quoted the Kennedy “dream still lives” speech…what nerve.

Oil in Haiti
- By Dr. Georges Michel ————
Since time immemorial, it is no secret that in the basement of the two states that share the island of Haiti and the surrounding waters, there are significant deposits of oil still untapped,

http://www.lngplants.com/HaitiGeology.htm

Oil in Haiti you have to scroll down the link past all the information about Gold in Haiti to find the oil stuff.

Another idea to help Obama Paid sick/vacation days for everyone like they got in Europe sell it as every American deserves at least 1/4 of the Paid Vactation Days Bush got.

487 days at Camp David
490 days at Crawford Ranch
43 days at Kennebunkport Compound

Total: 1020 days, more than 1/3rd of his presidency. Bush set the record for most vacation time taken by president.

Carter took 79 days in 4 years.
Clinton took 152 days in 8 years.

Reagan took 335 days in 8 years.
Bush Sr. took 543 days in 4 years!

http://jonox.livejournal.com/25625.html

My bold Hmm 8 years /1020 = 127 r4 127/4 = 31 paid vacation days a year if you skip the remainder this will be a big hit with working parents:)

so the masacre has begun, in massachusets, this president was given a gift of progressive power that will not be seen again and what did he do with it?

he became a corporate tool

I was among the first to predict tbe fall that will occur thanks to the corporate shill we elected to term

one

term

president

and good ridance to him, let’s hope he bows out of a second term or gets primaried, we need a democrat in office not a blue dog

If Obama really wants to pass Healthcare he and the whole family need to go to a Healthcare Fair like KO was sponsoring and volunteer for the day.
The photo OP will play very well.

Yup. We’ve got a power vacuum here. A real Majority Leader who’s not in peril of losing his job in the next election would help. The senior Senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, would be a great choice to get things moving.

but he doesn’t want to pass health care he wants to pass corporte profit care

We can still save him if he listens to us its his choice the Lefty blogs are at their best and happiest producing ideas when we have hope. Its his choice to listen. Can’t be done is code for I’m to lazy or I really don’t want too.
Obama tried things Joe’s way it got him nowhere lets show him the other way. Our ideas will poll much better than anything Rahm suggests.

Look in the mirror if you want to know why Mass went so bad. The progressive blogs have been hammering the Obama administration for months on why he’s a sell out.

The 30% Rt Wingers were not responsible for electing this joker, it was moderates and disaffected liberals who decided the the whole system is corrupt so why bother to vote.

If the progressive blogs don’t change their tone, 2010 will be disastrous.

you know, we lost kennedy’s seat, it really is unbelievable

this has far more gravity then most people give it, it bodes the comming democratic catastrophe

Healthcare will still pass . For the Dems to just abandon reform, after spending the last several months working on it ,would be political suicide. The repubs, will use that to show, that the Dems can’t get anything done.

he is joe lieberman though tcu, he is a corporatist

I suppose, like joe, he doesn’t even care if republicans are elected cause they share his agenda

For those of you who are interested in supporting a forward looking candidate in New York State, see: http://www.jonathantasini.com/

Work and contribute for the change you want to see or continue to face lose-lose elections.

His Presidential Legacy is at stake now he does not want to be the African American President every African American politician in the future says I’m not another Obama. He does not want to be the Dem Herbert Hoover.
The Econ blogs are already calling Obama’s economic policy Neo Hooverism from a PR standpoint staying the course is not an option.
I’m hoping he will listen now losing Ted’s seat must be a wake up call.

Instead of voting ‘Blank’, why not write in the name of Paul Wellstone….then the message we want to send is clearer. Also, instant run-off voting would be a huge help

Passing healthcare that forces Americans to buy private healthcare in a Recession that kills the Dems worse in November.

Isn’t private purchase mandate the worst idea yet? Go figure.

This should be a wake up call for the Dems to get there act together. If they listen , if they move away from the special interests , especially Wall Street ,they might have chance to save their asses come November. If they listen to the voters !

How to pay for healthcare a tax on Internet Porn even the free porn gets taxed tax to pay for healthcare. I’m not sure how the tech would work to do this but if it is possible?
Well the GOP cannot vote against this tax and the Dems if it passes can’t say we can’t afford healthcare anymore.

The Democrats have never mounted an effective narrative pointing out the failures of Republican ideology and governance. Of course in Obama’s post partisan fantasy world that would not have been polite.

Its will juice up the Tea Baggers numbers right before the election its a disaster just who is giving Obama political advice Karl Rove, Dr Kevorkian? With that as an issue Obama might have to worry about impeachment.
The GOP would love to try that move again.

If they listen to their constituents ,they will pass this bill and immediately move to amend it , adding the public option through reconciliation

Don’t get depressed over Coakley’s loss.

The are still enough Dems and Repubs in congress

– to fuck up HCR,

– continue the wars

– avoid imposing accountability

and all that other good stuff.

The sky isn’t falling. Business will go on as usual in Washington, D.C.

True the Dems haven’t but we have Hugh has a list:)

Thats what I’m hoping for:)

There is an overwhelming correlation bewteen progressives who hate the Clintons and progressives who got snookered by Obama

Except of course that without the Clintons being on board after the primaries and Obama loading up on ex-Clinton appointees including Rahm and Summers, Obama might have gone in a slightly different direction. Maybe not much better but different. The differences you see between Clinton and Obama are not quite so stark from where I sit.

Well , it’s a sad day for us Mass Democrats , but it’s not the end of the world.
Let it be a learning experience for our Democrats in DC

Your assuming there won’t be another banking collapse if business goes on as usual your an optimist. I think there will be and its either us or the tea baggers that can best use a Crisis we can offer hope with what we are best at ideas.
They can offer hate which is what they are best at.
America will have to chose.

I like Durbin. Too bad we have so few decent choices for Majority Leader. At one point, I thought we had some pretty good Senators, but they all caved. Durbin does seem like the best choice to me, too.

Well, to be perfectly honest, if all of us far-sighted FDL commentors had dictated the 2008 nomination, there would be an ongoing 11-month search for the whereabouts of President Edwards.

The first thing to do to get to work is to begin efforts to mount a primary challenge to Mr. Bipartisan. The next thing is to dump Tim Kaine and find a new chairman of the DNC. Obama and his crowd hated Dean yet Dean was the key to Democratic victories 2006 & 2008. Next revisit and pass the drug re-importation bill. Shove it down the throats of the Republicans and their tea bagging minions. It’s one piece of legislation that people clearly understand will benefit them. To hell with Obama’s “backroom” deals with big pharma.

If Obama can work with Bill Gates to get rid of Spam on the Net if such a thing is possible the Dems will get lots of Good will.
Cleaning dog poo worked for Harvey Milk cleaning up spam I think might be even more popular. The trick is find issues the voters want or problems they want fixed and then deliver.

Oh, believe me, I’m just totally waiting for the next banking collapse.

I want panic, collapse, and 3 million people in the streets of D.C. to reclaim our government.

I thought it was the people’s seat? Maybe that’s why it was lost. This sense of entitlement in Washington HAS TO STOP.

That’s what it will take. The people storming the Bastille. The ancient regime is finished. They just don’t know it yet.

I’m hoping Obama sees the danger and goes FDR.

Raven,

I’m one of those psycopaths. Spent a fair amount of time on Route 1 near Trang Bang and Go Da Hau.

I can’t help thinking that this election result is just what RahmObama really wanted. With HCR ever increasingly looking like a clusterf*ck and more pressure to add some sort of cost control mechanism (PO, medicare buy-in, etc.), his corporate masters were getting a bit nervous and decided that NO HCR was the answer. Now he can spin it to blame the republicans…

Have you noticed that the bad guys are far better armed and also say they “want their country back?” Most of the major revolutions in history resulted, at least for an extended period, in dictatorship welcomed to reestablish some order. I hope I’m not around to witness what you and Bluetoe are typing about.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

So you’re calling for millions in the street with pens?

Not pens, penis mightiers. [/sean_connery]

Oh, and in the incident you mentioned, the crowd used a pen knife to cut off the head of the commander of the Bastille. Things degenerated after that.

Yeah get out there and shake the bushes. Meanwhile the media play up d vs r and the political class laughs its fat ass off and the money that runs the show gets away with theft and murder. The system is rrigged. Working within it is like running in a hamster ball.

“But at least Joe Lieberman isn’t the 60th vote anymore………..”

Yeeehaaaaw!

History doesn’t repeat, it emulates.

If current pattern follows the lead of the previous Democratic administration they will blame political loses on everyone else but themselves. Focusing most of their ire specifically on whatever group of left-leaners are loitering in the hallways. What they almost certainly won’t determine is that the health insurance debacle’s was at most a coincidental indicator.

The bigger issues of the injustice of the ongoing financial bailouts and corporate welfare matter much more than a disagreement over a bill that isn’t law. HCR (HIR) is so complex nearly no one can understand how it might effect them and what they don’t understand won’t have a major effect on their vote. The real problems in DC are mostly coming from incumbents and lobbyist dollars going to both teams. Some group would have to step forward with a different agenda and that is not going to happen until things get a lot worse.

Nothing will change until both sides have no other options left. Obama will at least temporarily ratchet up the left-sounding rhetoric while moving actual policies more to the right. Just as Clinton did before. Obama will continue to vacillate between trying to be Hoover and Wilson because FDR’s fierce anti-banking industry ideas are not an option.

The tea party supported candidates, like the “Contract with America” scam when Clinton was in office, will make promises to fix government spending in ways that in reality they would rather cut off an appendage than actually do. Insiders have a highly vested interest in maintaining the status quo because, as in traditional bank robbery, that is where the money is.

Today, I’ll settle for throwing the 60 Senate vote smokescreen into the trash as the next curtain opens.

What is wrong with you people??? Do all of you honestly believe that any form of change occurs overnight. You have given our President a year to undo and give you all your dreams wrapped up in a little bow. Please show me on the doll where Obama has touched you. How dare all of you lower yourself to the level of teabaggers. I have been reading this blog for months and am completely astounded by the level of ignorance being disseminated. I do not consider myself an ‘Obamabot’ but I understand that any individual that has tried to change a system that has been corrupt or discriminatory has to work within the system. I am not wanting to compare Obama to MLK or Gandhi but would all of you be willing to tell them that nothing has been done in a year and then turn against them.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=32772#comments
http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/no-obama-obits-please

not to be negative or anything, but my take is it’s all pretty much a scam. You know concentrated mega wealthy interests own it, and what you see is just a carnival being guided by this junta. Your change idea is ridiculous as they have not even slightly veered off the bush course, nary a bone was thrown or a scrap. Everything for the connected nothing for the population. They have free reign. Will we see a populist republican ? One that starts more wars and steals even more money? Maybe, but something will give and without any attempt at sane government how can anything go our way. I wish i could see some sort of light but i cant.

I just can’t take this seriously.

1) Obushma has not accelerated the Iraq withdrawal timetable; we still have over 100k troops in Iraq, perpetuating the Bush regime policy.

2) Obushma has massively escalated the war on Afghanistan, enriching the private contractor cartel at the expense of American, Afghan, and Pakistani lives.

3) Obushma dutifully facilitated the enrichment of the bankster cartel by perpetuating Bush administration bailout policies, and by reappointing those either directly or indirectly responsible for the financial crisis that has led to probably the biggest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history.

4) Obushma claims he supports equality, but has done nothing to change DODT, which should be immediately repealed through an executive order, and enforces DOMA through the DOJ, which he could either sideline or take a passive position.

5) Obushma held secret meetings with the health cartel and sat idly by while DEMONcrats filled the health “reform” bill with lavish subsidies, mandated by force of fines, to the very people that are being enriched through inflicting pain and death upon innocent people.

How has Obushma tried to change the system?

Great point and hopefully the democratic leadership is paying attention to these posts. My goodness, I am honestly starting to believe that maybe just maybe if the democrats learn anything from this election, it is to get rid of Lieberman.

MLK and Ghandi were not elected officials. Obama is. His term is four years, and the first year is not disposable. No one was expecting everything to be fixed instantly, but a year is sufficient to establish a direction and build momentum. What we have seen is Obama going the same direction as Bush, and building momentum by cutting deals with big-money Wall Streeters and the AHIP-PhRMA Gang. We can’t wait around three more years to see if Obama-Rahm have a change of heart and decide to begin steps toward policies which would benefit ordinary Americans. We’ve seen their direction and it’s the wrong way.

If Mr. Obama decides to become a civil rights advocate after his term as President, then he too will have the rest of his life to work on that in whatever increments he feels comfortable with. In the mean time, he’s got to start leading or be prepared to get out of the way in 2012.

There was a time, long before Obama was elected when the consensus was that a President had about a 6 month honeymoon to stake out his agenda. After that comes triangulation and compromise in order to get things done. This administration spent the first 6 months bailing out the financial institutions that had spent the previous 30 years figuring out how to deregulate the industry enough so that they could roast marshmallows with the bucket loads of money they would make on scam after scam.

Obama’s people made sure that no rules were changed that did not provide even more protection to the economic arsonists. He did not prosecute the financial fraud. He did pull out of the middle east. He did not abandon the Patriot Act. These are the results from his first six months. That was his honeymoon. Saying he needs more time to start working on the problems that should have been dealt with last year and hasn’t even started to work on suggests that he was just a poor sap that was temporarily taken in by circumstances. Personally, I give him more credit than that. I don’t think he is dumb and I don’t think he was forced to do things he didn’t want to do. More importantly I don’t think that his agenda actually reflects the things that some people suggest I should wait ever so patiently to have happen.

We can’t make Republicans do as we want which means we have to require results now, not four years from now, of the people we vote into power.

Little did we know that hope and change meant let’s hope Obama can change…

“But at least Joe Lieberman isn’t the 60th vote anymore………..”

Will someone tell Reid and Obama?

Bipartisanship is simply the skirt Barack Obama hides behind. Only a child would think getting one semi-sane Republican senator would make the entire HCR a bipartisan exercise.

It was simply a stall. Like some coward looking for someone to grab his arm before his bluff to punch someone is called.