LIBERALS aren't going to shut up and take it this time!

First of all, KUDOS to Speaker Pelosi for boldly standing her ground, both in terms of continued leadership and in clearly saying NO to Republican bullies regarding tax cuts for the wealthy.


And second, today's Washington Post had two pieces about liberals and where we are right now - so good to know that liberal groups aren't about to shut up or go away!


Excerpt from: "Liberals will urge Obama not to cave to Republicans" by Perry Bacon Jr.

"Democrats are not going to be a rubber stamp for deals cuts with the Republicans in the House or the Senate," said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "Part of the battering we got was about not being able to show our base we had done enough."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/11/AR2010111107601.html


And from: "The Party of Woe" by Eugene Robinson

"What I'm hearing is frustration, and it's getting louder. I'm hearing the view that the Obama administration, which has done much good, can do better - by speaking clearly, standing its ground - and, when pushed by bullies, shoving back."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/11/AR2010111107404.html

I love Nancy now, at one time annoyed because on not impeaching shrub.

...saying they cannot cave - also a great man!

push back against enemies, not friends.

can rec/unrec. We do it for PM's & OP's, why not rec and unrec? It might alleviate a little bit of the problem.

infestation, IMO.

to weed them out here. Something serious has to be done. Cannot rid DU of all of them but there a lot of them since the recent election.

If we get extended Bush cuts, it will be Pelosi's fault.

Whos performance has been less than stellar thus far.

damn dupes

And 'Blue Dogs' ripped at her legs to tear her down.

Sorry, it won't work.

to extending tax cuts for Rich Bastards

:eyes:

Obama said he is against PERMANENTLY extending the tax cuts for the rich. Huge difference! From Obama's permanent position of bending over in front of Republicans he will push for a two year extension of the tax cuts for the rich, which will magically (right before the 2012 election) turn into permanent tax cuts for the rich. Then like Claude Rains, Obama will be SHOCKED!

My God! For the sake of all that is holy! Force the Republicans to face their hypocrisy for demanding huge tax cuts for the rich (which haven't created jobs) which add billions to the deficit, and their craven demands to decrease the deficit! Cut Social Security to pay for tax cuts for the fucking rich?? Geeeeze! Put Chance the Gardener on the podium behind the presidential seal and even he could make the case which should be a no brainer for a Democratic president!!!!

the tea partiers say the same thing

no bigger voice than voting and they pissed it away

...than centrists?

.. source, it's no wonder why you buy silly propaganda.

Dem Governor. Dem Senator. Destroyed three conservative amendments by more than 70%.

We didn't stay home.

and did so overwhelmingly for the Democrats.

It was your peeps, you know those high and mighty "centrists" and "moderates," who did show the biggest percentile swing towards the GOP.


But of course, that will not stop you "moderates" from blaming "liberals" for your own gross mistakes and behavior. Which is funny, because throwing rocks around is not really that advisable for those of you living in those massive glass temples of projection.

...and why the Blue Dog candidates lost so gloriously.

Eat that.

and those in my circle here in Cali as well.

The Dems really took a beating here in AZ. The few Dems we managed to hang onto here are liberals like Grijalva, Gifford. I don't think any other state was hit as hard as ours. Very depressing.

The cancer is within nominally Democratic ranks. It is exemplified by the failure to aggressively protect Social Security and Medicare, failure to politically make the case for a public option, and, crucially, a failure to restore Glass-Steagall and clean the financial house.

Since Obama has been President, there is not one time that anyone has shut up
about any of it....right, wrong, whispered, rumored, whatever......
the yelling has been going on for a long, long time.

If the G.O.P. could pick our party's leaders, they would not pick Nancy.

I think I'll send her a thank-you. We need to let her know we've got her back on this one, no?

drilled into Americans' heads. It's very simple. Has Obama said the same thing?

thing about self applied labels, you can apply them to yourself even when you don't know what they mean.

Liberals don't support tax cuts for the rich, no matter how temporary.

Liberals don't settle for HCR without addressing the core problem of cost.

Liberals don't accept financial regulations that fail to close loopholes that caused our economic meltdown.

People who accept centrist legislation might call themselves liberals, but we others know where they really fall on the spectrum.

You know, the 19th century form of it. :-)

Many of the 'sensible centrists' posting at D.U. would actually have been very comfortable as John Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller 'liberal Republicans.' There is no place for truly secular liberal Republicans in today's rightwing nearly fascist Republican Party. So they have no 'home'.

They have entered the right fringe of the Democratic Party. They are still laissez faire globalist semi-conservatives. They are not comfortable with the FDR/Truman Democratic policies.

And they are fighting to make FDR Democrats appear to be the 'Commies' and marginilise us.

I wish they'd GO BACK to their home party and reform it. Because they are dragging Democrats into a sinkhole which alienates the working class.

Let them go deal with the Teabaggers that they have much more in common with than they do REAL Democrats, ie: Liberals.

:wtf:

plenty of Dems who are neither liberal nor progressive. You sound more like a neo-liberal, which isn't the same thing as a liberal or progressive.

however, i realized a long time ago this country is not going to elect politicians very far to the left. therefore i am not going to go into a rage because the democratic party is center-left.

i think a lot of the rage here is hyperbolic, and many people are projecting their worst feelings about the political situation directly onto the president, while giving the make-up of both the electorate and congress a pass.

a quick example would be the health care bill and single payer. while that was MY personal preference, according to bernie sanders it had around 5 votes in the senate. so while i support the fact we made some progress with what was passed, i don't think it was that good of a bill. but i'm not going to declare obama the second coming of reagan, and quit the Dems over it.

i also think people are going off half cocked over the tax and deficit commission issues.

First, I would love single payer, but liberals and progressives knew that it wasn't a reality. What was a possibility was a public option. How much of a possibility? Good enough that 77% of the public backed such an idea. I am also against mandates. But I am for imported generic drugs from countries like Canada.

Who ran on that platform? Obama did.

Now, as leader of the Democratic party, it is Obama's job to sell the message. But this bill was a foreshadowing of how Obama would handle his legislative agenda.

Not only did Obama fail to sell the message, he allowed the Republicans to frame the message and dominate the conversation. He kept waiting for Congress to get it done, that is until he figured out that Congress wasn't going to get it done. By the time Obama finally opened his mouth his 77% support had evaporated to less than 40%. Obama had also lost all control of the message.

Let us also not forget all the backroom deals with corporations that were made for the HCR bill.

:applause:

most of today's Dems. Among other things, he was a champion of the bill of rights and, in fact, had the first victory in Congress against the House Un-American Activities Committee. Much like what we're seeing now, committee chair Francis Walter tried to weasel his Industrial Securities Bill through the House. Under it, certain government workers could be accused & fired with no recourse -- no appeals, no right to confront their accusers, etc.

As Nat Hentoff wrote:



Shit, we could use more with that kind of chutzpa now!

He was at the forefront of civil rights, he was against the Vietnam war when it was unfashionable to be against it. As his incredibly inaccurate NY Times obituary (he wasn't broke at his death, among other things....this NY Times piece REALLY pissed his family off because it was so untrue!) noted, "Unlike politicians who criticized antiwar protests and civil rights marches, he joined them." That much is true, as is the paragraph below:



I remember when the kids were killed at Kent State. Lindsay suffered the wrath of the right when he lowered the flags over city hall to half-staff.

He and Rockefeller were constantly butting heads -- it's inaccurate to put them in the same "liberal" class.

Yeah, just 'cause the cat has her kittens in the oven doesn't mean we call them biscuits! They're still kittens.:rofl:

sad. :crazy:

no red meat, not even rice and beans, or a good salad, for that matter.

Both on the micro and macro levels.

NNNGU!

I have had it.

I just lost my job and am over all this bullshit.

:patriot:

:kick:

I hate it, but it sounds like he's setting us up for a temporary extension of tax cuts for the wealthy. How long? Two years until the 2012 election? Another ten years? I don't know, but I'm afraid it's coming.

I really, really hope I'm wrong about this.

and not play the progressives. I am sick of the bait and switch. Pelosi comes back to the progressives and says something like, 'We just don't have the votes for progressive legislation, we have to hold our noses and vote for a severely compromised piece of crap bill or we won't get anything at all.' I am sick to death of this tactic, and will only believe her when I see the proof in her actions. Remember Health Insurance Deform? We have got to hold her feet to the fire and deliver real consequences to sellouts.

Liberals haven't shut up, they've just been marginalized and it's time to do something about it.

Click here to go back to the main forums.

there is frustration mounting from within. When I see Dems trying to tear down Pelosi it makes me even more suspicious as to who's side they really are on. Mr President the balls in your court, use it or lose it.

Obama apologists drive me nuts. I'm not saying he hasn't done some good things around the edges but all in all he's been Mr. Triangulator, out Clintoning Clinton. This is a man who right out the gate shot straight right across the political spectrum with his high profile appointments. That's continued without a doubt, look at some of the wingnuts on the recent Debt Commission.

So...good on Pelosi, Grijalva, Sanders and others who are standing strong, power to the people. It would be great if Obama joined in but I'd faint if he did.

1) Lapse ALL Bush era tax cuts.

2) Lapse ALL under $250K (remembering that they already got the same tax cuts UNDER this point as everyone else...)

3) Lapse ALL under $1M (remembering that they already got the same tax cuts UNDER this point as everyone else...)

Let the thugs defend tax cuts for the millionaires. Let them cry about "job killing agendas" and let them try to present the plan to hack away at Social Security and Medicare while leaving tax cuts for the rich and unfettered defense spending sacrosanct.

Make them vote on it too, if they threaten a filibuster, BREAK THE FILIBUSTER! Make them stand on the floor of the Senate and read the Bible or the phone book or the list of millionaires that are demanding additional tax cuts above and beyond what everyone else gets. Then hit record and start running it in a non-stop loop, every night as a campaign ad with the sub-title "Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?"

Seeing as none of this is going to happen, its pretty goddamn clear who is REALLY in power and its not "Obama the uber-liberal" as the noise machine at that channel that shall not be named would have you believe...

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/8/20/17111/5223

Pelosi: “There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option”

I now prepare myself for the inevitable..."we tried but we just don't have the votes" or momentum/loud enough voices/stamina/ability to communicate our position properly to at least embarass the Repukes into defending their "just say no" mantra.

Wonder want he is going to do? Wonder what the bluedogs are going to do?