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I guess I am supposed to alert my family and friends to the recession and further economic catastrophe, but honestly — couldn’t you have used your powerful email list for something other than a request to hold Economic Recovery Bill House Parties this weekend? Wouldn’t you like to ask us to call our representatives in Congress?
Quite frankly, my family and friends are well aware of the recession and we are waiting for Congress to come to their senses and do something to help average Americans instead of the rich and the corporations. We’d like to see some JOBS instead of simply more tax breaks at the expense of aid to the states to continue needed services to our neighbors.
There are thirteen million Americans on your email list, right? Don’t you think it’s time to ask us to DO something? Something that might actually help get a good bill passed in Congress?
Isn’t it ask-what-you-can-do-for-your-country time?
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It would be nice if someone in Washington acted like they had a clue, wouldn’t it? The Clue-ster in Chief, for example.
This video, issued today, should have been sent 10 days ago. Today, he should be asking folks to call their Congresspersons and Senators. It’s as if the White House team is two steps behind where they should be, all the time. He should have made his big American trip (Indiana and Florida) this past week, not upcoming Monday.
Gotta wonder about the qualifications of the Chief of Staff to really make things happen.
Yeah, I’ve been waiting for the organization of the grassroots on this and waiting and waiting. so, I finally took matters into my own hands and started calling.
I’m flummoxed by O’s attitude on this.
Calling is great! I’ve been doing it too – although I hope Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein have pretty good instincts on this. But there are states FULL of Obama supporters represented by some of the most recalcitrant, yet possible bedwetter and persuadable, GOPs. I mean, isn’t KBHutchison in Texas moveable by lots of calls, since she hopes to run for Governor next year?
Some of them can really be moved by a swarm of callers and emailers — Rahm oughta know who those are and try to pick them off with an organized push.
In the meantime, it’s you & me & whoever else decides to call!
Indeed.
And they’re not even close to that. They’ve been going the opposite direction, haven’t they?
And the White House has been right there greasing their path.
The whole idea of calling and emailing and faxing our support for this bogus “Recovery” plan is downright creepy.
We need and deserve something much better.
But there was Barbara Boxer on the Senate floor urging her colleagues to support this monstrosity. If even one of our most liberal senators thinks this monstrosity is a “good thing,” we are well and truly screwed.
It wasn’t just Obama who gave away the store. And it wasn’t just Susan Collins and Ben Nelson. It was the whole lot of them.
As they say in Argentina:
¡Que se vayan todos!
I think we’re at that point.
Dugg and recommended
COS Emanuel has a different set he’s avidly pursuing behind the scenes. Scenes Obama is too busy to look behind. Misplaced his trust in Rahm in thinking he’d be able to work beyond his own narrow agenda.
Just my take on this.
JHFC. We bust our asses to get these people elected and now we’ve got to bust our asses to do what they were elected to do. A little left wing anarchism is lookin’ better and better.
i like this from namoi klein: All of Them Must Go
my bold.
Per Krugman, regarding the Senate stim bill:“This is really, really bad.”
I wonder how likely it is that the jellyfish Dems in the Congress will refuse to accept the Senate’s changes.
The Republicans have been threatening to filibuster for two years now. IMHO, it’s well past time to call their damn bluff.
For the record..I agree with your take on this. Never have liked Emmanuel.
It almost seems like there’s a power vacuum up there with Obama not following his instincts and handing everything over to his advisers to figure out (and the Republicans in his “post partisan world”) and I’ve GOT to wonder about that.
It seems we’re screwed, my friends.
I think it’s time for Americans to barge into the White House and bust President Obama out of the iron bubble that seems to entrap presidents!
Who is cutting him off from us? Jees.
It’s very possible President Obama is reading the blogs through his super-secret Blackberry and maybe he’s reading what we’re saying? I don’t know, but I do know the right wingers are doing everything in their power to make Obama & America fail, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve compromised the 13 million email list Obama has.
I gotta hope they will. Pelosi seems to be toughing up and Conyers is getting absolutely BOLD
love what conyers is doing re health care (see making sense, see single payer, see h.r.6767).
Yeeeeee! say it ain’t so. Methinks it’s Rahm cutting him off. A truly co-dependent relationship
When someone asked him “where’s the change,” regarding the business-as-usual advisers he was appointing, Obama replied: “The change will come from me.” I can’t wait.
I figure it’s up to us to take the initiative. I don’t need an email from some pooh bah to get me up and movin’. The bankers and corporations took control of the country from us decades ago. We cannot rely on either the administration or Congress to avoid the financial disaster we face. It’s going to be up to communities to get back to basics.
’bout time.
Off to do laundry and get my tires filled with some of the hot air comin’ out of DeeCee. Later.
Namaste
Good Morning Teddy and Puppies.
Well said, Teddy. Right to the point.
It’d be great to have a gazillion Ohioans call Voinovichy and ask, right pointedly, if utter failure is the legacy he wants to leave. I don’t know what else to say to him. He’s retiring at the end of his term, and it’s obvious he’s already mentally retired some time ago. Now he just sits counting the days, sigh.
I’m surprised the guy can even remember where his seat is in the Senate chamber. He’s a drone. aaarrrrrgh!
Capitalism must fail and only then can something else be stood up.
These jerks are trying to save capitalism, stimulate more consumerism, more healthy corporate balance sheets and happy investors in them who despise labor because it eats into their profits.
The stim plans my toss a few crumbs to the hungry, but it is nothing more than an attempt to stem the water sinking this ship from many holes.
We’re (it) is going down.
The struggle will be to fight against the fascists who will want to take over when there is no organization left. This is gonna get interesting in the next few years. By 2012 we will not recognize america.
good luck selling that stuff.
I am not selling it. I am reporting it.
No one is discussing the fact that the foundation of economic principles of capitalism is flawed. You can’t build something to stand on a lousy foundation.
And that brings me to term limits ONCE AGAIN.
There is plenty of talent around and no need to keep anyone one for more than a limited term in ANY POSITION.
There are trade offs because some good people will be sent back to a real job. But more slackers will.
We can cut the influence of pay for play politics drastically since serving will not be seen as a cash cow for the rest of your life.
We need to purge government on a regular basis and have vigorous elections were issues are debated and get media and image makers out of the election process. Our democracy is nothing more than the Truman Show.
sandero – i agree with a lot of your critiques of capitalism, but while there are lots of alternatives some are worse and some may be better. destroying the current system without being able to describe and make the case for a better way (and how to get there) just strikes me as unnecessarily destructive. actually kinda reminds me of cheney et al.s “creative destruction.”
Selise,
Point well taken. My view is that we need a non credit driven economy with a strong democratic control over capital allocation.
We need an economy which serves the needs of the workers not only management.
We need an economy that recognizes that certain things are rights and collectively we can provide them to everyone:
Housing
Health Care
Education
safe environment
safe affordable food
In a for profit driven credit based economy wealth is extracted from workers then used in leverage and the credit industry (wall street) to create more wealth for a class of people who contribute very little to the commonweal, or do very little proportionately to what that CAN contribute.
I believe some form of socialism, or state capitalism might work. The profits belong to the state and hence to the people. I think we need to get away from private ownership of many things which are privately owned in capitalism:
energy
transportation
education
health care
housing
media
food
pharmaceuticals
This doesn’t prevent small private businesses and mom and pops in such an economy.
Where’s the discussion?
SanderO
I have been reading your comments for some time and find them illuminating and edifying if not discouraging. Keep hammering. Socialism is not a dirty word.*g*
Any country that allows 23% of GDP to go to the top 1% is not FAIR.
Thank you JCausen.
I notice that what we see here on FDL is too much focus on the failed mechanics of our goverment and those in it, their lies, incompetence and corruption. All important to shed light on.
But we need to do some serious take down on the economic system we live under and with which is the 800# gorilla in the room.
I seriously doubt that this “system” can be morphed into one of equity and justice for all. Power is something that is intoxicating and not surrendered without a fight. But simply getting one set of creeps who are marginally less corrupt and incompetent than the last set is not the way to go.
We need REAL hard hitting critique of USA style capitalism that ALL critters except Bernie Saunders seem to openly support and worship. And especially the meme of property ownership – hence the credit industry and the mortgage crisis it spawned.
I am not seeing much serious discussion about the gorilla. Are you?
Doing something would require leadership with a spine.
It’s been a long time since I’ve said this about my Congresswoman, but: The Speaker speaks for me.
Whoo Hoo! 31 diggs.
How about doing weatherization barnraisings around the country, making our own stimulus from the grassroots on up, and showing the pols that they can either do something as productive or get out of the way?
I’d like to see a weatherization barnraising on the White House. We’ve been doing one a month for the past six months in effete, intellectual Cambridge, MA. Get your hands dirty or go home.