Democrats

"Necessitous men [women] are not free men [women]," said FDR in his 2nd Bill of Rights speech. This phrase is said to come from a English property law case in 1762.

This morning in the second hour of "UP" with Chris Hayes, Chris had on Greg Fletcher of Our Walmart, Raymond Castillo of Warehouse Workers United, Heather McGee of Demos, and David Frum of free market vampirism. I watch this show to get a bead on what the Democrats are up to and occasionally something really good slips in like hearing real workers talking economics. Read below the fold...

I've never supported Obama and my friends know that. They also know I am out of electoral politics and gone independently left libertarian. Last night I tried to stay out of a political discussion at a small get together of friends. But I did say that I thought it was unacceptable when Obama said he "suspected" that his position on SS was similar to Romney's. Although, I added, it was the most truthful thing he said all night. And then added that IMHO, he looked uncomfortable because he had to pretend he had a different economic philosophy than Romney and that was tiring for him.

Then my friend said, "What does it get you to be a purist?"
I said I'd rather drop the subject especially when labels got attached. Read below the fold...

The next dog and pony is the Dem convention where the platitudes and non-specific proposals will fly fast and furiously across the tv, radio,net, and printed media.
And will change very few peoples perceptions.

And then, just to keep the commoners amused, that will be followed by what is called 'The Presidential Debates'. As someone who took a few course in argumentation, it truly pains me to have these scripted shows be called 'debates'.

AND, neither Dems nor Repubs will speak out about this:
OPEN DEBATES CALLS ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE COMMISSION TO MAKE SECRET CONTRACT PUBLIC Read below the fold...

The Moveon/Progressive candidate went down in flames. More from a local blogger, be sure to check out the comments.

Anyone know anything about this district? Will there be any emergent party candidates in the general election? Read below the fold...

There is no question that the Teabagged Republicans are intransigent assholes, but I cannot get my head around Democrats, Liberals and Progressives rallying around the de-funding of Social Security with this Payroll Tax Holiday.

Attaching it to the very needed Unemployment Insurance extension, and Medicare re-imbursement authorization was a recipe for disaster in the first place, with this gaggle of evil clowns controlling the House.

Here is the actual House Bill: via House.gov Read below the fold...

Salon.com's news editor, Steve Kornacki, lamented yesterday that "Obama won’t face a credible primary challenge", going on about how the closest thing to a liberal challenge he has comes from Republican candidate Buddy Roemer. While it is true that many liberals aren't seeing any "viable" candidates materialize on the left, Kornacki isn't telling us why that is: the failure of supposedly liberal pundits to report on candidates who are actually running. Read below the fold...

Salon.com has a piece up urging Democrats to dump Obama and go with a candidate who will restore their party to its New Deal era politics. According to the column by Matt Stoller, there are a number of reasons why they should, including: Read below the fold...

By now the Democratic wing of the kleptocracy must be getting a tiny inkling of just how unpopular they are.

The White House representative at Netroots Nation, Pfeiffer, was openly booed. The blogs have turned nasty.

What politicians know, but don't talk about, is that approval ratings don't matter very much. What REALLY matters is your re-elect numbers, the question that asks, if the election were held today would you vote to reelect Senator Snort or whoever. My guess is that the Democratic numbers stink outloud. As of today their only counter arguement is that the Republicans are REALLY crazy. And the Republicans really ARE crazy, but that is really not a rallying cry. Read below the fold...

yes, this is the Democrats idea of a clever notion.

Because we are too stupid to notice who is President and who controls the Senate? Read below the fold...

CONGRESSIONAL -~ PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS Budget Proposal

Health care
1. Enact a public option

Question for Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, do you have specific legislative language for a public option with a bill number? Because if you don't you are just jerking your supporters around.

As you well know, there is a proposal that would cover everyone and save money, HR 676, why not the best? Read below the fold...

The responses to my previous entry were exactly what I hoped they would be: lively. And I'm not done yet, not by a long shot. I'm going to expand upon a comment I made in the other thread. Read below the fold...

I seem to recall that someone, late last month, posted an entry arguing that it is immoral for Democrats not to run a primary challenge against Barry Obama in 2012, in light of the things he's done to institutionalize Bush-Cheney crimes. (Glenn Greenwald chronicled the latest violation of the Constitution by Obama on his own blog, which you can read here). Read below the fold...

Well, the proverbial s__t is now hitting the fan in our State Governments, and we're looking at struggles in State after State between newly elected Republican Governors scapegoating civil servants, while they insist that taxes can't be raised on the wealthy and large corporations during a recession. Put briefly, the moves to austerity and the resulting conflicts in Wisconsin and other States are partly Democrats' fault, because they failed to pass a State revenue sharing bill to close the gap in State budgets, so that no cuts in services, employee benefits, or jobs would be necessary. Read below the fold...

2010 is nearly over, and the fight for the presidency in 2012 is beginning to take shape. Corporate Democrat Barry Obama has not merely disappointed the public, nor has he merely failed to accomplish progressive goals. He has, in fact, deliberately and stubbornly refused to even try to accomplish progressive goals, opting instead to continue and expand on the fascist, totalitarian policies of his predecessor and ideological brothers, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Read below the fold...