'We're a Day Away'

Obama today:

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Fuck these racist fucks:

"It was like going into the time machine with John Lewis," said Carson, a large former police officer who said he wasn't frightened but worried about the 70-year-old Lewis, who is twice his age. "He said it reminded him of another time."

Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said a protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who is black.

Clyburn, who led fellow black students in integrating South Carolina's public facilities a half century ago, called the behavior "absolutely shocking."

"I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus," Clyburn told reporters.

That'll play well in November. Good luck with that, Republicans. In the past eight years you've started two unnecessary wars and fucked over kind of the entire world and made everybody who loved America in 2001 fucking hate us now. While Obama hasn't ended those wars or entirely unfucked the world, he has as his major piece of domestic legislation attempted to get people health insurance. We can argue all day over the details but that's going to be the narrative. Good luck with that. Should be a real barnburner.

I've had my problems with this bill. I've said, over and over, that it does too little too late. I've said, over and over, that political cowardice is so ingrained in Democratic party machinations that we're not so much activists as therapists, telling them it's okay to be brave and fly without their magic feathers. I've wished for so much more from our leadership. Much as I said back in October 2008, when I said electing Obama wasn't enough, that we're so fucked that electing a centrist dude — even if he is a black guy named Barack Hussein Obama — wasn't enough, passing this bill tomorrow won't be enough.

It's never enough, though. We're never done. We're never as far as we want to be. That's no consolation, sure, but I'm not saying it as consolation, or as condemnation, or excuse. Simple fact, nothing more, nothing less. The fight always goes on. And getting pissed and throwing the ball down and declaring the game over feels so fucking good, but the fight goes on anyway, with or without those who've decided it's time to end their part in it. I can't tell you how many epic "it's all over this time" moments I've had in the past five and a half years. The war, Kerry, FISA, Plame, the Military Commissions Act, looking forward and not back ... they go on forever.

It was supposed to be better than this by now. But here's the thing: No matter how good it gets, that's always going to be the way to look at the world. It's always supposed to be better than this. The anger and disappointment I feel about this bill is necessary because without that anger and disappointment there would be no reason to speak, no reason to call, no reason to write, no reason to march, no reason to vote. No reason to work. What Teddy meant, when he said the dream shall never die, is exactly that. 

A.

Comments

[joejoejoe]

You are on top of your shit A.

You may be poking forty with a stick but you have being a great writer impaled on a twig in a fire like a s'more. Fucking lizard brains show their true colors and none too soon either. Enjoy Cool Hand Biden ruling that the Senate doesn't need 60 votes for squat in the next Congress you Tea Bag racists.

[hoppy]

Now, don't tell me there are more than 3 people in the whole world who didn't already know that the "Tea Party" was about racism above all else. The Repub big shots are about nothing except greed, a desire to pack more $$ into their bank accounts, but the rank and file, the ones who vote for Repubs are racists above all else. That they are also homophobics, relgious nuts, and intellectual cretins is secondary to the racism that drives the whole party. This is Nixon and Reagan's ultimate legacy.

[Robert Earle]

I sincerely hope there's video. Otherwise "it never happened".

(Remember, there were photos of Abu Ghraib, and it just barely "happened".)

[montag]

It's not going to get better, but, rather, quite the opposite.

Anyone who thinks that Clyburn and Lewis are the real objects of this hatred, stand up now and be counted.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I wasn't hoping for much from this crop of Dems or from Obama, but, they let this get out of hand, take far too long to get done, and the primary problem in that is that they forgot who their real constituents are. The Repugs never cared--they've been the party of graft and corruption since Reconstruction--but, the Dems had an obligation not to cater to the very people who made health care unaffordable.

The number of people they've turned off with their back-room dealing is even greater than the number of kooks and crazies who think Obama's Satan incarnate.

They sold out for campaign money that they aren't going to get, believing--erroneously--that campaign money is the same as votes. They settled for a shitty bill, so, now, the Repugs can say they were against it on solid substance, and voters won't care that they're lying. They'll just vote for them.

Around election time, roughly 65% of the people polled were in favor of single-payer, fer gawd's sake. Momentum lost, never to be regained.

Dems don't want to hear it, but, they've fucked themselves, I think. Even if they manage to get Obama re-elected in 2012 (and right now, I think the odds of him winning are not good), they've alienated a lot of their 2008 support. Prognostication's always a mean taskmaster,, but, I think they're going to lose seats in 2010 and probably both houses in 2012.

[Moses2317]

Let's make sure we don't let these teabagging punks win this one. There are still a number of votes up for grab, so give them a call before the final vote on Sunday!

Brian Baird - Washington (Vancouver, Olympia) - (202) 225-3536

Paul Kanjorski - Pennsylvania (Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Mount Pocono) - 202-225-6511

John Tanner - Tennessee (Union City, Jackson, Millington) - 202-225-4714

Earl Pomeroy - North Dakota (Bismarck, Fargo) - (202) 225-2611

Lincoln Davis - Tennessee (Columbia, Jamestown, Rockwood) - 202.225.6831

Marcy Kaptur - Ohio (Toledo) - (202) 225-4146

Mike Michaud - Maine (Bangor, Lewiston, Presque Isle, Waterville) - 202-225-6306

Bill Foster - Illinois (Batavia, Dixon, Geneseo) - (202) 225-2976

Kathy Dahlkemper - Pennsylvania (Erie) - (202) 225-5406

Chris Carney - Pennsylvania (Clarks Summit, Shamokin, Williamsport) - (202) 225-3731

Steve Driehaus - Ohio (Cincinnati) - (202) 225-2216

Stephen Lynch - Massachusetts (Brockton, Boston) - 202-225-8273

Rick Boucher - Virginia (Abingdon, Pulaski, Big Stone Gap) - 202-225-3861

Loretta Sanchez - California (Garden Grove) - (202) 225-2965

Dan Lipinski - Illinois (LaGrange, Oak Lawn, Chicago's southwest side) - (202) 225 - 5701

Joe Donnelly - Indiana (South Bend, LaPorte, Michigan City, Kokomo) - (202) 225-3915

Marion Berry - Arkansas (Jonesboro, Cabot, Mountain Home) - (202) 225-4076

Jerry Costello - Illinois (Carbondale, Belleville, E. St. Louis, Granite City, Chester) - (202) 225-5661

Nick Rahall - West Virginia (Beckley, Bluefield, Huntington, Logan) - (202) 225-3452

Solomon Ortiz - Texas (Corpus Christi, Brownsville) - (202) 225-7742

Alan Mollohan - West Virginia (Morgantown, Wheeling, Clarksburg, Parkersburg) - (202) 225-4172

[ServingPatriot]

@montaq, YES! ABSOLUTELY!

and it boils down to this: political cowardice is so ingrained in Democratic party machinations that we're not so much activists as therapists, telling them it's okay to be brave and fly without their magic feathers.

Nothing changes. Except that EVERYONE gets PO'd and now they are starting to do something about it. Sadly, the institutional political cowardice of the Dems means they are on the wrong side of the action (racist and homophobic as it is). I attribute it mainly to the pernicious life that exists within the Versailles-on-Potomac - a life that sucks all connection to constituents right from every elected official.

Or, as Durbin said it, "they [bankers, lobbyists, C-Street fanatics, philanderers, etc] own the place."

SP

[TJ]

Pretty much shows where we are that the progressive blogs are now saying we've got to keep fighting. Yeah, we might, but the national Dems are an utter waste of time.