spending the morning Thankin’ and Spankin’ . . . calling to thank those who held to their promise, esp the more junior among their ranks. Will be making a few calls to those with broken ankles of clay, reminding them their tuesday vote is now a matter of public record

Most excellent. Thank you.

Since I can’t remember all of our Blue American candidates, can someone tell me if any of them voted “yes” on the supplement? Would really appreciate it. Thanks

Here’s a progressive Florida website. They do a good job.

http://www.flapolitics.com/

You know, Mr. Randolph, I’ve heard everything you’ve said tonight, and I couldn’t agree with you more. I agree with everything that you’ve said, including my capacity to be able to right many of these wrongs and to use my power and the bully pulpit….But I would ask one thing of you, Mr. Randolph, and that is go out and make me do it.

This quote I think describes what the Lefty Blogs are all about:)

The tone of this post is quite different from many those that continue to attack Obama personally.

The Obama team suceeded in obtaining the funding to continue pointless wars. Has anyone offered an explanation what the wars are meant to accomplish?

Better yet, can ANYONE explain what ANY war was meant to accomplish?

From Love and Death

Sergeant: If they kill more Russians, they win. If we kill more Frenchmen, we win.
Boris Grushenko: What do we win?

Same thing they always do. Pertek our freedum. Ask Bill Clinton, Obama, Bush one and a two, Stephen Colbert…

How does the spilt blood of little brown people make me more free?

Voting “Yea”

year denotes when they were endorsed by Blue America

Paul Hodes 08

Joe Sestak 06

Patrick Murphy 06

McNerney 06 (outed as not progressive by Cousin Howie some time back)

John Hall 06

Steve Cohen 06

Bruce Braley 06

Tom Perriello 08

Jim Himes 08

Martin Heinrich 08

Gary Peters 08

Dan Maffei 08

Mark Schauer 08

all gleaned from Howie’s post here

final vote tally here

Ending the perpetual war machine will allow us to focus in on that other overwhelming issue: climate change.

Actually they go hand in hand since military actions, and the US military in particular, cause huge additions of CO2, CFC’s, HCFCs and many other major pollutants (radiation included) into our atmospheric biosystem.

We don’t really have a choice here. If we want to survive and we want out children to to survive than we must end the cycle of military spending, procurement, and war.

Is this a refresher course for peace activists? This is, after all, an anti-war blog, among other things, IIRC. Or are you just setting us up for a plug for plunger’s latest documentary discovery?

Thanks very much.

This is a step in the right direction.

And Joe Sestak wants to primary Arlen Specter? He’ll never do it courting only redneck PA.

But did Obama ever actually say “Make me do the right thing”…?

Or did he just imply… and the foolish took it as a sign that he’d somehow be amenable to progressive ideas?

I’m not speaking of vague feel-good aphorisms from the last century… I’m speaking of him actively digging us deeper into the various holes as fast as he possibly can this very minute.

I don’t think the FDR quote applies. FDR was citing the need to motivate public opinion for ideas he supported. Public opinion favors us getting out of Iraq and something along the lines of Medicare for all or single payer universal coverage for healthcare. The problem is not one of public support but that Obama who is 3/4 Republican opposes them.

We need to stop thinking about working with Obama. There is nothing there to work with. We need to oppose him, his Administration, and his Congress.

The supplemental passed 226-202. While it is true that 170 Republicans opposed it and only 5 voted for it, the supplemental remains an essentially conservative Republican bill, just not as extreme as where the Republicans are now. The more important point is that 221 Democrats voted for it. This is far more than a few Bluedogs and weak-kneed turncoats like Schakowsky. Yes, 32 Democrats opposed it. But this should also tell us why Obama and Rahm don’t give spit for progressives. They don’t even make up 10% of the House. They make up even less in the Senate.

I favor fights like the one on the supplemental but the calculus is heavily against us. The only way progressives can stop Obama is if they combine with extremist nutcase Republicans. This is not a viable strategy. Obama’s response is to go even further to the right or to peal off what progressives he needs from the left with pork without accepting any progressive ideas.

Now when Obama’s policies fail, and they will fail, we can say I told you so and we can not support him in his inevitable re-election bid but that is about it.

Just my personal opinion but I think we should be using the next few years to elect progressives and work toward the creation of a progressive party. The current two party system gives us the choice between really crazy Republicans and somewhat less crazy Republicans (often referred to as Democrats). Neither has anything useful to say about the problems or the solutions to our nation’s problems.

Support everything you say except for your proposal for a progressive party. All that does (a la Ralph Nader) is peel off votes from the somewhat less crazies (Democrats) and throw elections to the real crazies (rethugs). That’s what gave us Bush in ‘00.

I offer no alternative solution, except for strongly supporting the handful in congress (Whitehouse, Kuchinich, etc.) who seem sincerely committed to their role as public servants.

I agree, but I’m not sure a traditional political party is the way to go. We must mobilize the country via the internet. It must be town by town, city by city, with a way to reach consensus on issues. That’s the neatest trick of the week for several reasons. (1) how do you conduct a conversation among millions of people? and (2) how do you reconcile different ideas about reaching the goal. (2)is not as difficult. On the internet the same person, if so inclined, can follow several paths.

If we continue to use the usual tactics we most likely will wind up with the usual suspects.

We have 3 1/2 years to the next Presidential election. Because Obama will run again, we have effectively 2 1/2 years to organize. This does not have to be a last minute effort.

All that does (a la Ralph Nader) is peel off votes from the somewhat less crazies (Democrats) and throw elections to the real crazies (rethugs).

This is precisely what Obama is counting on and why he will continue to blow off progressives. Obama and the Democrats feel they have us boxed in. We need to get out of the box.

”We need to stop thinking about working with Obama. There is nothing there to work with. We need to oppose him, his Administration, and his Congress”

”Obama and the Democrats feel they have us boxed in. We need to get out of the box.”

well stated!

this should be commonsense by now, given the manifest failure of attempting to reform the (D) Party from within.

plus, for those who wish to remain (D) captured out of habit or loyalty or whatever, the mere existence of a viable 3rd (rather, 2nd) Party option will give (D) politicians huge leverage when they are being whipped by Rahm on issues like the supplemental.

”My constituents are restless! Some of them are no longer just voting for anyone with a (D) after their name – they may stay home or vote Green (or whatever) if I am forced to budget another $100 billion for missionless wars, while rejecting Single Payer Health Care that everyone wants!”

plus, geez, have some pride folks – the (D)’s who you labored so hard to get into power scorn you utterly once there. don’t be so co-dependent!

You’ve heard of cloud computing. We need cloud political activity.

Geez. Oppose Obama? Do you realize how futile a third party effort would be in this country. We are a representative democracy — a Republic with an electoral college. You know what a third party would give us? Someone like Tom Tancredo becoming president with 22% of the vote. Get real!

There’s your pragmatism again. Look at Iran today or Venezuela reversing the coup that put Chavez behind bars. The Phillipines and Iran had bloodless revolutions when they lost the Shah. Americans are too into creature comfort for that sort of thing, but if they were persuaded they shared ideas with a lot of people, it would work. Has to be overwhelming.

This is the problem. Hugh is right, but “progressives” are going to keep on lining up behind a centre-right Democratic Party that actively works against their interests because they’re not as bad as the Republicans.

This is how corporatists tie you in, btw. It could hardly work better if they actually planned the whole kabuki.