Its about time. For decades Progressives in Kentucky have been completely disgusted with the anti-American tactics used by Mitch McConnell and his minions in the Kentucky Republican Party who followed him like obsessed disciples. When President Obama first entered office I could not believe that a man as seemingly intelligent as he is could ever think he would be able to work with a man such as McConnell. Now, it appears after reaching out to McConnell and his radically Corporate Republian Party and pulling back a bloody nub just as we predicted here the President has had his fill. Thankfully, he is finally taking McConnell and his crowd to task.
The Kentucky Senate race was getting quite boring. Leave it to eccentric, Looney Tune Jim Bunning to heat things up. One would like to think that the outgoing Senator who was shunned by the McConnell machine because he is a can or two short of a six pack decided to shake up this race but then you realize that well, Bunning is a can or two short of a six pack. However, his callous, uncaring and hypocritical "stand" earlier this week against the nation's unemployed has indeed ignited the Kentucky Senate race, which quite frankly was becoming a yawner.
Some of the most frustrated folks in America right now are the leaders of America's labor movement. They have good reason to be, as an all-out war has been waged basically by both parties upon them in the last several decades. After the last election, when they used so much energy and support working Americans won the White House and a huge majority in both chambers of Congress they had really hoped that the plight of working Americans would be addressed through healthcare, wages, an end to outsourcing and the Employee Free Choice Act.
LANGUAGE WARNING: Today’s story is uncharacteristically blunt, and from this moment forward we will be using lots of inappropriate language in making our points.
It is by now fairly well known that Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, had a bit of a blow-up with liberals who were ready to start running ads against “blue dog” Democrats who were working very hard to shut down the health care reform effort.
Now we’re not gonna get in the middle of that argument today; instead, since we’re finally getting a chance to talk, I figured me and Rahm could get a few other things out of the way that have been on everyone’s mind for the past year or so.
After the much advertised "bi-partisan" forum on healthcare it seems to me one glowing fact remains for the American people to be blinded by. Republicans simply have no interest whatsoever in changing one of the most costly and least effective healthcare systems in the world. They also care very little about whether millions of uninsured Americans recieve coverage and ultimately seek Emergency Room treatment for illness, passing the cost on to everyone else. Now, it is time for Democrats to take off the gloves, come out swinging and fight with every power at their disposal to pass true healthcare reform.
Boy, the Senator for Communist China Mitch McConnell has some nerve. After spearheading the Republican "do-nothing good" Congress that rubber-stamped every failed policy of the worst President in American history he is seeking to lecture others on debt, taxes, healthcare and the economy. I mean these are the folks that brought us a trillion wasted dollars on failed wars and whose only solution to anything was to put it on the American credit card or borrow it from China. Now, McConnell seeks to bemoan the commission started by President Obama to reduce the Federal Deficit.
You know with all the troubles partly caused by the Republicans being the "party of no", America is in a sour mood. Nothing good is getting done in Washington because so many Democrats are wanting to be "bi-partisan" and so many Republicans just think the road to Congressional control is to make Democrats look bad. Now, many of them are predicting Senate control after the 2010 elections. However, even with the toxic environment for incumbents this will be a long road for Republicans.
In Kentucky there is one person that working folks simply know as Congressman Awesome. With our depressing Congressional delegation, he is the one bresh of fresh air on the national scene. He is Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky's Third Congressional District in the Louisville area. He has been a godsend not only for Kentucky Democrats, but for all of those in the country who truly believe in Democratic ideals for our country. With the dangerous environment for incumbents, national Democrats need to do all they can do to help us get John Yarmuth re-elected.
A poll just released by New York Times/CBS today had some interesting findings. Despite the Tea Party movement, President Obama is still viewed much more positively than the Republicans or Congress. It found that Americans have not forgotten about George W. Bush and that being an incumbent this year will be toxic. It also gave insights into what the Democrats should do in the coming months to stay in power.
Once again, Republicans are playing politics with many Obama nominations. They seem to forget the old saying "to the victor goes the spoils" and refuse to let the not so new President set up his Administration. No place anywhere needs new vision as much as the National Labor Relations Board, and although Obama has a qualified candidate nominate for that board, Republicans are doing all they can to block him because he is labor-friendly.
I think everyone agrees that America needs to be creating jobs. Although they do not agree how, it seems that some sort of legislation to create jobs is favored by both parties. However, as always with the Democrats they seem to be taking something that could be good and turning into a very different animal. You see, in all his "wisdom" Harry Reid has decided to add a re-authorization of the Patriot Act into the Jobs Bill.
Instead of fighting for real healthcare reform it seems as if long ago President Obama has settled in on a strategy of "reaching out" to Republicans and Corporate Democrats. This will include a televised debate on Feb. 25 between the two parties. Now, reaching out would not be such a bad thing, if it weren't for the Republicans simply not wanting any real reform in the system and doing all they can to slow and stop the process. Just a look at some Republican ideas lets you know this is yet again another practice in futility.
(Some great food for thought. - promoted by RDemocrat)
Lately there has been a spate of diaries at such web sites as FireDogLake and "Open" Left wherein lay members - typically under attack from site moderators, who act as Democratic Party hacks and gatekeepers - have sought ways to bring back the Progressive Party, or join the Greens, or build up some other institution, that will allow progressives to act together as a cohesive political unit. (I posted an entry there myself, only to end up being attacked by site moderators, threatened with banishment, and ultimately banned when I refused to back down against their incessant bullying.)
I guess the lessons of last year have not completely set in. All the lies about "death panels" and "death books" and all the right-wing lunatics shouting like idiots at town-halls must be a distant memory. That is because it seems as if the President seems determined to repeat the failures of last year. Has he not learned when you reach out to Republicans all you do is pull back a bloody nub??
Would a physician remove a patient's heart, throw the heart in the garbage, place a IOU for his/her charges where the patients heart use to be and then complain that the patient's vital signs indicate the patient is dead? Of course not, but I suggest this is what the politicians, Democrats and Republicans have done to middle America. The heart of middle America has been removed and a big IOU has been put where the heart use to be. Middle America's heart wasn't put in the garbage, the heart was divvied up and given to Corporate interest, China, India, Mexico, Wall Street, Military contractors, off shore banking accounts, etc.
Despite recent gains and despite all the radio talk show bluster about America being a center-right nation, Gallup has found that contrary to what some want to believe America is still a very Democratic nation. When broken down, the numbers are staggering and tilt heavily towards Democrats. That makes one wonder why Democrats refuse to fight for a Democratic agenda once in power.
While I have been disappointed with and ripped into President Obama on occasion the Republican response to his new budget completely defines hypocrisy. Before saying anything, they should consider exactly who got us into the mess we are in- THEM. Their control of our government was a disaster for our country.
(It may have come to that. Great diary!! - promoted by RDemocrat)
At what point do progressives stop being Democrats' whipped dogs and start acting like a movement capable of putting the Dems in their proper place as the party of the people? David Sirota wrote today about Obama's latest call to increase war spending beyond its already ludicrous proportions.
How many of the extreme right-wing and criminal policies of Bush-Cheney has Obama adopted? How many of those extreme right-wing policies has he exceeded? Last month, knowledge that Obama has gone a step further than Bush, authorizing the executive branch to murder American citizens on the flimsiest of rationales. This sh__ has GOT to end.
I keep hearing from the President and other party leaders how our country needs to get past "partisanship". Well, sometimes it is a very good thing to work together and try to agree but the times we live in do not call for that particular solution. Yes folks, what we need right now is a good round of ugly, nasty, bitter partisanship to achieve progress for the working class.
