The War on Everything. Stupid Democrats, Stupid Republicans

[2012 Countdown]

Another unoriginal observation to follow:

July 14, 2011, 7:55 AM
Obama, Moderate Republican
OK, not exactly. But Nate Silver’s analysis of the budget proposals is a must-read. Nate looks at polling, and extracts the following implied preferences for the mix between tax increases and spending cuts in a debt deal:




What Obama has offered — and Republicans have refused to accept — is a deal in which less than 20 percent of the deficit reduction comes from new revenues. This puts him slightly to the right of the average Republican voter.

So we learn two things. First, Obama is extraordinarily eager to make concessions. Second, Republicans are incredibly unwilling to take yes for an answer — something for which progressives should be grateful.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0 ... epublican/

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'Greatful'? Yeah, if it weren't for the republicans' pig headed greed and stupidity, Obama would be freely selling us out.

Thanks!

[NeonLX]

Talking to friends last night; they are a very nice & concerned couple. I witnessed an interesting exchange. The husband and I were going on about the stupid republicans & stupid democrats, how the system is totally F'd, etc. Mrs. Friend finally had her fill and said, "Would you two stop yammering and actually go do something about it??". Well, that was a showstopper. I gave one of my patented shrugs and asked, "What the hell can be done?".

Ain't got an answer to that, I'm afraid .

[lupercal]

Talking to friends last night; they are a very nice & concerned couple. I witnessed an interesting exchange. The husband and I were going on about the stupid republicans & stupid democrats, how the system is totally F'd, etc. Mrs. Friend finally had her fill and said, "Would you two stop yammering and actually go do something about it??". Well, that was a showstopper. I gave one of my patented shrugs and asked, "What the hell can be done?".

Ain't got an answer to that, I'm afraid .

Exactement mon ami or amie. That story illustrates just the point I was trying to figure out how to illustrate, namely that the purpose of a certain type of political discourse of which Counterputz is a sterling example is to lead left-leaning liberals down the garden path to nowheresville, or in other words disempower them by destroying their confidence in electoral politics, which has the convenient benefit of also disempowering the single major party (of two, but still) that makes any pretense whatsoever of challenging the MIC. I'd also add that this is typically accomplished in ways not exactly cricket, i.e., with lots of flimflamery, obfuscation, half truths, reactionary slogans like that "Einstein" line, and (if you count wikileaks for example, which most wouldn't) the usual spookery.

[2012 Countdown]

Where has this alleged pretense been the last 10 years (and counting)? The MIC gets everything they want and more, literally. Bills are passed that exceed military requests. Counterpunch could function as a heat sink as you allege, but the facts presented remain.

[lupercal]

^ I added a little more to clarify the point, though probably not enough to make a strong case, so I'll come back and go through the whole thing later, but I'll just point out now that this particular pile starts with wikileaks (okay, not everybody agrees it's a spook show, but it is) and ends with a RW slogan both Ahnold and his manque-successor Meg Whitman used in their Cali guv races.

re. alleged pretense: start with Obama's "dumb wars" speech, which basically won him the presidency, and then add his Nobel peace prize, and you start to get the picture.

[2012 Countdown]

Yes, well, that type of 'pretense' serves a short term goal, and when we find he actually escallates and reinforces 'dumb wars' and starts a few of his own, its all the more infuriating. Nobody likes being lied to, at least I don't. In fact, the double-crossing lies and phony posturing POS infuriates me.

[2012 Countdown]

This is good!
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Progressive Democrats to demonstrate at Obama Chicago headquarters

By Lynn Sweet on July 14, 2011 9:53 AM | No Comments
WASHINGTON--As the deficit reduction talks stall here between President Obama and congressional leaders, a group of progressive Democrats plan to visit President Obama's Chicago re-election headquarters on Friday to deliver "200,000 signed pledges refusing to donate to or volunteer on President Obama's reelection campaign if he cuts Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security."

Pressure from the left is not new--particularly from the group organizing the petition drive, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. The group is stepping up its game as the default deadline looms and some Democrats want to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security from cuts.

They are going to drop by the Prudential Building headquarters at 11 a.m. cst Friday. The Prudential Building is somewhat of a fortress to penetrate--and one needs to get cleared in to get to the actual campaign offices.
below, release from PCCC......

On Friday, members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC, BoldProgressives.org) will deliver to the President's National Campaign Headquarters over 200,000 signed pledges refusing to donate to or volunteer on President Obama's reelection campaign if he cuts Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

The signed pledges state:

"President Obama: If you cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits for me, my family, or families like mine, don't ask for a penny of my money or an hour of my time in 2012. I'm going to focus on electing bold progressive candidates who will fight to protect our Democratic legacy."

The PCCC - a grassroots organization with nearly 36,000 members in Illinois and over 750,000 members nationwide - collected the petition signatures online at BoldProgressives.org.

The over 200,000 signed pledges includes grassroots donors who made over $17 million in donations and volunteered over 2.6 million volunteer hours to the President's 2008 campaign.

The signatures also represent more than one-third the number of contributors to the President's campaign in the most recently reported fundraising quarter.

Full event details:

What: Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) members deliver over 200,000 pledges refusing to donate to or volunteer on the President's reelection campaign if he supports cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

Where: Obama for America National Campaign Headquarters
One Prudential Plaza
130 E. Randolph
Chicago, IL, 60601

When: TOMORROW, Friday, July 15, 2011
11:00 AM CDT
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http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/07 ... mon_1.html

[marycarnival]

2012, thanks for posting this piece. please don't let the rather bizarre flare-up derail your confidence about posting anything here! it's a great piece and i never would have seen it otherwise, and i intend on sharing it far and wide. ( which for me these days is admittedly not that much).

while wr's reaction was pretty grumpy, i don't think it was directed at you one bit. i took it as the frustration we all feel, insofar as no matter how many perfectly written and scathing diatribes, everything just seems to get worse, so why bother?

which is a great point of discussion for this thread imho.

personally i think we have to keep trying, keep spreading this stuff around, you never know what may finally be the catalyst that sparks a fire.

[8bitagent]

Brilliant article. In the last 30 days there has been US combat in Iraq(which is heating up again), Afghanistan(where US soldiers continue to die each day), Pakistan(50+ people killed in one day a few days ago by drones), Libya, Yemen with intensified drone/air bomb/cruise missile strikes and as of a few weeks ago: strikes on Somalia. And who knows what black ops are going on out there.

But yeah the whistleblowers thing, man...wtf. I think at this point the liberals hanging onto Obama may be doing so more out of fear/distaste of the other side(the racist ignorant theocratic Tea Party/GOP types) than of their own convictions. So here's to 2012 and a truly progressive/new direction heralding back to the late 60's and early 70's. Remember: World wars only happen with and during Democratic leadership

Bottom line, I think more(or hope) more conservatives realize they've been HAD by the GOP strategists, and the left realizes Obama ain't their pal and they wasted their time and energy supporting him.
I mean the whole threats to cut, or not even release social security/welfare/veterans/ebt/medicare/medicaid...shit's crazy.

When people see Washington would rather give tens of billions to terror financing brutal autocrats, corrupt PMCs, and blowing up villages then they they'll realize the poor and middle class have no representaiton

[justdrew]

it'll be funny (very briefly) when they don't have any money to buy the 10,000 they're supposedly pulling out of Afghanistan airline tickets home. I suppose they'll strong arm various vendors into accepting IOUs?

[JackRiddler]

it'll be funny (very briefly) when they don't have any money to buy the 10,000 they're supposedly pulling out of Afghanistan airline tickets home. I suppose they'll strong arm various vendors into accepting IOUs?

Corporate America will step in to finance it in style, long as Budweiser, Chrysler, BP America, Citibank, MLBNFLNASCAR et al. get to sponsor the homecoming tableaux. Brought to you by! Every soldier gets an irony-free gift bag from the Body Shop.

.