The extreme right policies of the Obama administration are a rather blatant example of a much larger problem: the futility of voting for Democrats.

In a series of postings and with a bit of help, I came up with 140 examples of Bush Regime policies that this administration has continued or expanded on. And, it wasn't like I was trying to write an exhaustive list. I didn't have to do much research at all to come up with those items.

Our economy still sucks, when Democrats had the power during the last congressional term, they refused to pass real healthcare reform, lower the Social Security retirement age, or get rid of the Bush tax cuts for the rich (much less the Clinton, Reagan, Carter, and Kennedy tax cuts for the rich). Although Obama got the legal authority to lift the military ban at the end of last year, his administration keeps putting up homophobic administrative obstacles to postpone lifting the ban forever.

Neither this administration nor the Democrats in Congress have done anything to fight AIDS, pass ENDA, fight the banksters, prosecute crooked Bush regime officials, or end the wars. It's been new bosses, same old shit. Now, Barack Obama is working with his Republican allies (the "conflict" between them is as fake as the WWE) to implement the Crusade of Obama's Cat Food Commission against Social Security, Medicare, and Medicare.

Obama and the Democrats have been just as callous and unconcerned as the Republicans about the plight of the middle class and the poor in this country who continue to suffer while their wealthy donors party down with money that rightfully belongs to the rest of us. This is an administration that is so brazenly corrupt that they have chosen to give hundreds of thousands of Americans cancer just to show favoritism to some well connected airport X-Ray scanner companies.

Where is the opposition to all of this in the Democratic Party?

Where indeed!

It is disturbing that there is no real Democrat left to fight for what the party used to stand for. No one is willing to take on the rightist political elites in the party who treat everyone else like garbage.

There really isn't anyone left in the Democratic Party to vote for. These days, voting for Democrats or Republicans is throwing away your vote. The only hope, and a slim one admittedly, is to vote Green. There really is nothing left in the party that once brought forth the New Deal and Civil Rights laws.

Top Photo: jurvetson

 

I've been a swing voter between the Democrats and the Greens for years, but voting for Democrats keeps getting more difficult. This latest incident of morally repugnant racism from New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Anthony Weiner.

From CBS News New York 5/19/11 where Gillibrand attacked Obama for calling on Israel to accept its internationally recognized borders.

“Steps toward a lasting peace, with real security, cannot start with pre-existing conditions on Israel, said New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Of course, a vicious bigot like Gillibrand would say that Israel cannot be forced to stop illegally occupying Palestinian land. She actually thinks that the US is obligated to support territorial claims of a racist government that is guilty, guilty, guilty of ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian people in Palestine and which systematically oppresses and discriminates against Palestinians living in their native lands in Israel. Obviously, she thinks that it is perfectly OK for Israel to have nuclear weapons that were obtained by a terrorist attack against the USS Liberty, yet she pretends that it faces a real security threat to its actual, legitimate borders.

I can't say I'm surprised. Nothing a bloodthirsty, NRA/KKK gun extremist like Kirsten Gillibrand could do would ever disappoint me. A pro robbery, rape, and murder politician like her is completely beneath contempt.

Anthony Weiner couldn't help but join in on the racismfest either.

“The Palestinians have said in 1967 and every year since that they want Israel not to even exist. That’s the problem,” added Rep. Anthony Weiner.

“I think the fundamental philosophy of the United States should be trying to help our ally in the region, to help democracy and freedom. That means being an ally of Israel. The Palestinians have made it clear again and again they prefer violence to peace.”

Never mind that Israel has never recognized the right of Palestinians to exist either.

Israel cannot be represented as a democracy when its political system blocks participation by Palestinian parties in governing the country. Most land in Israel is owned by a foundation that openly excludes rentals to anyone who isn't Jewish. So much for "freedom."

Weiner also is perfectly aware of the absolute fact that Israel regularly commits far more and far deadlier acts of violence against the Palestinians. Weiner also is perfectly aware of the absolute fact that Israel's political and military leaders are guilty of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza. He also knows that Israel is guilty of a military siege against Gaza, which is another crime against humanity.

Horror of horrors that Obama even pay lip service to getting Israel to accept its internationally established borders. No decent, honorable, moral person supports Israel keeping on square inch of territory it has stolen. Yet, Weiner's venomous racism against Arabs won't tolerate keeping Israel within its own borders.

Of course, this isn't the only example of slimy, dishonest behavior from that rightist Phonycrat. He pretended to champion the Public Option only to gleefully throw middle class and poor people under the bus and vote for Barack Bush's wealthcare plan for the HMOs, health insurers, and Big Pharma. The man has absolutely no personal or public integrity whatsoever. Weiner is the epitome of a bought politician. He's as much of a habitual liar as he is a venomous racist.

Incredibly rightist and bigoted politicians like Gillibrand and Weiner are far from exceptional in the Democratic Party. Heinous bullshit like this is why I'm finding it more and more difficult to support any Democrat ever again. These two de facto teabaggers are incredibly strong arguments for the Green Party.

 

You would think that President Obama would learn from the disastrous defeat for the Democrats in 2010. The defeat resulted from almost 10 million more Obama voters staying home than "Keating Five" McCain voters.

Obama governed like a Republican, which alienated and demoralized core Democratic constituencies. It was as if his administration and the Democratic congressional "leadership" were on a deliberate campaign to tell Democratic voters that their views and their votes count for nothing. They got exactly the results one would have expected and many of us warned about. It was nearly as big of a defeat as Bill Clinton caused in 1994, which makes sense because he governed like a Republican too.

Many people had hoped that when the corrupt former Clinton Administration figure, Rahm Emanuel, left the administration, things might get better. Sadly, it's starting to look like the opposite.

Mock, Paper, Scissors warned me that President Obama has been considering hiring an infamous bankster and member of the rightist and corrupt Daley Klan in Chicago as his most senior adviser. The Guardian is reporting that Barack Bush has approached this monster to discuss the job.

When is this administration going to stop selling the American people out to our enemies, the banksters?

The Democrats lost in 2010 because they kept sending the message to their own voters that they don't count and that voting is futile. So, what is Obama doing again? He's sending the message that our votes are exercises in futility.

The Democratic core constituencies aren't the only people who despise and distrust the banksters. Those views are shared by the overwhelming majority of the people of this country, with good reason. Besides, no one outside of the corrupt Chicago political machine has much fondness for it, to put it mildly.

It's beginning to look like Obama has learned nothing from the 2010 results and is determined to keep the House in GOP hands and make the White House dependent on just how stupid and crazy the GOP nominee turns out to be. Obama may hand the Senate to the GOP with his corruption and incompetence.

I only voted for one Democrat in 2010. The rest of my votes went Green last year. The Green Party is looking really good for 2012 too.

Photos: jurvetson

elisfanclub

 

Photo: Joe Futrelle

More Democrats should be speaking out against this heinous tax plan. The Greens deserve credit for sending out the following press release today.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders urged House Democrats to stand firm and do what they can to block President Obama's tax package, calling it a capitulation to the Republican Party that will expand the deficit and undermine Social Security.

"The tax cut is evidence that President Obama isn't compromising with Republicans, he's adopting their agenda," said Howie Hawkins, 2010 Green candidate for Governor of New York and co-chair of the Green Party of New York State. "Greens warned that should the President's tax package pass, Democrats will be the ones initiating the half-century GOP plan to dismantle Social Security. Since the plan extends unemployment benefits by diverting some payroll taxes away from Social Security, it weakens the safety-net for working Americans and defers the financial hit a little bit longer."

Green Party leaders praised Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) for his eight-and-a-half-hour speech on the Senate floor about the damage that the President's tax package will do to the Social Security trust fund and the safety net for low- and middle-income Americans.

Green leaders said that if either Democrats or Republicans want to reduce the deficit and restore domestic financial stability, they should reduce the military budget and work to end the military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Green Party has repeatedly called for such action, as well as for requiring the rich to pay their fair share in taxes, since tax breaks for the wealthy have contributed even more to the deficits than bloated military funding, as the CBO has repeatedly documented over the last decade.

Read Full Press Release

The Greens aren't just complaining. They are proposing positive solutions to our nation's problems instead of chasing after big campaign contributions and "independent" expenditures.

Why are so few Democrats doing anything worthwhile? I know why the bought politicians aren't. But, why are so many Democratic bloggers, pundits, and party activists going along with Obama's GOP style economic and foreign policy agenda?

It reminds me of how people wildly root for corporate sports teams, based on loyalties mass marketed centered around television viewing areas. So many Democrats at the grassroots level are rooting for "their team" to the point that they have forgotten why they became Democrats in the first place.

 

Photo: Joe Futrelle

Congratulations to the Green Party of New York. Green Party candidate for Governor Howie Hawkins got more than the required 50,000 for a political party to get ballot status. For the next two elections, Green Party candidates will have the same reduced signature gathering requirements as Republicans and Democrats.

With over 97% of precincts reporting, Hawkins already had 56,868 votes. Hawkins ran an energetic campaign focused on blocking the toxic natural gas extraction technique known as fracking as well as on making Wall St pay its fair share in taxes. Hawkins was able to do this in spite of the low election turnout.

The Green Party's press release last night announced what did indeed turn out to be this victory.

With 32% of precincts counted and more to come in, the New York State Green Party declared victory at 11:30 PM on election night. The votes cast for Howie Hawkins and Gloria Mattera will secure the Green Party a ballot line for the next four years, and represent support for the "Green New Deal." Support for other candidates is also promising, with Comptroller candidate Julia Willebrand receiving 3% of the vote, and US Senate candidates Colia Clarke and Cecile Lawrence coming in third in their races respectively.

"This is the best showing ever for statewide Green Party candidates. It is the culmination of months of hard work on the part of many party members, and the candidates themselves. Voters are fed up with Democrats and Republicans taking their votes for granted, and are open to hearing ideas from a party not beholden to Wall St. and special interests. Howie Hawkins campaigned tirelessly to promote the idea of a Green New Deal, funded by progressive taxation on the wealthy, and using the stock transfer tax we already collect to fill the budget gap. Voters who heard the message understood that Howie's platform made sense, and that it's the austerity plans of Cuomo and Paladino that are nonsense," said Peter LaVenia, co-chair of the NY State Green Party.

"The strong showing by all of our candidates means voters have finally seen how little difference there is between the Democrats and Republicans. People support Green ideas when they hear them: ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, single-payer universal health care, living wage jobs, renewable energy - and in this election we see they are linking our candidates to the issues they care about most. This is a building block for the future. We are going to use this victory to elect Greens statewide, starting at the local level and moving on up to the state," stated Eric Jones, co-chair of the NYS Green Party.

"While this campaign is over, we're not waiting around for the next one to begin - there's too much work to be done. The Green Party intends to be an independent force in NY State politics for working New Yorkers. Andrew Cuomo and the State Legislature are on notice - this is one party that doesn't sell its ballot line for influence," said LaVenia.

Bill Clinton built up the Green Party in the US in the 1990s with his GOP style policies. Frustration with the GOP oriented policies of Obama, Cuomo, Schumer, and Gillibrand helped the third party get ballot status again.

It looks like the Libertarians will just miss getting ballot status this time. The Rent Is Too Damned High and Anti Prohibition Parties failed as well. I have yet to see the results for the fusion parties (Working Families, Conservative, and Independence). In New York state, parties can endorse candidates from other parties, and the three fusion parties are intended to pressure Republican and Democratic candidates. Corporate media reports of election returns don't break down votes for the same candidate on different party ballot lines.

 

Photo: Joe Futrelle

This isn't a fun election. Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and the vast majority of other DC Democrats have horribly betrayed queers, non Christians, liberals, union members, the poor, peace activists, and everyone who doesn't have an income of at least $500,000 a year. The teabagging Republicans are much worse in terms of rhetoric, but the Democrats are almost as bad in terms of actual policy.

It's enough to make anyone feel like staying home.

If voting Democratic seems too futile, too cowardly, too much like rewarding the people who have their boots on your throat, then there is an alternative. Vote Green!

I'm not going to lie and say that the Greens are going to win this year. However, there are definite advantages to voting Green over staying at home. Democratic politicians figure their base won't vote in off year elections, so they might as well not do anything to offend wealthy donors. They haven't figured out yet that pandering to wealthy interests is one of the main reasons why the Democratic base gets so understandably demoralized.

If you stay home and don't vote, this will reinforce the stupid and self defeating mindset of the Democratic political establishment. On the other hand, if you vote Green, you will show that there are voters on the left who are fed up and are willing to make it clear how fed up they are. By voting Green, you help to create a constituency of voters on the left that the Democrats will need to appeal to.

Voting Green offers other long term benefits. Building an alternative to the Demopublicans and the Republicrats is the best hope of getting the voting public out of the Catch 22 that elections have become these days.

 

Green Party Candidate for Governor in NY, Howie Hawkins, with supporters

I've never thought much of Andrew Cuomo. He's basically an empty suit who has been handed things he hasn't earned because of who his father is. Cuomo has been an execrable Attorney General, deliberately overlooking the overwhelming majority of Wall St. criminality he is legally obligated to prosecute.

Paladino certainly is even worse than Cuomo, but Paladino has completely obliterated his own campaign. There certainly is no need to vote for the Democrat out of fear of that doomed GOP candidate.

Fortunately, we do have a Green Party alternative, Howie Hawkins. He is doing a great job of standing up to Cuomo's anti union stance. From a 10/25/10 Hawkins campaign press release:

"When Cuomo was nominated last May he promised to 'tangle' with public employee unions. Now he promises a 'presidential-style permanent political campaign' against all labor unions. My pledge is to fight back and campaign with working New Yorkers for full employment, living wages, progressive taxes, and more workers organized into unions," said Howie Hawkins, a Teamster freight handler at UPS and the only union member running for statewide office.

"Since the mid-1970s, workers' wages are stagnant, productivity is up 80 percent, and almost all resulting growth in income has gone to the richest 1 percent. Working class taxes are up. The taxes on Wall Street and big business are down. Today's state fiscal crisis is caused by under taxing the rich, not over paying wages and benefits to workers or for government services for the general public. It is time to stop scapegoating workers and forcing them to cover the losses of bad investments by the economic elites. It was bad policy for resolving the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis that Cuomo uses as his model. It is just as bad today," Hawkins added.

Hawkins statement is in response to NY Times article
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/nyregion/25cuomo.html?pagewanted=1&%2359;ref=nyregion&&%2359;_r=1

Andrew M. Cuomo will mount a presidential-style permanent political campaign to counter the well-financed labor unions he believes have bullied previous governors and lawmakers into making bad decisions. He will seek to transform the state's weak business lobby into a more formidable ally, believing that corporate leaders in New York have virtually surrendered the field to big labor.

The sad reality is that Andrew Cuomo is bought and paid for by wealthy and corporate interests like most other alleged "Democrats" running for office. If you compared the platforms of Cuomo and Hawkins, Democratic voters would agree with Hawkins far more often. That's what makes the Democratic Party such a decaying and out of touch institution.

 

In case you are new to this weird aspect of our legal system, here's a very brief introduction to what corporate personhood is from ReclaimDemocracy.org. (Skip to what Green Party is doing.)

Our Bill of Rights was the result of tremendous efforts to institutionalize and protect the rights of human beings. It strengthened the premise of our Constitution: that the people are the root of all power and authority for government. This vision has made our Constitution and government a model emulated in many nations.

But corporate lawyers (acting as both attorneys and judges) subverted our Bill of Rights in the late 1800's by establishing the doctrine of "corporate personhood" -- the claim that corporations were intended to fully enjoy the legal status and protections created for human beings.

We believe that corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges we willfully grant them. Granting corporations the status of legal "persons" effectively rewrites the Constitution to serve corporate interests as though they were human interests. Ultimately, the doctrine of granting constitutional rights to corporations gives a thing illegitimate privilege and power that undermines our freedom and authority as citizens. While corporations are setting the agenda on issues in our Congress and courts, We the People are not; for we can never speak as loudly with our own voices as corporations can with the unlimited amplification of money.

If "corporate personhood" sounds crazy to you, you are absolutely correct. Making corporations into the legal equivalents of people has no factual or constitutional basis and is completely unreasonable.

There are two other points I would like to add:

1) The Supreme Court ruling in the latter part of the 19th Century that enshrined corporate personhood was part of a broader pattern of corruption at that time, which included Plessy v. Ferguson and a ruling that said that anti trust legislation didn't apply to corporations, but instead to unions.

2) Corporations allow investors and speculators to avoid one of the biggest responsibilities of personhood, full civil liability for the actions of the enterprise, yet the Supreme Court granted those very corporations all the rights of people.

The Democrats have complained about Citizens United, a case where the fraudulent doctrine of "corporate personhood" has given the Republicans and foreign business interests a huge advantage in our political system. Those complaints have been reasonable as far as they go, but very few Democrats have called for an end to the sham of "corporate personhood." The Greens have done just that. (From Green Change 10/18/10)

110 Green Party candidates nationwide are calling for a “Green New Deal” to end the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, which grants corporations constitutional rights that had previously been reserved for people.

In addition, in August the U.S. Green Party endorsed “stripping [corporations] of artificial ‘personhood’ and constitutional protections,” along with “revoking the charters of corporations that routinely violate safety, health, environmental protection or other laws.”

In contrast, neither the Democratic nor the Republican parties support ending corporate personhood, or revoking the corporate charters of lawless corporations.

“Democrats and Republicans together have installed the judges who have brought corporate rule to America,” said Gary Ruskin, co-founder of Green Change, a national political organization. “If you want to fix the economy, clean up corruption in Washington, and save the environment, then vote Green to abolish corporate personhood.”

The Green New Deal has some other excellent ideas in it too. Here are the ten planks of it.

· Cut military spending at least 70%
· Create millions of green union jobs through massive public investment in renewable energy, mass transit and conservation
· Set ambitious, science-based greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and enact a revenue-neutral carbon tax to meet them
· Establish single-payer "Medicare for all" health care
· Provide tuition-free public higher education
· Change trade agreements to improve labor, environmental, consumer, health and safety standards
· End counterproductive prohibition policies and legalize marijuana
· Enact tough limits on credit interest and lending rates, progressive tax reform and strict financial regulation
· Amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood
· Pass sweeping electoral, campaign finance and anti-corruption reforms

I don't think that a constitutional amendment would even be necessary to get rid of "corporate personhood." All that would be needed would be a court challenge of it in front of a Supreme Court where the majority of the Justices were honest.

 

The highest duty of any patriot is to work to make his or her country the best it can possibly. That represents the highest value of liberalism, and liberals have fought for generations to do just that. We need to ask ourselves something.

Are we still living up to this standard?

There are some rather unpleasant realities that very few people in our society want to face. There is very little difference between the politicians on matters of substance. Whether you are talking about Barack Bush or George W. Bush, Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich or Nancy Pelosi, you are talking about a set of politicians whose values and political agendas are almost identical. They vary in terms of style and the ability to coherently articulate positions, but they all have pushed for same substantive policies the overwhelming majority of the time. Those policies are overwhelmingly rightist.

Spectator sports and brand loyalty marketing have conned people all over the political spectrum into picking teams or selecting brands and obediently going with them without giving much thought to the whole process. Rationalization and denial have become national pastimes.

In the real world, the differnces between the Democrats and Republicans are no more meaningful than those between Coke and Pepsi, the Yankees and the Mets, Dodge and the former Plymouth, or the Patriots and the Jets. Yet, people beat their chests and root, root, root. During campaigns they buy, buy, buy.

The political discourse is poisoned by this not only in terms of substance, but also in terms of style. Having little important to disagree with from Democrats like Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, Republicans just keep getting nastier, more bigoted, and crazier.

Why are most liberals going along with this? Why aren't we questioning more? Why aren't most of us swing voters with a Green Party that agrees with us on the vast majority of issues? Why do so many on the left pretend that voting for the overwhelming majority of Democrats is anything but a wasted vote?

We need to start thinking critically and logically. We aren't helping ourselves or our country by going along with this rightist crap.

 

Photo: Damian Kettlewell for Vancouver-False Creek

Corrupt, far right "Democrat" Blanche Lincoln faces a Green Party challenger in her Senate race. (Independent Political Report 6/9/10)

Democrat Blanche Lincoln and Republican John Boozman, winners of their parties’ primaries for this year’s US Senate race in Arkansas, will face Green Party candidate John Gray, retired engineer and current Mayor of Greenland, AR. Lincoln, a leading beneficiary of retail giant Wal-Mart who was supported in a close primary race by President Barack Obama, has drawn the ire of progressives for her opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act and her efforts to weaken health care reform.

John Gray, the Arkansas Green Party candidate, is running on a platform that includes: enacting a Medicare For All single payer health care system, ending corporate personhood, fixing trade to make America self-sufficient and eliminate the trade deficit, breaking up “too big to fail” corporations, and ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

You can learn more at John Gray's campaign website. I particularly like his proposal to bring back the tariff system.

If liberals limit our options to the Democrats, they will be able to take us for granted just like Blanche Lincoln and the Clintons have been doing for years. We have to make Democrats earn our votes.

 

Bill Clinton always has been an incredibly corrupt, racist, and homophobic far right Republican posing as a Democrat. Yet, his ability to con people into believing almost anything has gotten far too many Democrats to act like he is some kind of legitimate Democratic Party leader.

Clinton again showed how what a wingnut he was when he participated in ads in Arkansas for ultra corrupt Senator Blanche Lincoln, the same Lincoln who has a well deserved reputation of being completely bought and paid for by the same corporate and wealthy interests that the Clintons have been bought and paid for. (CNN 6/4/10)

Incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln is pulling out the big guns in her bid to defeat a hard charging challenger in the Arkansas Democratic Senate run-off.

Now just four days away from her showdown with Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Lincoln's newest campaign ad features former President Bill Clinton – the favorite son of Arkansan Democrats.

When will Democratis learn? Never, ever trust a Clinton!

Blanche Lincoln, like the Clintons, hates lebsian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans and wants us all dead. They all are fanatical racists. They all are corrupt war mongers who despise middle class and poor Americans. None of them have met a corporate campaign donor they didn't like. All of them should tattoo the words "For Sale" on their foreheads.

Some Democrats are calling for voting for a Green candidate. A Green Party candidate is infinitely better than an extremist Bush/Cheney/Limbaugh/Beck/Palin Republican like Blanche Lincoln.

 

The UK election has gotten a lot of coverage here in the US, but the best news has largely been ignored by the corporate media in this country. (Guardian 5/7/10)

The Green leader, Caroline Lucas, promised today to be a radical and distinctive voice in parliament after overturning a hefty Labour majority in Brighton to become her party's first-ever MP.

Her stunning success, involving an 8.4% swing in the student and bohemian-heavy Brighton Pavilion constituency, marked the arrival of "a new political force in Westminister", Lucas said following a nail-biting eight-hour count that ended in ecstasy for her still disbelieving supporters.

However, the Greens' triumph was tempered by a slight drop in their share of the national poll, at about 1%, something the party put down to left-leaning voters switching to Labour or the Liberal Democrats to try to prevent a Tory government.

The last paragraph alludes to the undemocratic voting system that exists in Britain as well as here in the US. They call it "first past the post." It means that the candidate with the most votes in the district wins, even if that candidate is far from winning a majority. This means that parties can win a majority of seats in parliament or congress with a minority of the vote if there are more than two significant political parties. It also means that people whose views aren't represented by the main parties get partially or completely disenfranchised. For instance, Margaret Thatcher never came close to winning a majority vote in parliamentary elections.

Most European democracies (and most democracies in general) have at least some proportional representation. Proportional representation means that each party runs a slate and the voters vote for that slate, rather than running in various districts. Voter turnout tends to be much higher because there usually is a party to represent each voter, unlike the US where the Democrats and the Republicans only really represent wealthy, heterosexual, white, Christian males.

Some people like instant runoff voting, which gives the illusion of greater representation. However, with the way that peoples' second and third choices generally fall, using this system in district elections would just perpetuate the Democrats' and the Republicans' duopoly in power. I've seen instant runoff voting, in practice, on small scales in political clubs, and it does nothing to enfranchise people who are left out despite the theories behind it.

Having a Green in the British parliament will give a voice to progressive values and put pressure on the Labor and Liberal Democratic Parties to stop acting like Tory light. If only we had a Green or two in Congress here in the US.

Photo: Subterranean Tourist Board

 

She did this commercial during her 2008 Green Party presidential campaign. Sadly, she was correct.



 

With the heinous HMO/health insurer wealthcare bill being fought over in Congress and the court of public opinion, I've been too busy to mention one of the most dangerous decisions President Obama has made thus far.

He has decided to give billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees to build two nuclear power plants in Georgia. Nuclear power needs enormous government bailouts like this because the plants are so incredibly dangerous that no private insurer will go anywhere near them.

Aside from the financial risks to the taxpayers, there are enormous risks to human life in building the plants. Contrary to industry propaganda, all nuclear plants are vulnerable targets to terrorist attacks that could cause disasters as bad or worse than Chernobyl.

Why did Obama do this? Follow the money. From ABC News 2/24/10:

The president has had strong support from the industry. Executives at the Illinois-based utility Exelon -- a leader in the nuclear energy field -- contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama's campaigns for the United States Senate and for president, according to a review by The New York Times, which noted that two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, were among Obama's largest fund-raisers.

The Greens, and anyone else with half a brain, are furious. Here's the start of their 2/18/10 press release on the subject.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders and candidates are calling President Obama's resurrection of nuclear power with a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-funded subsidy for a Georgia plant his "worst idea yet" and warned about serious public health threats posed by mining, waste transportation, and waste storage. The Green Party disputes the myths that nuclear power is 'green energy' or a solution to the advance of climate change.

"The twin nuclear reactors in Burke County, Georgia, would be financed with $5.4 billion in loans from the Federal Financing Bank with money of the US Treasury. According to the GAO, this investment has a 50/50 percent or worse chance of failing. President Obama wants taxpayers to assume 80% of the financial risk to turn the southeast Atlantic states into a big open-pit radioactive barbeque. This investment is a terrible idea -- President Obama's worst yet," said Lisa Green, Green candidate for California Assembly Candidate, 53rd Assembly District (http://www.votelisagreen.net).

"If built, the plant will be a financial disaster because of high construction expenses and likely cost overruns, compared with other sources of electrical power. As the first of a new generation of nuclear power plants, it'll carry huge technical risks. Even more ominous is the problem of mining, waste storage, and waste transportation through populated areas, which carry huge public health dangers," added Ms. Green.

Read More...

Barack Bush strikes again!

Photo: jurvetson

 

Few things are more symbolic of just how out of touch the Democratic Party elites are with Democratic voters and the party's core constituents than the nonsense about "bipartisanship." Nobody outside the Beltway gives a flying rat's venereal disease about bipartisanship.

In the last election, voters wanted change. What have we gotten? It's the same policies we have had for the last 30 years. The politicians keep looting the Treasury on behalf of the rich while the rest of us get screwed.

Let's look at some of the things Democratic voters actually care about.

1) The senseless, expensive, illegal, and murderous war on Iraq.

2) The Great Recession

3) No Healthcare (either because of no coverage at all or because HMOs and insurance companies refuse to pay for needed care)

4) Racist, sexist, and heterosexist bigotry, discrimination, and violence.

5) Putting politicians and the rich under the rule of law.

6) Making the government accountable to the entire population, not just the wealthy few.

7) Global Warming

8) Products in Americans stores mostly being made abroad

9) The continuing cascade of foreclosures.

10) Union busting labor laws.

Yet, what do Obama and the "Democrats" in DC natter on about? "Bipartisanship" Fuck bipartisanship. Start governing.

Those asswipes think that everything is about them. Evan Bayh, a disgusting Bush/Cheney/Clinton/Reagan/Palin/Limbaugh Republican who poses as a moderate Democrat, has been whining incessantly about "bipartisanship." Bayh and most other Democratic Senators don't give a shit about their responsibility to govern. All they care about is restoring a good old boys network atmosphere to the Senate. (OK, it's really a straight, white, Christian, rich, old boys club, but you get the drift.)

President Obama built up this huge grassroots network during the campaign, and he has ignored it once in office. If he held a few rallies in states where Gopper Senators were filibustering the Public Option and sent out a few action alerts, we would have the public option by now. A few Goppers would have caved enough to not filibuster and only vote against the legislation. If he had worked to withhold DNC and DSSC financing from "Democrats" who opposed the public option, they would have caved. Given a choice between losing all of his seniority and his position as a committee chair, Lieberman would have caved like the cowardly sewer rat he is.

Did Obama do this? No, of course not. In fact, Obama and Reid have even refused to use budget reconciliation and recess appointments to put a stop to all the bullshit. President Obama consistently has cared more about "bipartisanship" than the people who voted him into office. In other words, he was more worried about his personal professional relationships with Gopper Senators than he did about the country and his presidency. Obama deserves to have majority disapproval when he continues to act like a narcisstic, sniveling Clinton! The average toddler isn't as self absorbed as the average politician these days.

The Green Party is starting to look golden!

 

I'm still angry at the Democratic National Committee for not condemning the anti abortion Stupak Amendment. If the Democratic Party will not even defend basic constitutional freedoms like the right to abortion, can we trust the Democratic Party to defend anything it says it stands for?

Here's part of the Green Party Press Release (11/16/09)

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders today called the Stupak Amendment in the recently passed US House bill on health care reform a disaster for women's reproductive rights and a betrayal of the Democrats' stated support for women's rights and well-being.

Many Greens foresee growing anger among Democratic voters, especially women, and possible defections from the Democratic Party over the amendment.

The Stupak Amendment to HR 3962 states that any health care plan purchased with any federal subsidy cannot cover abortion services, even with private funds, and prohibits the public plan from covering abortion care. The amendment will make it more difficult and expensive for anyone to purchase a plan with abortion coverage and discourages insurers and employers who provide health care benefits from affording such coverage.

The Green Party has criticized the Democrats' health care proposal because it leaves the insurance and pharmaceutical industries in control of health care and fails to provide universal coverage: see "Greens urge defeat of the Democrats' 'insurance industry life-support' bill in the US Senate and call for a rally of efforts to enact Single-Payer/Medicare For All," press release, November 10 (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=262).

The Green Party supports full reproductive rights, including uncompromised access to abortion services for women (www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#998980 /
www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#1012830).

"Michigan Greens targeted Bart Stupak's District One seat in Congress with the candidacy of Jean Treacy, who challenged his opposition to women's rights, including the freedom to choose. The Stupak Amendment is the sharpest blow against poor women and their rights since the Hyde Amendment. It was proposed by a Democrat and passed by a Democratic Congress. We challenge feminists, feminist and progressive organizations, and all Americans who support rights and equality for women to stop supporting candidates who retreat from these principles, and to vote Green instead," said Candace Caveny, Green candidate for the US House in Michigan's 10th District (http://www.candacecaveny.org) in 2010.

The Greens also make an important point about single payer being the best way to go on healthcare. Given that polls consistently show that 65-70% of Americans support Medicare for everyone, only massive political corruption in the Democratic and Republican politics have kept this from passing long ago.

The press release also illustrates a danger facing the Democrats if they continue to pander to the misogynistic and racist religious extremists who oppose abortion rights.

"I reregistered Green many years ago because Democratic Party leaders made too many compromises on reproductive rights. Greens believe reproductive rights are non-negotiable."said Marnie Glickman, member of the party's National Women's Caucus and a former national co-chair of the party. "Feminism is one of the Green Party's key values. Until Greens gain seats in Congress and state legislatures and we end two-party control, women's rights face compromise and repeal."

The Democratic politicians may think they own the votes of pro choice voters, and we don't have anywhere else we can go. They are wrong.

Photo: Leo Reynolds

 

In the previous posting where I encouraged liberals to think boldly and expansively, I quoted something I wrote on somebody else's blog:

I don't really think the only choices are to put up with Obama's crap or go back to the Bush era. The corporate media work daily to try to limit our imaginations and make us feel utterly helpless. We should not let them win.

Some might accurately point out that, on most matters of substantive policy, Obama has kept us in the Bush era. Given the reality that Obama is a political opponent of liberals most of the time, and the Republicans are political opponents of liberals all the time, what do we do?

Become Swing Voters Between the Democrats and the Greens
One of the reasons Democrats tend to provide lip service but little else to liberals is that they can take most of our votes for granted. Swing voters get disproportional attention. Does this mean we should vote GOP sometimes? Setting aside the moral concerns, there is a strong practical reason why no liberal should ever, ever vote Republican, no matter how frustrating the Democratic opponent might be. When you vote Gopper, the message the Democrat running against the Gopper gets is that they are too far to the left, which is precisely the opposite of the reason you don't want to vote for the Phonycrat.

Voting Green in cases where the Democrat isn't actually a Democrat is much more productive. It sends a message to that Democrat that they have gone too far to the right need to move left to regain your vote. Being a swing voter between the Democrats and the Greens also gives the Republicans a reason to move towards the center. They are better off if you vote Green. So, it is in their best interest to minimize the differences between the Democrat just as it is in the best interest of the Democrat to maximize the difference. In other words, voting Green part of the time nudges both major parties to the left.

We tend to think of voting exclusively in terms of who wins and loses that specific election. It is so easy to forget the use of the vote as a behavior modification tool.

I should also mention the long term benefit of voting Green, since voting behavior affects the distant future in addition to the immediate present. Voting Green helps build an institution that may one day be a major party challenger. Our country hasn't always had a two party system, and the second party within the more common two party system haven't always been the GOP.

Stay a Registered Democrat
From a practical perspective, the only significance of partisan registration is the ability to vote in primaries. Even if you end up voting Green in the general election, it still is useful to push the Democrats towards the left, especially in contested primaries. Being an independent just minimizes your political importance, no matter how emotionally satisfying it is, given how rotten the vast majority of Democratic and Republican politicians are. Green Party primaries are usually uncontested, and the candidates almost never win in the general, so Green registration isn't terribly productive, yet.

Note: if you are in a state with open primaries, then you might as well disregard this point since your partisan registration has absolutely no practical significance whatsoever.

Support Liberal Primary Challengers
I'm not just talking about voting. I also mean giving money and volunteering if you can. Blog in favor of them too, while you are at it. The Democratic Party desperately needs improvement at the moment, and supporting primary challengers sometimes brings in new people. It usually pushes the Phonycrat away from obsessively following the GOP party line too.

Support Independent Social Movements
This is critical. We can't rely on politicians to push our agendas. We need to get out there and push for things ourselves. Social movements played enormous roles in pushing presidents like FDR, Truman, Johnson, and Nixon to the left. We need to be the people who continually piss off all political parties. In the bizarre area of human interaction known as politics, you get a lot more with vinegar than honey.

When the Republicans Are Reprehensible, Attack Them For It
Being understandably pissed at the majority of Democratic politicians doesn't mean that you should let the Republicans off the hook for their behavior. When the Republicans support corrupt or bigoted policies, condemn them for it. When they make up nonsense to stoke racist, misogynistic, or heterosexist fears, condemn this behavior in the strongest terms. This isn't spectator sports. You are under no obligation to pick teams between the Republicans and the Democrats. Give the birthers and the religious extremists heck.

When the Democrats Are Reprehensible, Attack Them For It
Hateful, corrupt, and bigoted behavior are wrong regardless of who is involved. When Phonycrats act like the most brain dead of Goppers, don't let them get away with it.

When the Democrats Do Something Worthwhile, Praise Them For It
It can be easy to forget to do this when you are pissed off at the Democrats, and most of the time you don't have the opportunity. However, it is important. There is one catch, though. When Reid, Pelosi, Obama or any other conservative Democrat appears to be doing something good, there often is something nasty in the fine print. Be careful. Don't trust. Verify.

Fortunately, we do have Dennis Kucinich and a few other Democrats that we can hold up as models of what we actually want Democrats to do. We should publicize their views and their behavior. Liberals need to be bold enough to say to the Democratic Party that we deserve entire caucuses of Democrats as compassionate and incorruptible as Kucinich.

The Upshot
The overarching point of this all is that we liberals need to think of ourselves as bold, independent agents, not tied to any party and tied to very few politicians. No matter how hard the corporate media try to marginalize us, we need to get out there and champion our values as passionately as the right does theirs.

 

I am ambivalent about the nomination of Sonya Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court. The lack of any clear public record on the inalienable constitutional right to abortion is somewhat troubling.

Sotomayor's opinion in Flamer v. City of White Plains was a shocking attack on the Establishment Clause of the Constitution and the civil rights of atheists. From the First Amendment Center:

In 1993, Sotomayor ruled in Flamer v. City of White Plains that a rabbi had a First Amendment right to display a menorah in a city park. The city of White Plains, New York, prohibited “fixed outdoor displays of religious or political symbols.” The rabbi asserted that the regulation violated his free-exercise-of-religion and free-speech rights.

She wrote that the city may not “preclude a private speaker from erecting a fixed display of a religious symbol, free-standing or otherwise, in a City park on the basis of such display’s religious message.” She rejected the city’s establishment clause-based defense that it was trying to prevent perceived state endorsement of religion: “The Establishment Clause does not provide a compelling justification for the Resolution’s content-based restrictions on expressive conduct.”

First of all, there is no real "restriction on expressive conduct." That Rabbi easily could have put up the display on private property. Placing it on public property involves a taxpayer subsidy which is blatantly establishes religion by the government. Not only does Sotomayor think that governments can establish religion, she went so far as to force a local government to establish religion.

Obviously, being a target of Ms. Sotomayor's anti atheist discrimination doesn't exactly make me thrilled by her nomination to the Supreme Court. However, since President Obama has shown himself to be almost as rabidly rightist as Hillary and Bill Clinton. I suspect any other Obama nominee would be at least as bad.

If I were a Senator, I would reluctantly vote for her. However, this nomination certainly has given this voter yet another reason to vote Green in 2010 and 2012. I am so sick of being treated like shit by the GOP and the Democrats as a queer, as an atheist, and as a middle class American.

Having said that, I don't see any reason to let ranking Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama get away with the most egregious behavior in his capacity on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Talking Points Memo has Sen. Sessions opening statement during the hearings, which is disturbing for a variety of reasons.

Here's an example of Sessions' deception and dishonesty. (deception in italics, and lie in bold, mine)

We have seen federal judges force their own political and social agenda on the nation, dictating that the words "under God" be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance and barring students from even silent prayer in schools.

The words "under God" weren't part of the Pledge of Allegiance until the McCarthyism of the 50s. Acting like those words are a natural part of the Pledge is misleading, to put it mildly.

Sessions was deliberately lying when he said that students can't pray silently in schools. What is absolutely constitutionally forbidden is for the government to set aside time for the purpose of prayer in the public schools. Students continue to pray silently in schools, usually immediately before tests. Prayer as an individual decision is not affected. Efforts by the government to promote religion are banned, as they should be. Sessions, like so many militant, Christian fundamentalists, is deliberately lying about the issue because he knows he can not win if he debates it honestly.

Sessions embeds more than one lie in this gem of a paragraph.

Judges have--contrary to the longstanding rules of war--created a right for terrorists, captured on a foreign battlefield, to sue the United States government in our own courts.

The detentions without trial, torture, and violations of the Geneva Conventions that have occurred against the alleged terrorists at Gitmo and other illegal detention facilities (a.k.a. gulags) are direct violations of the rules of war. Sessions is also deliberately lying when he said judges were the ones who created the right of the alleged terrorists to sue the government, when in fact the people who wrote and ratified our constitution were the ones who gave created that right. Sessions claim that everyone detained is a terrorist is misleading, especially since most of the people in Guantanamo are perfectly innocent.

Another quote shows spectacular hypocrisy from Sessions.

Like the American people, I have watched this for a number of years, and I fear this "empathy standard" is another step down the road to a liberal activist, results-oriented, and relativistic world where:
• Laws lose their fixed meaning,
• Unelected judges set policy,
• Americans are seen as members of separate groups rather than simply Americans, and
• Where the constitutional limits on government power are ignored when politicians want to buy out private companies.

In the first three points, Sessions is aptly describing the judicial actions of Samuel Alito and John Roberts, judges that Sessions enthusiastically supported. Oops!

I am so sick of both major political parties. I can't wait to return Democratic fundraising letters with messages explaining why that party isn't getting a dime from me.

 

The US corporate media seems to be portraying Gordon Brown's problems as having to do with insufficient political skills. Yet, Brown replaced Tony Blair, who was wildly unpopular, before the financial crisis took place.

Looking at American television when Tony Blair was usually shown licking the boots of George W. Bush, it is easy to forget how Blair usually projected himself to domestic audiences in the UK on the BBC. Instead of sniveling and humiliating himself, on domestic matters, Blair was charismatic and forceful. He was clever, and his handlers always had just the sound bite to keep the opposition at bay.

The problem was that charisma, a strong personality, and great sound bites war thin after years of Thatcherite policies. It wasn't bad enough that he humiliated the UK by genuflecting and appeasing an unelected tyrant like George W. Bush on the international stage. Blair also favored watered down versions of Tory policies that disposed the majority of the British population. Sugar coating dispossession can't work indefinitely.

Once Blair wore out of his welcome, Labor replaced him with the seemingly earnest Gordon Brown. However, Brown favored the same Thatcher-lite policies that he helped implement as a member of Blair's cabinet. This contributed to the depth of despair when the global economic crises arrived, and it also contributed to Brown's inability to act in a forceful way to intervene in the economy that both major parties had been moving in a laissez faire direction for decades.

The Conservative Party is winning the local and EU elections by not losing ground in the polling while Labor is losing a tremendous amount of votes to third parties. Neither party would be close to a majority of seats in the more significant House of Commons if not for the winner take all system in Britain that inevitably gives bizarre results when there are third parties. Proportional representation is a much more reasonable electoral system, yet the British seem to dislike it as much as we do. The upshot is that the Tories are gaining power without gaining support.

The media are focused on the improved performance of far right parties, but they are ignoring the improved performance of the Greens. The main lesson to be learned is that people in the UK want a real alternative to the Pepsi vs. Coke politics of the Conservative and Labor Parties.

Sound familiar?

It should. Obama, like Bill Clinton, is governing more like a Republican than a Democrat, to put it mildly. He has more time politically than Brown because the GOP is in a state of disarray, ceding much of its leadership to gargantuan loudmouth whose mind seems to still be terribly altered by Oxycontin. Gopper rhetoric reminds one of the British National Party. While sentiments like that have more adherents here than in the UK, it isn't a strategy to build a majority or to even put up a strong national fight.

American liberals could easily start electing Green or independent liberal candidates in certain House Districts. However, these American liberals, like the British left, seem to be too beaten down by the atrocities of Bush (or Thatcher in the UK) and corporate media propaganda to mount serious political challenges where the opportunities exist (e.g. in Nancy Pelosi's district or in several districts here in NYC).

The danger of a gutless left adrift with a sense of helplessness is that the only real alternatives to the Crest vs. Colgate politics we are getting here in the US are coming from the far right.

 

Photo: TitaniumDreads

At least liberals will know which "Democrats" to never give money to.

From Raw Story 3/18/09:

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) proclaimed today on MSNBC's Morning Joe the beginning of a new group of conservative Democrats that could work to block Obama's budget priorities.

The group, which is composed of 14 Senate Democrats and Joe Lieberman(I-CT), are the same Senators who met two weeks ago to discuss how centrists can assert more leverage on the policy debates that are dominating Congress. The goal of Bayh's “Moderate Dems Working Group” is to “work with the Senate leadership and the new administration to craft common-sense solutions to urgent national problems,” according to the press release. "You have to get the 60 votes in the Senate and that's going to be hard and it will take the centrists to get there. We want to help make the changes we need and that's what our group is all about," Bayh told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.

In addition to Senators Bayh and Lieberman, others joining the group are Tom Carper of Delaware, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet of Colorado, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Mark Warner of Virginia.

The Democrats are already governing too far to the right as it is. These jackasses seem determined to reduce voting for Democrats to a futile gesture.

The Green Party keeps looking more attractive...