The very title and first line of this article is an insult.  For TWO YEARS prior to Obama’s election, the Dims held both Houses.  And what did they do?  Cave in to nearly every demand of George Bush!

They could have stopped the elevation of Alito and, more importantly, John Roberts, and, even more importantly, several appeals court judges but they were afraid of Dick Cheney throwing out Senate rules and demanding an up or down vote bypassing cloture.

Now that Dims have DOMINANT control of both Houses, AND a Democratic President, they are STILL laboring in terror of Republicans and “Blue Dog” Dims.  It’s like they learned NOTHING from the loss of both Houses resoundingly in 1994.  You actually have to GET STUFF DONE!

More importantly you have to get stuff done THAT PEOPLE ELECTED YOU TO GET DONE!

Nobody with any sense believes you’ll get it all done, or that it will be the “perfect” bill, but dammit, at least the GOP knew how to muster the troops and keep them in line to GET STUFF DONE (albeit incredibly stupid, fascist, shitty stuff).

I’m not thrilled with Obama’s performance so far. I would VERY much liked to have seen him
1) issue executive orders reversing Bush’s EOs
2) Propose repealing the Patriot Act, the MCA, and the revised FISA, since the first two are fascist and the last was FINE under the 1978 law.
3) Stop signing statements
4) Uncover and fire the Bush political appointees who “moled” into the Civil Service where they remain a cancer.
5) Go after the banks, bankers and WS folks who knowingly gamed the system.
6) Propose legislation to seriously re-regulate the banking and investment industries.
7) Allow investigations of the crimes of the last 8 years to proceed.

All this COULD have been done in his short tenure.

OTOH, Obama has
1) Eased off tensions in many trouble spots, particularly Iran and Korea.  Despite the rhetoric, I think both regimes there are not only breathing a sigh of relief, they are actually open to diplomacy.
2) Relieved our friends and allies that a far more thoughtful and less “punch ‘em in the eye” leadership is in charge.
3) Put stim $$ to SOME good.  Rather rapidly we have moved through this economic crisis and, finally, the most important trailing indicator, unemployment, is moving in the right direction. (I’m hoping this week will end my OWN unemployment situation—those who wish me well, and those who wish me gone from TD should BOTH cross their fingers—I’ll be very, very busy and won’t post much).
4) Brought GOP racism out of the closet so it’s the COP (Caucasian-Only Party) not the GOP.

The inaction and failures fall most heavily on the Dims, particularly in the Senate where there are now 60 Dim and independent votes to over-ride cloture.

But, all the Nader dreamers, as usual, think their guy is Jesus personified….NOT!

He’s still an egotistical maniac.

teadrinker, August 10 at 7:19 am
.............................

You do not note how long you have been a member. Once you have a history you will see a faster response time. Of course, posting relevence helps, and this is not the place for such as you have posted.

Please excuse the bad link posted below, but the piece can be found at the Wikipedia entry on Rosa Clemente.

There is a peaceful path to positive change.  Live simply and sustainably.  You know the drill. 

Once the bail out bubble bursts, about twenty five trillion dollars, we will be in a very deep depression. Food, water, medicine, and energy will be in short supply. 

Some of us have already been changed in the crucible while others are just now approaching it.  We must all pass through it and emerge a changed people. 

Here is the real issue.  When the depression takes hold, the pols will force us into greater wars to end political criticism.  Will you support war or will you support peaceful change?  That is the real question at hand.

re: Paul_Ga

You are kidding? Rosa Clemente has simply found her niche in that cottage industry known as race relations. Some might say she is “keeping it real”, but real to what? Her so-called hip-hop community?
This is ridiculous.
http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2006/01/rosa-clemente-one-jesus-hip-hop-and.html

As a member, I’ve yet to see my comment (immediately) posted on a topic. I wonder what the trouble could be?

My message is simple. We live in a defacto military dictatorship via the NSA, CIA, etc. that carefully manipulate our perceptions of reality. Create the perception of a free America, in reality, an anesthesized, passive and broken-spirited America. Nader says cut more fat out of the military; they are bleeding our country. If I was a politician that really moved against the military, bad things would start happening with my career, and’lobbyists’ from the various branches of the military, Intel community would feed my political aspirations, and projects and show me the ghost of my political future if I really try to fight them. They have your name and number, and we live in a state of fear. Example: Imagine how many demolition experts wondered about how the buildings went down in 911. If any of those large companies made any public statements questioning the facts, bad things would start happening to those individuals, companies and contracts would suddenly go south. Get the point?

“We owe Ralph Nader,  Cynthia McKinney and the Green Party an apology. They were right.”

I once believed that the refusal by many progressives to see the Democratic Party for what it is, complicit as is the GOP in the creeping fascism that overtakes our nation, came from a sense of loyalty that Americans have in their institutions. I now believe that it may be a genuine lassitude and selfishness sponsored by our artificial lifestyle paid for on the backs of much of the world.

Those like Nader, who speak truth to politics and see through the myth of our Democracy, are far too few to accomplish much. How to spark the majority of Americans to rise up from their couches, turn off their TV’s and take to the streets to salvage that which our Founders created remains a mystery.

I would second oldhip, August 10 at 4:40 am in that we deserve what is coming. I recall, shortly after 9/11, in a heated discussion on Democratic Underground, one wise old fellow named Pocho, in response to the question,“why were we attacked?”; simply responded,“because we had it coming”. He was ejected from that forum as were a number of progressives who increasingly saw the Democrats as part of the problem instead of the solution.

Ms. Clemente would’ve been a darn sight better than either Mrs. Palin, or Biden, for that matter, Beerdoctor. Take it from a disillusioned former Repub—to paraphrase Cactus Jack Garner, FDR’s first vice-president, neither of the two major parties (which are really ONE party cleverly disguised as two) is worth a bucket of warm spit ...

When Hedges states that we owe Cynthia Mckinney and the Green Party and apology, I must laugh. Ms. McKinney’s vice presidential running mate Rosa Clemente was as qualified for the job as the Governor of Alaska.

“The president refuses to acknowledge the obvious—we can no longer afford our empire.” More importantly, he and most other Americans across the narrow political spectrum refuse to acknowledge the even more obvious - our empire can no longer afford us. And it never really could, all along. So if there is ever any change that’s going to come to Amerika, it’s going to be forced upon it by outside actors. “‘Obama could raise a call to come home, America, from the military budget abroad,’ Nader suggested. ‘He could create a new constituency that does not exist because’”....because it doesn’t exist! “Public values” are not “represented by workers, consumers, taxpayers and communities” despite the sterling ideals of a high-minded prophet like the admirable Mr. Nader. If everyone was like Nader it would be a far better world, but they’re not. Obama’s venal hypocrisy is not much different than that of his decadent constituency. The progressive dreamers go on deluding themselves that the American public is still basically good but that the elites keep misleading and failing them. But in reality the whole rotten society is of the same corroded character from top to bottom. Obama is only the latest rebarbative expression of the duplicitous American character. Obamania “acts as an anesthetic. It prevents us from facing” our own iniquity. And it was, more significantly, designed to do the same to foreign populations but they won’t be so easily deceived. So the battle will go on, the conditions essentially unchanged. As the always incisive Nader reminds, “I know only one thing for sure, the whole liberal-progressive constituency is going nowhere.” So that leaves it up to the heroic resistance movements around the world. Their fate - and ours - is in their hands.

By oldhip, August 10 at 4:40 am #

Yes, unfortunately it is of our making.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No one can predict the future,” Nader added hopefully. “No one knows the variables. No one predicted the move on tobacco. No one predicted gay rights. No one predicted the Berkeley student rebellion. The students were supine. You never know what will light the fire. You have to keep the pressure on. I know only one thing for sure, the whole liberal-progressive constituency is going nowhere.”

This is troublesome given the recent levels of orchestrated violence at town hall meetings. The coming demonstrations will not be you and I, but some brown shirt wannabes. We do live in interesting times, no?

I said it before, and I’ll say it again…

“We Deserve What Is Coming…”