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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
As the French say is "etrange."
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Remember: Politicians represent the Owners. The Owners and their lackies own the place, and run it.
We just live here.
(this thing with Lieberman makes me want to punch something...but, Glenn's right. It has been ever thus, and will ever be thus.)
I think Pow Wow wrote the coda for this column yesterday. I think it's worth reprising (link at sig), and thinking about. It's not an easy read. Pow Wow, as his/her wont, nests ideas within each other, and there can be multiples of these in a single sentence. For me, it reads like a "Calc III" textbook. The benefit is Pow Wow's attempt to drill beneath the surface of the bipartisanship we see. And, it is suggestive as to why breaking its stranglehold will be difficult.
Barely two weeks out from the election, I'm dismayed to have to remind myself that the most compelling reason I had for voting for Obama was my sense that he would be reluctant to bomb Iran. I felt John McCain would not be reluctant at all. Any liberal or progressive thing Obama could accomplish would be a bonus.
Again, and again, I remind myself that the way out of this bipartisan dead end lies with Congress, not the president. As Glenn reminded his readers just days ago, The Democrats of 2002 and 2007 haven't gone anywhere. I admit to some slim hope that Obama might be arm twisting behind the scenes as speculated by IF Stone's granddaughter, aimai (who has a good post up today at If I Ran the Zoo), but that hope is likely unfounded.
If there is one agenda item going into Obama's first term that I could select above all others it would be torture, and an accountability for the same. I'd even place it ahead of the economy - although it's unlikely our legislators, or most of the American public, would see it my way.
The call for bipartisanship is, IMHO, nothing more than shorthand-speak for sweep the unfortunate and nasty under the rug and move on with the previously agreed upon elite program. The only impediment to the elite program is the elites over-medicated the patient (the average consumer), who is now on life support (the economy) and can no longer be bled for their pleasure (transfer of wealth and risk) without dying altogether. If the host dies, the parasites can, then, only cannibalize each other (H/T Chris at Inside-Out the Beltway for the general idea), and comity among the elites would argue against invoking that option.
clinton as secretary of state... christ... she's a warmonger....completely unimaginative....a throwback to the age of von clauswitz...a political dinosaur...AND morally repugnant:
"In my heart I'm a liberal. In my head I am a conservative [neocon]."
Gawd what a disgusting asshole. For me it's just the opposite: In my most vile disgusting base emotions (greed, control, prejudice, intolerance) i'm a 'conservative', while in my thinking brain (progress, possibility, imagination, creativity) I'm a progressive.
Remember:
- voted for preemptive attack on Iraq without knowing anything about Iraq
- voted for the 'patriot act' without knowing anything about it
- voted for preemptive attack on Iran without knowing anything about Iran
- Threatened to 'Obliterate Iran' if it preemptively attacked Israel (but tellingly, did not threaten to 'obliterate Israel' if it preemptively attacked Iran, which is the far more likely scenerio).
- Repeatedly proclaimed that McCain would make a better President than Obama.
- Repeated attacked Obama for palling around with terrorists.
If she's sec of state, the frickin' honeymoon is OVER!
Already got my bumper stickers:
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW!
I'm with Greenwald - there is waaaay too much mindless obedience in this bullshit country.
Oh - did you notice that the Obama transition team announced the Cardinal Sin for the Obama administration? Guess what it is? LEAKING! "If you leak, your're gone!" - That's the rule!
Not, "If you lie to Americans, you're gone!"
Not, "If you embezzle, you're gone!"
Not, "If you are corrupt, you're gone!"
No, there is only one sin and that is disloyalty to the President. Not disloyalty to the American people, but disloyalty to Dear Leader.
Fuck it. Change my fucking ugly ass!
We're finally on our own.
Perhaps letting Lieberman keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee is a holding tactic. There are still three senate races to be decided. He keeps his chair, Democrats keep an eye on him. They see what kinds of consensus votes they can develop with the few remaining moderate Republicans, wait for the final Senate count, and then the less they need him, the shorter his leash. He can be removed at anytime, but this plays well right now to the (admittedly) mythological need for more bipartisanship that the press (and the Republicans, when they are losers) are always harping about. It looks like the usual Democratic party spinelessness, but maybe not.
Answer: submission. Bipartisanship would mean that half the time the Democrats got their way on important issues. Instead we get jack shit.
And why should I value bipartisanship anyway? Of the two parties, there is one that is filled with anti-American lawless extremist monsters. I don't want anything to do with those scum and certainly don't want to donate to the extremists what they couldn't win at the ballot box. If they want their policies passed let them do it the old-fashioned way: win the election and pass your program.
Bipartisanship destroys democracy. The people are given a choice and they voted for the party they prefer. They didn't choose a "biparty". The two party system already waters down that choice by forcing candidates to move to the center in search of the median voter. What's more, we know that voters' true position on the issues is way to the LEFT of where things stand now and way to the LEFT of what the cowards in Congress are willing to fight for -- and of course WAY WAY WAY to the left of what the Republican extremists want. Going half way toward the Reublicans is moving in the wrong direction -- if you care about the will of the people anyway.
Bipartisanship is anti-democratic and has no justification. And of course that is doubly true when, as we all know, bipartisanship really means the Republican extremists get their way, rather than the Democrats getting their way half the time or getting half a loaf.
Bipartisanship is for submissive Republican and Village bootlickers looking for a way to mask their cowardice.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
