How's the Free Market Capitalist system working? It's working OK as long as the Communist Chinese continue to bail out the Free Market Capitalist. The Free Market Capitalist screw everything up and we, the tax payers, borrow money from the Communist Chinese to bail out the Free Market Capitalist. Can we call that Capitalism for sale? Or should we say the the Free Market Capitalist have been exposed for what they are, pyramid scheming phonies looking for cheap labor? The United States put it's fate in the hands of Corporate America the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, George W. Bush and Shotgun Cheney and now when most of our good paying jobs are gone the Chickens are coming home to roost, Communist chickens, and guess who's gonna pay for it. Hint, it won't be the U. S. Chamber of Commerce or Corporate America. For the answer to that question, just peer into your tea cup and the answer will be in the reflection.

It is a considerable jolt to return to our colorless, petty contemporary politics after feeling the heat and vitality of La Follette's courage. But we can look at Dennis Kucinich, who offers an illustration of the same principle on a lesser scale. Kucinich has written an explanation of his vote on the "health care" bill: "Why I Voted No." Here are some excerpts:--- Kucinich has written an explanation of his vote on the "health care" bill: "Why I Voted No." Here are some excerpts:--- Dennis Kucinich would be rare in any field of human endeavor. In politics, an individual like Kucinich is almost unheard of: he is a principled man. Is he perfect? Of course not; none of us is. And he works in a thoroughly corrupt system, which means that not only his principles, but principles as such, are under assault every second of every day. Given that, Kucinich's record is unusual in the extreme. His repeated willingness to act in accordance with his declared convictions is extraordinary. One further aspect of Kucinich's record demands mention: on the "health care" vote, as on Kucinich's consistent refusal to vote for funding for America's criminal and illegal wars and occupations, Kucinich is supremely right. Very few people appreciate or even acknowledge the overwhelming significance of that fact, which is ultimately the most important fact of all. Those of us who do should highlight it at every opportunity -- and we should offer our grateful thanks.

Dennis, Dennis, Dennis; why stay where you aren't wanted? Leave the DemoFascist party and rejoin Humanity. There is intelligent life outside the Duopoly. "U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich lasted less than 24 hours as headliner for the Palm Beach County Democratic Party's annual fundraising dinner after some of the party's elected officials blasted the Ohio Democrat's stance on Israel and threatened to skip the event. ... Siegel said the decision to invite Kucinich was made by a "leadership circle" of about 20 people and no one raised concerns about Kucinich's record on Israel. Siegel heard those concerns Friday. "People feel he's anti-Israel. I don't read it that way, but the leadership of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and other elements of the Jewish community do and I don't want to get into an argument with them," said Siegel, who is Jewish."

While many were celebrating the historical nature of the House vote there are also reasons for real Democrats to temper celebration. Of course, we all know the ripping the House version, which actually did include some good things will get in the "House of Lords" we all know as the U.S. Senate. Of course, we know that we actually have a paltry majority in the Senate or quite possibly still a Republican majority, but the House Healthcare vote should give us a sobering reminder of just how small of a majority we have in the House.

In New Jersey, incumbent Democrat John Corzine was wildly unpopular for raising taxes, so that even with Democrats holding an almost 2:1 registration advantage in the state (half of all voters are unaffiliated), he too had no enthusiastic backing from his former base. No amount of money poured in by the former Goldman Sachs chief executive could overcome the negative views of his record as governor. But despite the lackluster candidates in both Virginia and New Jersey, I think it’s safe to say that there was also clear evidence that the losses, and the margins of the losses—huge in Virginia’s case, and significant in normally safely Democratic New Jersey—provide evidence that the Obama presidency, and the prevailing Democratic strategy of minimalist legislative initiatives on health care reform, global warming etc., expanded and unending war in Afghanistan, support for Wall Street and neglect of the one-in-five Americans who are unemployed or underemployed, are a political disaster in the making for Democrats in general and Obama in particular. The president came into office on a wave of populist enthusiasm and high expectations for the “change” candidate Obama promised. No change has been forthcoming now for over nine months, and with the president now past the first-year anniversary of his historic election victory, the latest election results suggest that his presidency could already be headed for the rocks.

"Capping months of months of struggle, House Democrats cleared an abortion-related impasse blocking a vote on sweeping health care legislation late Friday and officials expressed optimism they had finally lined up the support needed to pass President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. ... Under the arrangement, Reps. Bart Stupak of Michigan, Brad Ellsworth of Indiana and other abortion opponents were promised an opportunity to insert tougher restrictions into the legislation during debate on the House floor. The leadership’s hope is that no matter how that vote turns out, Democrats on both sides of the abortion divide will then unite to give the health care bill a majority over unanimous Republican opposition."

n Washington, "health care reform" has degenerated into a sick joke. At this point, only spinners who've succumbed to their own vertigo could use the word "robust" to describe the public option in the health care bill that the House Democratic leadership has sent to the floor. "A main argument was that a public plan would save people money," The New York Times has noted. But the insurance industry - claiming to want a level playing field - has gotten the Obama administration to bulldoze the plan. "After House Democratic leaders unveiled their health care bill [on October 29], the Congressional Budget Office said the public plan would cost more than private plans and only 6 million people would sign up." At its best, "the public option" was a weak remedy for the disastrous ailments of the health care system in the United States. But whatever virtues the public option may have offered were stripped from the bill en route to the House floor. What remains is a Rube Goldberg contraption that will launch this country into a new phase of health care apartheid.

The Democratic party doesn't have the luxury of settling for a 'base hit' in a game in which there are only home runs. For the Democrats, that is! The GOP has the luxury of just putting a man on base! Democrats don't have the luxury of nominating anything less than a JFK or an FDR.

In late July, ThinkProgress first reported on a memo detailing how conservative activists can successfully disrupt Democratic health care town halls. The memo, authored by a Tea Party Patriots volunteer named Bob MacGuffie, was distributed on a listserv controlled by FreedomWorks — the corporate front group run by Dick Armey that is dedicated to organizing tea parties and other anti-Obama efforts around the country. A member of the listserv, Jenny Beth Martin, blasted out the memo on June 13th, declaring, “We here in CT have developed a strategy for holding our elected officials accountable. We show up en mass at the ‘town hall’ meetings they have!” The tactics included:

Between 2004 and 2008 progressive youth organizations were building a strategy and infrastructure to turn out young voters and engage them in issue advocacy outside of elections. Major progressive donors seemed to realize the latent power of the youth vote and the need to catch up with the conservative funding machine that supports conservative youth.

"After years of criticism that congressional lawmakers were reluctant to investigate their colleagues, the disclosure in recent days of a sensitive document from the House ethics committee offers the contradictory portrait of a panel actively pursuing a range of probes even as Democrats under scrutiny remain in positions of power. ... Two and a half years into Pelosi's reign, more than 25 Democrats have been targeted for ethics reviews by the two ethics bodies, while just seven Republicans appeared to be under scrutiny, according to the document. Republicans have criticized Pelosi for declining to take away power from close allies such as Reps. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and John P. Murtha (D-Pa.)."

"Evan Bayh, the junior senator from Indiana, is in the middle of a heated debate in the Senate on whether a public option should be included as part of President Obama's health care reforms. An organizer of a group of so-called Senate Blue Dog Democrats, to date, Bayh's been a staunch opponent of any changes to the status quo in this debate. ... His wife, Susan Bayh, sits on the board of WellPoint in her hometown of Indianapolis. Over the last six years, Susan Bayh has received at least $2 million in compensation from WellPoint alone for serving on its board."

You know, living in a red area that has a Democratic tradition I constantly hear one thing when trying to persuade my neighbors to once again vote Democratic. Like a broken record again and again I get to hear how many people believe in a lot of what the Democratic Party stands for, but they see them as weak and afraid to fight for what they believe in once elected. They have little respect for a party they see as talking a good game and not having the conviction to carry through with it.

It’s official. The Blue Dog’s fundraising slowdown was not just a symptom of the dog days of summer. Newly released public disclosure forms indicate that over September, the coalition’s PAC took in its smallest monthly total yet this year.

"Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had a blunt response on Friday to the latest broadsides from former Vice President Dick Cheney: 'Who cares?'”

"The House prepared to attack health insurers on two fronts, with Democrats seeking to pass the strongest form of a U.S. government-run insurance plan and a panel voting to strip the industry’s antitrust exemption. The House Judiciary Committee yesterday voted 20-9 to approve legislation that would ban insurers from engaging in price fixing, bid-rigging and market allocation. The measure may be added to broader health-care overhaul legislation. At the same time, Democratic leaders said they can win passage for a government program to compete with private insurers and drive down prices, one of the most contentious issues dividing Democrats and Republicans."

You know, one thing that led to so much disaster in the Bush White House was that Republicans refused to speak out when their leader was wrong. Instead of trying to change some of the mistakes he was making, they rubber-stamped every single wish of that President. That was particularly dangerous to our country when the Republican Party controlled both the Congress and the White House. That attitude caused many of the failed policies that got us into two wars incompetently, and crashed the economy.

"My main point now when it comes to Obama, however, is this: not that he shouldn’t be criticized when he does the wrong thing (at Consortiumnews.com, we’ve written plenty of stories taking him to task), but that the only practical way for progressives to get a politician to act more to their liking is to persuade more of the country to agree with their positions.~~~~~~...the American Left – especially progressives with serious money – need to reevaluate what the past three decades of neglecting media has wrought. Today's potent right-wing news media has tilted the nation in favor of neocon wars and ultra-free-market economic policies." -NOTE: This is a hard one for me to post, much as I respect Parry; but I am still torn by the "purist v pragmatist" dilemma. He's pretty rough on the Left, versus the Dems, in this article.

America the land of the free and the home of the brave. Really? Brave, I don't think so. How can we consider ourselves brave when we let the Wall Street elite steal our money and then blackmail us to bail them out and we sit back and twiddle our thumbs like a bunch of wimps? We might be wimps but Wall Street ain't, it's bonus time there, just in time for Christmas. How's that for a nice Christian touch? These folks are laughing all the way to the bank while the rest of us that still have jobs, yes I said jobs, are struggling to make ends meet.

Because he actually acts like one. Voted YES on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore. Voted YES on investigating Bush impeachment for lying about Iraq. Voted YES on redeploying US troops out of Iraq starting in 90 days. Voted NO on declaring Iraq part of War on Terror with no exit date. Voted NO on authorizing military force in Iraq. Voted NO on passage of the Bush Administration national energy policy. Voted YES on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels. Voted YES on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. Voted YES on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol. Voted YES on assisting workers who lose jobs due to globalization. Voted YES on requiring lobbyist disclosure of bundled donations. Voted YES on protecting whistleblowers from employer recrimination. Voted YES on giving mental health full equity with physical health. Voted NO on denying non-emergency treatment for lack of Medicare co-pay. Voted NO on limiting medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000 damages. ---- article continues...