It is over for the Democrats even if they pass the Senate bill.  This legislation will be too little too late for them in November.  And if they don’t fix things quickly, they will be marginalized for at least a generation if not longer.  So sad.

Have a good weekend Nancy.  Soon every day will be a weekend for you.

Pro-pain -- Political suicide

Pro-Pain Political Suicide lyrics
Well it’s 6 am at the white house
And the sun’s just about to break
Gonna go for a run with the C.I.A
And talk shop with my boys in Kuwait
We got ethnic cleansing in Bosnia
While the Haitian’s come in by boat
I think it’s time for some media posturing
To put the spark right back in your vote
I reserve the right
To lie straight up in your face
I’ll squeal in delight
And leave you in disgrace
I will not step down
Hurt my pride
I shalt thou commit
Political suicide
Got a real nice disposition
More perks then a chock full o’nuts
But I can’t stand up to the congress
Cause I just don’t have the guts
My hands are ties domestically
I gotta brown nose the N.R.A.
Those campaign contributions
Have put me where I am today

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Democrats Have Committed Political Suicide

2 Comments

• At March 12, 2010, John d4v.org wrote:

  fwiw

• At March 13, 2010, John democracyforvancouver.org wrote:

  Dennis Kucinich and Rob Kall conversation about the health care bill.

  [audio:http://www.democracyforvancouver.org/wp-content/uploads/kucinich-20100311-18.mp3|titles=Kucinich-Kall on health care]

  Podcast by Rob Kall www.opednews.com/podcasts

Michael Moore has a new letter to President Obama blaming the President’s mistakes and flip flops on Rahm Emanuel.  Michael has it wrong here.  The mistake was Obama’s hiring of Rahm in the first place.  Remember the old saying that President Truman had on his desk, “The Buck Stops Here”?

I just read that Goldman Sacks may be stealing $100,000,000 every trading day.  And Goldman Sachs was Obama’s second largest campaign contributor so is it any wonder we are where we are today?

Howard Dean should have been appointed Chief of Staff.

As hard as it is to face, we have been hoodwinked by Obama.  He is a big sell out.  On top of all this,  now we get to look forward to Republicans taking back Congress in the fall.  Maybe when the Rs gut social security and medicare, we will get real change, not empty promises?  It is disconcerting to look forward to things getting worse just so one can hope they will get better as a result.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Five Minutes With Michael Moore

In the wake of last week’s “bipartisan summit” — which proved that no Republicans in Congress will vote for health care reform — an avalanche of Democratic senators are announcing today that they will vote YES for the public health insurance option if it is brought up in “reconciliation.”

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are the latest to announce their support, raising the number of senators on record from 0 to 30 in under 2 weeks.

This is indeed very good news.  Without a public option and with an individual mandate, the Democrats would be left out in the cold electorally speaking for a very long time.  I know if I was 35 years old (give or take 10 years) and was forced to buy health insurance from a private, monopolistic corporation because of legislation passed by Democrats in Congress, it would be a cold day in hell before I would ever vote for a “D” again.  Many younger people believe they do not need health insurance and would rather spend money on other priorities.

20 more Senators to go and we might actually get a bill that will be worthwhile after all.  Thanks to our very own Senator Murray for her public option support.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Some Good News On The Public Option Today

1 Comments

• At March 2, 2010, Mike Ellison vancouverforpeace.org wrote:

  The Columbian reports that 66% of WA District 3 survey respondents ("voters" in report) favor "the national government offering everyone the choice of buying into a government-administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans."

  Wake up Obama.

Wonder who is going to pay for this?  The U.S. taxpayers?

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

At Least He Did Not Kill Anyone

Top Two Primary System is Flawed

Citing a desire to not “thin the field of Democrats” in the primary, Deb Wallace withdrew from the 3rd district race to replace Rep. Brian Baird.  This is yet another example of why the “top two” primary system is undermining the electoral process.  If we did not have political parties, the top two primary would make sense.  It would be the “best man (woman) wins”.  But when you have a system where you have to minimize the number of contenders in each party or try to keep the number running in each political party equal in order to have a fair race, democracy suffers. If Deb Wallace had remained in the race and lost, she would be seen as a spoiler if two Republican candidates ended up the top two vote getters.  This is because she would be seen as dividing the Democratic vote up to the benefit of the Republicans.  So because Denny Heck has more money and Craig Pridemore is more of a populist, Deb is boxed into a corner with no way out but to withdraw.  This is not how democracy is supposed to work.  Now we will never know if the voters in the 3rd Congressional District wanted to elect Deb Wallace.

The system is broken…

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Deb Wallace Withdraws From 3rd Congressional Race

4 Comments

• At February 22, 2010, Martin Hash wrote:

  If the Ds had run a second candidate in Pam Brokaw's Top-2 Primary, Pam would be our Clark County Commissioner right now - the Rs had 7 candidates! (My goodness, was nobody strategizing at the top Dem levels.) However, parties aside, what Top-2 really does is let an Independent in the race. I think nationwide Top-2 would cause a revolutionary change in American politics - eliminating extreme partisianship! The weakness of a 2-party system is that there's only 2 parties. If American politics is really "broken," the the Top-2 Primary system would be the easiest way to fix it.

• At February 22, 2010, John d4v.org wrote:

  But for the stranglehold the two parties have on our political system, I agree with you. My point is the top two system puts pressure on candidates to drop out or "shadow" candidates to run in order to manipulate the outcome for one party or another. This is not how democracy should work. Your example regarding Brokaw's campaign is a case in point. Why should she win just because she pays another person to run against her?

  If we eliminate all parties and just have people run on their own merits, the top two system works. We could eliminate the primaries altogether. He/She who gets the most votes win. But absent some kind of revolution, this will never happen.

• At February 22, 2010, LewWaters lewwaters.wordpress.com wrote:

  For once John, I couldn't agree with your view more. The top two primary is a disaster for us both. Imagine how outraged any of us would be, on either side of the aisle, should two members of the same party ever take the top two slots.

  I don't think either of us desires that.

  I'll also say that I was shocked to see Deb Wallace drop out so soon with her being well ahead of her party members running, save Denny Heck. I honestly thought Pridemore would fall out before she did.

• At February 23, 2010, John d4v.org wrote:

  This is off topic but good nevertheless.

In her Feb. 13 letter, “President should have more influence,” Ann Harris asked was her vote wasted on Barack Obama? What has he accomplished in a year? I would answer: the stimulus package; tax reductions; elimination of the F-22 fighter program, saving millions; Sonia Sotomayor; Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; expansion of SCHIP to cover 4 million children; public lands bill for 2 million acres of protected wilderness; credit card reform; comprehensive ban on lobbyists; regulation of tobacco by the FDA; stem-cell research; expansion of AmeriCorps national service programs. In addition there are accomplishments on the world stage; the Cairo speech; not turning over Afghanistan to the Taliban; strengthening of the Department of State; renewed engagement throughout the world; leadership in world climate change; ban on torture; organized and effective response to H1N1 and Haiti disasters.

I also voted for Obama, and I’m proud of these accomplishments and they are significant. I don’t regret my vote. Of course, it’s not enough. I’m impatient for health insurance reform; closure of Gitmo; re-regulation of banking; ending Iraq and Afghanistan wars, ending don’t ask, don’t tell; passage of “Card Check”; and carbon cap-and-trade. Do I wish I had voted for McCain-Palin? Nope, not for a minute.

It is easy to focus on what is not getting done and forget the positive accomplishments.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Rome (Wasn’t Built In A Day)-- Johnny Taylor ‘62

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

President’s Achievements Listed

Take a look at his voting record.

Craig Pridemore

Follow Craig and his Congressional campaign on Facebook here and here.

You can donate to his campaign here and here.  I just did.  We need more people like Craig who delivers what he promises and who will stand up for us in Congress.

There is a post over here also on Craig.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Pridemore Record Speaks for Itself

1 Comments

• At February 19, 2010, Howie Klein downwithtyranny.com wrote:

  Blue America is going to be endorsing Craig tomorrow at a live blogging session (11am at crooksandliars.com). We just added him to our PAC's page-- where he joins the only 2 other candidates we've endorsed this year, Alan Grayson and Marcy Winograd: www.actblue.com/page/blueamerica10. I hope we can find more candidates like these three.

Click to enlarge

Here is a video about the above graph”

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Evidence Stimulus is Working

Download audio file (JoeBageant020310.mp3)

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Truth is Evaporating

Fix Congress First

Fix Campaign Finance, Support FENA.

Lessig interview and Palin speech excerpt

Lessig on Democracy Now on Congressional Corruption and How to Fix the Problem

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

First Things First

What happened when Democrats compromised with Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee and conservatives in their own caucus on health care? They got rid of the public option. And Medicare buy-in. And drug re-importation. And the ability to negotiate with the drug companies. Every one of these measures was supported by progressives and every one of them would have saved hundreds of billions of dollars from the budget and hence should have been supported by the conservatives.

Conservatives would attack health care as adding to the deficit and then fight like hell to make sure it included no measures to reduce the deficit. That’s partly because they wanted to make the bill worse, so they could fight against it later if it passed. But it was mainly because their corporate sponsors told them to take out those provisions.

Everyone that follows politics even a little bit should be wondering these days why when the Republicans were in power you did not hear much about bipartisanship.  Now all of a sudden it has become a mantra for the Democrats.  Cenk explains why.  Since everyone knows the Republicans are the party of big corporate interests, they do not need to hide from that fact.  But the Democrats have to pretend they are for the people so “… they need the political cover more when they give the lobbyists what they want”.  Ergo, the Democrats must use bipartisanship as a subterfuge.

This is what worries me the most.  Voters must choose between Democratic politicians who say they are working for the people and Republican politicians who are working for corporate interests and do little to pretend otherwise.  So voters are left with the following two choices.  Vote for politicians who pretend they are working for the people.  Or vote for politicians who do not pretend they are working for the people.  And when faced with these two pitiful choices, it is pretty obvious what will happen.  Voters will either vote against the politician that is deceiving them or not vote at all.  And this means the Democrats are heading for a huge electoral train wreck.

How can this train wreck be avoided?  Democratic politicians must “bite the hand that feeds them”.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Bipartisanship Equals Selling Out The People

3 Comments

• At February 2, 2010, me wrote:

  You are of course right John, we are deluding ourselves to think otherwise. I can't help but continue to delude myself and hold out a tiny speck of hope. I'm giving them one more year but it's hard.

• At February 3, 2010, John democracyforvancouver.org wrote:

  I went to my local Democratic Party meeting last month, after 18 months with no reason to attend.

  It was most depressing.

  It's like we all have to pay the price now for bucking what the corporatists want.

  Me, you are very correct in that the next year will be the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning.

  Let's hope Obama still has a rabbit in his hat,

• At February 3, 2010, me wrote:

  It should be telling to see what the legislation regarding corporate campaign funding looks like, (now that the recent supreme court ruling has made this necessary.)

  How will they make us believe they are on our side while actually obeying their owners?

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Howard Zinn (1922-2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove

Supreme Court Justice Alito was right when he mouthed the words “not true” at the SOTU address. Obama was not wrong about the obscene SCOTUS ruling though. He was wrong to think it is not true that people like Alito and the corporate controlled stooges like him want anything more than to see him fail. And the SCOTUS ruling is designed to help hasten Obama’s failure by allowing huge sums of corporate money to buy influence and politicians who will undermine the President’s agenda.

Papantonio: The Supreme Court’s Five Circus Midgets

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Lead From The Heart And Forget Bi-Partisanship

Amendment Petition

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Join the call for a Constitutional amendment to protect our democracy

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Goodness Guts Greed