Here is what the Fierce Advocate is tenaciously defending:
almost the lowest top marginal tax rate in history.

What I can’t understand is how any Democrat who wants to be re-elected would go for this.
They will be sucker-punched by Karl Rove and the Kochs faster than you can say Crossroads GPS.

Obama can go to Hell.

I expect to hear from limousine lawrence o’donnell tonight that this isn’t what it really means.

Z

I guess this is one way to “win the future”. His, that is.

This is a good compilation of what Obama said about social security during his campaign – http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/02/obama-and-social-security.html

WTF. Everyone agrees that Social Security has absolutely nothing to do with the deficit and is funded through its own tax. Further, that it is fully funded for almost another 30 years. The easiest fix would be a modest rise in the income cap subject to the tax.
Why the obsession by Obama and the Democrats to cut Social Security? Other than them being venal, duplicitous, clueless, and lying Fucks, I can’t figure it out. The answer lies in the question.

Excellent description of the current president, by the way.

Damn those stupid Republicans. Obama is all their fault.

And what good is it to visit our Republican congressmen to say we won’t vote for them if they vote to cut Social Security? Our so called Democratic president is advocating cutting Social Security. So we don’t vote for him, either. The Refucks win, either way.

Obama: “What I do now I do at the bidding of our puppetmasters. May our grandchildren forgive us.”

I never used to swear like this. Now it is F this and F that all the Fn time. I swear Obama is making me crazy.

A bumper-sticker for the ages, workingclass!!!

;~DW

So now I’m curious. Who among will still vote for BO in 2012?

I’m just furious – what’s that saying?

With the white hot fury of a thousand suns…

Grab your walker and take to the streets.

*crickets*

Google these fools and what do you find?

“Their plan calls for an immediate $500 billion “down payment” on cutting the deficit as the starting point toward cuts of more than $4 trillion over the coming decade that would be finalized in a second piece of legislation. Most of those savings would come from four years of caps imposed on the day-to-day budgets of Cabinet agencies set by the annual appropriations bills.
It would also curb the growth of Social Security benefits by moving to a lower inflation adjustment for annual cost-of-living updates.”

Sure looks like the chained –CPI to me!

Great catch!

Never underestimate the pure thrill, the comfort, and the glory of that omnipresent progressive slogan: “I criticize Obama, but I’m voting for him.”

But I STILL say Jon it’s NOT a Democratic President doing this.

Obama is a REPUBLICAN.

And I know it, you know it, anyone with any kind of unbiased attention to reality knows it. So the fact that is that the National Democrats in Washington MUST know it too.

And that they CHOOSE to do nothing (I believe there are weapons a party can take when one of their own turns rogue on them) signals to me that they’re OK with it.

I.E. just more evidence that the two party system, at least at the national level, is theater only.

Put it this way. Suppose we took Democrats at their word that they don’t support cuts to SS and Medicare. As you’ve just pointed out, they are well aware (even if the bots aren’t) that Obama is serious about cutting SS and Medicare. So if they’re serious about the Democratic Party doesn’t stand for cuts to these programs, AND they know Obama seriously wants to cut them, why haven’t they completely broke ranks with him??? If they were serious about this now especially would be the right time to break ranks. Gives time to find an alternative for 2012.

No, the D Party CHOOSES to follow this Republican President, only making enough noise to appease it’s critics, not to actually try and stop anything. This speaks volumes of the party IMO.

Acording to recent polls, only 23-27% of the people in America claim to be republicans. Why then is it the GOP runs this country?

Its like Ian Welsh said…

Obama was given the opportunity to be the new FDR. The financial crisis was a huge opportunity to break the power of the financial industry and the rich for a generation, and in so doing make it possible to have an economy which worked for everyone, to fix America’s energy problems, and to have universal healthcare… Instead what happened is that Obama bailed out the rich and the financial industry…

This is why Obama must lose in 2012. I would prefer that he lose to a Democrat in a primary, then that Democrat wins, but he must lose regardless. If he loses to a Republican, then 2016 you get a chance to put someone in charge who might do the right things (or even just some of them.)

Good. The more crickets the better. I’m a little sick of hearing the BO criticisms followed by, “but I’m still gonna vote for in 2012 because ____”.

“Chained CPI”. Sounds kinda S&M to me. That can’t be good.

There is literally nothing Obama could do to cost himself the vote of the party loyalists. He could nuke Iran, call for a right-to-life amendment to the Constitution, and order Muslims rounded up into prison camps and the apologists would just keep saying it’s 11-dimensional chess.

11 dimensional chess, bullshit. Obama couldn’t win a checkers game if every piece he started a game with was Kinged. Unless he’s primaried I’m afraid “progressives” are stuck with this joker.

There are only one or two places on the net that you can criticize Obama – most “liberal” sites won’t let you.

It is clear that the president has written off progressives and does not see them as key to his reelection. Except for Bernie Sanders, who is standing up for The Big Three in the Democratic Congress? I would think that the Congressional Black Caucus would be howling in the halls given that these cuts would further decimate African Americans. Even Ed Schultz, normally Obama’s biggest defender, is waiting for the Big Cave.

That compromise video Obama posted on the white house web site was truly sad. Why not post one on leadership?

Cut the Crap on Balance

Here’s another take. It is just possible that the best punishment next to hell for someone like Obama is for him to be re-elected and preside over the worst depression since the 1930s. Since that Depression is going to come as a result of his current policies, he might as well take credit for it.

I agree with your first two paragraphs. But your third paragraph is not gonna happen. I think Romney-Perry will win in 2012. Remember, you heard it here first.

Perhaps what we are seeing OFG is the face of the new democratic party. This aint your grandfather’s dem party anymore, sadly!

sigh – yep

I need to take a walk – and given my mobility, that is not an option I normally chose.

The democratic party is usesless and clueless. My grandpa would be sickened to see what has become of them.

Because the SS trust fund was lent to the Federal Government, and given to the rich in the form of tax cuts. They DO NOT WANT TO REPAY THE LOAN.

Well done, sir.

He’s got something like an 80% approval rating among self-identified Democrats.

I for one have not said I would vote for him again. In fact, I have said I would write in my own candidate after I demand a paper ballot to do so!

Ehh, I’ll vote for Romney then. Democrats in Congress are apparently only able to stop a President from cutting Social Security when he’s a Republican.

That’s what Thom Hartmann always says, he’ll vote for him “because of the Supreme Court.” When Obama and the Republicans are finished with the country the SC and the country at large will be meaningless, unless of course you’re filthy rich or have friends in very high places. Do Supreme Courts really matter in banana republics?

That is simply beyond my understanding.

That’s because democrats would MUCH prefer any democrat to any republican. But that 20% just might cost him the election.

Why the obsession by Obama and the Democrats to cut Social Security?

It’s so they’ll gain many Republican voters, Libertarians and Independents, and establish super majorities in both Houses. Then they’ll repeal these cynical acts and double the benefits while reducing the retirement age to 55 and offering Medicare at age 50.

Isn’t that obvious?

Sad that a highly educated, erudite, articulate man can still be blind ideolog.

According to the polls…

Republcans are only willing to do something GOOD for the country when they occupy the WH. Provided, of course, the rich get something to go along with it.

Please let’s be accurate,It’s the Democrats who wants to cut social security & medicare benefits: not a single one of em in the Democratic party leadership has put their foot down on what the WH & Democratic party leadership wants to do.Apart from Pelosi making grunts,nothing,but we all know Pelosi’s grunts are Kabuki.

Instead we have Democratic party propagandist on the radio & TV all giving kudos to Obama for a well crafted plan to deal with the Debt.Some of those on the radio I have heard are Thom Harthman & Shultz.And on the TV,O’Donnel,Sharpton & Shultz.

Really folks,The Democratic party As well as the GOP don’t give a hoot about you & I.The DEm party leadership’s core is full of very rich people,do you really expect for those people to represent our interest.
We must try to bring another progressive party to Life,success is not overnight but we must persevere.It’s only then we will eventually see change.

Everything Obama has done supports my theory–that he is a neocon posing as a centrist Democrat.

I know and this kills me with Hartmann. He’s a smart guy but it seems ever since he moved to DC he lost his way somewhat.

And maybe before 2013 we can devise the ultimate punishment for Obama: get rid of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, and allow him to serve a third term!

Nope!

What makes you think that is the plan?

You got that right. Let’s have another Boston Tea Party.
..
..
Where the hell is the harbor? I don;t know where the harbor is.

Obama 2008 = Hope
Obama 2012 = Fear

If the President has no primary opponent, then he need not pay any attention to his base. He believes we will all fall in line because of fear of the Republican nominee.

Every time the re-election staff and the President speak about the 2012 election as a choice, what they are promising is a campaign based on fear of the other candidate.

If we want President Obama to care at all about our issues, he must have a progressive primary opponent. I think he is beatable in New Hampshire, and a strong progressive challenge there would change the national debate.

The rich are the mortal enemy of the working and middle class. Unless class consciousness becomes a reality for Americans they are doomed to be nothing more than groveling serfs.

Ahh. You figured out the eleventy dimensional chess!

He’s a pompous egotist who is now rubbing elbows with the “movers and shakers.”

from a comment sent to James Fallows:

Given that we’re here, and the last 3 years appear to have been a series of unforced errors and political miscalculations, I have to assume that Obama is either incompetent or naive or that his goals and those of most liberals aren’t quite the same. If there is multi-dimensional chess being played here, I would submit that Obama is playing it against his base.

I can’t disagree with that.
Signed,
Groveling serf #453-87-9022

Exactly why I call him Benito Mussolini!

No, not only not obvious but slightly ridiculous. Do you think that a GOP house would allow them to reverse these acts once they’re in place? Not hardly.

You’re joking right? Say you’re joking. You can’t that be that naive. We’re still waiting for NAFTA to be “fixed.”

I believe AitchD was engaging in sarcasm.

I always considered the DLC strategy to be sort of muddled and ineffective. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it just takes a long time to work.

Assume a uniform distribution of voters across the small (hard-right) portion of the political spectrum active in the US, or assume a normal distribution (clustered around the “center”). Really, any distribution that does not have a bulge on the right or what passes for the left.

To take control of the government you need 50%+1. Since the parties turned ideological (rather than geographical), that has been seen as starting at one pole or the other and fighting over the center.

Conservatives left the Democratic party for the Republican party 40 years ago. As time progressed, moderates left the Republican party for the Democratic party.

It is dawning on me that starting at a pole and working towards the center is not their plan, or rather that was a stage in the plan that is drawing to a close.

What better position to be in than occupying the 50% in the “center” (which is pretty far right in America), leaving two groups, 25% each, on either end which can’t get enough votes in a winner-take-all system to get any power at all, and who simply can’t stand each other and won’t work together?

This explains to me how Obama can be a Republican from 20 years ago yet get strong support from Democrats, and also why they have abandoned the left entirely. Any lefty voting for the lesser of two evils is a bonus, but they won’t lift a finger for us because they don’t need us.

They aren’t even pretending to be traditional Democrats any more. Because most of them aren’t.

So in our two-party system we have a fascist hard-right party, the teabaggers, who are somewhat organized and can win some seats at least for now, a completely unorganized left who can rarely win any seats, and an emerging “sensible, eat-your-peas, pro-business, supply-side, center-right” party shooting for a long-term majority.

Too bad the country can’t survive with those policies.

that’s the “progressive rallying cry”! They’re planning to erect a monument in DC to it!

Why, the plan is to discredit Firedoglake of course. (The NSA has been removing all my snark tags, in case you haven’t noticed. I know, how can you notice something that isn’t there.)

Brilliant plan. *claps* Democrats real are on my side.

Where’s the shared sacrifice in this?

Some government employees can retire at 38 years of age and collect two thirds of a million dollars in pension before reaching 67, and have essentially free health care. Elected and appointed officials live like kings and princes, and no one ever moves their retirement and benefits in a backward motion.

When they’re through, the world of Metropolis by Fritz Lang will look like a vacationland to many of us, I’m afraid. Those who live in cloud city won’t even see us.

I failed, but thank you.

It was of course snark.

Everybody knows that a tactic of the right-wing to destroy government is to “starve the beast” which means de-fund social and government programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, regulatory agencies, and public infrastructure maintenance so that these programs don’t work anymore. Everyone should know this.

And, since Obama is pushing for cuts to government budgets and social safety net programs, everyone should realize that Obama is, in fact, lining up with the right-wing and the Republicans to advance the “starve the beast” agenda and destroy government. All of that talk about 11 dimensional chess is BULLSHIT! This is not a movie, it is reality! Obama is the black Ronald Reagan!

They have to pay back the well over one trillion they took from it that was supposed to go for future payouts and instead went to pay for wars and other miscellaneous things.

Only those who serve the MIC.

I’d hope so but it was a little too straight faced for me.

I spent 40 years as a voting Dem, and that ended this spring. I’ll vote, but it will be by conscience, not party. Although my conscience says I’ll never vote for a republican again (did once). But then again, what the power brokers give us as Democrats are only marginally better, and most are selectively oblivious to most of us anyway.

La, La, La, Lalalala, I can’t hear you, Lalalalalalal……

Just because Rahm’s gone, doesn’t mean you’re not “fucking morons.”

I don’t need you anymore, the Republicans have a Boehner for me, so f*** off and die.

Love,
Barry

I concur

That’s funny. you should be a comedian.

I do think that you are correct that Obama is trying to attract moderate Republicans to vote for him in 2012. I’ve actually spoken to a few moderate Republicans and, discounting that they in general are very badly misinformed about current events and what’s really going on economically and policy-wise in the Washington D.C., all of them like the job that Obama is doing.

However, after these same moderate Republicans speak in approval of Obama, the next statement out of their mouths is that they wouldn’t mind seeing Romney win the presidency.

This kind of reinforces the following quote:

“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.” -John Stuart Mill

The truly historic importance of what is happen right now can’t be repeated enough. It is a CORPORATIST/I> elected as a Democratic President who is the driving force now behind cutting Medicare and Social Security. It is a corporatist Democratic President who feels that deficit reduction during a recession and keeping tax rates near historic laws are both much more important policy goals than protecting Social Security and Medicare Benefits.

the man is a trojan horse, a wolf in sheep clothing, a coyote in charge of the chicken coup.

this is what he is

something tells me I wont be getting the bumper sticker nod from OFA

Bill Clinton had the opportunity to be FDR also in 1992. He came to office in a bad recession with the opportunity to repudiate Reagan and G. H. W. Bush. I remember watching a long documentary on the Depression on PBS just after the election. I remember “Don’t Stop Thinkin’ About Tomorrow”.

And then I remember watching the TV all day when I was doing some other work, and listening to the reporters as they told of how Clinton was calling congressmen into the White House one by one, promising them whatever they wanted to vote for NAFTA, dealing away all the favors he would have to give in his whole first term to get this bill passed. And I thought, “Why? The Republicans made the deal and they want the bill. Let them get the votes to pass it. Why is he doing this? Why is he working for their side?”

I could not understand it then, but I do now. All he cared about was power and wealth for himself and election victories for the democrats. He saw his job as being to detach every issue from the democrats that he thought might hurt them: trade and bank regulations, welfare, civil rights (affirmative action), and anything suggesting military weakness. He was willing to cut off the legacy of Kennedy and LBJ.

Barak Obama is continuing in his path, using even the same advisers, and he is willing to repudiate everything back to the New Deal. I believes that he also is willing to sacrifice whatever he needs to, for the sake power and wealth for himself and his friends.

As the folklore goes, it took a Republican, Nixon, to make the overture to China. In this case, it took a Democrat to undermine Social Security.

What the right, including Obama, don’t get is that once the federal government is out of the picture on so many things, such as transportation, environment, labor law, etc, is that the situation in the states will become extremely desperate. Timmy Pawlenty didn’t pay for the I-35W bridge that fell down a few years ago, the federal government paid 100%. Imagine a state having to come up with $234 million to replace a bridge with. Not to mention the bad roads that will ensue, costing citizens and truckers untold millions in repairs and damages. Without regulatory controls, pollution is going to rise tremendously together with associated health issues for all of us, especially the young and the aged. Education will again become something only the “priviledged” class will be able to afford. And so on…

So much for the audacity of hope. We hoped and it was audacious to do so. How much damage has Obama done to the future dreamers in America, those who could give us a chance to be truly great again?

LOL! Okay. Whew! (wipes brow)

I thought you had spoken to somebody inside his circle and they told you a fairy tale!

LOL

Thom Hartmann is a very smart guy, but he is very needy–he needs to be loved by those in power. So he “bravely criticizes” Obama, but then shills for Obama’s re-election. I had to stop listening to him two years ago. Life is too short to subject yourself to b.s. from sell-outs like Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz, both of whom I once respected.

People complain that Obama doesn’t have any balls. To do what he’s doing to the poor, the working and middle class takes more than balls. At this point I think he’s nothing more than a reflection of the American people. If the U.S. public had any cojones they would be out in the streets of DC dragging the millionaires out of the profane chambers of Congress by their hair. Sadly the U.S. public bought into the false promise that they too could live the good life if they would just play along and pay no attention to that left wing “nonsense” of class consciousness. Well guess what? The powers that be have decided that they were only teasing and now want it all for themselves and everyone else is on their own. The union leadership has completely betrayed their membership by their complicity and naivete.

let’s remind everyone, this make believe “debt ceiling crisis” was created by obama himself, it was NOT created by “the bad economy”, it was NOT “created by bush”, it was NOT created by the republicans

as I state in my diary, obama is the producer and author of this crisis

HE extended the redistribution of our assets scheme marketed as “bush tax cuts for the wealthy”, HE twisted arms to get it passed and HE was informed it would create this supposed debt crisis

this was made by obama and he had even informed us in no uncertain terms he was going to be stealing from ss and give it to the wealthy’;

Obama Pledges Reform of Social Security, Medicare Programs
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 16, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare “bargain” with the American people, saying that the nation’s long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.
That discussion will begin next month, Obama said, when he convenes a “fiscal responsibility summit” before delivering his first budget to Congress. He said his administration will begin confronting the issues of entitlement reform and long-term budget deficits soon after it jump-starts job growth and the stock market.

that is the man who is in office, he isn’t getting his arm twisted, he’s jumping in the water and making believe he can’t swim in order to get you to close the pool

Hartmann has become insufferable.

Obama is a Democrat OFG. I’m sorry. He is the leader of the Democratic party and elected Democrats in Washington will follow his lead. The last I heard Obama had something like 80% approval among registered Democrats.

Bingo!

If the President has no primary opponent, then he need not pay any attention to his base. He believes we will all fall in line because of fear of the Republican nominee

It’s looking more and more like the Republican nominee will be Rick Perry of Texas. Obama will be presented as the clear alterative to Rick Perry, even though he is not.

Wasn’t it David Frum who said the obvious?

Republicans fear their base, and Democrats hate theirs

So much Obama did in his campaign that gave us real clues – in 2007 he called out Hillary Clinton about what was she going to do about the “social security crisis”. He stayed on the “crisis” course for a week or more, until someone got a hold of him and told him the Democratic viewpoint was that there is no crisis.

Oh man that is good!!!

LOL!!

He surely forgot the snark tag right?

Hello to everyone. I am new to FDL. I am experiencing such emotions as I watch things unfold. I read HuffPost and Democratic Underground but I am looking for a true progressive home. I feel so helpless and alone. I feel like the world has gone crazy and I am in a downward spiral.

I keep crying out to myself, why isn’t there a strong Progressive star to shine for us…someone to step up and say, I will be the leader in this fight. Why don’t we move forward with a primary candidate NOW…surely there is nothing more we need to see from Obama to know he is a significant part of the problem.

I think about the eight long years I endured with Bush and I, like so many others, thought change had come. OMG. It has been a nightmare. I can’t contemplate five more years of the slow, death torture that Obama is delivering. It will have been 16 years of my life…waiting for the clear sounding trumpet to finally rally the people … to move the people to fight for America.

I am an uninsured 55 year old, once well paid corporate training professional, out of a job since November of last year due to job elimination from Big Bank. I live with my sister (20 years my senior) and we are living on my unemployment, her teacher retirement, and her social security…so we are ok at this time but I wake up in the middle of the night knowing that if something were to happen to her, I would lose our home, would have to sell it if I could, and possibly look to moving overseas…it is just a nightmare.

Nothing I see in Washington makes any sense and that really makes me think perhaps I am going mad. If I knew how to fight for my country, I would.

Why, please help me understand,are progressives not directing all our time, money, and effort to a FOR REAL primary challenge. Folks, without that, are we not doomed?

Please pardon this long post. I am just reaching out. I am looking for a community of sane, thinking, caring friends.

Yep.

Some of us tried to have a discussion about these things. Ironically enough we were called Republicans for our concerns on voting for him.

I really wish I had been wrong.

Count me among the dissenting twenty percent.
This guy had the chance of a lifetime to direct this country forward in a responsible way and fucked it up.

Welcome to the Lake. The waters are at times turbulent but everybody pitches in to bail and keep the ship afloat.

Nothing on the horizon primary wise anywwhere in the progressive blogosphere despite everyone agreeing Barack Obama is a disaster.

I intend to write in Bernie Sanders in the general if we don’t get a primary challenge.

There is no way I’ll vote for either of the main party candidates at this point.

Sorry about your misunderstanding, especially since we’re close neighbors here in NC, and very glad it’s cleared up.

(Oh, and you could’ve been right since my hs locker partner and lifelong friend is a member of the CFR.)

Given some of the shit the Bots come up with in defense of Obama, I can understand the confusion here.

But that was all snark. Yes.

LOL, very good snark though. Sounds a like like O’Donnell’s bullshit regarding Obama’s proposals to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and raise the eligibility age for Medicare to 67. Only he was being serious. The bots are making it hard to tell good snark from genuine cluelessness.

And a note to others out there. I’ve seen it repeated often that Obama proposed raising the Social Security age to 67. That’s not correct I don’t beleive. I’m pretty sure Social Security age was raised to 67 some time ago, it just kicked in gradually. I believe for all born after 1960 the age is already 67. It was Medicare that Obama proposed raising the age to 67 for I believe.

Ed Schultz I somewhat understand because I never saw him as liberal as I am. He was a centrist in my view.

As I said in another thread, on commercial radio it’s Mike Malloy who has freed himself from BO bs and remains a liberal. On Pacifica it’s Lyla Garret and Blase Bonpane. I’ll also add Smiley and West, specifically Cornell West. The black obamabots have been on his case. To his credit he’s remained principled!
Of course the guys who sniffed out just how bad BO was from day 1, going back several years, are Glen Ford and the rest at Black Agenda Report.

Jon Walker says it all here?

“The truly historic importance of what is happen right now can’t be repeated enough. It is a Democratic President who is the driving force now behind cutting Medicare and Social Security. It is a Democratic President who feels that deficit reduction during a recession and keeping tax rates near historic laws are both much more important policy goals than protecting Social Security and Medicare Benefits.”

the question is how many Democrats would have voted for Obama if his plans were to cut Social Security and Medicare? not 50% for LOL

Obama won in 2008, by acting like Progressive, not Clarence Thomas, this is a fact.

4cdave? there is no middle!!! go to OHIO, WISCONSIN,Florida, New York, California, and find the middle? please go find it.

Gov. Walker and his kind ended the so call fantasy of a middle.

Anybody with half a brain, knows the USA is in a depression, and everyone who has ever taken a history class knows FDR save the USA the last time, not Reagan, Hoover, and the current guy.

Dems in DC are heading into a cat 5 hurricane,and most want survive in 2012

the battle lines are being drawn

you are either on the left or the right, period

Obama is old news, his political career is over! David Plouffe knows it, so do you, the black president is going to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade, and everyone is going to be happy in “THE CENTER or MIDDLE LAND” for LOL

the problem will be HELL he gets from the LEFT, and it WILL be PURE HELL, that will probably send every DEM in DC running to the hills.

Why? a black man can not mess with the third rail!

get your pop corn ready, this is going to be hilarious

Obama better get off the 3rd rail ASAP!

Obama will lose total control of the DEM PARTY, creating a VACUMM that will be fill by HARD CORE liberals seeking blood, from so call DLC members.

Is anyone going to respect or follow the Black guy that cut SOcial Security? anybody?

OBAMA is pouring GAS on a wild fire, that will transform DC forever. For LOL

Not sure about the sane and thinking part, but you’ll find plenty of folks here that care. A great deal.

Nice first post.

Welcome to the Lake.

Hope you’ll consider joining as a member too. Not right away, but think about it, OK??

Noam Chomsky says Nixon was the last liberal POTUS.

You can thank Ronnie Raygun for that.

he could not even THINK of running as repukelican today

Snark is so 2010. I think of it as reverse-engineered cynicism.

Welcome nckjm. Feel free to have at it.

It’s called “Chained CPI” because they’re putting retirees in the dungeon.

He’s too busy creating it for the poor, working and middle class.

the GOP = Corporate America

Corporate America controls the Media, so this gives the GOP a free ride

How many liberals do you see on Sunday Morning talk shows?

GOP talking points are Corporate Talking points.

the DEMS BASE = the USA Middle Class and Poor People

Dem Politicians = Sell outs or Con Men and Women

the Elites fear the professional left

This is the simple truth.

Yes it is.

Well, I’ll say this for Obama, we had no idea about his new Gang of Six, did we? He kept that under wraps until the 11th hour.
Pretty sneaky.
I guess he didn’t want all those pesky phone calls and activists bothering him.
What an awful day for America!

h/t to Speaker O’Neill (D-MA) too.

What I wonder is just what the fuck they expect all us old fuckers to do to get by after we are all used up?
Fuck, I wrenched for thirty years, my body can’t take that shit anymore and there are only so many Wall Mart Greeter jobs available, even now.
This to me, still boils down to WHERE ARE THE FUCKING JOBS?

I have to admit, I only listened to him once. We had just subscribed to XM radio before a long road trip. I was so excited to find him on the dial and was astonished and embarrassed to hear him pimping gold like Glenn Beck.

“The last I heard Obama had something like 80% approval among registered Democrats.”

The worse it gets, the more people abandon lesser evilism and leave the Democrats and Republicans – there’s more and more unaffiliated voters.

The new normal they want everyone to buy into is that high unemployment is the new reality. They don’t have to care about “jobs” as long as they can convince the people that the new normal is just, well, the new normal.

Thank you! BlueToe2.

The Obama Campaign promises America: You Will Be Disappointed…Eat the Peas…Base, EAT THE PEAS! Or else I will give the Boner more Booty.

Take a good look. The people who claim the center in American Politics are Fascists. The only patriots are with Ron Paul or Kucinich/Nader.

Does anyone know when Obama is going to invite Rupert Murdoch to the WH to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom? Probably right after Obama makes a guest appearance in the season opener of Two and a Half Men. He’ll stoop to anything if he thinks it will get him a Republican or “independent” vote.

He sure as hell isn’t going to appear on America has Talent.

Yes,they are all shills for the wealthy despite what they like to pretend.

Let’s hope more Americans can wake up to the scam.These people say they are progressives cuz they collect a nice hefty check for pretending they are Progressives.Harthman & most you hear on the Radio is there to dissuade Progressives from leaving the Democratic party.And what is the Democratic party ? a conduit for the wishes of the wealthy.

As a matter of fact,try posting opinions contrary to Harthman on his blog chat room and you are history.

“What I wonder is just what the fuck they expect all us old fuckers to do to get by after we are all used up?”

DIE!

My humble opinion?

Social Security has been being robbed over the years to the tune of a couple of Trillion dollars. BOTH GOP and Dems have thought it was their own little nest egg to do with as they wished.

Now? They want to ‘redo’ SS and Medicare but I’d say regarding SS specifically is they do NOT want to pay it back. In reality they’re just thieves and self serving idiots (both red/blue) posturing their infamous ‘dance’; the tango of fear which so many uninformed citizens buy into lock, stock and barrel.

“As a matter of fact,try posting opinions contrary to Harthman on his blog chat room and you are history.”

I did and I am.

It seems to me that you can even criticize Obama on DailyKos.com, as long as you qualify it by “but I support him.”

fuck him and the TSUNAMI of HOPE he rode in on
we gettin big change however

There’s plenty of criticism of Obama on dKos now — without the qualifier “I support him.”
Even front pagers.

lol. Classic.

Is it possible to have a lobotomy reversed?

Great Depression! Sounds great! Just as long as BO suffers, I will gladly get my daily sustenance from licking discarded food off the sidewalk! NOT.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/post_1408_b_794177.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/bernie-sanders-tax-cuts_n_793405.html#

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/26/joe-klein-social-security_n_788578.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-inequality-financial-crises-2010-6#-1

http://pages.citebite.com/h8k6f9w7fppd

http://robertreich.org/post/6301523230

Now do we nominate someone else?

Welcome to the club. Losing your job is an eye opener. Likewise losing your house or pension or health insurance or savings. Makes a feller look up and say – what the fuck?

I agree. Kucinich, Nader and Paul are all honest and care for this country. Kuninich and Nader won’t run again.

I joined the Blue Republicans. We are backing Ron Paul.

Because they see no other alternative. There is no primary challenger. STILL. Most of the D party consists of elitist out of touch millionaires and thieves. Even Bernie Sanders isn’t calling for his head. What can they do, short of protesting, but clap harder?

Protesting is necessary though, soon. Embarrass this goon, often. Where are the Yes Men?

Rather than lobotomized, a better analogy might be hypnotized. And one can awake from hypnotism.

Over at DKos it’s more about criticizing Israel that will get you in hot water. Critique America all day long if you like, just don’t do it to Israel!

Obama will lose total control of the DEM PARTY, creating a VACUMM that will be fill by HARD CORE liberals seeking blood, from so call DLC members.

Obama has firm control of the Dem party, and is sucking all the money (oxygen) out of the room. Who exactly are these hard-core liberal candidates who are going to go on a rampage without party support and without any funding? Do we have a list? Because I would have a hard time coming up with a dozen names of hard-core liberals, let alone potentially successful ones.

Don’t let your fantasies of retribution for Obama’s betrayal of our trust cloud your judgement.

There is nothing that is going to happen in the next year that will derail Obama. This is the beginning of a 50-year slog to take over the Democratic party and restore it. Because right now far too many of the Democratic party are mildly pro-choice moderate Republicans that have been purged from the Republican party in their hubris.

Yep I just saw a few posts on TPM today highly critical of BO, WITHOUT the bot screech monkeys shouting down the dissenters. Things be a changin.

I’m still bitter about Kucinich. He babbled for weeks about how obamacare sucks. Whet it came time to put his money where his mouth was he voted for it. That IMO put him in a class of people who talk the talk hoping they never have to walk the walk!

Joan McCarter on dKos:

Medicaid is necessary, efficient, and should be on the chopping block than no more than Social Security or Medicare. Enacting these cuts now would completely undercut everything President Obama attempted to do with the Affordable Care Act, throwing more people in the ranks of the uninsured and, as a consequence, driving up health care costs for the country. It’s a bad, bad idea.

IMHO, we should be applauding voices who have changed their mind — wherever they are.
YMMV.

I’ll see your big-talk Senator and raise you one.

My guy, Bennet, made a lot of noise in the 11th hour about a filibuster if we didn’t get a vote on the public option, caved at the last minute after a fundraising visit to Denver from the big O, and didn’t even get to ride back to DC on AF1.

You better believe it!

OMFG, don’t talk to me about Bennet. I’m still sick about him. I held onto my mail-in ballot for a week before I could finally make myself cast the “not Ken Buck” vote. I swore I would be pissed if he won by more than one vote (mine). He only squeeked by with about 1000. So I’m pissed. And we’re stuck with that corporate stooge for six years.

I’m right there with you.

Well I live in San Diego. My senators are dims though my congress critter rep is a rethug. Really though, all these people represent the wealthy class regardless of their label!

he is likely pretty sure he can win reelection no matter what the left does. And I think he may be right. If we want him out, after the coming debacle, then we need a plan.

OT, sorry, but not to be missed:

Let’s play eleven dimensional atrocities:

1. Roll New Deal back to the age of the Robber Barons. Check

2. Become the most hated and feared nation in human history:

Pakistan

“US drone strikes in Pakistan claiming many civilian victims, says campaigner

One man in Waziristan is documenting casualties – and says destruction has been radicalising locals

The photographs make for difficult viewing and leave no doubt about the destructive power of the Hellfire missiles unleashed: a boy with the top of his head missing, a severed hand, flattened houses, the parents of children killed in a strike. The chassis is all that remains of a car in one photo, another shows the funeral of a seven-year-old child. There are pictures, too, of the cheap rubber flip-flops worn by children and adults, which often survive: signs that life once existed there. A 10-year-old boy’s body, prepared for burial, shows lipstick on him and flowers in his hair – a mother’s last loving touch.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/17/us-drone-strikes-pakistan-waziristan

“New study proves falsity of John Brennan’s drone claims”

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/radio/2011/07/19/drones/index.html

“Do you support the policies and political fortunes of President Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate? Then this is what you support: cowardly, cold-blooded mass murder. You support mass murder. You support the shredding to pieces of innocent people, many of them children, week after week, month after month. You support the murder of children. You support the cultivation of extremism and hatred: hatred aimed at you, and your children, for the mass murder — the state terrorism — committed in your name by your progressive president. You support extremism. You support hatred. You support terrorism.”

http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2150-support-group-documenting-the-peace-laureates-progressive-atrocities.html

What were the nature of the threats against Kucinich on Air Force One? Did they involve his family? And how many democrats supported Kucinich in the primary? Did you?

He knows he’ll win because there are enough dems who hate much of what he has done but are too punk to not vote for him.

Do, do, do listen to Amy Goodman’s interview with Ralph Nader this morning. It’s before all of this came down, but Elizabeth Warren and Ralph Nader are going to be on my wish list as President and Vice President – in fact, I think I’ll just start now: President Warren and Vice President Nader, welcome to my family anytime!

Of course. Lesser of two evils or just not too bright.

Great question for an Obamot, btw:
“What would it take for you *not* to vote for him?”

Well, I don’t live in Ohio so I couldn’t vote for or against him anyway.

As for threats, who knows. It’s been said that both parties need to have the image of true believers there to keep the faithful voting for ‘em. The party leadership know damn well none of Kucinich’s statements will go anywhere meaningful but the rhetoric might keep some from straying!

Yuck

Paul’s motto is small enough government to fit in a woman’s uterus.

Wouldn’t vote for him if they paid me.

Hysterical!

I’d love to see Warren run.

She sounds like she’s pretty entrenched with the idea of being an establishment candidate though. It’s sad that she’s only thinking small like the Massachussets senator position.

Welcome to the New World Order.

Next Obama steps:

Raise rwtirement and Medicare start age to 70.

Restrict benefits to only people making less than $20,000 a year.

The Democratic and Republican primaries are national elections.

The plan is simple. Just don’t vote for him. It won’t take that many people to defeat him. 2000 proved that.

Once again the Obama kool-aid drinkers touted this chess vs checkers game Obama was playing. Saying he didn’t really want to cut social security, medicare, and medicaid; despite all the evidence to the contrary. Once again they’re dead wrong. Lawrence O’Donnell spent two nights on his show chastising the left for not understanding the brilliance of Obama’s strategy; how about that crow you’re eating Mr. O’Donnell. I read all the kool-aid drinkers comments saying this man, once again, had a strategy to checkmate the GOP and make them look like fools; who’s the fool now.

There’s only question left. Are the Progressives, Liberals, and other Democrats more interested in saving their party, or will they fall on their sword for this President, whose shown time and time again he’s no real Democrat. Obama has chosen his side, and it ain’t with the people. We now have to choose ours. He’s more concerned with the vipers on Wall Street than the average american. Notice in his speech he talked about how the markets were responding to the Gang of Six deal. The markets. Well then, all is good.

This guy has, once again, chosen the crooks on Wall Street over the american people. This crap about everybody feeling some pain, what the hell. This man has let the banksters walk away with their billions, not sent one of the criminals to jail for their obvious crimes, handed an extension of the Bush tax cuts even adding the estate tax extension that wasn’t even on the table at the time, and now is taking another chunk out of the hides of the people who did nothing to cause this economic disaster.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH HAS ARRIVED, ARE YOU A COMMITTED DEMOCRAT, PROGRESSIVE, OR LIBERAL. COMMITTED TO THE PARTY PRINCIPLES. COMMITTED TO PROTECTING THE MIDDLE, LOWER, AND WORKING CLASS, AND THOSE IN POVERTY OR HOMELESS. EITHER YOU STAND WITH THIS FEAUX DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT, OR YOU STAND WITH THE PEOPLE. NOW IS TIME FOR THE DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE TO SHOW THEIR CARDS. ARE THEY GOING TO STAND WITH THE RICH, OR ARE THEY GOING TO RETURN TO THEIR ROOTS, AND PROTECT THE VUNERABLE. WE’LL BE WATCHING, TAKING NAMES, AND WILL ACT ACCORDINGLY WHEN NOVEMBER 2012 ELECTIONS COMES. AFTER ALL THE ONLY THING AT STAKE IS THE SURVIVAL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Apparently if someone were to write a sequel to JFK’s “Profiles in Courage” it would be found in the fiction section.

i don’t think he does. obama cannot be that stupid to cut these entitlements when an election year is coming up. i think he is trying to box the gop in even more in the house, but i’ll wait and see. all he said is progress was being made, and we are headed in the right direction. that can mean anything. and obama knows if he tries to cut those entitlement programs, that pelosi and the house dems will vote “no,” so what does he gain? nothing is accomplished, cuz the senate dems will also vote “no.”

Obama has earned the right to an ignominious defeat.

Couldn’t be said any better.

Can you imagine Reagan or Bush insulting, harassing, haranguing, bullying, and intimidating their base?

Not including all the other corporatist sell(O)uts, the language and insults alone that Prez sell(O)ut has hurled led me to being angry with him.

“professional left”
“bloggers wearing pajamas”
describing medicare, medicaid, & SS as “sacred cows”
telling us to “eat our peas”

what other insults to the left am I leaving out?

“eat our peas” from Prez sell(O)ut

vs.

“It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.

Speaking of……..what would FDR, Truman, JFK, RFK, LBJ, and MLK think about Obama and his presidency?

………..shameful……..

Well, start by not voting for him. He won’t have a big margin in swing states. All we need is few percent to defeat him. We could use some nice big charts showing 2 lines — Social Security NOW, Social Security OBAMA style. You can’t imagine how many old healthy voters there are in states like MN, IA, WI, etc.

MLK would be knocking on the WH gate with 2 million people standing behind him demanding the impostor leave.

What this all means-

2008: Obama Lied,
2018: Grandma Died.

feel free to use on a bumper sticker.

Hey workingclass, not trying to be contentious but the only primaries that are national are the presidential primaries. Are you asking me if I voted for BO in the primaries in ’08?

You ain’t the only one. Obama is making me furious.

Bush made me angry, but it wasn’t like the anger one feels with Obama. The betrayal, the tone deaf attitude on the economy, his aloofness towards the unemployed (just a bump in the road, don’t you know) his constant hammering about “deficits”, his dissing of the liberal base, his all around arrogance, his appalling lack of leadership, etc., etc..

Obama is also a complete idiot if he thinks he’s going to win re-election with this “grand bargain”. Maybe if he gets the “bargain”, he won’t run for re-election. He keeps saying the family is OK with one term. Personally, if he didn’t run, it would be the one thing I would support him on.

Wow, has he got everyone fooled or what? It may go from just punching the hippie all the way to waterboarding the hippie if this is actually true (can’t see that being true though).

By a wide 59-26 percent, the public sees congressional Republicans as more concerned than Obama with protecting the economic interests of Wall Street financial institutions, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds. Americans even more broadly, by 67-24 percent, put the GOP ahead when it comes to looking out for the interests of large business corporations.

The tables turn – albeit with much narrower margins – on other measures. Obama leads the GOP by 18 points in looking out for middle-class Americans, 53-35 percent. He also has a 10-point advantage, 47-37 percent, as being more concerned with the economic interests of “you and your family.” And he leads by 9 points, 48-39 percent, on protecting small businesses.

He may think its a winner of a strategy to piss on his base, but remember the reason we all were told that Bush was able to win re-election wasn’t by winning over moderates but by energizing his base. Risky MF’n strategy. But wait, the arrogant elitist knows all right?

Don’t be so charitable to the Obamabots.

The police could dig up forty bodies in his backyard and they’d still vote for him.

OBOMBA ain’t no Democrat.

He’s a Republican mole.

Watch this Video if you want to do something to fight back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_98758&v=W_0DHwiIVOU

I’ve read that the plan is to make no change in the SS COLA for the first 5 years. Then, over the next 5 years, the change to the “chained CPI” will be phased in.

So, by the time SS benefits start to be perceptibly cut, Obama will be long gone.

What I meant to ask was – did you vote for Kucinich in the Democratic presidential primaries. Sorry if I was unclear.

I tend to defend Dennis when he is singled out for being the last hold out. What about the next to the last hold out? Or the reps who didn’t hold out at all? The way I see it Dennis fought and lost. At least he fought.

I especially don’t want to hear it from people who voted for Obama. Where do they get off criticizing Kucinich for not standing up to the guy that THEY VOTED FOR?

oops, sorry workingclass. Had a brain fart there :)
In the primaries since I am registered Green I couldn’t vote in the dem primaries in CA, and I was more into the Green choices. If I could, I would have voted for him though by the time it got to Cali BO had it wrapped up.

He’ll be good as the half a man.

We NEED an alternative. I can no longer, in good conscience, vote for Obama. Nor can I imagine voting for any of the Republican candidates. Poll after poll shows we the people, of all parties, creeds, colors, and hairstyles, want ideas and candidates far to the left of anybody running, yet no one steps up. Who could we draft?

Jon… No offense… You need a Proof Reader. You wrote “The claimed” … Shouldn’t that be “They?” … “it has repeatedly state Obama” … Shouldn’t that be “stated?”

If he was built up by the CIA and the oligarchs, I wonder who really wrote his books. I wonder who has been writing his speeches.

“If she can put enough marbles in her mouth…”, Ralph said, she could beat Brown.

(Amy is The Best, and has the best theme music and bumper music. I love that subversive smile of hers when she mentions the music.)

SSDC. Same shit different color.

“…tax rates near historic laws” … Lows… right?

Good to hear. So what do you figure the percentage is, of those who actually won’t vote for Obama as a portion of those who claim they won’t vote for Obama?

MLK would probably first have tried to persuade Mr. Obama to do better, but I doubt that that would have included having a beer with Obama and Mitch McConnell. Failing that, MLK would have had more than one million person march on Washington by now. He would have focused intense populist criticism on the president’s abandonment of his own past and of the people that do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this country. That used to be called selling out to the man.

Barack Obama, realizing that he could not co-opt Mr. King, would have eavesdropped on his plans more aggressively than did J. Edgar. That’s part of his passion to neuter his critics on the left – what used to be called the center. Imagine the hacking Murdoch’s minions would have tried in order to assist that.

The Democratic party has sold out so badly, that they will never ask for anybody’s forgiveness for undertaking this MOST irresponsible idea of cutting SS and medicare.

He’s not a Democrat then. Wake up and tell the truth. It’s not the death knell of the the Democratic party. It’s already dead. Until progressives, liberals, or whatever you people call yourself tell the truth there is no hope. Sure I can call myself those things too. But calling myself a Democrat when it means a right wing Republican ain’t my bag.You all will be cowed into voting for this lying piece of fake Democrat again next year. How anybody with a BRAIN can give money to politicians and keep signing petitions is beyond me. Just start with telling the damn truth. Obama is a fraud and not a Democrat. It’s been clear for YEARS now. It’s not a secret no mo.

Obama thinks he is channeling Lincoln. Who’s going to tell him he is channeling Hoover?

We need to remind Obama why Social Security is considered the third rail of American politics. If he follows through with his cuts for Social Security and continues tax breaks for his Wall Street chums he needs to receive the message that our vote for him will be off the table!

Our real national crisis? Jobs!! The silence is deafening that no job proposal has been proposed by those participating in the deficit-debt discussions.

I wish you the best. I am in a similar position but have the fortune to be able to live with my 80 year old mother who owns her own house. We have for the most part lived off of her Social Security, and a few months ago she qualified for Medicaid home care waiver which pays $200/week for me to take care of her. I take care of her business affairs, so I am acutely aware of things like the COLA, and Medicare premiums, deductibles and Medicaid.

As for the unemployment at 56, the depression is the worst when you find yourself sliding down the slide of social status from an educated professional to a clerk in the supermarket. Just be prepared and learn to accept.

Since many of us here voted for Obama, just a question–

When did it reach the point where you could no longer bear to see or hear the man on TV? I only ask because it was the norm on the left to cringe when Bush talked.

For me I’d have to say it was during the summer of ’09 when I couldn’t stand to hear him give a speech anymore.

Actually, I’d rather hear Bush than Obama now. I get the impression that Bush was somewhat more honest.

I guess since I’m 60 I qualify as one of those “old Iowa voters”.

I certainly won’t vote for Obama next go around. It will 3rd party for me. Then again I must confess that I’ve actually toyed around with the idea of voting for Michele Bachman. Thought I’d go to my grave having never voted for a gopper, but we’ll see.

When did it reach the point where you could no longer bear to see or hear the man on TV? I only ask because it was the norm on the left to cringe when Bush talked. For me I’d have to say it was during the summer of ’09 when I couldn’t stand to hear him give a speech anymore.

Great point and question. Almost exactly around the same time. The betrayal of the public option where he cut backroom deals with insurance, healthcare, and pharmaceutical companies to the “kill the public option,” was the beginning of the end. That was the start and everything else just cascaded from there. As a teacher, his arrogant, elitist, and insulting “Race to the Top Bottom” was the main driving point away for me, because he disrespected, insulted, and downright bullied teachers. As a teacher, his policy is more punitive, more draconian, and more republican than NCLB.

Many times I feel guilty because I’m “betraying my democratic president,” but the more I read I finally believe in my heart that he betrayed us a long, long time ago.

We know what to expect from the lunatic, radical, right-wing neo-cons. They make no bones about screwing us over. Prez sell(O)ut and the D’s “pretend” to care about us. Betrayal is worse.

From the great Michael Scott…….”You expect to get screwed by your company, but you never expect to get screwed by your girlfriend.”

Registered Green? Good for you. I’m not saying he should but I would love to see Kucinich run on a Green ticket. He is actually a strong campaigner and he walked away with blind polls on the issues.
I have no party affiliation myself. Kucinich was the only Democrat I could support last time around. Starting in 2000 I end up voting for Nader in the general election. Good luck to you psalongo.

From Yahoo…….

For the second consecutive month of polling, voters said they would vote for the “Republican Party’s candidate for president” over President Obama, with 47 percent saying they would support the GOP candidate over Obama, who received just 39 percent.

Not sure what many of the O-bot Apologists get the idea that Prez sell(O)ut is doing well and earning votes with his disingenuous chess game/compromise capitulation/giveaway/sellout and chastising and screwing over his base, but these numbers should be alarming. Guess we’ll see if the tried and true and failed triangulation strategy works.

Not me. No way. I’ll leave it blank or write in a name.

none of thees guys will say anything about Pete Peterson…yes the GOP are bastards but the main driver for these cuts is Peterson…I am waiting for Ed or somebody speak up about Peterson…it always Obama is being forced by the GOP and that is BS…both parties are bought and if these guys would grow a pair and speak up!

When is someone with balls going to primary this fraud? Isn’t it obvious @ this juncture that Obama is the “Manchurian candidate from hell?”

I held my nose and voted for Obama in 2008 because Hillary wasn’t on the ballot anymore. He turned out to be a Trojan horse of the worst kind. People who believe him are either stupid or corrupt.

Actually, Obama is worse. Bush tried to touch SS but couldn’t and promptly gave up. Obama is a devious snake, he planned and planned for three years and waited for this deficit “crisis” as his “historic” opportunity to attack SS.

I’d like a reporter to ask Obama what he’s going to do when the debt ceiling issue comes up again in his theoretical second term. Another hostage taking situation? Another few trillion in cuts to grannies benefits?

Because once you agree that the debt ceiling vote is a legitimate pretext for negotiating on the budget, isn’t that now what you’ll always be doing?

If we had a real president who gave a fuck, he would have absolutely refused to engage in this bullshit.

I knocked on doors for this POS. I feel like such a dumbass now.

I really hope that progressive energies don’t go down the drain in some useless, hopeless primary. The way to really send a message to the political class that the left will not be fucked with is a legitimate 3rd party run by some Nader-like individual. With social media, money bombs, etc, that person will get into the presidential debates. And that person will absolutely siphon off enough Democratic voters to take Obama down, and hopefully give rise to a real party. (Yes, I realize this means 4 years of some dumbass republican in the whitehouse, and maybe a crazy ass supreme court appointment. But I think we’ve got to take a stand. Or else we’re just a bunch of chicken shits.)

No, Obama IS a Democrat. But that’s the whole problem. Democrats aren’t what we wish they were. They are what they are. They are corporate owned whores. And the party is not fixable. It is dead. And we should move on. Let’s be brave, stand with each other, and start fresh. Let’s take these pieces of shit down.

Outstanding points!

I had my suspicions – here’s a state senator with less experience than my 7-11 clerk – but I did send him a donation, and I even convinced people at work to vote for him. And when they gave him the Nobel prize, I was thinking.. well, maybe he’s a great man!
Obama is a great con artist.

I for one have not said I would vote for him again. In fact, I have said I would write in my own candidate after I demand a paper ballot to do so!

Yawwnnnnnn. Why not take the next bold step and vote for the crazy assclown running against him. If they get it they will likelye bring about a WI moment at the national level. If Obama wins, another 4 years of the slide and for sure a Repuke in 2016 to really put the final nail in the coffin. If the assclown gets in then 2016 will probably see a real liberal alternaitve emerge.

Actually bearman, the folks at Black Agenda Report not only discussed Pete Peterson but discussed BO’s intention to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. This was done last November!

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/barack-obama-social-security-and-final-irrelevance-black-misleadership-class

The Democratic Party is undead.

Going to be a long struggle, but agreed. Mourn but find ways to make some noise, resist, and rebuild our communities.

An otherwise very thoughtful staffer of a member of Senate leadership told me today to consider the Big 0 was just undermining the New Deal, rolling out disaster capitalism, giving us all a big bite of austerity pie, I’m paraphrasing, of course – that all the betrayals were just to get his base fired up so he could get a good bargain.

I was extremely disappointed to hear that and she assured me the Senator didn’t say this, but was something I should consider.

Scary stuff.

If Obama is playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers, he’s lost all his rooks and knights and is about to lose his queen. Republicans are probably already filming the commercials showing starving, homeless seniors and blaming Obama for cutting Social Security and Medicare. How’s he going to answer? “You made me do it”? If they don’t vote for it in any large numbers, and they won’t because they don’t have to, no one will buy Obama’s defense. No, this was never any grand scheme. Just more Democratic party nonsense. I’m sorry I supported this guy or any of my Dem reps and I’m done with them now.

Obama is in his 3rd year now. He’s either the most incompetent/timid executive ever (zero negotiating skills etc) or the best Trojan horse ever. We know he’s not stupid or timid, therefore the only logical conclusion is that he’s a Trojan horse. The best money can buy.

It was Medicare that Obama proposed raising the age to 67 for I believe.

You are correct on that.

I am basically new to FDL sometimes it’s hard for to distinguish. I am getting better but the stakes are really high now and for lurkers we need to be on message and united. IMO