there is a link to some audio here…….. The nature of modern American politics has been off-the-wall weird for a dozen years now. We’ve seen a president impeached for lying about sex. We’ve seen another president who was selected instead of elected in an orgiastic festival of Florida and federal fraud. We saw an administration use the darkest day in our history as an excuse to scare us, spy on us, steal from us and start false wars in our name. We’ve seen a vice president go on national television and advocate the benefits and blessings of torture. We came within an eyelash of seeing the first woman president elected in this still-misogynist nation, and did see the first African-American president elected in this still-racist nation. |
Those are just the big-ticket items. It is almost impossible to quantify the political mayhem that has broken loose during the last several years, and after all of it, you start to think that maybe you’ve seen it all. How much more deranged can it really get? Read more at www.truthout.org |
of course there’s more…………… Obama’s Rope-a-Dope Politics, More Pain Than Gain |
Though torture supposedly ended, we still endured an excruciating, six-month health marathon that resulted in bad ideas driving out good. Last week, this political torture mercifully ended with a whimper, not a bang, enabling health insurers while disempowering people. But as this is the season of hope, let us count unintended blessings, as in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Painfully-won foresight at least clarifies the past, present and future: |
1) the House stands as the only functional government body, not by much;
2) the Senate now cements the status quo with every backward constipation, laboriously passed. Its extra-constitutional 60-vote obsession, played expertly by well-paid drummer boys, neatly trumps majority rule;
3) our convivial caretaker president glorifies process over leadership and, while strong overseas with speeches and surges, seems not in charge, going along to get along. |
sour grapes-for newbies-from big baby i guess………..wah…..wah……….wah…….. Dodd Rips Newbies—Ahem, Franken—for Lacking ‘Civility’ |
Comment may be dig at Minn. freshman, who shut down Lieberman |
(Newser)
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Chris Dodd battled a perceived lack of decorum in the Senate yesterday with some stern language from the floor. The Connecticut Democrat did not name names but rather cryptically chastised the Senate’s “newer members” for failing “to understand how the Senate has worked for more than two centuries” during the course of the health care debate. Most “newer members” are Democrats.
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Dodd may have been targeting Al Franken, speculates the Hill. Fellow Connecticut lawmaker Joe Lieberman asked the Minnesota freshman, who was presiding over the chamber, for some extra time during debate last week, and Franken declined. But Dodd seemed to be going further, though his intention was unclear: “I regret sometimes the newer members who fail to understand the importance of maintaining that which our Founders envisioned when they created this institution.”
Read more at www.newser.com |
Matt Taibbi, Bill Moyers and Robert Kuttner: Why Can’t Democrats Do Anything Right? |
BILL MOYERS: Something’s not right here. One year after the great collapse of our financial system, Wall Street is back on top while our politicians dither. As for health care reform, you’re about to be forced to buy insurance from companies whose stock is soaring, and that’s just dandy with the White House. |
Truth is, our capitol’s being looted, republicans are acting like the town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful Democrats in Congress are in cahoots with the gang that’s pulling the heist. This is not capitalism at work. It’s capital. Raw money, mounds of it, buying politicians and policy as if they were futures on the hog market. Read more at www.alternet.org |
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By: GRITtv Wednesday December 16, 2009 11:56 am
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With the economic collapse last year, many mainstream voices suddenly started to talk about alternatives to capitalism. The economy seems to be stabilizing a bit, but as we’ve discussed many times, people are still suffering and jobless. Yet Citigroup is getting more tax breaks, and Ben Bernanke is Time’s Man of the Year. |
Can capitalism be saved, and is it worth saving? We’re thinking big this Wednesday with Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute and Max Fraad Wolff of the New School. Read more at lauraflanders.firedoglake.com |
palast is so silly - or…………….? ……….is he? hmmm- interesting spin here Supreme Court’s Ruling Would Allow Bin Laden to Donate to Sarah Palin’s Presidential Campaign |
I’m biting my nails waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling in ‘Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission’ — here’s why you should be too.
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I thought that headline would get your attention. And it’s true. |
I’m biting my nails waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which could come down as early as Tuesday. At issue: whether corporations, as “unnatural persons,” can make contributions to political campaigns. |
Allowing company campaign spending will not, as progressives fear, cause an avalanche of corporate cash into politics. Sadly, that’s already happened: we have been snowed under by tens of millions of dollars given through corporate PACs and “bundling” of individual contributions from corporate pay-rollers. |
Washington - President Obama should have declared victory in Afghanistan and begun a withdrawal. His escalation of the war may achieve its goals, but at too great a cost — and without making our nation meaningfully safer from the threat of terrorist attacks. |
I hope I’m wrong. But my fundamental question about Obama’s approach was illustrated Thursday by events far from the war zone: In Mogadishu, Somalia, a suicide bomber infiltrated a university graduation ceremony and killed at least 19 people, including three ministers of the Somali government. |
I use the term “Somali government” ironically, because there hasn’t really been one since 1991. A long-running, multisided battle for control among heavily armed clans and warlords remains unresolved. The most important recent development in the civil war has been the emergence of a religious-based insurgency, al-Shabab, which now controls a large swath of the country — and which was immediately suspected in Thursday’s bombing. Read more at www.truthout.org |
what’s it look like when an empire goes boom? or so this goes on to ponder…… Present At The Destruction |
Everybody has a different role to play at a funeral, I guess. |
There’s the sobby, hysterical, “He’s not really dead, everything’s just like it used to be!”, kinda guy. Think of Reagan or Lil’ Bush, desperately trying to resurrect the America of 1955. |
There’s the chummy, cavalier, “Hey, no worries - I bet they’ll be serving some great booze at the wake!”, sorta dude. Think of Wild Bill Clinton, with his shades and sax, playing Arsenio. |
There’s the little kid, more or less completely baffled by the whole life and death thing. Think every Republican voter in America. |
And then there’s the undertaker. All he’s worried about is making sure that the corpse gets removed from the building before it stinks up the joint so bad somebody shuts him down and he loses his job. Think of Barack Obama. |
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