Fucking Politics

I'd been looking for this Simpson Episode for some time and I do want to thank Alicublog for finding it for me.  It is true I'd wanted the video, but this is even more pithy I do believe.  The problem with it is that I sometimes think that I can just re-post this every day until the election and it about says it all.

A couple of points, first this Greenwald column about Obama's protection of the former "President" of Bolivia, wanted to stand trial in that country for ordering the killing of unarmed demonstrators and then this from Lawyers, Guns and Money (not everybody posting there is totally in the bag, just most) about how it appears as though the democrats are going all out for privatizing schools.  How is this so different then what the republicans seem to want to do?  Not a lot.  I do think that the ACA is probably better then the health care that exists in this country right now, (which is interesting since it has been the law for some time, but it hasn't yet totally kicked in [wonder why?]) but not a lot and the cost will simply put us more in debt to the various corporations that already rule us.

How different are the parties?  Clinton wanted to gut Social Security and Lewinsky prevented that (he needed all the allies he could get to stay in office), Bush wanted to gut Social Security and the democrats rose as one against him and prevented it, now Obama wants to gut Social Security and the democrats seem more then willing to go along as long as it is a democrat who wants to do it.

Punishing bankers, waging war, blindly supporting Israel, punishing whistle blowers (well alright that seems to be mostly an Obama thing).

There are things that are peripheral that Obama has been forced to accomplish (and good for those who didn't listen when told to back off). But when this issues involve money and empowerment of the wealthy there is not much if any difference between the parties.

The economic well being of the general population strikes me as the core of any kind of democratic (semi or otherwise) government and this is unfortunately the one thing that both the republicans and democrats agree about.  More money to the very wealthiest (and jobs for their kids) and fuck the rest of you.  So when I say peripheral I do not mean to denigrate the issues of race or women's rights or or LGBT rights, but without a fairly strong economy the majority (that would be us white males no matter what the census tells you) will be encouraged to blame their economic woes on the bitches, niggers and faggots, and a lot of them will.  So those hard won rights might just find themselves defenestrated thank you very much.

I Think That We Just Need To Compromise Some More

Henry Clay, the (really) Great Compromiser

I thought about putting Obama's acceptance speech up, but then I thought fuck it.  If you want to see it you can go somewhere someone gives a shit.

I should also say that I suspect that if Romney wins, then the democrats will lurch to the right because that is obviously where the votes are.  On the other hand if Obama wins then expect the democrats to lurch to the right because that is obviously where the votes are.  Or at least that is what the "smart" money keeps telling me about where the votes are.  If Obama loses it will be my fault because I am a progressive and I didn't get out and work for him and said mean things about him.  Although I will not be as much at fault as Glenn Greenwald, because he says really mean things about Obama and more people read him (Krugman on the other hand is an economist who doesn't believe in austerity and so no body cares what he says). If I work for Obama and  Obama wins I will not have caused it or helped in any way.  He will have won because America is conservative and we (progressives/liberals) must understand that.

I think in all probability life will be worse under Romney for the next four years.  But to be honest I'm not sure that things will be that much different over the slightly longer haul if Obama wins.   All of the horrors people keep pointing out that will occur with another republican administration will probably happen anyway within ten or fifteen years even with a democrat in the White House.  Short, of course, of some cataclysm that we don't clearly foresee.

Now that Obama has made it clear that he still wants his Grand Bargain  no matter what (in the very same speech I said fuck it about up there a ways) we know that he really wants to cut Social Security, just probably not as much as Romney, well maybe not as much as Romney right at this minute.

One of the mantras of A.A. is:  "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."  I tend to believe that there are many different versions of insanity, but I do think that is certainly one of them.  So Obama is begging the republicans to meet with him and compromise, not exactly a new idea for him.  And one that really hasn't worked at all no matter what his goal really was.  The guy must think that the 1840s and 50s were the most wonderful times ever in American political history will all those great compromisers, which I'm sure Obama would have participated in with gusto, except of course Obama wouldn't have been able to compromise at that time since he would have been chattel.  And incidentally none of the compromises did anything at all to change that fact, it was only those who would not compromise who could fix that little problem.

So anyway apparently Obama is insane, or perhaps I am if I work and vote for him again and expect him to do anything more then give shit away to his corporate buddies.

Top Down Bottoms Up

The difference between the way the democrats treat their activist base and the way the republicans treat theirs is the difference between an activist base that is more or less built from the ground up and a base that is more or less built from the top down.

The republicans power structure built theirs, the most recent and obvious example are the tea parties, but they aren't really the first, from the top down. Where are the tea party protests now that the wealthy aren't busing in the half Gould would have been paying to kill the other half?  More or less no where.

For the most part the democrats base has been built from the bottom up.  The most obvious examples are unions.  Although they have been, from what I can tell, mostly corralled, still they are to a degree outsiders and are not completely directed by the party elite. The general rule is that the democratic base is built from the ground up and therefore must be denigrated by the powers that be or must be domesticated, (which is what has happened to the groups in the veal pen). .

Now this isn't to say that the republican fat cats are always going to get what they think they are going to get. The German conservatives were sure that they could control Hitler, after all.

Banned In China

I have a friend who is in China teaching.  She is also a friend of Larry who I posted about.  She asked me about the funeral and I gave her a link to this blog.  She tried to pull it up and found that it was blocked.  So I am now banned internationally.

On the other hand perhaps I shouldn't be that excited since I'm also banned in the Coshocton library.

Don't Touch My Junk

Reading a post on Greenwald's blog about the "Don't Touch My Junk" guy. The interesting thing is that it takes off from an article in The Nation which essentially smears the guy.

And strongly defends Obama. In reality The Nation has been nothing, but a well kept "leftist" piece of democratic infrastructure since at least 1996. Why do you ask do I say 1996?

Because I remember reading an article which was an attack piece on Dole at the time. The article attacked Dole for waiting to be drafted rather than leaving college and joining and then attacked him for not being appropriately wounded. He happened to get seriously wounded by being hit by an artillery shell (as did most) rather than heroically leading an assault on ........well something or the other.

They also were willing to cut and run on the single payer idea early on.

Oswald Garrison Villard would be very disappointed.

God I Hate This

Over the weekend I got a mailer from the SEIU telling me what a prick my congress man Zack Space for voting against HCR. Nearly contemporaneously Space sent an email telling folks that under no circumstances will he vote for lowering Social Security benefits (including raising the retirement age).

I called the SEIU this morning and got a person after several tried who said complaints was over there and sent me to a message machine. I called Space and told the person that given the SEIU mailer and his position on Social Security I would be voting for Space, although up until all this I was simply not going to vote.

I've been on a couple of blogs and made comments about the mailer, but no one has commented back on it.

My point is that it is a waste of money for the SEIU to send out something like this which will only depress the turn out of people likely to vote democratic in this house district, up and down the ticket. They could have spent this money on Mary Jo Kilroy in Columbus if they wanted to spend money in a congressional election in Ohio. I live in congressional district 18, Bob Ney's old district. The only real candidate running against Space is a conservative republican and if that candidate gets elected then he will be the representative here from now until the end of time (or until he is arrested, whichever comes first).

I didn't even go into the problems with HCR or about how it is a conduit for middle class income and taxes to be funnelled into the pharmaceutical and insurance industries in near unlimited amounts to help about half the people who are currently uninsured, fore instance.

But the over reaching point is that it seems that the union is not really thinking this thing through and has decided it must punish him for what is really a pretty poor reason, believe me there are a lot of reasons to dislike him. There are enough really serious problems with HCR, that this isn't one.

Unless of course it is a double reverse flip, and since HCR is so disliked sending out this mailer attacking Space for voting against HCR is a secret way to help him. Hmmmmmmmm?

UPDATE: Although my imput was important to them and they will get back to me as soon as they possibly can, they haven't been able to do so yet I guess they are pretty busy in the complaints and concerns section.

Every Time I Try To Get Out They Pull Me Back In

The attacks on Obama are really the only thing that makes me think that I might actually do more than just vote for the guy. The scum that is the Republican party at this point (Lieberman included) exeudes a stench that is so repellant that I feel like I've got to really do something.

The attacks are of course also coming from the media the whole thing is getting to me.

Politics

I'm feeling queasier and queasier about where this campaign is going. A few months ago Obama had to bat away Clinton's attacks. But her attacks were like gnats compared to what the Republicans are doing right now.

Although, given what happened to Kerry and Gore, Obama should have seen this coming a mile away. Lets face it, if they can attack the war record of a real hero while their own guy is a sit at home coward. Imagine what they will do when their guy is the hero (although as I've said before, I do not think that dropping bombs on civilians really qualifies one as a hero) and our guy doesn't have any military experience.

The amazing thing about this entire campaign is how little prepared Obama and his people seem to be for these kind of attacks. So different in violence and tone to Clinton's as to be different in kind. I think I go back to his dumping the DFHs as soon as he sealed up the nomination. Just sitting here in central Ohio I can see some of what needs to be done. Going to progressive/liberal/left wing blogs you get a large amount of very good advice.

I guess it is good that this is coming down right now. There seemed to be some belief by the Democratic powers that be that this campaign would be different than every other campaign since 1964.

I suppose the real question is: Is they educable?

My thoughts are that they are not and that he has to go elsewhere to get his support and advice. Well we will see.