Even though I disagree with some of President Obama’s decisions, and although I find myself disappointed at times with lack of progress toward cherished, progressive goals, I believe he is the best thing that has happened to the Democratic Party since the administrations of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. He has inherited an ungodly mess from the worst administration in U.S. history. Furthermore, the Republican Party, backed by right-wing billionaires, now has a single-minded purpose, which is to make this president fail.
President Obama has an almost impossible mission. Never in the history of this country has one political party, after leaving messes of crisis proportion, mobilized so totally, thoroughly, and energetically for no other purpose than to make the presidential administration of the other party fail. The right wing in this country has no interest in supporting any programs of President Obama – even if those programs are in the best interests of the American people and are badly needed to stop deterioration in our quality of life.
I do not want to hear my progressive brothers and sisters talk of a Henry Wallace-Eugene McCarthy-Bobbie Kennedy type of primary challenge in 2012. That would be self-destructive and self-defeating. Jean and I expect to be holding our annual celebration of President Obama’s election through 2016.
Yes, and what about your crazy right-wing relatives? I’ve been disowned by J&I you know, because I voted for Obama!
Many of us put way too much stock in the office of the president. And too much money is spent electing someone who is basically a chiefs spokesperson for the party.
If we can believe what Pres Obama was saying on the campaign trail he was a man of high hopes. Which is why he was elected. What happened and what’s missing?
What happened was the USA elected a president by a substantial margin. A margin strong enough to be declared a mandate. Yet that mandate is not impacting the party or Obama was just being being a campaigner. I go out on a limb and say it is the party of incumbents and NOT Obama then again Obama is an incumbent.
What’s missing is the party not respecting the mandate as to why democrats were elected back into the majority. As I see it the mandate was:
1. End the occupation and bring the troops home not move them around and add more to other mideast locations
2. National Health Insurance not something known as Public Option designed by the insurance industry
3. New Energy as a source of new industry for jobs jobs jobs that which has been missing for about 30 years.
4. Bringing back environmental regs to square one after BUSHCO wrecked many years of progress.
5.Shaping up a wrecked economy after 20 some years of Reaganomics aka wreckanomics. (nobody knew item 5 would be on this list and nobody knew 8 million more people would be out of work)
WE know damn well the bogus repub party will never accomplish the above lofty goals because all they want to do is war,rob banks and give out tax cuts to those who don’t need them. This is a huge problem so why ever elect them again?
WE DO NOT NEED BUSH FAMILY OF POLITICIANS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY EVER AGAIN!!!!
I say OUR party is the problem. A president cannot achieve lofty goals unless the party is with him. To some extent a lot of voters have been duped. The party returned to Washington and business as usual thus far.
WE do however NEED new a lot of new faces in OUR party.
Yes a lot of incumbents need to hit the road. WE AS VOTERS need to consider voting for new names and new faces NOT old names and old faces. The party needs new blood which to me that was the green party.
STOP sending the same faces back to Washington it is doing none of us any good.
The parties, news media and corporate america do NOT need to decide who OUR candidates should be for local,state or federal level representation BUT they do. Why do we allow them to decide considering there are billions more of us?
The media has become a large part of the special interest takeover of our process as if they know what is best for all of us. Voters support this takeover by voting for those candidates who spend the most campaign money and the question is why?
Campaigns go too long,spend way too much money and do not necessarily provide the best available. It is up to us to stop the nonsense at the voting booths. Replace 95% of all elected officials every 4 years for the house and every 6 years for the Senate. ( Nader thinks 90% replacement)
Not voting sends the wrong message and changes nothing.
Inside the Mortgage Monster
Michael W. Hudson, Times Books: “Back in the days of the home-loan boom, loan officers at Ameriquest Mortgage worked hard and played hard. They put in ten- and twelve-hour days punctuated by ‘Power Hours’—frenzied telemarketing sessions aimed at sniffing out borrowers and separating the real salesmen from the washouts. A frat-house mentality ruled, with liquor and cocaine flowing freely. ‘It was like college, but with lots of money and power,’ one former Ameriquester, Travis Paules, recalls.”
Read the Exclusive Excerpt
http://www.truth-out.org/inside-mortgage-monster66080