no room for the weak: a tough & rough day for concerned Americans...

what...a fucking...day. here are my thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly from today.

the Good: Obama and his team have instituted real regulation on banks to stop their corrupt practices of using taxpayer money to take unnecessary risks for their own profits.

This is a victory for all americans, and should go far to help ensure a collapse like we've seen during the end of Bush's term, doesn't happen again. as I understand it, some of these rules are not dissimilar to the controls put on baks after the great depression.


the Bad: SCOTUS struck down a DECADES-old ruling, which restricted corporations from spending money on political campaigns.

So much for there not being 'activist republican judges' on the bench! This sucks for americans, and really, is just more proof of how corrupt the republican party is: we know the overwhelming majority of large corporations favor the Republican platform of tax sheltering, steering lobbies, and putting profits ahead of working americans. It's difficult to argue, w/ unfathomable precedences liek this, that we are not "a government for the corporations, of the corporations, and by the corporations."


the Ugly: The WH, Senate Dems and many other Americans were hoping to have the Senate healthcare reform bill passed by the House of Representatives within days or weeks, and get it to Obama's desk before the end of February. There were to be guarantees by President Obama, that the government would work on partnering w/ the house, immediately after signing bill into law, to satisfy some of their demands, and changes they wanted to make to the Seante's version. Why the rush? because the new GOP Senator from MA, Scott Brown, was going to vote against it, in effect killing it, due to Senate not having enough votes, by the time the House amended the Senate's version (this was a huge blunder by the Obama administration, to not put "high - priority" status on this MA senate seat, both to find a better candidate, and ensure a dem victory. No way in a thousand years does Hillary Clinton make this mistake). Pelosi announced today, ""In its present form without any changes I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," the speaker said. "I don't see the votes for it at this time. The members have been very clear." Moving forward, it's anyone's guess as to WHAT will happen next.

Guess what? The Senate's HCR bill sucked. I'm a Dem and deemed it week, and didn't want it to pass. Most progressives, many liberals, and hardcore Dems feel the same way. I consider this a win. Let them go back to the drawing board, and re-craft a REAL healtchare/insurance reform bill, that has a public option, no mandate, and (gasp!), perhaps even a single-payer plan! It will be better for ALL americans in the long-run!

So...what's the 'ugly' part? Do I really need to tell you? Let me (not) count the ways. In a nutshell, Republicans will use this to drub the democratic party into submission, for failing on their #1 goal, and they will win back many seats in the House and Congress this year, and almost lassuredly, the Presidency in 2012, along with more congressional seats.

This was ANOTHER mistake Obama and his team made, boren out of inexperience, to hang his entire presidency on passing HCR. NEVER, would Hillary Clinton make that same mistake. Obama, simply couldn't imagine the size and scope the battle would be, against the greed-frenzy corporations and their gigantic lobbies-monster.

...is it time to pick up the kids from school yet?!

Martha "Choakley" shows us the way forward

Spacejace beat me to it, but I totally agree with his rant. I was all for reconciliation on the HCR bill long before that sack of excrement Lieberman began whining for attention. Speaking of whom, I imagine the new senator from Massachusetts will become Joe's new BFF, since nobody but the teabag crowd wants anything to do with him. Except maybe Harry Reid, who must have a skeleton in Lieberman's closet or something; seriously, how can one single jackass continuously demand the majority leader bend over and take it.

Oh, yeah, the filibuster. Time for that ship to sail. Undemocratic, and all that. Honestly, what does Reid have to lose? Have you seen the polls in Nevada? He's toast, so what's he got to lose, really? He could...gasp!...start leading like a Democrat, and maybe pull his base back around to supporting him again. Hell, he might even get himself reelected.

We believe that quality and affordable health care is a basic right.

So let's do it, already. Coakley's lackluster campaign and Scott Brown's (out-of-state staffed, and corporate-sponsored) "insurgency" just serves to illustrate what happens when Democrats stop acting like Democrats.

They get rolled.

We spent almost the entire last decade being told "F-you" by the Goopers. Playing nice went out the window a looooong time ago, so I'm all for a street fight.

Massachusetts has a new senator-elect, a one trick pony who's got to stand for re-election in 2012. If Democrats start acting like Democrats again, this guy will be cleaning out his office again soon.

silver lining for Dems? my rant on the Massachusetts special election..

so there's a social networking site I frequent occasionally. here's a rant I just posted on a friend's site (misspellings, and all, you friggin' grammar-nazis!) about the special election in Massachusetts today...

there IS a silver lining or two for us Dems: 1) we get the disillusion of the 60-seat 'majority' actually mattering, at least w/ this congress, out of the way early (instead of this November), and can use the slap in the face to remember that legislating the party platform is of paramount importance, and get to it sooner; and to do it, we SURELY don't need to meet republicans anywhere near the middle, since each one will vote against any real change, anyway (along w/ some weak-ass dems in the senate), and 2) relative to that, this sorry-excuse-for-a-healthcare-reform bill the Senate watered down from the House's version might actually not pass now, and we can start over w/ a real one, that has a true public option, no mandate, and 'gasp!,' perhaps even a single-payer option, and use reconciliation, or other maneuvers - including a couple more years of educating the masses who STILL don't have any clue why their healthcare premiums have gone up 'crazy-like' the last couple of years - and legislate some real change in this country. It was only a year or two ago, healthcare insurance companies laughed at accepting people w/ pre-existing conditions (Dems knocked down that obstacle), and a mere decade ago when the entire GOP and healthcare insurance companies laughed at the thought of healthcare for everyone (today, you won't hear a single one say they're against it). Baby steps, baby. Knowledge is power. If the mainstream media, comprised of Hannity, Rush, Bill-O, Fox and others, actually gave a crap about America, they might actually be able to educate their lobotomized followers about how the many industries the GOP fights for, and unregulated corporate, grand-scale book-cooking and scheming, is crushing their middle-class american hopes and dreams. Saw a great bumper sticker the other day: "of course it hurts: you're getting screwed by an elephant!"