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1. JoB
   Member Profile

   The other night hubby read me a post to one of the political blogs by a democrat who said basically that he was retiring from all political life and going to find himself a small corner to take care of his family and retreat from the world.

   There is something so appealing to me about that idea. After a lifetime of sticking up for what is right.. i too am weary of the meanness of political life.

   I am not quite ready to retreat into isolation.. but i have come to the decision that a politician needs to earn my vote.... not with party affiliation.. not with slogans.. not with advertising.. but by standing up for the values i represent.

   I am sorry to say that all three of my elected officials from the State of Washington fail on that standard right now.

   Jim McDermott is certainly braver and more willing to stand up for what he believes than Parry Murray or Maria Cantwell.. but that isn't saying much.

   I have decided that i will no longer vote for a democrat simply because they aren't a republican.

   I have bought that argument my entire political life and yet what has it gained me? After a lifetime of fighting for basic human rights like equality under the law and protection from the rapacious greed of corporate interests... i am no better off with a democrat in the White House and democrats controlling congress than i was without.

   When democrats take their loyal base for granted and spend their political capital pursuing fringe voters and republicans.. they are worthless to me.

   And I don't see that those on the other side of the political fence are getting much more from their political party...

   Maybe it's time to revolt. The only power we have is our vote...

   i have written my nationally elected representatives and told them they won't get my dollars, my voice or my vote unless they begin legislating as democrats.. not plutocrats...

   it's we the people..
   not we the corporation.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

2. JoB
   Member Profile

   This morning Dennis caved to his party. The irony of announcing it on St Paddy's day is not lost on me though the great PR machine will spin it as a victory in Ted's name...

   I'm guessing that great irishman.. an old school politician who used his back room negotiation skills for the public good is wondering why he fought so hard to hang on for this day.

   I'm opting for a wake in his honor today... a fitting tribute to a man who didn't need a campaign slogan of "yes we can" when his actions spoke so much louder than words.

   I have heard "America.. love it or leave it" from the reactionary right my entire political life.. and have never once considered leaving.. until now.

   i suspect those of us who are not wealthy.. but still well off enough to do so.. will have no choice as we retire if we want to guarantee we can afford health care...

   for me.. i would just like a little peace to go with my old age and don't think i am going to find it in the great American plutocracy:(

   i'm off to the irish pub in Burien for some irish stew...

   and to raise a glass to a great irish man.
   May he rest in peace.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

3. dawsonct
   Member Profile

   Agreed JoB. Would really like McDermott to be more vocal, like Kucinich, Wiener or Grayson. He showed during the Cheney/bush (mis)administration that he can be a vocal leader, but has disappeared into the shadows since President Obama was elected. Wish he would get out there and push a more prog agenda again.
   Murray is marginally more liberal than Cantwell, but the both seem to share a lot of the same political ideology I remember Dan Evans harboring. I don't want my Democratic politicians acting like Republicans, we have Republicans for that.
   We need to continue to lean on them and attempt to move them in a more progressive direction, and if they continue to obstinately be quasi-Blue Dogs, we need to lean on the Democratic Party to make a change on the ballot.
   Meanwhile, we all need to get involved in the Green Party or the D's OR R's (surely SOME of you R's are stunned at the faright lurch your party has taken) and attend our precinct meetings and party functions and start to steer this country back onto the course set by the Founders, to create a more perfect Union, of, by, and for the people.
   --
   I empathize with the frustration though, JoB. Everything you read about the REAL mindset of the American people, we are generally to the LEFT of the politicians in D.C. and have VERY different agendas than the Big Media and the trans-national corporations that own it.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

4. dawsonct
   Member Profile

   I will give them the benefit of the doubt on this one JoB; not everything I wanted, will be a nice little payday for the insurance co.'s at first, but it hopefully is the first step. No doubt, along with Medicare, it is still as much as has ever been done for Americans. And, the CBO reports it WILL save quite a bit of money so, let's get started and improve on it as we go along, but REALLY hold our representatives to that promise.
   --
   To be brutally honest though, since I have (socialist!) VA medical care, I am almost certainly less activist in the health insurance reform debate.
   Then again, if I didn't have that resource I may have been forced into staying in a dissatisfying career or job simply to maintain access to health care, so I recognize how lucky I am to be able to follow my dreams and not have to worry about it.
   Now, if only we could get some sort of National DENTAL CARE plan! Grrr!

   Posted 1 year ago #         

5. JoB
   Member Profile

   dawsonct..

   if the legislation they are labeling health care reform was coupled with regulation with teeth... it would be a step in the right direction. it isn't.

   lets see at the end of the day how the stock market reacts.. my bet is that health insurance stocks saw a hefty rise today.

   i would love to be proven wrong.. but even though life looked so much better to me after a near beer and some good irish music.. i am not that optimistic.

   I think we are getting one heck of a sales job... but they are only telling us it tastes good.. they haven't even bothered to flavor the tonic to make it go down easier.

   it's obvious they don't think they have to... which gives you some idea how effective i think leaning on our party is.

   We have leaned heavily on them for the public option in the last month.. so heavily that their switchboards have been jammed...

   but the public option was never on DNPs agenda.. and leaning on them... harder than they have ever been leaned on before... didn't change anything.

   They responded by threatening progressives who are up for highly contested elections with a lack of support... and won their endorsement.

   The DNP may find that was a very poor gamble come November elections..

   but perhaps after all that too is part of their plan... it is so much easier to deliver nothing to your constituents when you are the underdog.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

6. JoB
   Member Profile

   wall street was very happy with dennis today.
   the president was very happy with dennis today.
   the Democratic party was very happy with dennis today.
   move-on.org was very happy with dennis today.

   dennis will be returning thousands of dollars of donations gathered by fire-dog based on his continued support of a public option...

   that's chump change in comparison to what he gained with move-on and the democratic party.

   he will be easier to compromise next time.

   the political theater continues on a television near you.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

7. rockhills
   Member Profile

   

   I'm sorry you've been disappointed by career politicians, hidden agendas and the political game. You are where I was 18 years ago. I find myself agreeing more and more with the movement to vote the current cohort completely out of congress and bring in legislators who haven't lost touch with reality.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

8. JoB
   Member Profile

   rockhills..

   that has been tired with disastrous results...
   remember how the republicans gained control of both houses of congress this last time?

   kicking the bums out will only give you another Newt. That wasn't much of an improvement last time:(

   Posted 1 year ago #         

9. rockhills
   Member Profile

   

   Those were still career politicians, I believe, just of another party.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

10. JoB
    Member Profile

    Yup...

    If career politicians are the problem.. where do we go? Green party candidates? i am all for that.

    the only problem is that they are ineffective in our current political system until they become career politicians...

    a few won't do.. and the big money is on the two party system.. or as it has been dubbed by a new facebook group.. the one and a half party system..

    i truly wish i could find the kind of optimism it would take to support a third party at this late date in my life... if ever there was a time for a third party challenge.. this is it.. but i just don't have it right now...

    especially not on the day the schoolyard bullies pulled dennis's pants down and took away his glasses:(

    maybe tomorrow...

    i am going to go watch some french film with subtitles.. hubby tells me it is uplifting:)

    Posted 1 year ago #         

11. elikapeka
    Member Profile

    I don't see anything changing until we have public financing of campaigns. Get the money out of politics. So often we elect someone who I think has good intentions and wants to do the right thing in the beginning, but after they're in Washington for a while (and it doesn't take long) their view of things becomes so skewed that they no longer can relate to us. I remember when Newt and the Repubs took Congress in '94. Dave Ross, a local radio talk show host, did his show from D.C. He talked about how there are dinners and cocktail parties and sporting events and anything else you can think of every night and day that are free to the congress critters and their staff. When everyone around you has money to spend freely and they spend it to shape your opinion and you can live the high life on their dime, no matter how noble your intentions, you eventually, slowly, and inevitably will become corrupted by it.

    I won't say it doesn't matter who you vote for. Ralph Nader cost Gore the presidency in an election where many thought it really didn't matter who won. Eight years later we learned that it damn well did matter!

    But something has to be done to insure that our representatives represent the public interest. That's not happening now. The only solution I see is public campaign financing.

    And I agree about McDermott. He's in an absolutely safe seat and yet he doesn't really put himself out there. I thought he'd be a leading voice in the health care debate, but he's been strangely low key. I don't get it.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

12. JoB
    Member Profile

    the film was Antonia's Line. It was dutch, not french. And it reminded me that nothing ends.

    the world i grew up in is gone
    but this one or another like it will be here long after i am gone..

    when i was young, i thought revolution was inevitable... and perhaps it still is... there is nothing those who hand out the money to fund elections fear as much as revolution... and yet.. their greed overcomes their fear.. they don't know when enough is enough.

    i think it will be difficult for the middle class to find that much anger unless the economy completely collapses... and it might yet.... more people lose their jobs.. and their hope every day.

    I don't think revolution is the only answer.. but i don't see how we can institute the necessary divorce between big money and politics when big money buys the politicians who make the laws.

    vicious cycle...

    and yet the earth itself and the cycle of life will still be here no matter what dance our government does.... it's all a ponzi scheme and sooner or later it will fall.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

13. dawsonct
    Member Profile

    I hate incrementalism, too.
    Don't give up. Apathy is part of their plan.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

14. Ken
    Member Profile

    

    Grayson responds to Palin.

    http://www.graysonforcongress.com/newsletter_detail.asp?OptInEmailId=314

    excerpt:

    In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida. Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

    Ba-dump-bump

    Posted 1 year ago #         

15. JoB
    Member Profile

    I am so trying to hang in there..

    i don't think republicans will be better.. their unbridled arrogance and greed brought us our current dilemma...

    but.. and this is a big but..

    I don't see individual effort really making a substantive difference here... and my energy is limited.

    I have spent a lifetime banging my head against political and social walls and you would think i would have developed a huge callous.. but what i seem to have right now is a pretty permanent headache...

    perhaps this is one of those take two aspirins and check back in the morning moments...

    Posted 1 year ago #         

16. dawsonct
    Member Profile

    There you go! Always darkest before the dawn, etc.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

17. charlabob
    Member Profile

    

    I have two words for all of us leftist nazi bierkenstock wearing .... Supreme Court. The next n presidents and congresses will nominate and ratify justices. Or, if it keeps going the way it is, INjustices.

    I'd like to hear any of the closet conservatives explain to me how selling elections to BigBidness doesn't constitute judicial activism of the worst kind.

    Gotta go -- my head is about to explode. :-)

    c

    Posted 1 year ago #         

18. waterworld
    Member Profile

    

    I share the disappointment in this administration's failure to accomplish anything meaningful on health care reform. I remember thinking, back before Obama was a candidate, that our system had transformed over time into basically a one-party system, not in the sense that Ds and Rs had entirely the same agenda, but in the sense that the Ds had moved so far to the center that the progressive end of the spectrum had lost any real voice in DC. And I certainly jumped on the Obama bandwagon and got my hopes back up for true reforms in health care, criminal justice, social justice, privacy, Guantanamo, blah blah blah. Now I've reverted to where I was a few years ago: I preserve my sanity by mostly ignoring DC and national politics, and I focus on the things one person, or a few, really can do in this community where I live. Think small, think local, and contribute what you can.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

19. KBear
    Member Profile

    If Congress doesn't pass this health care bill, flaws and all, they will never have a chance to fix what's wrong with it. Instead, we'll be stuck with the current system. Those on the far left who want to wait around for the perfect bill to come along will continue to be disappointed. That's what Kucinich finally realized. Good for him.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

20. JoB
    Member Profile

    KBear..

    and how exactly do you expect them to be able to fix what's wrong with it?

    going in we know that it is wrong to give health insurance companies captive customers without regulation.. but there is no regulation in this bill and most members of congress have said that it is impossible to regulate health care insurance.

    i don't know why.. we regulate auto insurance... and every other developed country that relies on a health insurance model regulates health insurance.

    ours are even exempt from anti-trust laws.

    we know it is wrong to let health insurance companies make health care decisions for us.. yet in the state of california.. the only state where this information is tracked.. insurance companies deny doctor ordered care 20% of the time.

    It only makes sense that as the cost for procedure rises the percentage of denials rises dramatically... but they don't track those numbers.... and those numbers are the ones that will literally kill you.

    This is a bad plan for covering health care for Americans.. and if you don't believe me look at how happy it made wall street when kucinich caved yesterday...

    if health insurance lobbyists are so important now that they can make secret deals with the white house to keep even the compromise position of public option out of the bill.. what makes you think the situation is going to change now that they can dump unlimited buckets of money at congressional campaigns?

    Do you really think they are going to approve limiting their income? Because that is the business they are in.. making money.. not providing health care.

    The health care bill we get now will be what we are stuck with for at least my lifetime and i am guessing quite a while beyond.

    Right now our insurance companies decide what doctors we can see and what treatments we can have.

    I would like someone to explain to me exactly why letting a business who is in business to give me the cheapest care possible whether it endangers my life or not make my health care decisions is so much better than letting the government make those same decisions...

    don't kid yourself that this bill will be improved later... this is not the starting point but the ending point...

    It's a crock.. and once we have bought this crock we will be stuck with it.

    be careful what you let them sell you.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

21. JoB
    Member Profile

    kBear..

    i am sorry..
    but the idea that this bill changes anything substantial about the way health care is delivered in America..
    about the actual cost of Health Care or even the cost of Health Care Insurance in America...
    about the ability of most citizens to afford health care insurance...
    about who will be making your health care decisions...
    is a con job..
    a big con job.

    Yes.. those who are working and can now afford health care insurance will be offered policies regardless of "pre-existing" conditions...

    but that won't do much for those who are currently out of work or who lose their jobs or who simply can't afford health insurance.

    this is not a reform of our health care system..
    this is a reinforcement of our existing health care system..

    we get what we have now..
    only now we have no choice.

    be careful what you let them sell you.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

22. anonyme
    Member Profile

    Everyone I know is feeling the same way. After years of fighting against the abuses of the Bush administration, we dared to entertain hope for change...for about five minutes. Many of us who were very politically active are now at a complete loss as to what to do next. What's left? We protested, we wrote, called, blogged, marched - and we voted. To no avail: the fix is in.

    It would take a major uprising of the American people to bring about change at this point, and I just don't see it happening. I don't have Medicare because I can't afford it, and it doesn't cover the so-called alternative treatments that I rely on and pay cash for. Now I'm going to be fined for being low-income and unable to afford any form of health insurance. Unbelievable.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

23. dawsonct
    Member Profile

    The way our system works, it IS easier to fix and add to a program once it is in place, than it is to CREATE the program.
    Why they didn't use that fact to just expand Medicare, I don't really know the answer, But I feel something has to be done at the very minimum (and I agree, this is damned close to it), and the CBO report finds substantial savings over the next number of years. Not there yet, but moving in the right direction. I am NOT willing to let them rest on their laurels, though. I'll still be making those calls, dropping into their offices in the Federal building, and, probably most meaningful, getting more active in my local party.
    I sense a sea-change; I feel that the town-square aspects of the internet are starting to realize the promise that it has had for so many years.
    It's painful and slow, but I think the (REAL) people will prevail.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

24. JoB
    Member Profile

    dawsonct...
    i hope you are right about the internet making a a difference...
    i don't see it.. but i truly hope you are right.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

25. dawsonct
    Member Profile

    If the best thing about this passing is that the political luddites lose, than that works for me right now.
    As I am certain you have noticed, whenever the Squalling Heads of the Farreich have trotted out the poll numbers that show that a small majority oppose the bill, they never mention that most of those against the bill as it has been reported don't feel it goes FAR enough, and IF that fact is pointed out too them, they completely ignore it; will not even address the issue.
    The repeated prevarications of the Republicans shouldn't be rewarded.
    In any case, their breathless and relentless push-back gives me hope that this is, in fact, better than it looks on the surface.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

26. JoB
    Member Profile

    dawsonct..

    unfortunately.. i think it just means they are engaged in political posturing so they tell voters in the fall how far this bill falls short and that they would have voted for something with substance if just given the chance...

    either way. they win:(

    Posted 1 year ago #         

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