Has always been, and will always be, a tool of the oligarchs and plutocrats? What’s news about this? She’s as predictable as the tides.
Power up for grabs? Seize IT!

C’mon. Duh?

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

How ’bout we try, during primary season anyway, to try to post comments which are supportive of the candidate we DO favor, rather than reflexive slams against ones we oppose?

Although just between me and thee if I never saw the term “CorpoRat” again I would somehow manage to get by. although giving up eye-rolling would deprive me of most of my exercise program. :)

See here.

And I’m with Xan on the eyerolling part. Language has to be in the right place, as well as the heart.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

On la Feinstein

I shall defer to him.

Just outta curiousity, what’s the problem with ’corpoRat’?

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

… your much-beloved “CorpoRat,” I suffer an immediate flashback to fifth grade.

It was 1964, Johnson vs. Goldwater. Being normal fifth-graders we had no more political awareness than your average newborn kitten and merely reflected the preferences of our parents, but expressed with all the sophisticated subtlety customary for 10-year olds.

The favorite sign of the Goldwater supporting kids was “Down With the Democ-RATS”. The really daring ones wrote the “c” over kinda sideways so it looked more like “Demon-Rats.”

They considered this the height of crushing wit. I thought they were half right, on the wit part anyway.

Still do.

(Shrug.) We got free speech here, you know that. I’m just venting one of my left-over childhood traumas no doubt. :)

1) Reading the legislation
2) Comprehending the legislation
3) Taking a position based on the effectiveness of the proposed legislation to address the perceived problem
4) Debating the merits on the floor
5) Voting procedures

Or at least that was the gist of our civics curriculum I recall from our public school systems.

Like a house of cards, #2 does nothing without #1 first, #3 has even further to fall without #1.

Re-writing the legislation in the middle of the night doesn’t seem to send congress back to #1. I’m willing to bet a jar of home made canned goods that 90% or more of congress delegates #1 and #2 to unelected staff as a matter of procedure so they rarely if ever go there. We need a poll.

Senator did you read this bill before you voted on it?

Is diligence and integrity asking too much?

… the link you cite to the much-admired Glenn is the one I cited in the original post. So…

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

Democrats have not learned how to act like an extended family or clan which is sort of what we are. When one member or faction or subgroup in a clan keeps doing stupid stuff that endangers everyone, that person or group is punished. It is not done to be cruel or mean but out of necessity. The clan loves this person or group but they are going to get them all killed or financially ruined. This group helps each other, teaches ethics, and is in no way like the Mafia because there is no illegal behavior and no secrecy. Pressure from within the group usually does the trick because the people want to be part of the group although they are free to leave it at any time such as marriage or to pursue another profession with best wishes from everyone. 478

Do we know any bloggers in DiFi’s district who’d be willing to help, er, get her attention? So what if she’s not running again if there are other ways to make her life more difficult?

Maybe someone with access to Lexis could compile a list of greatest hits, the way Atrios does, every so often?

Are there local issues that she’s vulnerable on?

She’s got a completely safe seat. And she’s not representing the district. No? Yes? The wingers use her for a hate trigger, but all that means is that she’s triangulated successfully.

Here’s DiFi trashing the base. On FISA: She hides behind the fake sunset provision. “We’ve got five months.” Use “minimization”* and “probable cause for continued collection.”

NOTE * DiFi doesn’t mention court review of minimization, and, from the hearings, that’s a key issue, since under the carefully crafted Constitutional Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want, Bush will do whatever the fuck he wants [HTML of PDF] with no review. We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

sometimes skips the ’Preview’ step…

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

You got me!

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

Lambert, I agree with you but we cannot rush willy nilly as in the past. That is what Republicans expect because DiFi does not expect to pay a price. Dems in Congress are increasingly turning off their phones before big votes because they do not want to hear from us and are not afraid of what we will do. There is no discipline therefore they do what they please like children. They do not think about the good of the party and country. Sen. Reid needs to sweetly sit her down and explain that if she does not stop this crap she will loose her committee chair and even seat. Sen. Reid needs to understand that if he cannot enforce discipline on important votes someone will challenge him. His challenger would have a lot of funds to dole out to his fellow Senators running for reelection. Without discipline you got nothin, not in business, sports, rearing children, or politics.

What does “rush willy nilly as in the past” mean? Examples? Detail?

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

The most potent kind of power is soft power because it is given with consent. But this type of power must have authority which comes from those who have given it. If he cannot enforce any kind of discipline on these senators he should not be leader. Those who support him are doing so because they can run amok without reprisal. Each individual senator, congress members also, must see that their contributions will disappear if they cannot follow party discipline most of the time. WE DO THAT in word and in deed. Today we all need to call the members of Congress and tell them that until they can follow the game plan called by the coach, no contribution, no volunteers, no inviting them to speak to us, etc. Tell them nothing personal, but they are being benched because they do not play as part of the team. The leadership need to lead. Tell them no help being reelected, crappy committee assignments, they have to park on the street, whatever that member wants or needs. This is not personal and they should be told it is for the good of everyone. They will not be allowed to screw it up for everyone else. Like in a family clan structure. I am doing this because I care for you, but I care for the good of the group more.

DiFi is retiring in 2012.

Most of what I’m seeing from a quick Google regards the state legislature. Can a Federal position be recalled?

I’d cheerfully chip in $100 for a Feinstein recall campaign.

What we need to do in California is identify potential candidates for ’012, my take on the dems here is that they are mostly new-age concern troll types. I don’t know about federal office holder recalls, but we’ll recall any other office holder for as little as an ill timed sneeze.

Topo: The Dumbocraps control BOTH houses of Congress. They control what gets to the floor, and what doesn’t.
If that feculent Bushevik nominee for the FEC—von Spastic, or wtf his name is (where do the Pukes find all these chinless wonders?) gets a vote, it is because the chickenshit DUMBOCRAPS want him to have a vote.
If that new funding bill for the ICORP in iraq gets a vote, it is because the chickenshit Dumbocraps want to vote on it.
That’s not ’new age concern trollism,’ that’s telling the fucking truth, difficult as it might be for the limp-dicked, gutless, feckless orthodox Dumbocraps to accept it.

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

IIRC, recall of members of the US Congress is unconstitutional on the grounds that terms are set in Article 1 and regulation of the individual chambers, including the power to expel members, is similarly reserved to Congress under Article 1.

Why is this surprising?

Just because she was mayor of San Francisco does not make her a solid liberal.

In fact, she was, from a progressive point of view, an awful mayor of San Francisco. Her policies, combined with Willie Brown’s, aided in the total destruction of working and middle class life in the city.

Part of the true tragedy of Harvey Milk and George Moscone’s assassinations is that Dan White didn’t just kill Milk, the first openly gay politician in the US, but he also killed Moscone, the most progressive mayor SF has yet seen.

I don’t know enough about the case, obviously. But if Dan White is still alive (it’s been long enough in Texas he’d probably have had his lethal injection by now, because even if they’re out you can’t just walk in and shoot the politicians, y’know … which is sometimes the only thing that keeps our politicians remotely close to safe, as they are not even remotely close to sane in many cases. Witness KKKarl, Gonzo, and W!) it might be worthwhile to have, oh, I dunno, a shrink or an interlocutor visit with him on the matter.

I wouldn’t for a second put it past the CA conservatives to “adjust” some poor sap to go on an “anti-gay” rampage and “accidentally” kill a political opponent too. Hell, they gave us Reagan.

We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0

Please. White killed himself in 1985, and according to Wiki, fucking Dianne Feinstein was one of the people urging him to try to get his job back, which is why he killed Moscone and Milk, because they wouldn’t let him withdraw his resignation.

We’re stuck with her, the only way things will improve is when we hit rock bottom, and apparently we aren’t even close.

Moscone was targeted for personal, revenge reasons, not really political ones.

White resigned his seat, was replaced by Milk, and then when he didn’t get it back, shot Milk and then the mayor.

He was initially found not guilty through the infamous Twinkie Defense. This set off riots throughout San Francisco, known as the White Night riots. A still photo from the riots is on the cover of the first Dead Kennedy’s record.

White committed suicide at some point in the 1980’s.

My point was that Moscone and Milk’s deaths stymied a progressive surge in San Francisco politics that allowed conservative, corporate Democrats like Feinstein to dominated city politics for a generation.

The return of the progressives began a few years ago, and now progressive Dems hold a majority on the city council, and almost elected Matt Gonzalez mayor on the Green party ticket against corporate Democrat and Willie Brown machine candidate Gavin Newsom. Though Newsom has become more progressive since being elected mayor, perhaps with an eye to re-election.

So, Feinstein has always been a conservative Dem. She is probably one of the worst Dems in the whole California delegation. Especially when compared to awesome Dems like Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey.

What does it take?

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

She can be bought.
A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

I’ll chip in some money too—for her recall and I live in Arizona**