Stop Me Before I Vote Again

A lot of pwoggie crowing seems to be over NY23 where, if I have this correct, the conservative republican candidate had to throw her support to the conservative democrat candidate in order to keep some non-duopoly-approved teabagger out of the Hallowed Halls. This is what a pwogs call a "Big Win."

Poor Kos. He's finally at the Big Cotillion. But his date turns out to be an energetic zombie who keeps gnawing on all the dancers on his side of the room. What to do? Oh, what to do?

The Democratic 'blame the victim' instinct is very strong, as you say, especially when it comes to turnout.

Minorities, the young, the less wealthy, new voters do tend to stay home in odd years (and while I anticipate an uptick in turnout amongst these groups in 2010, it won't come near the level of 2008). These were the demographic categories that largely put Obama (way) over the top in 2008.

They're the groups that need what government alone can secure, and also the groups whose leadership goes under the bus whenever the Republicans howl for a scalp.

" When lightning strikes(and the dembotry) controls Congress and the White House, their first impulse is to make sure the system stays intact. "
this time right off the bat
the great bail II

plus now playing
the slim-stim stag party

the medifarce is a diversion except to those
deeply "fellow soul responsible"
altro-hearts
who ..well you know...feeeeeeel
"if this lesser evil plan passes
and and and...saves ..well ...even
one innocent body from a premature necrosis ..."
------
"The Republicans like to keep their base fired up. The Democrats like to keep theirs doped up"

in fact when the dems base gets fired up
they really lose big

recall 65-68
the twin menaces

enraged urban minorities of color

and college campus
lovey dovey
secular satanics

0r
45-46 unions on the boil

"Poor Kos. For all his recherche wonkery, he's very naif. He really wants his party to win. But his party actually doesn't care much about winning."

Not sure if the former CIA guy REALLY wants Dems to win. I think he is just another hidden agitator on Uncle Sugar's payroll.

The elderly, reflective Goldwater actually looks appealing compared to most of the "good, electable" Dems... and I'm a rather harsh critic of small-gov, small-R republicans.

"Minorities, the young, the less wealthy, new voters do tend to stay home in odd years (and while I anticipate an uptick in turnout amongst these groups in 2010, it won't come near the level of 2008). These were the demographic categories that largely put Obama (way) over the top in 2008."

Huh. I thought it was due to the Republicans offering the worst candidate since George the Elder.
Do Democrats who had their asses handed to them in 2000 ( well except for that whole appointed thing, but Blame Nader and screw it) and 2004 would really have beaten a viable Republican? Blacks already vote Dem. Honestly did they expect to steal young Republican voters from mommy and daddy values with a High Yellow brother?

I ain't stateside, so I paid scant attention to the NJ guv race, not that there was much on offer. But would it be wrong to surmise that since there wasn't much to choose, a lot of fair-weather, upper-middle-class, socially-liberal Dems decided to vote for Christie for property tax/state income tax relief in hard-pressed times? They're only redistributionists, i.e. they only give a shit about blacks and browns in Camden and Newark, when they have "hope"... about their real estate and portfolio values.

but now's different the agenda for progressive change is once again huge

the system needs an overhaul

the base exploding

ala 30-37
will lead to reactive restructuring

the system needs it
the folks will rise up for it

just a matter of two party tick tock
tit for tat politics
when and how and by who

recall the loci classici

prol class- demo wise
disraeli's
flanking maneuver
on franchise expansion
and bismarck's
on social security

something tells me
being kings of the planet
the US system may "prefer"
a conservative reformer like nixon
and reagan

btw of course if so
only after western europe
shows the limits of social marketeering
neolib style
by seriously popping
a few seemly class seams

note this is not simply
reality tv shit
like the recent french

j-l goddard actions

theatre symbolique de classe
en 'job site '

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/gay-leaders-blame-tv-obama/
Gay leaders blame TV ads, Obama for loss in Maine

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate.

Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage.

"Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian legal group. "Maine dramatically illustrates the will of the people, and politicians should wake up and listen."

Gay activists were frustrated that Obama, who insists he staunchly supports their overall civil rights agenda, didn't speak out forcefully in defense of Maine's marriage law before Tuesday's referendum. The law was repealed in a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent.

The Blame Game lyrics
Hey there can you help me
I can't find what I'm lookin' for
Can you tell me have you seen it
I know that I had it before
I know I set it over there
But now I can't find it anywhere
Ahhhhhh

It's ok
I don't really mind it
Right away
We're gonna find it
Together with me
We're right behind it

Listen here let me explain
There's no one to blame
Hey there can you help me
I can't find what I'm lookin' for
Can you tell me have you seen it
I know that I had it before
I know I set it over there
But now I can't find it anywhere
Ahhhhh

It's ok
I don't really mind it
Right away
We're gonna find it
Together with me
We're right behind it
Hear me now
Let me explain

There's no one to blame
Do do
Doooo
Do do oooh
Do do oooh
Hear me now
Let me explain
There's no one to blame

If the Democrats and Republicans deliver mostly the same policies with only differences in window dressing and the articulate-ish-ness of the POTUS, why focus on Repub vs Dem?

Doesn't that only reinforce the partisan bickering, and further distract from the observation that the partisan battle is mere theatre?

It's not like things would be worse, policy-wise, under McCain/Palin. Things might even be more enjoyable with the imperialism out in the open, on the nation's heartsleeve.

oxy
i share your sense of theatre here

pallin would be quite a hoot

but only because she'd be fun to fight against
spectator status ??
i'd rather read history then watch it unfolded
if i'm to be as passive as we mostly are

we need a national organization
with a job class pov
willing and able to interconnect
of not coordinate
the ground floor strugglin' movements out there
on all fronts at once ...eh ??

is there one ???

is one abuilding ???

I'd go with "abuilding" but it won't build of its own momentum, we who want it to happen must push it along with assistance -- perspective, rationale, argument.

What makes people abandon the tried-and-true is a personally felt failure of that t&t. As long as the failure is remote and not personally felt, it is just background noise.

What does it take to get fellow Americans to realize they're getting the shaft while a small, microscopic minority gets the elevator to the penthouse?

I think it takes redirecting their attention. Away from the promises uttered by The Obamessiah, and toward what the personal situation is.

"Do you have health care coverage?"

"What does it cost you?"

"Do you believe we have trillions for Wall Street but nothing for health care? How does that make you feel about the Congress's choice of priorities?"

"If housing is tanking, and your income doesn't match your mortgage, and your mortgage is upside-down, why isn't the 'bailout' money going to you and people like you, so that you can pay your mortgage?"

The above and other questions like them are the way to get people to bring politics down to the personally-felt, personally-experienced level. Without the redirection they offer, people can sit back and be victims, and imagine that the "too big to fail" argument used to justify "bailouts" is legitimate.

People need to believe they have not just a right to think about how govt policies affect them, but a right to demand that policies be humane. They need to believe that it is WRONG to bail out a business that knowingly put itself in peril. They need to believe that if the problem is people are losing their jobs, and therefore their health care and housing, then the solution is to give people what they need to afford health care and housing.

They need to ask themselves, very simply --

"Who pays? Who benefits?"

I want to hear more about Mr Moulitsas' CIA connection.

not all but respike the golden arm

this bit
sent my way by a comrade :

"Four Arrested in Lieberman Office Plan to Stay in Jail Until Demands are Met!

Historic First Ever Vote on Single Payer Tomorrow!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The demand made by those sitting-in was that Lieberman stop taking insurance company money so the United States can have health care for all. Four of the nine arrested are refusing to cooperate with the police and intend to stay in jail until he meets this demand.

We need your support to continue the Mobilization, keep the pressure on and provide support to those incarcerated. Please click here to donate now.

In reaction to the sit-in in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, the Weiner Amendment for single payer health care, is back on the agenda. It is likely that we will have the historic first-ever vote for single payer health care on the House Floor tomorrow. The Democratic leadership had promised this vote on a single payer national health system, but broke that promise until the sit-in this week. One of the two demands of the sit-in at the Speaker’s San Francisco office was to allow a vote on the Weiner Amendment. Please write your representatives and urge them to vote for the amendment when it comes to the Floor. The second demand of the sit-in, including the Kucinich Amendment in the bill, has not yet been met. Click here to write your representative now to urge their support of the Weiner Amendment and the Kucinich Amendment.

Thank you again for your support. We are making progress but it is going to take continued concerted effort to accomplish our objectives. "

These cats are injecting pure fart-infused air, and living to shoot another day. That's off the charts. I think they are super-addicts, true heroes of the needle.

op,

your comrade's story is a living example of the bait-and-switch. the sit-in protesters are sitting in until one of two OTHER insurance-friendly options is adopted.

instead of sitting in until a Canadian style plan is adopted, they give the whole game away by hemming in close to Kucinich's pseudo-plan or the Weiner Ripoff. switching to "single-payer" that still leaves insurance companies in charge of ever-skyrocketing health care costs is NOT an improvement.

if people are going to risk jailing, they should at least try to change things as a result of their martyrdom. otherwise they're just pawns in AIPAC Joe's charade.

Electable? Electable?!

God, I fuckin' hate that fuckin' word. That was the sole justification that my Glass-Ceiling Feminist wife could come up with for supporting John Kerry: he was "electable".

Pah. Big damn' deal. Reagan was "electable". Hell, even Hitler was "electable", as far as that goes.

Nobody I know of ever brought about any kind of real, progressive change by being merely "electable" -- let alone actually wasting their time trying to get elected to something.

Normally, I'd cite CSN&Y's "Long Time Coming" here, except now I'm sure those friggin' old geezers are pissing away their time and energy helping to elect Democrats. Spit.

Mike Flugennock

Lurch Kerry blew it big time when asked if after everything they knew about Iraq would he still (unconstitutionally)vote for the invasion. He said he would.
Who wants a sad pathetic Bush light when you can have the full flavored Bush original?
Electable for Democrats means the same as a wink is as good as a nod to a dead horse.

MJS- Jump to about 11:57 in for tales of MKosUltra in his own words http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/06/06-06zuniga-audio.html

Weird, maybe, but it's kinda worked for 'em, hasn't it? MMZ is probably too young to remember the Goldwater campaign. That's when it started. How well I recall the scoffing at the "little old ladies in tennis shoes." They're running the show now -- even in opposition!

All this wonderful teabagger stuff is about party-building: keeping the base fired up.

I'm going to say something I never thought I would say, but Kos is almost right. It is a weird way to build a majority and it's already coming around to bite them in the ass. Movement conservatism, which I would date to Reagan and Gingrich, rather than Goldwater's paleocon campaign, is already destroying the party from within because the distinctions between Republicans and Democrats are superficial. They've long ago run out of differences on which to base their hatred of the Donkeycrats, so they're starting in on Republicans who are insufficiently far-right. The Kansas Republican Party is run by a crowd so crazy that both Kathleen Sebelius and Mark Parkinson look like better candidates to the disaffected moderate conservatives.

The recent dust-up with Dede Scozzafava is another case in point. The GOP tried to reign the teabag movement in, reminding them that Scozzafava was their handpicked candidate for Congress, but it has grown out of their control. Palin and Co. managed to alienate a significant slice of voters with Republican sympathies so thoroughly that 5.5% of voters voted for Scozzafava even though she'd dropped out. This is larger than the margin of victory between Owens and Hoffman. If only one could get the pwoggies to cast protest votes like that.

Neither party really has a true "base" of core supporters, but rather has a loose confederation of warring tribes that are kept together only through the fear of the other. The Republicans are made up of rural populists, don't-tread-on-me civil libertarians, theocrats, neocons, and business interests. They operate in the interests of the last two. Even then I sometimes think that the neocon agenda is merely instrumental to the forces of globalized capitalism. They are all mistrustful of one another, to some extent, but they mistrust the Democrats more.

This allows the Republicans to keep on putting the screws to rural areas and civil liberties with either of these two constituencies leaving the party. Theocrats are kept happy by public invocations of the deity, promises to end abortion that go nowhere, and a few hopeless creationism bills. And the Democrats are overjoyed when they see this stuff, because it keeps the merit class pwogs quaking with fear.

The Republicans are no more immune to the contradictions between rhetoric and reality that come with being one half of the ruling class. Their efforts to appeal to their "base" are perfunctory at best. A "You lie!" shouted in the chambers of Congress, a bit of birther legislation, John Warner trying to operate a loom and having all the gears seize up, George H.W. losing control of an 18-wheeler. Eventually some Republican is going to be the first political candidate ever to be scraped out of a thresher with a spatula. Anything but dealing with the issues of civil liberties, rural poverty, and other issues in a way that would change things for their most stalwart supporters.

ox
"NOT an improvement"
i don't agree

single payer sit ins
may in the end ...at best
only strengthen the pub op
okay
if the pub op
in any form
strikes you as squalid
fine go with god

but one has to use
the notion of no improvement
with a certain caution i think

insufficient is always useable
but no improvement ...
that gives off more moxie
then i can recommend

op -

the old saw "distinction without a difference" applies

or "pyrrhic victory"

or "win the battle, lose the war"

the improvement in Weiner's Ripoff or Kucinich's Klowning is not one I'll feel at my end.

it's not going to rectify the source problem in the overall problem of medical care unaffordability, and in fact it likely provides excellent cover to further gross profiteering.

with all the focus being on "co-pay" and elimination thereof, the fields are plowed and fertilized for continued insurance company profiteering.

who's going to administer the Kucinich Klown program?

who's going to administer the Weiner Ripoff scheme?

there's a damned good reason these details are not being discussed in the open. like every other major Federal program of the post-Vietnam era, the Label will betray the real purpose because the Label will say what citizens are supposed to think, while the reality will be 180 deg opposite the Label.

it's going to be another

Healthy Forests Initiative
Patriot Act
No Child Left Behind Act
Operation: Iraqi Freedom

that's how I see it, but I'll happily admit an erroneous forecast if reality happens to line up with The Label.

null
you sound like walt karp
more every day
the two parties are run best
by arms length
professional brand managers
its a money and trophy sport
really for the effective ones

to reach satori
one needs to view both parties
with an even handed distain

to reacjh and maintain
such a balance requires fierce powers
of concentration

father S does this quite well i think

"the overall problem of medical care unaffordability.."
i agree

sometimes a climactic
scene of disgraceful atrocity is necessary
to real reform
the turboed up universal no exit
system by pumping fresh blood money
into the health care sector
only to see it futher inflate
prices fees and premia
may provide that climax

"..it likely provides excellent cover to further gross profiteering."
no i think it provides an temptation
not a cover
and that is a trap
now after all this
and with their "victory"
over the will of the majority
the eyes of america are on them
not the politicians they have owned all these years but on THEM

evennts may move swiiftly in the next 4 years or so

"the Label will betray the real purpose "
some times the label merely over states
the likely outcome

i seem always to end up
feeling the distinction between a reform struggle and a challenge to the system
get confused in honest radical minds

no legislation is ever going to challenge the system at best it's going to move the system
for it's own sake into
a better functioning groove

our healthcare system is a mess
corporate america wants it cleaned up
of course it has no problem with delays and half measures that un necessarily
kill people along the way
so they play it system safe
even if they know we should jump to medicare for all today

below find an example
of good party stewardship
and even better party loyalty
by pwog leaders k and c

its contains a many gems
i will isolate a few of them with

---- blah blah blah ---

Dear owen,

On the eve of what
---could have been--
the first vote on single-payer legislation in our nation’s history,
---because of last minute developments, --

the vote and debate on Congressman Weiner’s single-payer amendment will not happen. Speaker Pelosi received a statement from Rep. Kucinich and Rep. Conyers, the co-authors of HR 676, that
---they do not think that this is the right time ---

for a vote on national single-payer legislation. They made this statement despite the extensive mobilization in support of this vote across the country. In addition,

Speaker Pelosi felt that offering a single-payer amendment would

---open the floodgates --

---to amendments proposed to limit abortion funds, restrict immigrant access to health care and other regressive legislation.---

Let us remember that
--- the potential vote--
on Congressman Weiner’s single-payer amendment resulted from
---holding fast to our principles---

of universal, comprehensive health care with no financial barriers.

The vote for Congressman Weiner’s single-payer amendment
---would have allowed---
advocates to have their representatives on record as single-payer supporters.

---But this legislative battle is not yet over.--

Our focus can now turn to two remaining efforts for single-payer healthcare in this Congress.Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce S 703 in coming weeks, and we understand that he is considering editing it to be more like HR 676.
---- We will have the opportunity again to see the first ever vote on single-payer healthcare in this Congress. --

In addition, Rep. Kucinich’s amendment to allow states to more easily implement a single-payer system
----may be reinserted --

into the bill during the conference committee between the House and Senate.

All of these efforts are crucial to building the movement for the only solution to our health care crisis
single-payer national healthcare.

If this Congress passes inadequate legislation,
--there will no doubt be emboldened state movements in the coming years.--

We welcome them. But let us not forget the movement to push our federal legislators to meet the demands of the people, not roll that responsibility onto the states. The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care remains committed to a national, single-payer solution to the health care crisis. Comprehensive, quality health care is a right that should be extended to every U.S. resident.

At this important time,

---let us not forget how far we have come.---

Either now or later, a single-payer national health care system must come to the table. We’ll keep building the movement to make that happen. "

amen brothers and sisters
now go piss up a rope

from above:

"---to amendments proposed to limit abortion funds, restrict immigrant access to health care and other regressive legislation.---"

always even if our dreams were crushed by their real politik
the fuckers havestill manged to save humanity for humanism
they headed off the ever mobilized and ready to depredate mongul horde

"... party leaders broke a weeks-long impasse over abortion by agreeing to hold a vote on an amendment -- offered by antiabortion Democrats -- that would explicitly bar the public plan from` covering the procedure. The amendment, approved 240 to 194, with 64 Democrats in favor,"washpo

so much for holding off the mongul horde

the single payer amendment vote was finessed
no record
no who voted for or agin
on single payer

now no rep has to betray either
their agin donors
OR
their for
popular majority in their district

on a different note, another spectacular pwogressive capitulation:

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/11/06/rep-weiner-withdraws-single-payer-amendment/

http://www.commondreams.org/print/49157

indeed derm

"the process "
has revealed itself nicely here
i note madame nan's use of "popular" about SP
and her backing up of weiner's heroic struggle to push SP forward
err but not so far as an on the record vote
that might test the poularity of SP among our
pwoggy butted
white knight rep-ing crew

That looks like it hurts.