Jon Walker, our government is too comprimised to move in a bold new direction. Until you pass #1, you are not going to get the other 9. Please comment.

1. Pass the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 752 and H.R. 1826) – public funding of federal elections to reduce rampant corruption in our government.

2. Financial Regulation – end Too Big To Fail, go back to Glass-Steagall, reign in derivatives – to, among other things, reduce rampant corruption in our government.

3. Pass the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010 – to, among other things, increase national productivity and reduce rampant corruption in our government

4. End Both Wars – include defense budget in across-the-board spending cuts of the federal budget. Will reduce the deficit and reduce rampant corruption in our government.

5. Create A National Infrastructure Bank – to create jobs now and increase productivity later. Run by engineers, not politicians.

6. Enact Bold Energy & Climate Change Legislation – put a heavy price on carbon so we can transition as soon as possible to renewable energy sources.

7. Immigration Reform – create path to citizenship for illegal aliens.

8. Education Reform – fully fund Race To The Top.

9. Health Care Reform– add the public option. Allow Medicare to purchase drugs. Allow drug re-importation.

10. Create A Healthy Society – federal government mandate the removal of ALL food and drinks of high caloric content in any school receiving federal aid.

and who, pray, is going to do all that passing fer ya, – eh?

You’re going to get the Senate to pass these how? (Hard enough to get them through the House, but the Senate currently seems to exist just to jam up the works.)

I knew there was a silver lining to Blanche’s squeaker victory last night! Hedgies get to keep their tax breaks! Yay!

I think this site along with others should spend less time pointing out the all corruptions of the system and concentrate more on organizing a mass movement. Every 20 minutes someone posts something new on the how badly the system is broken and yet their is no strategy on how to fight it, other than sending money to some lame candidate, signing a petition or making telephone calls to the very people that benefit from a corrupt system. It’s time to start building a movement that can confront that system and the elites that enable and perpetuate it.

dear fuckno,

thanks for responding. you have to do them one at a time.

Fair Elections Now Act – Sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), the bill has 18 Senate co-sponsors (12 of whom signed on since the Citizens United decision) and 149 bipartisan cosponsors in the House. Activists are hopeful there will be a House vote as soon as this summer, and Durbin reportedly will push for the Senate to take it up after the House does.

With the strong anti-Wall Street mood in the country, it’s ludicrous that Senate Democrats are still behaving this way.

Why? The Dems are an offshoot of the ol’ Rockefeller Republican Party only enhanced by steroids (i.e. Faux Progressive/Liberal enablers).

It’s a real tough election year and the Dems need the Mega Donor Vote/$$$$.

This is rather predicatable.

What makes you think we are not actively engaged in that activity.

Part of my serious of looking at post political movements is meant to help others who visit the site to start thing about what is need to create an organization that can achieve real change.

bluetoe

get behind this:

Fair Elections Now Act – Sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), the bill has 18 Senate co-sponsors (12 of whom signed on since the Citizens United decision) and 149 bipartisan cosponsors in the House. Activists are hopeful there will be a House vote as soon as this summer, and Durbin reportedly will push for the Senate to take it up after the House does.

Well they aren’t called “hedge fund Democrats” for nothing Jon.

Predicted this one. Senators (D-HF) have too much to lose.

jon walker,

where do you stand on the Fair Elections Now Act?

If Republicans manage to pick up a lot of seats in November, it won’t be because they defeated the Democrats. It will be a result of Democrats defeating themselves by pouring endless love on Wall Street and large corporations.

Just supposing….supposing, progressives got together and fundraised like mad for untainted candidates of the left, independent of either party, to maybe, just thwart those Republican gains, and at the same time, oppose the Democrat-plutocrat-hedgies? But nah….too obvious….

A BP oil spill that reaches Washington DC. That would focus voter anger in the South against Oil Companies in particular and all corporations in general.
Another financial crises whether its Greece, Dubai etc defaulting on their debt, Credit Default Swaps going bad, commercial real estate collapsing we all know another financial crisis is coming why Wall Street is still doing all the things that caused the last crisis and the Dems are not stopping them.

I’ve always supported voluntary public financing of elections.

Fundraise from whom? The unemployed? Besides, the other side could leapfrog progressives by orders of magnitude if they saw that happening. Proggies will never win the $$ war.

Senate Democrats have decided to protect the tax loophole for wealthy hedge-fund managers.

Any bets Blanche votes for this?

Yes, Democrats are corporatists. Why anyone in the public let alone progressives should support any of them is beyond me.

Yep.

The parties are the same. When are you going to learn that?

In 2003, Clinton joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York City, New York; she was the youngest person hired in her class.[11][15] In the fall of 2006, she left McKinsey and went to work for Avenue Capital Group, a hedge fund run by Marc Lasry, a donor to Democratic causes and supporter of the Clintons.

Oh dear!

And indeed, a scion of the Corp-Dems compares unfavourably with a Bush equivalent….

Before leaving Washington, D.C. in Summer 2006, Hager taught at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School for a year and a half.[13] She took a leave of absence from the Charter School teaching position to work at a shelter as part of an internship for UNICEF’s Educational Policy Department in Latin America, specifically in Panama.[14][15] After her internship for UNICEF, Hager returned to her teaching position at the charter school in Washington, D.C.[16] She currently works as a reading coordinator at a school in Baltimore, Maryland, and contributes a monthly news story about education for the Today show.[17]

I mean. It’s subjective, but I know which one I instinctively like more (or dislike less?). Whichever way it is, it’s the same as that comment by Frank (wasn’t it) about what a day it was when Democrats were seen as the protectors of Wall St. Great Barney, but how about doing something about it then?

health-care bill without a public option

Senator Lincoln

What’s the point?

It will be a result of Democrats defeating themselves by pouring endless love on Wall Street and large corporations.

I keep saying that the only reason the Democrats aren’t in political hot water already is that their opponents are even more stupid and feckless than they are. One day, that’s not going to be enough.

Insufficent information!
Who are you talking about?

You must be new around here.

Dems changed to become repubs without telling us.

I support it as I’m sure most people would until the MSM and Madison Ave. get a hold of it and convinces the public it’s nothing more than a plot by Satan to take away their freedoms. The question remains, however, what actions are necessary to see the legislation passed. Whatever you do, don’t say “sign our petition” or “make a small donation to poltician X.”

If you waited to be told, you weren’t watching very carefully.

Unions / Organized laborjust flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

Thanks Blanche/s

Is that activity occurring behind closed doors because I see little if any evidence of organizing going on or the development of a coherent comprehensive strategy with a tactical game plan?

Led by Obama the corporate shill.

I thought the financial crisis would be a wake-up call for the American public to the widespread corruption of the federal government. I was wrong. It is going to take a bigger crisis to dramatically change public opinion and voting patterns. I see a bigger crisis coming. The BP oil spill may be dumping 100,000 barrels a day into the Gulf. Mix that with a hurricane and you will have black beaches from Texas to North Carolina. We’ll see if America can be awakened from her dogmatic slumber?

I guess everyone is waiting for the next bright shiny object to come along. Oh look, new post up. Latter dudes.

Bill Clinton did radio ads and robocalls and campaigned for Blanche Lincoln, and black voters turned out where Lincoln needed them to.

The answer is simple. Convince enough Republicans, the Tea Party, and Democrats that the root problem in America is not about conservatism or liberalism, but corporatism. Conservatism vs liberalism is a scheme that enables our owners (as George Carlin called them) to divide and control and make us believe we have choices.

We have a country where those with all the influence are not representing people and individuals, as stated in our US Constitution, but instead interests. Those interests are more often than not about other nations and other economies and making a few very wealthy. The government and our leaders should be completely and totally focused on “We the People”.

With the hurricane season looming the oil may fall from the skies. What affect will that have on crops in the south, midwest and east. Maybe famine is something that will stir the public out of their lethargy.

Do you mean George Carlin the stand-up comedian?

The live feed shows that between BP and the Obama’s administration everything is under control.

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Skandi_ROV1.html

I guess FDL can hope?

The man himself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Now that’s some Pete Peterson love, right there!
Pete gets to help kill social security via Obama’s deficit commission AND save on his hedge fund manager assets – a double tax break!

Yes, but if people at least had the choice on the ballot??!!!

Thanks for the link. He was funny.

But not well political:

Carlin was fired from his headlining position at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, after an altercation with his audience. After a poorly received set filled with dark references to suicide bombings and beheadings, Carlin stated that he could not wait to get out of “this fucking hotel” and Las Vegas, claiming he wanted to go back east, “where the real people are.” He continued to insult his audience, stating:

People who go to Las Vegas, you’ve got to question their fucking intellect to start with. Traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of fucking moronic. That’s what I’m always getting here is these kind of fucking people with very limited intellects.

An audience member shouted back that Carlin should “stop degrading us,” at which point Carlin responded, “Thank you very much, whatever that was. I hope it was positive; if not, well, blow me.” He was immediately fired by MGM Grand and soon after announced he would enter rehab for alcohol and prescription painkiller addiction

I wish Helicopter Ben would explain what good those low taxes are doing the economy.

My sweetie keeps saying that the corporations have supported the Tea Party types – esp those ones who are really outrages (ie, Orly Taitz running for CA Secy of State) – as a big fat old distraction for everyone. My sweetie keeps saying: all of these nutty types (Orly), and bigoted racists (take your pick; Knotts in SC for instance), and those cheating on spouses (again take your pick) – have always been around. It’s just that such types weren’t taken that seriously anymore, nor did the media pay much attention to them. There’s always been KKK Grand Dragons (or whatever they’re called), but we didn’t used to get to listen to them AS IF they had a something of “serious import” to say.

Now we have Eric Ericson treated as a “serious” commentator on CNN; we have Lou Dobbs – who used to be somewhat intelligent – spewing out his racist screeds, and so on. All bright shiney objects dangled in front of a brain-dead populace, either thrilled or disgusted, doesn’t matter which.

And then, in the meantime, our pockets are being picked, and our nation is going into the dumpster.

A ton of $$$ is wasted (in some ways) on keeping a corporate whore, like Lincoln, in office at least for a few months more. That Lincoln stands up on her hind legs and states “I don’t sell my vote” is something of a victory for us DFHs (at least she felt forced to state her LIE to the masses, hence the “tell” for what she is actually doing daily).

And there we have it: Big Dawg Clinton and the machine gets behind Lincoln who “wins” because of Democrats using Republican (yes, yes, the D and R labels are meaningless these days) illegal vote tampering tactics to get their way. And Halter concedes because: what’s he gonna do against the corporate machine? And Rahm once again berates us DFHs for not staying in line and eating the crumbs (less of those these days) tossed to us.

I agree that it’s frustrating to have endless discussions about the bull hockey that passes for “democracy” these days, and our government is no more about “we the people” than it is in North Korea or Myanmar… the only difference is that, so far, citizens are quite yet completing starving and eating dirt (as they DO in both N. Korea and Myanmar)… but we’re not too far away from that.

But as long as the corporate owned media can fool *most* of us with phoney partisan politics, the more the corporations will continue doing what they’re doing. The Tea Party has some notion of what’s wrong, but they’ve been astorturfed by the corporations into venting their spleen at what’s laughingly called the dreaded “socialism” of the “Democrats,” rather than focusing on the real problem, which are the corporations that are running all politicians all the time.

I really don’t know how we cross that divide to get citizens who are putatively members of the “other party” to really listen, think and understand what’s going on. Most citizens are just too damn distracted by petty nonsense about alleged “partisan” junk that … I don’t know.

Yes, *maybe* if it starts raining oil and ruins crops in the heartland… *maybe* citizens will wake up. But – sadly – I won’t hold my breath. I am one of those is who making contingency plans to leave the USA; it might be one of the only solutions for those of lucky enough to have the option.

And good luck to us all.

Your sweetie says all that and you still have time to post?

actually for the most part yes. You should never talk a big game ahead of time. You need to painstakingly lay a whole bunch groundwork, do a bunch of research, and get your ducks in a row before launching something.

Errr.

Chelsea Clinton, Jenna Bush (both with new surnames nowadays).

Yeah I really don’t think whatever happens next on our side needs to be developed in the open. We already know this blog is watched pretty carefully because of Jane’s visibility and our general hostility to the Veal Pen establishment.

Let’s not telegraph our every move, and certainly (unlike Labor ahead of what they thought was a likely Lincoln loss) let’s not crow about things still undone, or that aren’t entirely our doing.

Coalitions are one thing, but taking credit ahead of time and without acknowledging where the hard work came from — that’s a recipe for failure.

Slightly OT:

NO intestinal fortitude to REVOLT
NO masses angry enough to STORM the DC HOLYTHOU
NO in your face confrontations with OUR SO CALLED LEADERS
NO mass boycotts or consequential actions against the CORPORATIONS
NO AWAKENING of the SLEEPING PUBLIC

BUT LOTS of endless talk, apologies, step on me antics, spineless bravado, play nice platitudes, ‘we will get them next election’ BS, ‘we need to go through the system’ uselessness, and the proverbial ‘lets start a new party/movement’ CRAP!

THEY WILL NOT listen, they do not give a fuck, they are souless and degenerate, but many still think the system is curable…IT’S NOT!

What will it take for a great uprising?? Everyday is more clusterfuck events that has lead to America being a snake pit of insanity and misery for the common citizen and those powerless to stop the marching of Facist/NeoLiberal boots on our collective heads.

We are so over…the only thing left is the ‘CLEANUP’!

Hey Jon Walker why are you shocked by their behavior.
remember who loped off some of women’s reproductive rights to pass a Health Care bill that rewards the Insurance Industry……Well it’s the Democrats.

Please none of the 2 parties represents ordinary Americans.

I am with you.

The whole ship has to go down…this can’t be fixed at least not in my life time.
The same people who “brung” us down this road are going to get back in congress….Harry Reid etc…and really do you expect anything different
in the next 10 yrs.

It does not matter if the GOP gets back in power to me….what that means is the ship will sink faster.And then maybe,we can start over.

“Outrage” fatigue anyone?

In abundance friend!!!!

How about as simple as starting to heckle the President at every opportunity?

That actually got MSM airplay, and forces the WH to explain why their own supporters don’t support them.

LOL… yes! Bc I can type faster than he talks!!

Indeed. I am still willing to try again in a situation like Halter v. Lincoln, but once I saw on Sat that the “machine” was monkeying around with the polls in Garland County, I knew the jig was up. I figured Halter wouldn’t win bc the “powers that be” wouldn’t let it happen. I figure Halter’s loss is less about keeping Blanche Lincoln in – frankly Lincoln is just as expendable as anyone else – as showing us voters (in this case, the progressives) who’s the “boss.”

Lincoln was set to win. Period. They prevented voters from being enfranchised, so they couldn’t vote, and Blanche “won” by a very slim margin. Even that was probably calculated to make the middle finger wagged in our faces even that much more nasty. We gave it a run but votes are essentially meaningless.

I’m with you. I’ve been saying for a while now, although I detest the Snowbilly Grifter and find McCain to be a laughable fool, I really don’t see what the difference is between them winning and having ORahma as POTUS. Not. one. bit. of. difference.

*Progressives* didn’t get a slap down last night. ALL VOTERS got the shaft last night. Make no mistake. This ain’t just about us dfh’s. It’s about all citizens, whether they realize it or not.

funny : )

Boy – what a backwoods analysis – and a smear of the Clintons by innuendo

Chelsea Clinton joined the consulting firm of McKinsey & Company – a place where really smart folks solve production and sales problems that keep the economy going. She then continues in problem solving to keep the American economy going, joining Democratric Party do-gooder Marc Lasry’s Avenue Capital Group, a “hedge fund” (meaning an investment bank with private money)whose owner donates to liberal and progressive causes – and even to the Democratic Party – as he takes companies already declared dead – those with “Distressed securities” (in default usually), buying their debt or equity from the owners that failed, and tries to preserve jobs by restructuring the failed company’s debt, narrowing the company focus, or implementing a plan to turn around its operations, while also investing new capital into the distressed company in the form of debt or equity.

And this you knock? This is not derivatives trying to con people. Get your facts straight the next time you post unless you are trying to smear by giving only partial truth.

As to the young Bush, God Bless her as she does good as a school “reading coordinator” in Baltimore, Maryland, and is given a media career by GE/NBC/Comcast on the Today show.

God – I am sick of the attempts to smear the Clintons.

I’ll bet she didn’t tell the people of Arkansas they were going to have to pay higher taxes, so ferigners from New Yawk City could pay less.

If her vote isn’t bought, then why would she ever let New York investment guys pay less taxes than any Arkansan? (sp?)

The Clinton’s suck! Deal with it.

The Citizen’s United decision is in full bloom ladies and gentlemen, so get used to it. No need to ask questions because the same answer applies.
This is why the entire system must come down. That decision is a stake through the heart of the rights and welfare of the American people.

Welcome to fascist America. They’ve only just begun.

The Clinton’s are anti labor, anti poor, anti middle class.
They are Corporate, Zionist traitors, like Obama.

Having said that, I believe the Orange Satan is calling you.

Yeah, time to form a new populist party.

Not that I believe in a 3 party system it’s just that our 2 parties look more like 1 party. One extremely unhealthy party…

Realign politics along labor vs corporate lines. The Dems and Rethugs in the corporate party.

I’ve said this before, but I’ll go ahead and repeat it –

I kind of like the idea of a third party called Citizens party or Commonwealth party. Rather than staking out a spot on the right-center-left spectrum, we would highlight that it is of, by and for “citizens” as contrasted with “consumers”; focused on the commonwealth of citizens rather than corporate profits.

I suspect those who are skeptical of a third party succeeding are correct. But historically, new parties came along and replaced parties that have become marginalized — such as the Republicans elbowing the empty shell of the Whigs and turning them into dust.

The scenario of the Republicans marginalized and replaced on the “right” by a thoroughly corporatist Democratic party may be somewhat more realistic. The “left” would be open for a citizen-oriented, commonwealth-driven party. Defined in this way, it could appeal not only to progressives, but provide a genuine and positive alternative to the muddled incoherence of teabagging.

Appealing to the disenfranchised of both the “right” and the “left” could be seen as “centrist” I suppose. I like to think it would be based on principles that are relevant across the political spectrum, rather than defined by a set of particular stands on specific issues.