Dear Pres. Obama: Since the Republican Jack-Offs Redbait & Racistbait You Anyway, Why Not Give Them

[Hannah Bell]

Something REAL to Complain About, Instead of Playing Tea-Party with Them?

I'm really tired of this one-way "bipartisanship".

We elected a Democrat as President. Democrats still control the Senate.

Why does it feel like we're in a Republican Administration?

CHANGE COURSE, before it's too late.

NO to tax cut extensions for the rich.

NO to Social Security & Medicare cuts, or changes in funding formulas.

NO to extension of the surveillance state.

NO to education deform.

If you support the people, the people will support you.

[Chulanowa]

1. Regarding the tax cuts...

I've been seeing a lot about how the White House is "signaling" they will extend them. Is there any explanation of these signals? Has an administration official confirmed that this is the plan?

[Hannah Bell]

2. neither confirmed nor denied so far as i know. whether the reports are true or not, obama needs

to hear from those who voted for him & don't like the plan as reported.

which is me, for one.

every day at DU we read about ten stories about republicans who said this or that awful thing about the president & his policies, his family, whatever. if he cuddles a baby it's cause for a nasty comment from someone.

since the fascists on the right will criticize him regardless of what he does, why not DO SOMETHING WORTH BEING CRITICIZED FOR, instead of taking flak for cuddling babies?

concessions embolden the domestic terrorists.

[Chulanowa]

4. Didn't the white house actually say they were NOT considering it?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/12/president-obama-lays-out-his-priorities-tax-cuts

Every day at DU we also see threads that give misinformation, if not not outright lies, about the positions of our president and the rest of our party. We see a constant neverending stream of assuming the absolute worst. We see men and women come here to post some rumormill non-story and declare that htey "no longer support" the president or Democrats in general. Constantly. Every third thread, at least.

I'll take a primary source over the rumor-mill of anti-DemocraticUnderground nowadays, thanks.

[Hannah Bell]

5. I don't read that statement as saying he will not extend the bush tax cuts for the rich.

I read it as saying he won't extend them "permanently".

"My number-one priority is making sure that we make the middle-class tax cuts permanent, that we give certainty to the 98 percent of Americans who are affected by those tax breaks. I don’t want to see their income taxes spike up -- not only because they need relief after having gone through a horrendous recession, but also because it would be bad for the economy.

I continue to believe that extending permanently the upper-income tax cuts would be a mistake and that we can’t afford it. And my hope is, is that somewhere in between there we can find some sort of solution."

[Chulanowa]

6. Fair point

I'm just not inclined to assume the worst. Mostly because I'm not inclined to think he's a dribbling idiot.

[Hannah Bell]

7. is there something in my op that gave you cause to believe i think obama is a dribbling idiot?

because i don't.

i don't think any president of the last 50 years has been a dribbling idiot.

however, i'm not sure what being an idiot has to do with the question at hand.

[Chulanowa]

14. No, there wasn't; I'm not saying you think he is

I'm saying that I think backing out and giving the fat cats their extension would be idiotic. I don't think Obama is an idiot. Ergo I hold out faith on him on this.

[Skittles]

8. no one thinks he is a dribbling idiot

we all know what a dribbling idiot president is because we had one for eight years before Obama; what's in question is whose interests Obama is really working for - too many of us feel NO ONE is looking out for us

[Hannah Bell]

9. i'm not questioning who he works for. i'm questioning why he wants to continue

being "bipartisan" with people who are going to continue attacking him.

if he's going to get attacked regardless, better to be partisan & get some policies you actually *want*.

why compromise with dogs?

[Skittles]

10. how do we know what he actually "wants"?

we all pretty much agree he is not stupid, so one plausible reason why he continues this insanity (doing the same shit and getting the same results) is he APPROVES of the results

[Hannah Bell]

11. i assume he wants to do what he does. i don't go deeper than that & assign motives.

[Skittles]

12. at this point, you probably should

[Chulanowa]

15. It's quite a leap from critic to conspiracy theorist

Not a good change.

[Skittles]

17. LOL- - come on

there's no CONSPIRACY - I believe we now live under a PLUTOCRACY - simply put, the interests of the rich are far more important than WE THE PEOPLE. Please, WAKE UP.

[Chulanowa]

18. Here's a tip - never use the phrase "WAKE UP"

or anything such as "can't you see?!" or the like. I guarantee you no one needs to "wake up" and on the off chance that they do, behaving as if you are some lone prophet bearing the lone beacon of truth that was revealed to you on high isn't going to do the trick. It's an appeal to emotion and tends to smack of desperation, like you're wearing a colander on your head and rambling about the bavarian Illuminati's UFO fleet or something.

What do you mean "we now live under a plutocracy?" Buddy... it's never been otherwise. There was never a golden age. The truth of the matter is we are actually less of a plutocracy than when this nation got started. The major lack of citizen effectiveness is due to citizen apathy. This weird sort of political pacifism and defeatism that is growing everm ore and more encouraged, especially among the left is quite frankly what's killing us.

Holding a sign and shouting a slogan isn't enough. Punching yourself in the crotch and crying about hiow we're all doomed doesn't help. Stop.

[laughingliberal]

3. K & R nt

[Enthusiast]

13. K&R! No shit!

Right on, Hannah Bell! Give them something to complain about!

[truedelphi]

16. Although your intentions are pure, can I point out that Obama has not at all cared about The People

So far?

I mean, examine his appointments...

He did not care about the people when he avoided his campaign pledge of ending NAFTA, and instead chose Mr Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. Rahm, as we have all come to find out, is the very person who wrote the legal language for the Clinton-sponsored bill.

He did not care about the people when it was time to make important appointments regarding the Wall Street and the Economic Issues vital to the success of every person, and not only his buddies on Wall Street. So this President allowed Bernanke to continue (or the Bernank, as we now call him.) He appointed Geithner. He knew the language of the BailOuts contained NO PROVISIONS that the banks lend out money to Main Street, even though those BailOuts came from Main Street. He was fully aware of the fact that there were no stipulations in the BailOut legislation, as he PLEDGED to us in October 2008 that he would IMMEDIATELY remedy the situation once he was President if it ever appeared that the banks were shafting Main Street. But instead of doing that, he had to follow orders, and do his those in higher places than his instructed him to do.

He did not care about people when it came time to make important appointments regarding our food. he appointed Velsick to head the Agriculture Department and so kept his promises to Monsanto. but that was not enough, he also appointed Mike Taylor, one of Monsanto's most important clones, to head the FDA.

He didn't care enough about the people to advocate for a public option, saying that it was not within his purview as President to shape legislation. He signed a historic Health Care Reform bill, without bothering to enforce any Presidential action that would have led the insurers to face a price freeze regarding premiums. So as premiums soar, as co pays, and deductibles rise to new astronomical heights, more Americans have fewer health service than before.

Perhaps rather than studying Lincoln, Obama could have studied Richard Nixon, who knew a thing or two about price freezes.

We can look to Obama and see that the wars are continuing, though we have knocked down the number of "troops" serving in Iraq, they have been replaced by contractors. And so the wars drag on, expensive, bloody and unwinnable.

Then there is the whole matter of BP and the Oil Spill and the EPA looking the other way when the BP forces took over the very cleanup of the disaster that they caused. see my sig line if you think maybe we were sold a bill of goods by this EPA regarding the dispersants.

I could go on, but I don't have more time to spend on this other than to say: I will do everything in my power to see a Feingold/Grayson or Grayson/Feingold alternative in the primaries.

We must get the Corporations out of the Oval Office. We need the same level of Great Care for The People that this nation experienced under FDR. And we need no more of this Corporate Cronyism that Obama continually exhibits.

[Starry Messenger]

19. Capitalism is bipartisan.

I hope that after this picture of the New Poor Law and its results, no word which I have said of the English bourgeoisie will be thought too stern. In this public measure, in which it acts in corpore as the ruling power, it formulates its real intentions, reveals the animus of those smaller transactions with the proletariat, of which the blame apparently attaches to individuals. And that this measure did not originate with any one section of the bourgeoisie, but enjoys the approval of the whole class, is proved by the Parliamentary debates of 1844. The Liberal party had enacted the New Poor Law; the Conservative party, with its Prime Minister Peel at the head, defends it, and only alters some pettifogging trifles in the Poor Law Amendment Bill of 1844. A Liberal majority carried the bill, a Conservative majority approved it, and the "Noble Lords" gave their consent each time. Thus is the expulsion of the proletariat from State and society outspoken, thus is it publicly proclaimed that proletarians are not human beings, and do not deserve to be treated as such. Let us leave it to the proletarians of the British Empire to reconquer their human rights. <1>

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/ch13.htm


They are not going to change course, Hannah. Not until our numbers in the streets scare them. The US has not has a proper left wing in decades, so I don't know what resistance is going to look like...I hope we will know soon.