When something like 75% - 80% of all Democratic Party voters HATE the Democratic Politicians, yet we continue to vote for them because the Rethugs are "worse" (not suggesting they aren't, just disgusted that the Dems have allowed themselves to become so disgustingly corrupt that they can only look good compared to DeLay & Co.) -- well, what the heck do we expect?
With those numbers, why shouldn't Biden take a few thousand bucks from MBNA to sell out the voters in with a Bankruptcy bill? Etc, etc.
Why shouldn't the Dems be as corrupt and traitorous as they can, given that we let them get away with it?
What we need is a way to throw those "Democrats" out of office AND the same with the Rethugs - we need a complete new Congress.
I'd say basically that no incumbent should be given money or votes, at all.
They've completely failed America.
Throw them out.
What's a patriotic voter supposed to do? I understand the "realism" that says support the Dems becuase they're not quite as terrible --
That's not politics, that's being sold down the river.
Really, what are we the people to do?
We desperately need votes of no confidence, to force new elections - yeah, I know, it won't happen.
I'm furious, and I really don't know what to do next.
http://www.discourse.net/archives/2005/09/stuff_which_is_true_and_not_at_all_funny.html
The Doctor is in, and he's decided.
They aren't so much corrupt, or weak, or whatever other epithet thrown at them. And I note that there are many who are doing just fine, just more in the House than in the Senate, like Louise Slaughter or John Conyers or Henry Waxman, or Barbara Boxer.
What they are is clinically depressed. Seriously, oppressively, depressed.
And I don't know if there are meds that can address this downer. Maybe in Canada.
They just don't seem to have a clue on how to get out of the Wilderness Doldrums, despite lots of good advice from me and Steve and others.
So on to the next battle, hope it goes better than the last one.
Posted by Duckman GR at September 21, 2005 04:30 PMWe need to double down on our base. Pander exclusively to our base as Bush does. As Dems, we have obtained wavering loyalty. After all (tons and tons) that Bush has done, he still holds that 40%. We need to solidfy our 40% and move away from the center. The center has become dilution. Right? If we stick to our roots, Republicans will drift on thier own. We can't lead them to us. I repeat. It's psychology, we can't get Repub support by leading them to us. Keep doing your thing and they will gravitate toward us on thier own. This the only way. MoveOn is misguided with TV Ads. We need true local mobilization of support and via Internet.
Posted by Marina Architect at September 21, 2005 04:36 PMSenator Stabenow just sent me an email explaining her yes vote on the Energy bill. Previously she had sent me an email to explain her yes vote on the Bankruptcy bill. I had to send her an email explaining why she's an embarrassment to Michigan Democrats ( I don't know how she plans to vote on Roberts).
Posted by Marvin Toler at September 21, 2005 04:38 PMDuckman, Hear Hear!
Posted by emal at September 21, 2005 05:43 PMSome sound options for deficit reduction, paying for Katrina and Iraq if we simply must "stay the course"
Posted by at September 21, 2005 06:53 PMOkay, here's your chance to tell Move-On how unhappy you are with some Democrats and the Party.
During this tumultuous time in Washington, we're thinking about how we can help the Democratic Party to be as effective as possible in standing up for progressive change and opposing the radical Republican agenda. In making our plans, we want to know what you think about how the Party can improve and how we can help. Please take a moment right now to fill out our brief survey and let us know what you think:
http://political.moveon.org/dempartysurvey/dem_plan.html?id=6022-3876511-0WTP5aTcrNpbTQTCf9ywjQ
Posted by Judith at September 21, 2005 07:29 PMI suggest a full court press, (sorry if I am repeating). Challenge every seat in the house and the senate. Make them spend money. It is an idea that I had found and now don't care to look for, but the effort is out there. Back that effort in your district and make it happen. Volunteer -- it will be the best experience of your life.
Posted by dorita at September 21, 2005 07:50 PMI was reading my buddy's email when I saw an appeal from Barbara Boxer. She was asking Democrats to ask Roberts to reveal his "paper trail" because his boss, George Bush, hadn't done so.
I could tell why she hadn't sent this appeal to me, because I had quoted Liberal Oasis to her about how the Democrats messed up the John "Madman" Bolton nomination, i.e., Democrat Senators focused entirely on issues of Senatorial privilege, not on issues that would resonate with Joe Average Voter.
Obviously, Senator Boxer realized that Democrats made precisely the same mistake with Roberts. Senators focused on an entirely legitimate issue that makes sense to them, but not to average voters.
And this is what we endure from an unelected president!
This morning we saw unelected President Bush speaking at the Pentagon. The primary subject, "The Global War on Terror." Oooooooh scareeeeee! But even scarier? Bush's comments.
"We must be prepared for more violence as elections approach." Pardon me. I don't understand your meaning, Mr. President. Do you mean that we should be accepting that more people will just be killed and wounded? Do you mean that we will be beefing up our forces and those of the Iraqis in an effort to prevent more violence? I suspect that you really meant the former because it's clear that for all of your talk about Iraq becoming a safer place, the reports from the ground clearly do not reflect your Pollyanna view of the world - no insult meant to Pollyanna of course.
"Baghdad and Mosul...are more stable." In his comments regarding the increased effectiveness of Iraqi security forces, President Bush remarked about how areas of Iraq had become more stable. What? Mr. President, just how do you define "stable?"
As the war in Iraq has been largely pushed aside in the media since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast on August 29, let's take a close look at this stability:
Data from August 29 - September 21, 2005
Iraqi Security Forces (military and police): 201 DEAD 158 WOUNDED
Iraqi Civilians: 1506 DEAD 1289 WOUNDED
U.S. Military: 32 DEAD 376 WOUNDED
These sums are culled from reliable media sources and Pentagon reports.
So in about a three week period, 1,739 dead and 1,823 wounded. Granted, those totals include the 965 dead and 475 wounded during a panic on a bridge in Baghdad, exact cause unknown. But it's all part of the cost of Bush's war for oil.
Oh, almost forgot, that more stable Baghdad:
Iraqi Security Forces (military and police): 59 DEAD 44 WOUNDED
Iraqi Civilians: 1211 DEAD 1128 WOUNDED
Hmmm. Now that's what I call a quiet neighborhood. Not much different than a typical three weeks in Detroit in the late 1960s, right?
Come on now, Mr. unelected President.
"They have a strategy and we have a strategy...They have had attacks." Well yes, that may be correct. But Mr. President, do you really understand "their" strategy? You think, in your "team's" infinite wisdom, that "these people" have as their objective the Talibanization of the entire world, that they hate freedom...that this is what their terrorism is all about. So in return, you decide to unilaterally attack sovereign states in order to defeat the non-state terrorists. Hmmmm (rapping my fingers on the desk, pondering.) And what about Osama Binladen, Mr. President? He is far, far away...in Afghanistan! And you have 18,000 U.S. troops there, one-eighth of the forces in Iraq. And you have no idea where he is and your strategy is apparently clear to me now. Binladen is just small fry. So what if he and his organization of thugs are responsible for 9/11 and many earlier attacks against the U.S. One group of Arabs is a good or bad as another, right? We can tell the difference between good ones and bad ones by whether or not they sell us oil. And Iraq was not selling us oil. Hmmmm. Oh but I forgot, we had a severe economic embargo on Iraq. They couldn't sell us oil...without smuggling it.
But let's bomb them anyway, It's a lot more fun, much better television for your FOX network arm, than the more clandestine war of hunting Binladen and his crowd with small squads of special forces through the mountains of Afghanistan. With a really big war, forgetting about the cost in human life and suffering, we can use up lots of weaponry, order billions of dollars more, and put smiles on the faces of our defense contractor political campaign donors! Yahoooo! Yippee Kayeeeee!
"The Iraqi troops...know who the terrorists are." Hmmmm. Let's see. More than 1,700 dead and more than 1,800 wounded in three weeks. Since the end of Bush's major combat operations, "Operation Iraqi Liberation," - or "O-I-L!" subsequently changed to "Operation Iraqi Freedom," or "O-I-F," an average of 115 Iraqi military and police have died each month. So far in September 188 have died.
About 126 Iraqi civilians have been killed each month since OIL concluded major combat operations. So far in September, 389 Iraqi civilians have been killed. Oh and 26 U.S. military have been killed. The good news is that it's way below the post major combat ops average of 63. Oops. Though the average monthly death toll for U.S. military has been almost 69. Hmmmm.
Yes, the price of that "stable" thing is declining...right? If the Iraqi troops know who the terrorists are....maybe they are their FRIENDS! Oh yeah, Mr. President, they know who the terrorists are...they are Arabs just like them! Seems to me, that's about all they know. And for that, I reward you with a great big DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
"People gotta understand." Mr. President, you use this tired line over and over again. Has anyone told you how condescending it sounds? "People gotta understand...it's a hard, long global war. People gotta understand...a hurricane's dangerous. People gotta understand...the tax cuts to my best friends are what are driving our economy. On and on he goes.
"Yeah." Now that one! That's the killer that the President uses anytime he is asked a question he thinks is stupid...or simply one for which he really doesn't have an answer. If he is asked about how the federal government is going to cover the cost of Katrina, let alone whatever it is for Rita, he begins with, "Yeah." People gotta understand. These things are difficult. Way to difficult for you average, or poor, American citizens to understand. You know, it's big business, you have to be a Harvard or Yale graduate. You need and MBA or law degree. And best of all, you really need lots of money. Then it doesn't really make any difference if you "understand" or not. You just need trust.
President Bush used this morning in response to a question about Hurricane Rita: "...People must understand the need to evacuate more seriously." Huh? Hopefully, we all need to pray on this, a greater number of the population area of Rita's targeted force will evacuate. Hopefully, all of the less fortunate folks in the region will receive evacuation assistance PRIOR to the hurricane. You know, the very poor Americans that don't own cars, that may not even have bus fare. The folks in hospitals and nursing facilities.
It would have been nice, given the again reasonable warning time prior to Rita's landfall, if the military could be providing large numbers of vehicles, even aircraft, for evacuation efforts. It just doesn't seem like a reasonable expectation for Galveston or any large metropolitan area to have sufficient public and private transportation resources to complete evacuate. But we'll know in a day or so. I am happy to be incorrect on this.
So back to "Classic Bush at the Pentagon." The answers that he gives to questions aren't really answers, are they. That's not a question, by the way. They aren't. More often than not, they are condescending, as I already mentioned. Think about it.
"Yeah." Always accompanied by the President looking down, twisting his neck, general not paying much attention to the questioner.
"People gotta understand." Suggesting that we don't, I suppose. And, of course, it's just beyond us anyway, so don't worry about it. Just buy that $3.00 gas, drive your Hummer, and let "us" take care of everything.
"Things are getting better, we are making progress." I may have paraphrased that, but you have all heard it before. You just don't see it because that liberal media won't cover all of the really keen stuff that we are doing in Iraq and elsewhere. Not to mention all of the preparations that we made for Katrina before it hit. Right!! Flyin' them aeroplanes over land from surrounding states not hit by the hurricane so that emergency supplies and people can readily get into the affected areas is really really tough. But now? Oh now we can sail a couple of hospital ships behind the hurricane and follow it in. That's a plan. And it's all classic bull. Vakil @ clearthemist.blogspot.com
Posted by Vakil Polevoy at September 23, 2005 01:15 PM