We need to remember that we're all DU'ers. We're all hoping for the same outcome

but sometimes disagree about the right path to take to achieve said outcome. We come here though, and support DU, because we know what we hope the future to be. That alone makes us Brothers and Sisters in a cause we all know to be a righteous one.

Before I go any further, I owe DU'ers an apology. I made a statement about "The Pom Pom Squad" today, without thinking about how offensive or hurtful it may be. I apologize to ALL DU'ers for making that statement, not just those the statement was directed toward. I lowered the level of discourse, and am sorry. I will not use that phrase again.

Let me repeat: I will not use that phrase again.

There is a growing sense of discontent here, which is neither right nor wrong. Some DU'ers see black and white, and some see gray. Neither can be said to be correct in an absolute sense.

We're all still enthralled by the sense of hope brought about by the General Election of 2008. Some of us are impatient after what we've seen happen over the last 30 years, and believe that one single election cycle could bring instant change. Others are patient enough to understand that the kind of change we're hoping to see isn't, and could not be, instantaneous.

Many of us aren't even old enough to remember the disappointment we felt after the election of 1980. That doesn't matter though. We still share the same sense of what direction we'd like to see our country take on local and international matters.

We, as DU'ers, are "birds of a feather". Those DU'ers who are not are eventually weeded out. What's left is a group of people, not small by ANY standards, who wish to see the same outcome in the context of how our country is governed, and what face we show the world at large.

We need to take a step back and regroup. We need to take a deep breath. We need to join hands once again and get back to the reason we're all here.

Come, take my hand...

There's work to be done!


K&R

:patriot:

:D



:grouphug:

Many of those of us who are somewhat on the offensive are so because we are not impatient - we are knowledgeable.

When you see a drunk with a cigarette dangling from his mouth about to pump gas from he gas pump, you don't need to wait a minute to see the result. Nor five minutes. Or ten minutes. You know the nano-second that you see this how you better run like the dickens from the catastrophe in the works.

The second that Obama appointed Geithner and Bernanke we were in big trouble. A nation simply cannot hand over two trillion bucks to the Big Players on Wall Street, taking this money from Main Street and giving it away to Wall Street, and doing all this without a single meaningful regulation, and then expect results that will help out Main Street.

Then came all the President's "conciliatory" nonsense - meeting with the RW nutjobs at town hall meeting after town hall meeting. Meanwhile his staff demanded that any progressives who wanted to weigh in on the health care issues must pony up $ 30,000 to have a seat at a WH discussion lunch focusing on health care.

I don't want a pony - I simply think it deplorable that Obama's own personal physician of many years was denied a spot at the table because he didn't pony up 30k.

We have Monsanto clones at the FDA and at the Department of Agriculture. We had one amazing human as a top guy for the creation of green jobs, but Van Jones irked the Repugs so Obama let him resign.

We now have a government that has done just about everything it can to continue the rape and destruction of the middle incomed class. the fact that the President's adviser Axelrod came out this weekend and said that Obama is not that concerned about the fact that after all these months of health care reform, the new legislation does not even have a clause striking out the Anti Trust exemptions for the insurers.

We are screwn, and it has come about because of Americans liking image over action.

That was my point.

This household experienced a medical bankruptcy after depleting our retirement funds, after Kaiser Permanente mis-diagnosed my spouse.

After starving due to what Medical Bankruptcy did to my household, I will be damned if I have someone telling me to be nice about it.

Many of us remember an Amercia where it was more important to do the right thing than be nice.

Mayor Gavin Newsom (San Francisco) came out in a strongly worded, non-nice way that Prop 8 is wrong. And ya know what! Those were fighting words, and he'll find a way to help see that Prop 8 is history.

As traditionally, people who are too nice end up with NOTHING. No reform and a bunch of supporters who figure out that they are being betrayed.

The day that Michelle Obama has to eat One tortilla with A large slab of margerine because it is the only food in her fridge is the day I'll start being nice.

I can't disagree with a thing you wrote. Thank you.

a Phillies-Angels World Series.

Well, ask Jonathan Broxton at least...

I'm not one to believe in my DU right or wrong either.

There are no "we" on DU, just many us's. I would agree that many of us have similar core beliefs but with different priorities and agendas. As is seen here regularly there are those who find their issue is being ignored and out comes the scolds. Or if one person's agenda isn't identical to another's then the nuances become walls only good for shouting over and rarely breached. And then there are those who like to yank chains...to get a reaction for whatever reason and stir the shit.

What we're seeing is the end result of a party that has taken on many different interests and not all will be in synch. The list of needs, demands and reforms are long and there's an impatience that change isn't happening they way they like or as quick as they do...we're already seeing some who are ready to write this Administration off as a failure since they aren't quite dancing the way the writer would like. It's ironic to see some who decried the roughshot methods of the previous regime, yet expect President Obama to act in a similar fashion...and then when he doesn't he's compared with the past regime.

I just sit back and observe the yin/yang around here and its understandable some of the angst as chance takes time and the politics as usual in the beltway is maddening, but to me this symbolizes a job that still isn't completed. The 2008 election was a change in direction, but now it's to keep moving in the right direction...and that takes work and patience. It means if there are Democrats who don't quite vote the way msot of us would like, then to find candidates to challenge them...either through primaries or strength of numbers.

The joy of DU is there is no monolithic voice...no one set of talking points. It's a collection of passionate individuals who now are adjusting to the realities of being in power and its pitfalls. However, if there's one thing I've noticed at this place in my way too many years on DU, it's when elections roll around or the entire party is under attack, all the individuals do unite and good things happen.

Cheers...

and you will understand why some of us strong Democrats have pretty much had it with the Obama and hope bit. I still hang on to Obama's promises and hope but by a thread that becomes thinner each day.

How can Obama appoint a Bernanke to the Federal Reserve? How can Obama continue to employ Geithner and Summers after the mess into which they helped put the world economy? Does Obama have no ability to understand economics whatsoever? Is he just blindly following the advice of these Wall Street pawns?

And then there is torture -- no prosecutions or even sign of real investigations yet -- just hope and promises. Yet the future of civil rights in this country depends on whether we retain the right to remain silent. Until the torturers and those who authorized torture have been prosecuted, that right does not reliably exist.

Then there is the matter of wiretapping and snooping.

And, finally, we get to the wishy-washy stance of the Obama administration on health care reform. It's kind of a peek-a-boo game. Obama comes out and says he wants a public option -- but never defines what he means by that. Then he goes on national TV and says well the public option is optional not essential not so important. We have no idea where he really stands on that central issue.

I want what I have understood to be the ideals of the Democratic Party since the 1930s to be realized within my lifetime. That puts a time limit on things. So, no, I want the Democratic ideals to succeed. The extent that Obama and DUers also want that, I'm hoping for the same things you are. But, if you are willing to accept the fact that Bernanke bailed out the world without having to get a congressional authorization before doing so, then I'm not on your page.

Bernanke is a desperate man in a desperate position -- and he put himself there. Unfortunately, he also put our entire country "there." President Obama is making a huge mistake in renominating Bernanke to the Fed. The Fed needs to be audited and overhauled.

And we need to do everything legally possible to defend our constitutional rights -- including the right to remain silent -- which is violated every time a prisoner is forced to answer questions in the absence of a lawyer and which is especially violated by torture -- even just torture that does not cause death or permanent bodily or psychological injury.