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Damn Right, I got the Browns, er, Blues!
Author: clintster
Date: 01/20/2010 13:24:36
Truth be told, I had another blog ready to post this morning. It was in the can and ready to be released. However, as I watched, heard and read the news on the Massachusetts senate race, I felt more and more that I had to change course and address this.
So Scott Brown is now a US Senator (elect). To be honest, I have several emotions running through my mind right now. The first, naturally, is sadness. Seeing a seat that had been held for so long by Ted Kennedy go to someone who seems to stand against everything he stood for is, to be honest, more than a little disheartening.
I am also feeling, if I may be honest, a good bit of anger. I think that Martha Coakley was a poor choice to carry the Democratic banner onto this special election. She was prickly, acerbic and just seemed like she felt the seat was hers for the taking. The first two qualities may serve her well as Massachusetts' attorney general, but all three qualities just don't make for a good Senatorial candidate, at least on the Democratic side. It also didn't help that she said Curt Schilling was a Yankees fan. She corrected herself, but still the damage was done, and she joins Rudy 911 on the Group W bench of candidates done in by baseball.
Strangely enough, at this moment, I also feel hope. Since the election of President Obama, and especially since the confirmation of Al Franken as senator, it seems that the Democratic leadership has been content to rest on the laurels of their supermajority. It's as if they expected the Republicans to see those 60 votes and back down from any debate over health care, defense, economic stimulus, etc.
This has not been the case. If anything, it seems to have made the GOP even more determined to retake what they once had. Now is the time for Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the party to realize that there is a chance that we could lose control of Congress in 2010. We have to fight harder now to get the things that will help our nation, but as long as we fight, that will ultimately be what keeps the independent and moderate voters coming to the "D" table.
Hopefully, this will also be a moment for everyone to realize that in the long run, Scott Brown is only in for a short term. His fill-in term ends in 2012, and in that time he has to stand up for the values of Massachusetts voters. If he does that, he may be called a RINO by poutraged teabaggers and face a primary challenge against a "real" conservative Republican. If he goes along with teabagger philosophy (if there is such a thing), he will risk alienating the Massachusettians who still consider themselves Democrats but voted for him for whatever reasons. In any event, even if he came away the victor, Sen-elect Brown may soon wish he had been the one to refuse to stand outside Fenway to shake hands.
Take heart, 4Fers!
VIGILANCE!
So Scott Brown is now a US Senator (elect). To be honest, I have several emotions running through my mind right now. The first, naturally, is sadness. Seeing a seat that had been held for so long by Ted Kennedy go to someone who seems to stand against everything he stood for is, to be honest, more than a little disheartening.
I am also feeling, if I may be honest, a good bit of anger. I think that Martha Coakley was a poor choice to carry the Democratic banner onto this special election. She was prickly, acerbic and just seemed like she felt the seat was hers for the taking. The first two qualities may serve her well as Massachusetts' attorney general, but all three qualities just don't make for a good Senatorial candidate, at least on the Democratic side. It also didn't help that she said Curt Schilling was a Yankees fan. She corrected herself, but still the damage was done, and she joins Rudy 911 on the Group W bench of candidates done in by baseball.
Strangely enough, at this moment, I also feel hope. Since the election of President Obama, and especially since the confirmation of Al Franken as senator, it seems that the Democratic leadership has been content to rest on the laurels of their supermajority. It's as if they expected the Republicans to see those 60 votes and back down from any debate over health care, defense, economic stimulus, etc.
This has not been the case. If anything, it seems to have made the GOP even more determined to retake what they once had. Now is the time for Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the party to realize that there is a chance that we could lose control of Congress in 2010. We have to fight harder now to get the things that will help our nation, but as long as we fight, that will ultimately be what keeps the independent and moderate voters coming to the "D" table.
Hopefully, this will also be a moment for everyone to realize that in the long run, Scott Brown is only in for a short term. His fill-in term ends in 2012, and in that time he has to stand up for the values of Massachusetts voters. If he does that, he may be called a RINO by poutraged teabaggers and face a primary challenge against a "real" conservative Republican. If he goes along with teabagger philosophy (if there is such a thing), he will risk alienating the Massachusettians who still consider themselves Democrats but voted for him for whatever reasons. In any event, even if he came away the victor, Sen-elect Brown may soon wish he had been the one to refuse to stand outside Fenway to shake hands.
Take heart, 4Fers!
VIGILANCE!
Comments:
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Comment by 
Scoopster on 01/20/2010 13:34:34
Scoopster on 01/20/2010 13:34:34
Morning all.. 
Another major quake in Haiti overnight, 6.1 this time.
Honestly when does the suffering end for these people? They've been in turmoil for as long as I can remember - back to the days of dictators Papa Doc & Baby Doc Duvalier in the late 80s, then the fragile return of normal government under Aristide, then accusations of his corruption & eventually being forced from office by Dubya.. then the four hurricanes & massive flooding two years ago, and now this.
Another major quake in Haiti overnight, 6.1 this time.Honestly when does the suffering end for these people? They've been in turmoil for as long as I can remember - back to the days of dictators Papa Doc & Baby Doc Duvalier in the late 80s, then the fragile return of normal government under Aristide, then accusations of his corruption & eventually being forced from office by Dubya.. then the four hurricanes & massive flooding two years ago, and now this.
Comment by 
TriSec on 01/20/2010 13:50:21
TriSec on 01/20/2010 13:50:21
Morning folks.
A world to Massachusetts....anyone that just voted for "change" really just voted for George Bush again. Seriously. How can you call voting for a return to the last 8 years "change" with a straight face?
Perhaps we are not as liberal as we'd like to believe. If that many folks want to support the Republican agenda and oppose the President, then I guess we get what we deserve.
On to Haiti for just a moment....the USNS Comfort took 7 days to get there, but I was reading about the ship's readiness. It can deploy on 5 days notice, so that's not too bad. But there's an awful lot of radio these days about how the port was destroyed and no ships can get in.
Where are the Marines? Don't we have landing craft, hovercraft, helicopters, and all kinds of other things that allow a rapid buildup of troops and supplies in case we need to invade something? I know we're at war, but it seems to me that things of this nature aren't really needed in the desert or the mountains.
Anyway, I digress.
A world to Massachusetts....anyone that just voted for "change" really just voted for George Bush again. Seriously. How can you call voting for a return to the last 8 years "change" with a straight face?
Perhaps we are not as liberal as we'd like to believe. If that many folks want to support the Republican agenda and oppose the President, then I guess we get what we deserve.
On to Haiti for just a moment....the USNS Comfort took 7 days to get there, but I was reading about the ship's readiness. It can deploy on 5 days notice, so that's not too bad. But there's an awful lot of radio these days about how the port was destroyed and no ships can get in.
Where are the Marines? Don't we have landing craft, hovercraft, helicopters, and all kinds of other things that allow a rapid buildup of troops and supplies in case we need to invade something? I know we're at war, but it seems to me that things of this nature aren't really needed in the desert or the mountains.
Anyway, I digress.
Comment by 
wickedpam on 01/20/2010 14:11:11
wickedpam on 01/20/2010 14:11:11
Morning 
To be honest I DON'T want to hear about MA elections anymore - its done, its over with, we deal with it and move on.
The majority of people are not liberal or conservative - they are just people trying to get by day to day.
To be honest I DON'T want to hear about MA elections anymore - its done, its over with, we deal with it and move on.
The majority of people are not liberal or conservative - they are just people trying to get by day to day.
Comment by wickedpam on 01/20/2010 14:15:29
wickedpam on 01/20/2010 14:15:29
WooHoo Shout out to Fairfax County Search and Rescue on SMS - They so rock!
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 14:19:08
Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 14:19:08
Brown's victory is depressing, but I think that the Democrats in Massachusetts miscalculated. They had an inept candidate, and we have not seen the jobs issue addressed as much as voters would like.
So, we will see where the Dems go from here. I suggest that we keep on pushing to create a progressive political movement that can pressure politicians when needed and support them as appropriate. The strategy has worked in the past to get Democratic politicians to support change. In the end, it is up to us.
By the way, the Dems will make a huge mistake if they follow Lieberman (Me for Myself, Conn.) and move more to the political right.
So, we will see where the Dems go from here. I suggest that we keep on pushing to create a progressive political movement that can pressure politicians when needed and support them as appropriate. The strategy has worked in the past to get Democratic politicians to support change. In the end, it is up to us.
By the way, the Dems will make a huge mistake if they follow Lieberman (Me for Myself, Conn.) and move more to the political right.
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 14:33:08
Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 14:33:08
Here is Drew Westen's take over at the Huffington Post:
Obama Finally Gets His Victory For Bipartisanship
Drew Westen
Psychologist and neuroscientist; Emory University Professor
Posted: January 20, 2010 02:32 AM
You can blame a bad candidate, bad organization, bad timing of a vacation--choose your rationalization. But the reality is that voters in Massachusetts were reacting to the same foul mist coming off Boston Harbor that New Jersey Voters smelled coming off the Hudson and Virginia voters, the Chesapeake.
What they all understood was that the source lay on the shores of the Potomac.
It is a truly remarkable feat, in just one year's time, to turn the fear and anger voters felt in 2006 and 2008 at a Republican Party that had destroyed the economy, redistributed massive amounts of wealth from the middle class to the richest of the rich and the biggest of big businesses, and waged a trillion-dollar war in the wrong country, into populist rage at whatever Democrat voters can cast their ballot against.
All of this was completely predictable. And it was predicted. I wrote about it for the first time here on the sixth day of Obama's presidency, and many of us have written about it in the intervening year.
The President's steadfast refusal to acknowledge that we have a two-party system, his insistence on making destructive concessions to the same party voters had sent packing twice in a row in the name of "bipartisanship," and his refusal ever to utter the words "I am a Democrat" and to articulate what that means, are not among his virtues. We have competing ideas in a democracy--and hence competing parties--for a reason. To paper them over and pretend they do not exist, particularly when the ideology of one of the parties has proven so devastating to the lives of everyday Americans, is not a virtue. It is an abdication of responsibility.
Comment by Scoopster on 01/20/2010 14:52:54
Scoopster on 01/20/2010 14:52:54
Comment by TriSec on 01/20/2010 15:10:14
TriSec on 01/20/2010 15:10:14
Of course, this is excatly what the Democratic-controlled state house wanted.
Remember when we almost had President Kerry? At the time, the legislature feared a Romney-appointed replacement, so they changed the law to have a special election instead.
If we left the constitution the way John Adams wrote it, we wouldn't be in this mess right now.
Remember when we almost had President Kerry? At the time, the legislature feared a Romney-appointed replacement, so they changed the law to have a special election instead.
If we left the constitution the way John Adams wrote it, we wouldn't be in this mess right now.
Comment by TriSec on 01/20/2010 15:25:01
TriSec on 01/20/2010 15:25:01
Can I slap my smug Republican friend? Listening to the Keithcast right now...the rabid rightists chanting "41". No doubting what they wanted.
Comment by TriSec on 01/20/2010 15:30:38
TriSec on 01/20/2010 15:30:38
And as a side muse....Senator Elect Brown is married to reporter Gail Huff, WCVB Boston....wonder what that means going forward? (she was correctly and visibly absent from any campaigning except for last night.)
Comment by 
livingonli on 01/20/2010 16:11:49
livingonli on 01/20/2010 16:11:49
Good morning everyone.
I could just say in response what I posted as my facebook status and hoping that the residents of MA have buyer's remorse when they realize what a right-wing hack he turns out to be as senator.
I could just say in response what I posted as my facebook status and hoping that the residents of MA have buyer's remorse when they realize what a right-wing hack he turns out to be as senator.
Comment by 
m-hadley on 01/20/2010 16:15:39
m-hadley on 01/20/2010 16:15:39
Good Morning 4Fers,
I will admit to being in a BAD mood today - not in small part to the fact that I have not had phone service nor an internet connection at home for over a week, this added to the results in Mass. and I am not a happy camper this morning. My first thought as I lay in bed and heard the news that Brown had won was "How come the American people have such short memories? It took Bush 8 efffing years to wreck this country and Obama has only been in office for one year, why turn on the party of change so quickly?" My hope is that everybody who thinks that electing a repub will get them anything different than the bullsh*t we are trying to clean up will live to eat their votes. Over and out for today - I gotta get some work done, lest I join the ranks of the jobless
Cheers,
mfaye 
I will admit to being in a BAD mood today - not in small part to the fact that I have not had phone service nor an internet connection at home for over a week, this added to the results in Mass. and I am not a happy camper this morning. My first thought as I lay in bed and heard the news that Brown had won was "How come the American people have such short memories? It took Bush 8 efffing years to wreck this country and Obama has only been in office for one year, why turn on the party of change so quickly?" My hope is that everybody who thinks that electing a repub will get them anything different than the bullsh*t we are trying to clean up will live to eat their votes. Over and out for today - I gotta get some work done, lest I join the ranks of the jobless
Cheers,
mfaye
Comment by livingonli on 01/20/2010 16:17:13
livingonli on 01/20/2010 16:17:13
How come in the so-called "liberal" media, so many journalists are married to Republicans?
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 17:22:53
It never was a liberal media, but a corporate one. News operations are now profit centers, so I doubt that you will ever see NBC do an expose on General Electric. Nor are you likely to have many actual liberals on the broadcast networks being interviewed.
Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 17:22:53
Quote by livingonli:
How come in the so-called "liberal" media, so many journalists are married to Republicans?
It never was a liberal media, but a corporate one. News operations are now profit centers, so I doubt that you will ever see NBC do an expose on General Electric. Nor are you likely to have many actual liberals on the broadcast networks being interviewed.
Comment by 
Raine on 01/20/2010 17:49:06
Raine on 01/20/2010 17:49:06
Hello Everyone!
Blogging from the hospital room right now, happily I might add. My Oma did have a heart attack, and they are not sure about the pnuemonia. That said-- After a very long Monday night-- very very touch and go, her prognosis is amazing considering all that she went thru. She is talking and cracking jokes, and she will be eating solid foods for her afternoon meal.
To put it bluntly, while she is not complely out of the dark with all that has gone on, she has shown remarkable improvement. We really didn't think she was going to make it, so this is all very amazing.
Thank you Clint for filling in today. It means the world.
Blogging from the hospital room right now, happily I might add. My Oma did have a heart attack, and they are not sure about the pnuemonia. That said-- After a very long Monday night-- very very touch and go, her prognosis is amazing considering all that she went thru. She is talking and cracking jokes, and she will be eating solid foods for her afternoon meal.
To put it bluntly, while she is not complely out of the dark with all that has gone on, she has shown remarkable improvement. We really didn't think she was going to make it, so this is all very amazing.
Thank you Clint for filling in today. It means the world.
Comment by wickedpam on 01/20/2010 17:51:17
wickedpam on 01/20/2010 17:51:17
*waves hey to Oma* 
's all around!
's all around!
Comment by Scoopster on 01/20/2010 17:53:49
Scoopster on 01/20/2010 17:53:49
Heya Raine!! good to hear from you, and to hear that Oma's on the comeback. 
good to hear from you, and to hear that Oma's on the comeback.
Comment by livingonli on 01/20/2010 17:54:01
I did put Liberal in quote marks for a reason.
livingonli on 01/20/2010 17:54:01
Quote by Will in Chicago:Quote by livingonli:
How come in the so-called "liberal" media, so many journalists are married to Republicans?
It never was a liberal media, but a corporate one. News operations are now profit centers, so I doubt that you will ever see NBC do an expose on General Electric. Nor are you likely to have many actual liberals on the broadcast networks being interviewed.
I did put Liberal in quote marks for a reason.
Comment by 
BobR on 01/20/2010 18:19:22
BobR on 01/20/2010 18:19:22
If the Republicans want to filibuster the healthcare bill (or ANY bill), then make them actually fillibuster. Make them stand there and debate the bill.
Comment by 
trojanrabbit on 01/20/2010 18:41:35
trojanrabbit on 01/20/2010 18:41:35
That's great news about Oma, Raine!
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 18:49:18
Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 18:49:18
Raine, great news on your Oma! I am keeping her in my thoughts and prayers.
Livingonli, I knew why you used quotes but I thought I would expand on your comment for those visiting the blog for the first time. (Easy to register here and we are a friendly group.)
Livingonli, I knew why you used quotes but I thought I would expand on your comment for those visiting the blog for the first time. (Easy to register here and we are a friendly group.)
Comment by TriSec on 01/20/2010 19:49:16
TriSec on 01/20/2010 19:49:16
Ah, very good news indeed! I was beginning to worry. 
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 20:14:14
Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 20:14:14
Some good news. I have an interview tomorrow morning for a job at a local AFLAC office. (I am checking on everything, as the teaching market has shrunk.)
I figured with everything going on today, we could use some good news.
I figured with everything going on today, we could use some good news.
Comment by TriSec on 01/20/2010 21:00:11
TriSec on 01/20/2010 21:00:11
Ooh, I'd be careful of the duck, Will. I looked into that last year when I was out, too. Could be some potential, but it's a tough life. Ask how many salespeople would be covering your area...the big knock against them is they overhire, and some companies get called 4 and 5 times a week. Makes for a tough environment to close a deal.
Comment by 
clintster on 01/20/2010 21:01:21
Congrats on the interview Will! I know that I am feeling a little nervousness creep in right now. Our school had a faculty meeting today, and the principal announced that there may be some staffing cutbacks going into next year. No one will necessarily be laid off, but they may be sent to other schools. Even so, this combined with further furloughs may combine to cost me something (the arts are usually the first to feel cuts).
clintster on 01/20/2010 21:01:21
Quote by Will in Chicago:
Some good news. I have an interview tomorrow morning for a job at a local AFLAC office. (I am checking on everything, as the teaching market has shrunk.)
I figured with everything going on today, we could use some good news.
Congrats on the interview Will! I know that I am feeling a little nervousness creep in right now. Our school had a faculty meeting today, and the principal announced that there may be some staffing cutbacks going into next year. No one will necessarily be laid off, but they may be sent to other schools. Even so, this combined with further furloughs may combine to cost me something (the arts are usually the first to feel cuts).
Comment by clintster on 01/20/2010 21:05:10
clintster on 01/20/2010 21:05:10
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 21:08:51
Sadly, the arts are suffering in our schools as well as English and History. (My specialties.) A counselor at the university where I got my Masters in Education said I need to focus most of my efforts on things related to teaching or outside of teaching because of the poor market. So, I will see how this interview goes and where I end up. Even if I leave teaching, I still plan to make education one of my major issues when it comes to politics. (Is there ANY teacher in America who likes No Child Left Behind and the constant testing in our classrooms?)
Will in Chicago on 01/20/2010 21:08:51
Quote by clintster:Quote by Will in Chicago:
Some good news. I have an interview tomorrow morning for a job at a local AFLAC office. (I am checking on everything, as the teaching market has shrunk.)
I figured with everything going on today, we could use some good news.
Congrats on the interview Will! I know that I am feeling a little nervousness creep in right now. Our school had a faculty meeting today, and the principal announced that there may be some staffing cutbacks going into next year. No one will necessarily be laid off, but they may be sent to other schools. Even so, this combined with further furloughs may combine to cost me something (the arts are usually the first to feel cuts).
Sadly, the arts are suffering in our schools as well as English and History. (My specialties.) A counselor at the university where I got my Masters in Education said I need to focus most of my efforts on things related to teaching or outside of teaching because of the poor market. So, I will see how this interview goes and where I end up. Even if I leave teaching, I still plan to make education one of my major issues when it comes to politics. (Is there ANY teacher in America who likes No Child Left Behind and the constant testing in our classrooms?)
Comment by 
velveeta jones on 01/20/2010 23:17:37
velveeta jones on 01/20/2010 23:17:37
Hello all. Checking in after a looooonnnnnggg day of work. For some reason I have a strange feeling of foreboding. I hope my "ESP" proves wrong. 
Comment by 
Mondobubba on 01/21/2010 00:12:43
They are the bestest!
Mondobubba on 01/21/2010 00:12:43
Quote by wickedpam:
WooHoo Shout out to Fairfax County Search and Rescue on SMS - They so rock!
They are the bestest!
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/21/2010 01:05:36
I hope that all will be well. Remember, VJ, you are not alone.
Will in Chicago on 01/21/2010 01:05:36
Quote by velveeta jones:
Hello all. Checking in after a looooonnnnnggg day of work. For some reason I have a strange feeling of foreboding. I hope my "ESP" proves wrong.
I hope that all will be well. Remember, VJ, you are not alone.
Comment by Mondobubba on 01/21/2010 01:33:29
Well maybe it went on since my brother was admitted to the hospital this afternoon and needs surgery. First Raine's Oma and now this. Oy!
Mondobubba on 01/21/2010 01:33:29
Quote by velveeta jones:
Hello all. Checking in after a looooonnnnnggg day of work. For some reason I have a strange feeling of foreboding. I hope my "ESP" proves wrong.
Well maybe it went on since my brother was admitted to the hospital this afternoon and needs surgery. First Raine's Oma and now this. Oy!
Comment by Raine on 01/21/2010 02:53:43
Raine on 01/21/2010 02:53:43
Oma is on SOLID foods as of today!!!!
We are happily at home and resting. the past 2.5 days have seemed like an eternity.
We are happily at home and resting. the past 2.5 days have seemed like an eternity.
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/21/2010 03:25:36
Will in Chicago on 01/21/2010 03:25:36
Glenn Greenwald has a great article commenting on the new mantra of the Democratic Leadership Council, Blue Dog democrats and their enablers -- the victory of Scott Brown is the fault of the all powerful Left.
Sorry, Charlie. We did not get the nationalization of failing banks, single payer, an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor the revitalization of our economy. No, we did not get the Second Coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Rather, Obama and the centrist White House staff have given us the Second Coming of Bill Clinton, not that I was impressed by the first coming of Bill Clinton. (Okay, feel free to make your own jokes about that phrase. Despite the growth of the Clinton years, we still outsourced many of our industrial jobs.)
Here is an excerpt from Greenwald's article in Salon:
Sorry, Charlie. We did not get the nationalization of failing banks, single payer, an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor the revitalization of our economy. No, we did not get the Second Coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Rather, Obama and the centrist White House staff have given us the Second Coming of Bill Clinton, not that I was impressed by the first coming of Bill Clinton. (Okay, feel free to make your own jokes about that phrase. Despite the growth of the Clinton years, we still outsourced many of our industrial jobs.)
Here is an excerpt from Greenwald's article in Salon:
Blame the all-powerful left!
I have a contribution this morning to the New York Times examining the Scott Brown victory, and I'll post the link to it once it's up. But for the moment, I want to address two equally moronic themes emerging over the last couple of days which seek to blame the omnipotent, dominant, super-human "Left" for the Democrats' woes -- one coming from right-wing Democrats and the other from hard-core Obama loyalists (those two categories are not mutually exclusive but, rather, often overlap).
Last night, Evan Bayh blamed the Democrats' problems on "the furthest left elements," which he claims dominates the Democratic Party -- seriously. And in one of the dumbest and most dishonest Op-Eds ever written, Lanny Davis echoes that claim in The Wall St. Journal: "Blame the Left for Massachusetts" (Davis attributes the unpopularity of health care reform to the "liberal" public option and mandate; he apparently doesn't know that the health care bill has no public option [someone should tell him], that the public option was one of the most popular provisions in the various proposals, and the "mandate" is there to please the insurance industry, not "the Left," which, in the absence of a public option, hates the mandate; Davis' claim that "candidate Obama's health-care proposal did not include a public option" is nothing short of an outright lie).
In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party? As Ezra Klein says, the Left "hagotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months." The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry. Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.
Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/21/2010 03:27:30
Will in Chicago on 01/21/2010 03:27:30
Okay, the third paragraph came out weird, so I will re post it.
n what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party? As Ezra Klein says, the Left "has gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months." The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry. Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.
Comment by livingonli on 01/21/2010 03:41:01
livingonli on 01/21/2010 03:41:01
At least Keith mentioned that the polls in MA basically said that the people who voted for Obama and then voted for Brown are pissed because Obama has not clamped down on the banks or made the well-off pay for their crimes or reversed all of Bush's policies. In short, they are pissed mostly because Obama didn't go far enough. Remember, that's the kind of disillusionment that caused voter turnout to drop which usually benefits the GOP because it only ends up that they are the ones who seem to vote in every election.
Comment by Mondobubba on 01/21/2010 03:46:31
Oma rocks!
Mondobubba on 01/21/2010 03:46:31
Quote by Raine:
Oma is on SOLID foods as of today!!!!
We are happily at home and resting. the past 2.5 days have seemed like an eternity.
Oma rocks!