2009 December » My Take

2009 a year in GOPocrisy

Dick Cheney, douche, Politics Comments Off

Dec 312009

The Republican Party has been selling fear so long they reek of it.

The GOP has frequent hysterical outbursts that respecting the rule of law diminishes our safety, knee jerk bloviating that diplomacy somehow compromises our security, spasmodic screeching that admitting to torture is damaging even though they never admit that torturing did the damage.

There are none as vehement in the hyperbole as the master of disaster, Dick Cheney, the fiercest fear monger of them all.

Dick Cheney growls every few months that the Obama administration is making us less safe that we have to torture our values to death to save our freedoms. He has become a disgusting parody of a very dangerous man, who willfully violated the laws of the United States of America, brazenly broke provisions of the treaties of the Geneva Conventions to which the United States is a party and knowingly trashed the Constitution that he swore to uphold.

George Bush and Dick Cheney swore an oath, not to protect the citizens of the United States, but rather to protect the Constitution of the United States. It is truly pathetic how badly they failed at both.

Those who openly advocate the breaking of our laws and our international commitments don’t love their country, they love wielding power over it.

And for all of our values that Dick and his little minions so callously trashed what was the result?

Lives lost to terrorism in the United States Bush/Cheney first year in office = 2,978

Lives lost to terrorism in the United States Obama/Biden first year in office = 0

Fuck off Dick you’ve done enough damage.

A point in closing

Politics 3 Responses »

Dec 292009

It has been a rather interesting week for a relatively new voice in the political blogosphere. An open letter that I posted to Jane Hamsher attracted a bit more attention than my blog would normally elicit. The saga is here but that is not the point of this post.

After specifically addressing Jane Hamsher’s request to justify my position she was completely silent. After specifically addressing Jane Hamsher’s request to justify my position her supporters, who’s comments I published without prejudice, were silent. I am not surprised at the lack of response, merely disappointed. Fair enough, done.

One last point for Jane before I disengage…

Is there a single individual on the left of the political spectrum that Grover Norquist would not join you to condemn? I’m not joking, given the slightest chance of advantage would not Mr. Norquist sign on to the destruction of anyone even remotely affiliated with the Democratic party?

You are fighting for all the right things in all the wrong ways ultimately you do less for the progressive cause than you do for the art of tiburon leaping.

The circle of strife

healthcare reform, Politics 2 Responses »

Dec 282009

The response to the response to the response…

A little history, I wrote an open letter to Jane Hamsher on Sunday 12/27 and posted it to my blog, the original is here. I tweeted the post and was promptly retweeted by some friends and fellow posters to the #hcr and #p2 hashtags.

Apparently the post struck a chord for it was retweeded multiple times and recommended by a few people beyond my typical reach. This morning Jane Hamsher responded not to me but rather to Katrina Vanden Huevel the editor of the Nation criticizing her for pushing it and thereby validating my position to the point of requiring a response, that post is here.

I posted a comment on FDL in response to Ms. Hamsher’s post:

Ms. Hamsher responded to my comment:

So per Ms. Hamsher’s request I will start here:

“It is manifestly untrue that the bill is the handiwork of Congress, for which the President bears no responsibility.” Jane Hamsher

It is manifestly true that the bill in the house was the product of three committees and the bill in the Senate was the product of two committees, but even if it weren’t, even if every last word was typed by nine fingered Rahm while the president dictated it would still have had to come out of a committee, it still would have had to achieve cloture to reach the floor of the Senate, it still would have had to achieve cloture to close debate and come to a vote, so ultimately the legislation that you get is what you can get through the Senate, the current Senate, the one that claims Lieberman, Nelson, Lincoln and Landrieu as members.

What exactly would have been gained in Barack Obama fighting tooth and nail for something that Joe Lieberman had publically stated that he would not give? Do you think that a strong stance by the president would have shamed Joe into compliance? Do you really think that the man who stood next to Sarah Palin under a banner reading “Country First” is possible to shame?

Is there anything to be gained politically or otherwise by publically stating that in this particular instance the president of the United States can get his lunch money taken from him by Joe Lieberman?

Why do you suppose that since the Supreme Court ruled for Roe in 1973 abortion rights have consistently been chipped away? Why do you suppose Stupak or Nelson has a say in the health care debate? Why do you think women are thrown under the bus to achieve the possibility of passing any type of health care reform? It is because the right is disciplined in their approach, they are relentless in their pursuit of victory one tiny chink at a time until they get what they want. If the Republican Party had any ideas AT ALL they would kick our ass from here to infinity (and beyond). Thank God that they are completely bereft of substance because they play politics so much better than we do it is truly pathetic.

Gallup recently posted on the political climate going into the 2010 elections as “not favorable” and summed up by saying:

Bottom Line

Since 2006, not much has changed for the better in terms of Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the country, perceptions of the economy, or approval of the job Congress is doing. What has changed is that Democrats are now in control of both houses of Congress and the presidency after voter dissatisfaction led to steep Republican losses in 2006 and 2008. If national conditions do not improve considerably between now and next November, Democrats appear vulnerable to suffering heavy seat losses of their own. Two factors that are likely to be crucial in determining voter preferences for Congress in 2010 will be President Obama’s job approval rating, and whether Democrats’ advantage in party support continues to shrink.

The fact of the matter is that Republicans in congress are mining the basement of approval ratings, Democrats in congress are not doing much better. The president has roughly a 50% approval rating and is probably your best shot at getting more progressives elected, and if not progressive, liberal and if not liberal, moderate and if not moderate conservative democrats which would still be better than the most liberal of Republicans and certainly better than those who would appeal to the teaparty crowd.

You don’t win this thing in a single administration, you don’t win it in a decade, you don’t even get to win it in a generation. The perfection of our union has been a work in progress for 233 years you make your contribution to the next generation and don’t set back their progress.

I don’t begrudge your ability to bitch slap the president from here to next Tuesday. My opinion is that its current form it serves no purpose. If you win, you lose.

Look, you assumed that my post was a “very slick PR letter”. Even a cursory reading of my blog that I started back in July of this year would make that assumption roughly analogous to believing the conspiracy to defraud the American people about Barack Obama’s birth certificate started back with the birth announcements in the local Hawaiian papers. If that assumption was wrong than maybe, just maybe you have gotten off on a tangent that might not be the place you intended.

This is my belief. I never said that you could not speak, I expressed my opinion that you were doing yourself no favors. I wrote the letter in complete sincerity, my response is no less so.

Respectfully

R. Paine

A few notes

Uncategorized Comments Off

Dec 282009

A few quick notes before I get to work on the response to Jane Hamsher…

I have published EVERY comment that I have received to my open letter and I think that you could safely say that the comments lean heavily to the negative.

I am an individual, I am not involved in any political campaign and I am not paid for my time writing this blog.

The opinions that I express here are formed strictly between my ears, with the information available to me (considerable considering the reach of the internet these days).

I completely reject that an individual, with a blogger account could possibly be a threat to stifle the voice of FireDogLake. Anyone who would suggest otherwise is taking hyperbole to an artform.

I am the essence of grass roots, an individual with an opinion, it is not slick, it is not PR, it is My Take and you may not agree… but if you don’t I will publish your comment cause that’s how I roll.

An open letter to Jane Hamsher

healthcare reform, Politics 26 Responses »

Dec 272009

Ms. Hamsher;

It is with deep respect for the passion that you have for the progressive movement that I am writing. I understand the frustration that disappointment can foster and honor your commitment to pushing the progressive agenda.

I do not doubt that you genuinely feel that your very vocal opposition to the Senate health care bill is in the absolute interests of the American populace and progressive politics. I honestly believe that you feel that the administration has let you and other progressives down by not publically pushing harder for elements in the bill that we all hoped would survive the legislative process.

What I doubt is that your actions will ultimately serve the advancement of the progressive agenda that you obviously care so much about. I believe in fact, that quite the opposite will be the result. Pushing for the very best bill that we can get through this congress is laudable, attacking the administration for dealing with the reality that is congress is not.

The 2000 presidential election graphically demonstrates what I mean. Ralph Nader had no chance of winning, and yet he remained in the race. Mr. Nader quite correctly pointed out that in order to keep his agenda in the debate he needed to remain even if it meant Gore would lose votes to a lost cause.

Mr. Nader was absolutely right to stand up for his principals and stay in the election to make sure that his message was getting out. The point is this, if Mr. Nader had dropped out of the race that election would never have been close enough for the Supreme Court to hand to George Bush. Al Gore would have been the 43rd president of the United States and Ralph Nader would have come a lot closer to having the things he cared about realized. Mr. Nader was right, but how far back did he set his own agenda?

At the end of the day it comes down to results you don’t win by being right. It is possible to be completely right and yet damage the cause that you are advocating. As a progressive that is acutely sensitive to the extraordinary damage that was done to this country by the Bush administration I see the need for many democratic terms in which we constantly push the country towards more progressive ideals. Change does not come overnight, we don’t have the luxury of eviscerating our fragile majority for not moving quickly enough. The United States will not survive many more administrations like the last one.

Please consider the progressive agenda as a whole while in the heat of each individual battle, your voice is respected and desperately needed on our side.

Respectfully,

R. Paine

Purity and politics don’t mix

Politics Comments Off

Dec 252009

I had a lot of laughs poking fun at conservatives for their purity pledge I think that blanket positions stifle actual debate and further polarize a process that only truly functions with compromise.

One of my favorite little digs at their idiocy is the following that I posted on twitter:

Purity pledge? puerile pandering proving positively petulant people pick politicians poorly. #justsayin #p2 #tcot

Of course a lot has happened in politics since that was posted mostly the many compromises that resulted in a health care reform bill actually passing the United States Senate. By the time the final votes were being considered many progressives were screaming for similar purity in the politics and policies of the left. I find the suggestion just as ridiculous coming from the left, but I’ve had no fun with it. The following is the tweet I posted in response to the more aggressive lefties in the debate:

progressive purity pact? perfection prempts progress, party purges political power prematurely, pity #p2 #hcr

What is bad for the goose is also bad for the gander and in this season I think that everyone in the political spectrum should take several steps back and realize that we are all brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, children that need to learn how to share our toys.

Political discourse has to remain civil enough to do the business of the people, we all have the responsibility to keep it so.

I wish everyone the blessings of their faith or lack thereof. Happiness, joy, health, prosperity, satisfaction, communion. Be kind to each other.

A stupid war

healthcare reform, Politics Comments Off

Dec 232009

I received an email this morning from BoldProgressives.org encouraging me to send them money to air an ad attacking the president that I worked my ass off to get elected. I am posting my response along with their full email…

Adam;

Although I respect the passion behind your actions, I don’t think that your methods are in the best interests of the progressive agenda overall. I have written various blog post detailing my position:

What game are you playing

The long game

Hyperbole

Kill the bill?

I don’t believe our long term goals with respect to marriage equality, DADT, climate change, financial reform, pay equality, equal protection under the law,etc. is served by tearing down this president. I still believe that he has the best chance to rally actual, pragmatic, frustratingly incremental yet tangible results out of a highly polarized and politicized environment.

To paraphrase “I’m not opposed to war, I’m opposed to a stupid war”

Respectfully

Ralph Paine

From: Adam Green, BoldProgressives.org [mailto:info@boldprogressives.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 7:03 AM
To: Ralph Paine
Subject: Obama: “I didn’t campaign on the public option”

Ralph,

Yesterday, President Obama claimed, “I didn’t campaign on the public option.” Reporters quickly proved otherwise.

Now we have a rapid-response TV ad showing that Obama not only promised a public option, but said that mandates requiring people to buy private insurance are bad policy. The Senate health care bill does the exact opposite of what he promised.

Can you help make sure Congress knows the truth as they negotiate a final bill? Chip in $4 to put this powerful ad on TV in DC? Click here to see the ad and donate.

We’ll also put a version of this ad on TV in Wisconsin to encourage Sen. Russ Feingold to be a hero and insist on a public option. Help us air it.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

–Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Aaron Swartz, Michael Snook, Natasha Patel, and the PCCC team

What game are you playing?

healthcare reform, Politics Comments Off

Dec 202009

“Obama is a sellout.” “Obama never fought for the things he promised in the election.” “Obama has changed nothing.” “Obama is a lobbyist’s wet dream.” “Obama never cared about what was in the bill, only passing a bill.”

These aren’t quotes from the right, all of the above are things that I have heard from progressives in the last 24 hours.

Let’s have a sports analogy shall we? Politics in the United States is a basketball game, but many progressives are screaming at Obama for violating their interpretation of the rules of water polo, guess what kids just because he’s a great guy doesn’t mean that he gets to change the game. Obama never promised to change the game, he promised to change his approach to the game.

Obama said that he would change the dialogue and he has. The Republicans haven’t, many Democrats haven’t, the media hasn’t, the pundits haven’t the bloggers and twitterers haven’t.

So by all means, yell at the president for reaching out in an effort for bipartisanship because the Republicans were never going to reciprocate, he said that he would.

Yell at the president for not saying to hell with the right, I am going to exacerbate partisanship and jam through my agenda, he promised he would change the tone.

If you think that he promised you that he would change the game, it’s on you, Obama doesn’t get to win a basketball game playing water polo. Partisan politics, lobbyists, corporate interests, obscene amounts of money are a part of the process, they will complicate and bastardize the effort. The president in an eleven month period with two wars and a crumbling economy isn’t going to change that, if you thought differently than you have been naïve in the extreme. However in the eleventh month of an administration that had the toughest start in decades it looks like we might change the legislative concept of health care to that of a “right” and if you think that is not a big deal look back at the 74 years (at least) to took to get here.

Reality check, Democrats won the election, both houses of congress and the presidency and they want to reap the rewards of that win. Completely understandable but that is not how politics in the United States works. Those that don’t or won’t understand the politics don’t help. They don’t help the process and ultimately they don’t help their agenda.

Winning the election does not ensure that the winners get what they want, it ensures that they get to choose what the agenda will be, what will the fight entail. Some progressives in the blogosphere and twitter are so adamant about being right that they don’t seem to give a shit about the actual progressive agenda. It would have been wonderful to pass single payer, but the votes to make that happen in this congress were not there, not half there. It would have been great to have a robust public option, but the votes were not there. Obama could commit Seppuku of the east lawn of the White House in protest of there not being a strong public option BUT THE VOTES WERE NOT THERE! What is the problem? Are you pissed that he didn’t waste additional political capital not getting kicked in the teeth by Joe Lieberman?

The grass (Astroturf) roots of the right have created an environment where the left will be punished for health care reform through lies and distortion.

The grass (blogger / twitter) roots of the left are creating an environment where the left will be punished for health care reform through some truth and distortion.

The net result is that the extremes on both sides are attacking OUR SIDE. I know you want to be right, but at what cost?

Would you like to be so right that Sarah Palin has actual, national political power?

Would you like to be so right as to return to the fine leadership that we all cringed through in the Bush years?

Thump your chest and tell us all how Obama is selling us all out because he has to actually work within the framework that existed before he arrived, cut his accomplishments however narrow and incremental to the bone so that that appear to be defeats. Piss all over the whole process and you will get exactly what you want… to be right.

But you will be killing your opportunity to get anything else.

In the meantime, I will continue to advocate for those things that I will have to fight for with the current administration but were never even a fantasy in the last one.

The long game

Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Dec 172009

Political realities are a bitch, the battle that is in front of you is not always the only focus and frequently not even the most important. The long game requires a view of the whole board and a plan that allows maximum return on the whole range of objectives, not just the one or two that are currently in play. By its very nature the long game is rarely a group endeavor, mostly because it requires too much discipline but also because groups lack vision.

President Obama plays the long game, we watched it in the primaries, we watched it in the election. Obama is wired for it, he doesn’t get flustered, he doesn’t lose focus, he leaves that for his opponents. The long game is how progressives buck the trends of the last thirty years and swing political discourse in their direction.

The progressive agenda looks something like this: ending DADT, achieving marriage equality, ending the war in Iraq, ending the war in Afghanistan, pushing alternative energies, moving on climate change, pay equality, immigration reform, banking regulation, environmental protections, dealing with budget deficits, reaching diplomatic understanding with Iran and North Korea, enabling a continued and honest push for peace between Israel and Palestine and reforming the health care system.

I know that everyone has their own desired agenda and you think that President Obama should be able to deliver everything that he even mentioned during the two year campaign because “he promised”!

What people don’t seem to realize is that the board changed when the economy crashed, that didn’t change the agenda it changed the order, the method and the tools, it changed the strategy necessary to keep the entire agenda in play.

So yes we need to pass health care reform, even a weakened reform and get a win. It will be a win, the current bill is still better than what we currently have and the new legislation creates a framework for additional reforms moving forward. We need to leverage that win in the 2010 election showing the right as obstructionist AND ineffective in order to hold majorities in congress.

The long game is how progressives get their agenda worked on, note I didn’t say getting the agenda passed or enacted, I said getting the agenda worked on. You build on your success, you keep the pressure on you push your politicians, you protest, you write, you swing the narrative, you fight.

Just for effect let’s recap the short game, it goes something like this:

Progressives say that health care reform isn’t good enough and they kill the bill, certain that defeat is better than a compromised victory.

Teabaggers go berserk as they see that their vitriolic hate-ins and obstructionist minorities have taken down Obama.

The narrative will be healthcare IS Obama’s Waterloo.

The MSM will report the defeat on health care reform as a crushing blow and collectively shake their heads at how quickly and completely the progressives have fallen.

DADT is delayed for lack of political will.

The right wing fringe builds on victories in NY and California to spread bans on gay marriage to more states.

The majority in the house gets so small and the blue dogs so scared that it will seem like the GOP has regained control of congress… I won’t go on, it is just too damn depressing.

The point is we are eleven months into a four year and possibly an eight year administration. It is the first quarter and maybe only the halfway point of the first quarter. Now is not the time to gather up your marbles and go home, if you do your game won’t even be in play when you come back.

Hyperbole

healthcare reform, Politics Comments Off

Dec 162009

Policy does not win, politics does.

The conversation on the left in the debate surrounding health care reform has devolved into histrionics that serves none but the far right. My instinct is to condemn and ridicule but nothing will be served so I shall attempt to make my point without being a total ass, given my natural proclivities, it is going to be hard.

The President of the United States is just that, the president, he is not the Emperor of the United States. It seems like some on the left have bought into the ridiculous claims of their teabagging countrymen. The Executive branch does not make law, the legislative does and though Barack Obama was elected to the Senate, he isn’t there anymore, the president can press, but he can’t make the Senate do a damn thing no matter how much a bad ass you think he or Rahm Emanuel is.

Policy does not win, politics does.

There hasn’t been enough votes to get health care reform done for the last 43 years but when Barack Obama can’t get a great bill he has somehow thrown the progressives under the bus? What the fuck?

It is time for democrats to pull their heads out.

Liberal democrats

Progressive democrats

Social democrats

Identity democrats

Whatever agenda draws you to the democratic party, I guarantee you that your agenda is better served with the current administration than the last one. And if you tear your team apart, I guarantee you your interests will be better served than with the next one too. You want to bend the curve on your agenda, fight it on the right, not on the left.

Think about it… where is the leadership on the right? McCain? McConnell? Cantor? These guys can’t find their ass with both hands and yet the political narrative is swinging their direction, why?

The country is being pushed by their wing, their organization, their passion, their fury, in short, their movement. It doesn’t matter if it is grassroots or Astroturf we are about to get our asses handed to us by an unruly mob that can’t spell their protest signs.

You don’t like the trajectory of political discourse? Figure out what kind of bagger you’re going to be and get your ass on the street. Take the fight to the side that is marginalizing your chances of getting your agenda passed… Hint it isn’t the president and tearing him down my make you feel powerful but in won’t do a damn thing to promote your agenda.

Policy doesn’t win, politics does. Being right has a hollow feel if you don’t actually accomplish something.

The health care bill in the Senate is better than what we have…

Is it great? No.

Is it going to be the end of the fight? No.

Will it have to be improved? Yes.

Is it better than killing the bill? Yes and no matter how irritated you are by the current politics that force this compromise, you already knew it.

Older Entries

2009 a year in GOPocrisy

A point in closing

The circle of strife

A few notes

An open letter to Jane Hamsher

Purity and politics don’t mix

A stupid war

What game are you playing?

The long game

Hyperbole

My Take

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