Balkas, I’ve been thinking about your reasons for ignoring vowels and many consonants in your writing. I don’t think it flies well. Take ‘ab’, which you say is in the dictionary - and I am ABsolutely certain that most dictionaries have several pages dedicated to words starting with AB.

So, are you referring to the 6 pack of ABs my favorite footballer, Diego Forla’n, has? He is an ABsolute hunk, but we were not discussing the ABsence of fat, or ABle-bodied people. No, this is ABout the ABsence of the ABility of the Democratic Party to feed their roots rather than ABsconding with the loot.

See what I mean? people with large vocabularies get ABcesses trying to ABstract the possible word you wanted. That is one reason English can be so difficult for some. It ABounds with a multitude of choices for the writer, and the reader,,,

“I happen to believe that Obama and his party have established a remarkable record of achievement.”

Aargh. Robinson’s Pulitzer comes to mind as part of the selling of Obama.

The Democrats have a playbook. They know exactly what us citizens want to hear from our politicians.

We want change.  We want hope.  We want a health care system that doesn’t screw us and rob us blind.  We want our money to be used for our benefit instead of for wall street’s benefit.  We want the wars to end.

The problem is, now that the Democrats are in power, they can’t say this any more.  All their big contributors would have a freakin heart attack.

This is the end of the con.  The Democrats lied their rears off to get power.  Now they are showing that they serve their big contributors and that their campaign promises were lies.

The Democrats can’t say what they really do with power.  And when they try to tell their usual lies, they look and sound ridiculous.  That’s why they don’t have a playbook.

Worm,
If that is the ‘best’ they can do, why on earth would we send more? We sent them large majorities in Congress, and a new President - They pissed it away.

Anarcissie, We don’t HAVE to vote for Obama in 2012, people can opt out, or vote a 3rd Party. And, if the Dems put a gun to my head, along with threats to gain my vote, that is not a vote, it is a stolen and coerced ballot!

Nor is anyone limited to complaining on TD. We can bitch here, in our local papers, and join with some of our more radical neighbors to try to get both attention and action.

Remember Joe Hill’s last words: “Don’t mourn boys. Organize!” [of course, he was executed by a firing squad in Utah]

Here’s what the Democrats have to say and to do:

We have done the best we can for the middle class, but we have had to
compromise. To get a few Republicans, we’ve had to compromise, and the
compromises have hurt America and harmed the middle class.

Send us more Democrats, and we can do what America needs and the middle
class needs.

Vote Democrat. And here’s what we can do:

1. We will prosecute Republican profligacy, crimes, misdemeanors
We will not allow Republican torture and rendition policies to stand as
precedents for future Presidents and Vice-Presidents to use at their discretion.

2. We will pass a stimulus that puts people to work - TO WORK. We will not
have our nation’s great asset - it’s people - to sit idle.

3. We will re-coop what the middle class lost on the Bush bailouts. Through
taxes, we will effectively reverse the flow of wealth from the middle class to
Wall Street; we will use the power of the government to reverse the flow and
bring wealth to the middle class and Main Street from Wall Street.

4. We will withdraw from the meaningless and fruitless war in Afghanistan; we
will not continue to allocate funds for this pointless effort, we will not fund the
continuing loss of American lives and the destruction of American wealth and
treasure.

5. We will finish financial reform by incorporating Glass-Steagle and passing
legislation that ends ‘too big too fail.

6. We will pass legislation that actually achieves mortgage remediation for
families sucked into fraudulent mortgages.

7. We will no longer play games with people’s lives; we will pass an extension of
unemployment insurance.

8. We will complete health care reform by simultaneously extending coverage
and cutting costs; single payer will increase the dollars devoted to health care
services by 18% (right now, under the compromised version of ‘health care
reform’, the private insurance companies can spend 20% of your premiums on
anything but health care services (marketing, sales, promotion, profits,
bonuses, participating in ‘boards’ that can deny your care, lobbying and
donating to sympathetic candidates.

9. Promote carbon credits available from the government, purchased from the
government; so, money is available to support alternative energy sources.

10. We will keep the tax rates for middle class families and increase taxes on
hedge fund operators, the wealthy, dividends and capital gains; no longer will
the government incent risk and use the middle class to cover the loses. Those
who gained from the ‘emergency’ bailouts must now contribute to the recovery
and to balancing the budget (which went into debt in large part to cover their
loses).

This is what Obama and the Democrats need to do.

They need a ‘vision’, a purpose and future that we can rally around, get excited
about and get out the vote for.

Bragging about the passage of watered down and compromised legislation is
not going to inspire voters. The Democrats passed legislation that was just
plain half measures; stop bragging about it and instead say:

“We’ve done our best. Send us more Democrats and finish the job!”

ardee, July 18 at 2:06 pm:
‘Are you certain that you are looking in the right places? Admittedly, there is not a nationwide commitment to political activism and progressive change but there are those who toil on, in small yet somewhat linked groups, and refuse to be discouraged or swayed by current public apathy. ...’

I’m aware of radical organizing.  I was thinking more of the less radical who complain about the Democrats here but are still “working within the system”.  If some competing party like the Greens looked like they were going to win a lot more votes than usual, neo-con WaPo shills like Robinson would be fretting about them instead of the Republicans.  Looks like the proggies sat on their hands again, except for posting bitter invective to Truthdig.

Well, it’s too late now.  And in 2012 they’ll have to vote for Obama to save them from the bogeyman.

Ardee,
It seems that i haven’t said explicitly that i haven’t understood schppenhower’s statement ab a truth eventually being accepted.

Schoppenhower also left out who or what layer of society is it that opposes violently a truth. It seems he meant the one or twopercenters of the pop.

But whomever or whatever layer of society he had in mind accepting a truth, i say i haven’t understood his statement as u may have or even schoppenhower.

Obviously, u were hurt by my evaluation of schoppenhower’s statement. Or, rather, that my understandings of what schoppenhower said did not match urs.

So, i invite u to list at least a few salient truths that, say, Dems or Repubs have accepted and APPLIED on living level?

Of course, i expected that u wld be hurt by my analyses. But, unfortunately for u, i do have a mind of my own.
Yes, i do feel hurt that u were hurt. But there, Bozh’ thinking often = danger-annoyance-fear for most asocialistic thinkers!

From ‘jews’ i even get death threats. I thank them for it; not in person, but in my posts! tnx

Xntrk,
I did not tell me which abreviations u cannot decypher.
“Ab” is in dictionary, “Cld” is not but i cannot understand why “cldn’t” or “cld” as in “i CLDN’T or i CLD understand, cannot be instantly decyphered.

The reason i use abreviations is because i type with one figure and it can take me half an hr or longer to write my posts.

I do not do that to annoy anyone. However, the ancient spelling shld go.
There is no sense in writing “beautiful” when butiful is better.

Whyd do u think so many people avoid posting? Because writing in ancient spelling is shaming and amounts to an obstacle to flow of free speech.

So, that is my objective: change the spelling so that every child cld write a post.
Besides, a word like “reconnaissance” was originally a latin word.
Romans wld probably have spelled it as “reconasans”.

Besides, english just a millennium ago, had been a purely germanic tongue—just like german. And until just recently, german tongue was quite adequate to express any idea whatsover; w.o. using latin or french.

But then the lords began to bastardise a perfect english and began to talk in tongues, so that a paesano cldn’t understand what earls and lords were saying.
And the ‘laws’? Who in hell cld understnd any of it?

And what kind of english good 70 to 80% of americans use and know well? U guessed it! Almost pure germanic english!

Ur guess that i am from balkans is correct. I was born in croatia in ‘28 not far from where tesla was born. Thanks for ur observation.
If i get more complaints, i might use fewer or no abreviations.

Generally, people who agree with me or, rather, get the message [key to it all]don’t complain ab my spelling, syntax, or grammar.
Only after i send the post, i spot that i really messed it up; especially if i leave an entire word out.
I do reread what i write but still miss one or more errors.

It shld be noted that people tend to blitzread and blitzunderstand and that leads to misunderstandings and to blaming because people are taught to blame, call names, etc.

But teaching is much better than blaming or even criticizing! tnx

balkas, July 18 at 3:27 pm #

Ardee,
May i evaluate schoppenhower’s: “All truth passes thru three stages; First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self evident”?

Sure, its a free country after all and you are free to opine as you will. I think you completely missed the boat as to the intentions of the author of the cited quote, but, in all fairness I must add a proviso.

I only read about half way through your soporific recitation and fell into a sound sleep for about a half an hour. Thanks much as it was quite refreshing actually.

Balkas, I don’t ‘text’. nor do I tweet. I don’t understand many of your short-cuts either. This is not to say I disagree with you, I really don’t know if I do or not… It makes me curious if your screen name refers to the Balkans, and your abbreviations are aimed at Balkanizing the English language, which has already been bastardized.

Red Horse, you really should check out the Black Agenda link I posted. Then, come to grips with the problems we create when we continue to vote for political parties that don’t support our issues and needs. At the very least, take a look at your Rep’s votes on issues you care about. The Dems who claim to be ‘Progressive’, but voted for the final ‘Health Care’ deformity are a good example. For me, it’s a bit like supporting a person who claims to be a ‘feminist’ and then votes ‘Pro-Life’, or the politician who vocally supports Equal Rights and votes against extending them to the Gay Community. The conflict in those positions is so extreme, that a voter should be aware he/she is casting a vote for a hypocrite.

At some point, we have to stop voting for the lesser of two evils and start voting for people who will work for us, not the Corporations. The Democratic Party doesn’t pass the smell test, altho some individuals do. Choose wisely, based on the small print, not the flashy label.

Ardee,
May i evaluate schoppenhower’s: “All truth passes thru three stages; First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self evident”?

According to my understanding of the implicatory structure of {any} language, the above utterance can be classified as a generalization; to which answers true-false or right-wrong do not apply.

Methinks, that because people believe an inference cld be called right or wrong and true or false, many people are frightened in educing inferences for fear of being labeled this and that.

So,we let people know that it is desirable to make an inference of any kind, but keeping in mind that an inference is not a fact.

And only to facts; i.e., descriptive statements do answers true-false-right-wrong apply.
Knowing this wld free many people.

Now, i do not know, whether BHO and clinton, whose speeches teem with verbal ‘brilliancies’ or with lofty inferences, know what we have just said {i am not the only one:thus the “we”} or know this instictively or otherwise or are just aping other ‘brilliant’ speeches from the time of cicero; knowing that awestruck paesanos are listening to such speeches and thinking how smart such speakers are.

In fact, such speeches need hrs or even days to evaluate what such inferences really mean. In any case paesanos get in sconds own meanings out of them.
But not the meanings sent, tho!
That’s the key: the messages sent are not messages received. This trick had been played on peasants for millennia.

In fact, there is no truth apart from observer[s]. However, apodicticly [of apsolutly certain truth] there is truth, right, and wrong.

When we say it this way,this brings in the role of the observers in any of the truth-making and results in avoidance of the reefication of a truth.

Person may ask: OK, it is true! But in whose eyes?

There is no wrong or right. However, to just take kill-murder behavior, eg; we err,if we must err, on side of not killing people.

So schoppenhower, bless his soul, was wrong ab truth [the necessary one] being accepted! 
Master class had not accepted many truths; it never ever wld accept major ones unless it is imposed on them! tnx

Geez—My rage level went through the roof this morning, when I tried to watch the political automatons, on the Sunday news panels. I had to turn’em off.

    Mr. Robinson’s article presents a good overview of the coming election. I enjoyed it. Still, nothing seems to quite touch, or clarify, this labyrinthine political/cultural/financial/moral no-mans-land “we the people” find ourselves trapped in. Is this capitalist hell?

    I can’t shake the feeling, that something truly, truly, evil is in play. We have become, the inhabitants, of a strange dimensionality, that denies us voice, destroys sane hope and vision, and seems, to have placed American destiny in the hands of thieves. Washingtons political whores, have given birth to an unspeakable moral lie, and its’ weight, is pulling us over the edge of apocalypse.

    We are under calculated assault. If American Democracy will survive, has become anybodies guess. Get down, get mean, swallow hard AND VOTE for the traitorous DEMS. The Republicans must be destroyed. Meanwhile, “—strengthen the things that remain—”.

Well, I haven’t visited this site in some time. Time to toss in a few comments from a libertarian perspective (leftists, do try to listen with an open mind).

I agree with Eugene Robinson that, while the Democrats are in a funk, the Republicans are not exactly lighting anyone’s fire, either.

Both parties are just wings of the same warfare/welfare party. They lead their devoted followers around by the nose, never really changing anything, unless it is in the direction of more tyranny.

Observe, as one of many examples, that Obama has left in place all the invasions of personal privacy started by the Bush Administration.

Interestingly, if you really study history, you will find that the Democrats were once the party of small, decentralized government, while the Republicans have always been the party of corporatism (NOT, as many wrongly think, of capitalism). The early democrats, from Thomas Jefferson through Grover Cleveland, believed in small, limited government. Jefferson was particularly adamant about separating government from central banking and having a pure precious metals standard.

If the Democrats would go back to their real roots, they would offer a compelling alternative to their own and the Rep’s corporatism.

Obama, it ends up, is just Bush with the ability to speak coherently.

Cld anyone evaluate that the rulers-owners of america wld have two contrarious agents in congress??

Or two set of gangsters—also known as public servants—contras and pros.

Which always vote for warfare in a ratio of 500 to two.
How ab the healthcare—the new improved one; especialy for some people? How many pols voted for that quagmire.
I understand the bill is 3k pages long; so make it 3 k quagmires+ swamps, fens, bogs, etc. tnx

Anarcissie, July 18 at 11:27 am

Are you certain that you are looking in the right places? Admittedly, there is not a nationwide commitment to political activism and progressive change but there are those who toil on, in small yet somewhat linked groups, and refuse to be discouraged or swayed by current public apathy.

” All truth passes through three stages; First, it is ridiculed’ second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.” Arthur Schopenhauer

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” Sam Adams

“Is it ignorance or apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care!”  Jimmy Buffet ( OK a little humor…very little)

ardee, July 17 at 11:12 am:

‘The real message , one that Mr. Robinson and others avoid, is the neither party represents the people of this nation. Thus neither party deserves your vote.

Until and unless we see a significant representation in Congress by third party members who are not in total thrall to the corporate monies that elected all our current representatives whether GOP or Dem the people of this nation will have no voice in our government.’

Quite so.  However, I’m not seeing any activity of this sort, so I take it people like things the way they are, in spite of all the whining and crying here and elsewhere.

I’ll probably wind up voting for one of my cats.

It matters not if the Captain of the $hip is a Democrat-rat or a Repub-lie-con. A whore is a whore is a whore! And a $ociopath is a $ociopath. Especially in $ewertown (a.k.a.: Washington D.C.).

Forget the playbook. The $hip of $tate is $inking! The $ystem is completely broken in no vacation nation. It can’t be fixed. Too fukin’ late! As I learned in the $ovietnam War era, “we gotta burn down the village in order to save it.”

I am not a pessimist! I am a ‘Coyote’... a hard core realist that eschews denial. Unlike most consumer citizens in KKKristian Zionist Amerika (a.k.a.: “Israel’s bitch!”), I don’t think sheep! I eat sheep!

Presently… faster poo-food Amerikans are on the Titanic (with too much health INSURANCE and too little health CARE)... as the great $hip $inks off the coast of Easter Island! So… let the shooting begin! And we can start with Amerika’s ruling class (Goldman $acks, the Federal Reserve Bank, corp-rat talk show hosts, etc.). Ol’ Coyote wants a pound of flesh from the ruling class… and I want to roast that flesh (and the flesh of their children) over the flames of burning mansions!

There is an old Russian adage that goes (when translated into English) “The worse, the better!” This adage makes me think it would be rrrighteous KKKarma to let the Repub-lie-cons have their way. Listen up! If you want to destroy somebody or usurp an enemy, give them everything they want! Everything! In the end… they shall get what they deserve! Behold! See the $eeds that the UNITED $TATES OF PERPETUAL WAR PROFITEERING has $own all across the world. Is it any wonder why Amerika is so hated?

My job is to ‘espeak’ truth to you and also to the ewe folk KKKrackers out there! Well… this is it!

I’ve come up with a winning political campaign for Republicans.  Since they go ballistic over the deficit, big government, taxes, government regulations and illegals, they should first off be out calling for an end to the Food and Drug Administration, a bloated, government in my pantry and medicine cabinet, department that serves no purpose other than seeing that the food I buy or the drugs I take don’t kill me.  And, it’ll put illegals to work and off the dole - which, of course, they’re not on but who’s talking.

This is how it’ll work.  We law abiding citizens, faced with food that might poison us or drugs that might zap our vital organs can hire illegals to sample same first.  If the illegal drops dead, he’s served his purpose.  AND, what an efficient way to rid us of illegals.  Sort of like killing two birds with one stone?

Reformation of the Democratic Party impossible? I don’t know. I continue to be suspicious of this “spite vote” dialogue being spun out of MSM. Our vote slowed the Bushites in Congress and then turned over the White House. Republican Lite is a lot better than the full bodied Republican Corporate Fascism we had.

    Short of violent revolution, the results of our vote, is the only actual POWER we hold. Our actual desire and vision, mean nothing to the swine, Dem or Rethug. If we’ve slowed the hogs a little, it may give us the time we need, to save what’s left of our lives. I say: WIPE THE REPUBLICANS OUT!! They’ve used any means possible to stop progress. Plus, it’ll wipe out the final Dem ability to lay blame. Then we can look at new candidates.

    World population, GCC and financial failure are going to introduce cataclysm into this century on a scale we cannot imagine. The Gulf Disaster is only the beginning. HOLD THE LINE!!  The POWER is ours. We’re in a war. Slow and steady, until we can get a captain with the courage to implement our vision.

Democrats need to tattoo these two graphs to their forehead this election season and keep banging the drum that conservative economic policy is a failure:

http://thedonkeyedge.com/2010/07/16/meg-lies-and-videotape/

Democrats need to tattoo these two graphs to their forehead this election season and keep banging the drum that conservative economic policy is a failure:

bit.ly/bMSdrs

Having watched Republicans mentally try to warp space and time, to apolgize for Bush’s nightmare reign, the proof that the Democratic party is exactly the same as the Republican, is their effort to do the same for Obama.

Maybe it would have been a good idea to actually do something while they were in office. To actually pass real financial reform, real health care reform, to really end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to really offer change and hope.

To be real. What a concept.

Instead all we have are cosmetic change, false hopes and larceny, in the form of tax payer bailouts of Wall Steet, and the entrenchment of Goldman Sacks into our government.

Maybe the Democrats can, once again, manipuliate the public in time to avoid disaster, after all that’s how they got into office, isn’t? So of course that’s what they believe in B.S.

It’s doesn’t take much effort to guess just what they will say and do. Like voting for the lesser of two evils, or Bush was in power for almost two decades, you can’t turn that around in 18 months.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, take your pick, American’s now have the results of what the Democrats have done, which they can use to decide whether or not to vote Democratic, not just their promises. 

I’m sure that the Democrats along with president Obama will make some eloquent speeches, in defense of their honor, yet in the end all their rationalizations will boil down to just making excuses for not doing what they were elected to do.

The real message , one that Mr. Robinson and others avoid, is the neither party represents the people of this nation. Thus neither party deserves your vote.

Until and unless we see a significant representation in Congress by third party members who are not in total thrall to the corporate monies that elected all our current representatives whether GOP or Dem the people of this nation will have no voice in our government.

We must be approaching another election campaign. Just as the government uses the fear of terrorism to keep all us underlings in line, so to do the political pundits start banging the big fear drum called “We could LOSE…” whenever an election rolls around. You’ll note that they seldom explain what is so damn scary about that since there isn’t a definable difference between the policies of the two major parties.

What will happen? Millions will lose there jobs and their homes and the feds will refuse to extend benefits? The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other countries we may invade will suddenly get BIGGER? Guantanamo won’t be closed? Tuition cost will double? Decent Health Care will suddenly implode?

Truth is folks, these things are happening today, were happening before, and will not end whether the Dems or the Repugs are in power. The only difference Obama has achieved is putting a Black Face on our failure to address our problems. No matter which major Party wins, the multitude of crisis we face will only become more difficult to solve.

Along with the other links posted about alternatives to Eugene Robinson’s plea to knuckle under and just keep ambling along the path to disaster as we whistle to keep away the goblins, I suggest you read The latest edition of The Black Agenda.

The lead editorial: Black American Politics in the 21st Century: Is It Time For A New Plan? By Bruce A. Dixon; http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/black-american-politics-21st-century-it-time-new-plan

Dixon suggests that Robinson is touting a status quo that has already failed its strongest supporters. And, as you read Dixon’s editorial, simply substitute ‘Working Class’ for ‘Black’ voters and citizens, and you will feel right at home. Many of us have felt excluded by the Democratic Party since they evolved into Republican Lite. And, many of us, like Dixon, have ‘been there and done that’, when it comes to reforming the Democratic Party from within!

If Democrats lose in the Nov elections it will be their own damn fault. These mainstream Democrats had to be dragged kicking and screaming into enacting the tepid “reforms” we have so far seen. When Democrats offer a progressive vision of America and fight back against the Right-wing, they win elections. When they behave like Republican-Lite, why would anyone vote for them when they can have the real thing?

Well, indeed we do know that the Republican recipe for our economy does not work.  And if we have any brains at all we know that Obama’s continuation of most of the worst of those policies won’t work either (see the recent health-care ‘reform’ sell-out for ample evidence, though a half-dozen additional major issues offer it as well).

So what difference will the November elections make?  Well, if we kick out the Republicans (as we did in 2006 and 2008) we can be pretty sure of just more of the same from the Democrats (and from the minority Republicans as well).  But if we kick out the Democrats (as they so richly deserve), there’s a least a CHANCE that they’ll learn that they can’t hold office without producing worthwhile results (and if they refuse to learn that, and we keep kicking them hard, then a political vacuum may open up that a more-deserving progressive third party can grow to occupy).

To recapitulate:  kick out more Republicans, no change; kick out Democratic incumbents and KEEP them out, potential for change (possibly as early as 2012).

I’ll be voting Republican nationally in November for the first time since I reached voting age in 1968 even though I may wind up vomiting in the booth as a result (it’s a price that I’m willing to pay for my country).

But that’s not something that a confirmed Obama apologist is likely to be able to wrap their mind around, Eugene - so I won’t hold that against you.

To me, it is of utmost importance for my sanity to keep in mind that the robbery by some people of most other people came before taxation

In US, robbery also came before taxation. But people only or mostly talk ab taxation.
And the robbers, having now more than others who wldn’t or cldn’t engage in stealing, forever complaining ab being robbed—tho a bit only; means one game of golf less a yr.

But the pol 1,2,3,x wants his cut also; so, the ‘robbings’ of robbers must be tiny.
And the tinier they get, the more they worry ab them rising once again.

And circlelike talk goes on and on!
How did people of, say, 10k yrs ago got rich? There was only cudgels, spears, stone knives, hoes available.
And the wealth only came from using those tools. There is only one plausible explanation: a mafia arose compelling people to share with them their goods, but in excess of waht they actually needed and having selves been tillers, hunters, fishers.

And the mafia never left the twn. tnx

glider,

Mr. Robinson was not making a “MUCH BROADER POINT”.  You are making a much broader point.

Please return to the article above.  The first two paragraphs of the Robinson column was in regards to the subject of tax cuts to the rich and unemployment compensation.  It was the immediate third paragraph in which I took his quote from. - Tax cuts to the rich is the topic I took umbrage with.

-

You may have missed me writing how I agree with you on the disparity of wealth in the world.

Oness of it all! There are indeed pol 1,2,3,4,5,6,x, but only one congress, flag, constitution, prez, masterclass, army, cia, fbi, city police, banksters.

If there were another set of pols: pols y,z1,k3, m,mi, et al and either in cogress 2 or part of congress 1 i wld gladly u tell u that.

Alas, alack, damn it, there is only congress 1, ruling class 1, army 1, judiciary 1, etcetc.

Strange, tho, there are—sorting broadly now—a set of americans we may deem and call americans 1; followed by americans 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9, and mybe ten.

Wld prisoners be sorted as a tenclass?
So unless u do not get two congresses {in same building or the second one in tents under the sky; u’r living in a free and just society; so, u decide!}
or two armies, what is going to happen?

No, i don’t predict—only fools like issaiah, obadiah, moshe do that—but u can. No, i won’t call u a fool! So go ahead!
How ab me ? Well i an class 5 canadian. tnx

We will know the first week of October when the September unemployment figures come who will control congress in 2011. In Feb 2009 when Obama and the dems took control the unemployment rate was 8.2 %

If the Sept 2010 figure is higher than that the dems will and should loss control. Between now and November the most hopeful assessment have heard puts the unemployment figure above 9%

The voters will realize that the repub may have drove the economy into the ditch , but the dems are driving it off a cliff.

Go Right Young Man,

You were commenting on the following article quote:

“We gave their approach an eight-year trial under George W. Bush—basically, squeeze money out of the middle class and transfer it to the upper class,.....”

Eugene was making a MUCH BROADER POINT that is supported by the income disparity data that occurred post Reagan under Republicans (I won’t argue the Dems are much better) and to which I linked.

It is you who went on to focus in on nit picking rhetoric the political rhetoric Democrats and others use to argue for allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.  If you want to talk generally about dishonest political semantics in the USA the Republican party has no peer.

Who are all these nay-sayers predicting the decline of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY in
the mid-term elections? November is still 4 months away. Voters are a wishy
washy fickle-minded bunch. When Democrats start laying down the law during
elections in every districts and the open Senate seats, we’ll see Democrats in full
control of both houses. At one point during FDR’s administration, the Senate
Republican presence was reduced to 17 seats. I call that sweet. If it doesn’t
happen in 2010, then watch the coat-tail effects in 2012 and we see a serious,
long-lasting realignment to the Left. Time for all the billionaires to start funneling
their wealth to illegal offshore accounts.

glider, July 16 at 1:09 pm

My comments here were in regards to “tax cuts to the rich”.  You are going on about a different subject.  One in which I largely agree with you on.  But, again, that is not the subject I was opining on.

You tell me.  Can people who pay no income tax receive an income tax break?

You tell me.  If every person who pays income tax gets an across the board tax break how can any curious individual honestly call this a break for the “rich”?

Go Right Young Man,

Yeah yeah yeah, you don’t like progressive tax rates and making the wealthy, the biggest beneficiaries of our society, contribute more on a percentage basis to the greater good.  Big surprise, as consensus Republican Party policy is dictated by whether it further enriches the elite of society or not period.

Take a look at these charts of the growing gap between the very rich and the rest of the people.  The very rich have strong influence with politicians are able to rig the system to increase their wealth.  This is inherit in our system.  Also do some comparison with our taxes versus other countries.

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1

My question to you is at what gap would you be satisfied and want to give less wealthy people a break?

The Democrats has a super majority and they pretended like they were an embattled minority. They spent years decrying the Bush-era terror policies and then got into power and expanded them. They have failed to constrain Wall Street, corporate profits are up while main street still rots, they are allowing the unemployed to be tossed under the bus, and soon the President’s own cat food commission will tell us we have to decrease Social Security benefits so we can both continue to bomb wedding parties in Pakistan and keep rich people from paying taxes.

In a funk? What? Who would vote for these fuckers? They were supposed to offer an alternative to Republican policies, not make them whole.

Eugene Robinson - “We gave their approach an eight-year trial under George W. Bush—basically, squeeze money out of the middle class and transfer it to the upper class,.....”

-

Try to understand Mr. Robinson.  The tax cuts you write of were for everyone.  Every income-tax paying American got the same percentage in cuts.  That, if you failed to grasp the idea, was why it was called an “across the board” tax reduction.

Try to understand Mr. Robinson.  If you give tax cuts to anyone, you will, necessarily, be cutting taxes for the top 50% of income earners.  Those actually paying an income tax.

Try to understand Mr. Robinson.  The top 50% of income earners pay 96% of all income taxes going to the Treasury.

Try Mr. Robinson.  Try and grasp the reality of the situation.  You cannot give income tax cuts to people who are not paying income taxes. 

Try to grasp an idea past your partisan ideology, Eugene.  Try to be a great deal more curious.  Try not repeating every liberal/progressive/democratic talking point you happen to hear.  Ask some questions from time to time.

“TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH” is a great slogan and bumper sticker.  Very useful in Washington.  It’s not a reflection of reality, however.  No matter how many times you mindlessly repeat it.

This was insightful and appreciated, except that the admonishment for Dems to “get over themselves” really has no tangible meaning. Poor ending to an otherwise good article.

Re Robinson: “I happen to believe that Obama and his party have established a remarkable record of achievement.”

And I believe Kevin Drum may have said it best yesterday in his “good/bad news” commentary on the so called financial overhaul:

“I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you today:

. . . the good news: this record of progressive accomplishment officially makes Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years.

. . . the bad news: this shoddy collection of centrist, watered down, corporatist sellout legislation was all it took to make Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum

I guess one cannot always have great-happy economy and also the Greatness of America, best ever freedoms, greatest military, greatest pols; oops, public servants, best jurisprudence, media, schools, etc.

The bitch, called economy, just seems to have a mind of its own.
To make matters worse, it is no longer of listening age!

The economy, seems to exist also per se and of self; disconnectedly from all people and some people who are losing jobs, homes and multim’naires and b’naires getting richer.

I understand that a few old wise men run the economy.
By wise, i mean to say that when u look into their eyes and at their solemn faces, they look saintly and not just wise.

So, i was wrong in saying that the BITCH is not connected to some dogs; oops, people—it is but only to a few wise men.

Maybe we can get a few wise housewomen in there? I can help, too. tnx