Update ~ EYE want my Daggum Democratic Party Back! Can EYE Rant?

H/T ca democrat via Daily Kos

One Pissed Off Liberal writes:

I'm a Tom Joad democrat, a prison reform democrat, an anti-poverty democrat and a pro-justice democrat - so the party left me a long time ago...and they never looked back as they went chasing after the fat checkbook crowd. The few indisputably good things the party has done, such as the war on poverty and support for the civil rights movement, recede into the distant past as a brave new world emerges in which we are left to wonder just what IS the difference between neocons and neolibs, and whether democrats bombing the world in an unending war orgy is any better than repubs doing the exact same thing.

Today's democrats are yesterday's republicans.

 Democrats (not all of them of course, but enough of them) enabled the Bush administration in some of the worst crimes against humanity in modern history: the illegal invasion of Iraq, the shameful atrocities at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo and elsewhere, kidnappings, torture, murders, assassinations, double-taps such as that shown in the Chelsea Manning video and on and on.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

My judgment is especially harsh for the Democratic Party because the whole world looked to them for justice and were denied. Justice is what we owed the world. JUSTICE!
The prospect of a Republican freak out is no excuse for Democrats not pursuing justice. We're always crowing about what a great nation we are – but we can't even manage to bring our own worst and most public in-your-face criminals to justice.

EYE said it once, and EYE say it again.  The Democratic party has been infiltrated by reactionary/New Dems/Blue Dogs/ Centrist/Conservadems/Moderates, and hell knows who/what else to promote neo liberal (aka conservative) ideas.

In addition to conservative infiltrators the democratic party has so called "moderates, centrist, center" who try and walk a thin line down the middle of the party. We don't know if they are pro choice or anti choice. We don't know if they are pro civil rights or anti civil rights. We don't know what the heck they stand for. They are in the middle whatever the heck that means. My daddy says the only thing down the middle of the road is a yellow line. Moderates are afraid to take a position one way or another because they don't know what side of the road they are on.

The definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again,  hoping for a different result.

We’re “absolutely unified on three essential messages going forward: It’s middle class, middle class, middle class,” said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who had just surveyed 90 Democratic members about what they want to see in 2016. “Everybody agreed that it has to be about the middle.”

Who the heck is "Everybody" Rep. Steve Isreal, Sir?  Blue Dogs and New Dems who vote with the republicans and have no connection to the traditional democratic base?  The traditional democratic base they use to get elected, then throw under the bus?

 Davis panders to the right, who are wrong about everything, to the detriment of the, as he calls them,  democratic base(women,minorities,labor,public school teachers,civil rights leaders,African American political organizations). You know, the traditional democratic base that marched, bleed and died to change Alabama. The traditional democratic base that made it possible for him to be the sitting Congressman from the 7th district (which includes the black belt) of Alabama.

Enough.  It's time for real Democrats to stand their ground, and for those who don't support the Democratic platform 100% to go.  Those who believe a half an A$$ is better than no A$$ need to find another party.  Just because someone say's they are a democrat , doesn't mean they are democrat.

Real democrats are pro equal, civil, and human rights.  Real democrats support a woman's right to choose to have a safe legal abortion.  Real democrats support public education, public school teachers, and labor.  Real democrats support equal rights for LBGT citizens.  Real democrats are proud, unashamed, Birkenstock wearing, Hybrid car driving, tree hugging, anti war, anti poverty, card carrying, flag waving,  LIBERALS.

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

If you can't support all of the above, you are with them, and against us.

  Independents are really republicans who are ashamed to call themselves republicans.

I'm sick and tired of cowardly Dems.

RedEye Rant Over and Out.  For now.

The Difference Between "Us" and "Them"

 

Fist Dap jobsanger

Might as well start the year off right (pun intended).  Sorry, but I am one of the Howling Left who doesn't get it.  I am NOT happy about the fiscal cliff  compromise.  Clearly, Obama, the upper middle class, heirs, and some of the American people  won, but guess who lost...the usual "suspects" aka Obama voters.  You know, the people who actually voted for the candidate who ran on, and won on, a $250,000 threshold and no cuts to Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid twice. It's Deja Voodoo all over again, President Obama pandering to those who MIGHT vote for him, at the expense of those who DID vote for him.

I know there are some who believe the Tea Party is on the brink of extinction and can be removed, but I'm not one of them.  Republican controlled state legislatures and governors offices have gerrymandered themselves into a majority in the House, and an organized minority in the Senate, insulating them from being voted out. They don't have to do anything but obstruct the evil democratic agenda and they have a government job with government benefits for life.  Unless, and until, the Suckers who hate Obama more than they love America wake up and smell the coffee, we are stuck with them.

Which has me worried about Alabama's lone African American seat in Congress.  Looks like Rep. Terri Sewell (D. 07)  is facing a challenge from Stanley Mack, who calls himself a conservative who happens to be a black man. (code for republican  front man).  Regular readers know I am a critic of Sewell, but at least she is a liberal who happens to be a black woman.  The last thing the citizens in black belt need is a conservative who happens to be a black man representing them in Congress again.

Has the Alabama republican party finally gotten their claws into Alabama's lone democratic seat in Congress?  Strike that.  Did the Alabama Democratic Party  enable the Alabama republican party to get their claws into Alabama's lone democratic seat in Congress?

I HOPE not.

The difference between us and them is we believe in helping the least of these. ~RedEye 

What Obama doesn't understand about the "Professional Left"

New York Times Magazine published a piece by Johnathan Chait basically telling us Professional Lefty's we need to STFU and support Bush, I mean Obama because we are just to stoopid to understand Obama is powerless. Snark

President Obama underestimated the depth of the crisis in 2009 and left himself with bad options in the event the economy failed to recover as quickly as he hoped. And yet the wave of criticism from the left over the stimulus is fundamentally flawed: it ignores the real choices Obama faced (and the progressive decisions he made) and wishes away any constraints upon his power.

The most common hallmark of the left’s magical thinking is a failure to recognize that Congress is a separate, coequal branch of government consisting of members whose goals may differ from the president’s. Congressional Republicans pursued a strategy of denying Obama support for any major element of his agenda, on the correct assumption that this would make it less popular and help the party win the 2010 elections. Only for roughly four months during Obama’s term did Democrats have the 60 Senate votes they needed to overcome a filibuster.

There are also some who like to list President Obama's accomplishments during those four months as if that should negate any constructive criticism, but as one of my list serve friends says, for each step forward there are many step's backward

H/T gracedesigns

For each step "forward" I could think of, (and there
aren't many) I saw many steps "backward." Most notable is Obama's Health
Care Reform which is being bragged about in some quarters, but most of us
out here realize that with the modest reforms came HUGE giveaways to the
Insurance Industry, including MANDATORY insurance for all Americans. Sure
the Insurance Companies must now accept people with "pre-existing
conditions," but how many of those people or their families will have the
means to pay the huge insurance premiums the companies demand, or the
"fines" for not being able to buy the mandated insurance?

We are now facing drastic cuts in programs benefiting Seniors and low income
households. Senior Centers are on the chopping block, as well as programs
like "Meals of Wheels." Even our hallowed retirement program in which we
have invested our money, Social Security, is on the chopping block. Federal
Housing Assistance is under attack as well.
The current administration want to privatize free Public Education, create
"Charter Schools" and turn our education system into a money-making deal
for the corporation who will run the schools. As prices for everything from
gasoline to food skyrocketed during the past three years, the minimum wage
was only raised once. Seniors also suffered as they were denied their cost
of living increases, so many must now choose between paying for their
medications or buying food.

Bush policies stemming from the Patriot Act, which gave Bush his "Imperial
Presidency," are still in place, and we are seeing hundreds of Americans
peacefully exercising their right to free speech being arrested daily on the
sidewalks surrounding the White House under suppressive laws created by The
Patriot Act.. Elsewhere, Members of Congress are shutting down
no-cost-to-the-public "Town Hall" meetings with their constituents and
opening up "pay for the privilege of speaking to your Congressional
Representative" events.

Sorry, (name redacted), the issues I've cited above have completely
overshadowed the so-called "accomplishments" I've seen pushed through by the
Obama Administration, including the bail outs to supposedly "save" the
economy, but which ended up saving massive salaries and retirement bonuses
for CEOs without creating new American jobs IN America, without restoring
Glass-Steagall to regulate the corrupt runaway banking system, without
putting pressure on Congress to overthrow the "Citizens United" ruling which
would have been at least some campaign funding reform and which should have
been done immediately while Obama had both a Democratic House and Senate to
get those important jobs done.

The final blows for me are when Obama refused to support American Citizens
protesting the union busing agenda of Republican Governors

Or push for huge military spending cuts rather than putting Social Security
"on the table"

Or moving swiftly to end "racial profiling" laws in the various
anti-immigration laws also being pushed into law by Republican Governors and
thereby diminish the voting power of the Democratic Party.

Or letting the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy expire for everyone making over
a quarter of a Million in annual income.,

Or using his Congressional Majority during the first two years of his term
of office to close the corporate tax loopholes

Or allowing Universal, single payer health care for all Americans to be "on
the table" rather than going meekly along with the Emmanuel Brothers'
backroom deals with Big Pharma and the Insurance Industry to make sure the
"For Profits" would continue to profit under his "new"
health care plan.

No (name redacted), I won't be forgetting that the invented crisis of
raising the debt ceiling could have been solved by the President simply
raising the debt ceiling without any "negotiations" at all. There WAS a
precedence for that, and it should have been done rather than opening up the
possibility of weakening or totally destroying Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid. I won't forget President Obama calling Social Security an
"entitlement" program when it is in no way shape or form an "entitlement."
Social Security Funds were paid by employees payroll deductions for all of
their working lives. That is a retirement INVESTMENT, not an "entitlement."

I won't forget and I won't make the mistake of voting for Obama again unless
he makes a hard return to issues that protect the majority of Americans
rather than the Corporate Campaign donors and starts "looking back" at
issues he should have begun taking care of the minute he entered office. He
did sign the 'Lily Ledbetter Act" into law, but at the same time he seemed
to trade off that important bill by exonerating a thoroughly guilty
Republican Senator, Ted Stevens, from
felony charges. Meanwhile, the innocent Don Siegelman remains trapped
in legal limbo with a felony conviction (on appeal) shackling the most
Popular Democrat in Alabama from using his political skills, possibly even
running for office, to stop the continuing Corporatist Republican takeover
of Alabama.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you, (name redacted). For me the
negatives vastly outweigh the few positive accomplishments of President
Obama's Administration, leaving me heartbroken and angry when I think of all
that could have been accomplished by him. A strong majority of the People
of America were behind him and would have remained behind him had he taken
decisive action in the first two years of his administration to end the
wars, punish the war criminals and reestablish American Justice at the
highly politicized DOJ. Instead he turned for "advice" from the very goons
from Wall Street and the banks who caused our economic crisis, sold health
care reform to the For Profit Insurance and Health Care Industry, did
nothing to "clean out" the highly politicized DOJ from its Bush Moles, and worst of all he allowed the Republican Party, through endless cave-ins and "compromises" to gain the power which led to the loss of the U. S. House of Representatives in 2010.

I cannot forget...I can only hope every American who can will go to
Washington on October 6th and, in peaceful civil disobedience, demand
specific changes from everyone who wants to remain in office. I also hope
that there will be Solidarity Rallies in every city, town, village or even
on the block where you live in America for those who cannot attend the
October 6th event in D. C. but who wish to show their support.


What President Obama doesn't understand about "The Left" is we don't like being punk'd. If you run as a liberal democrat, we expect you to govern as a liberal democrat. We expect you to keep your promises.

At seventeen years of age, it dawned on me that I would be eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election. A right that, in a democratic nation, comes with an obligation to be self-informed and knowledgeable of political affairs. I realized my fast-approaching surge into adulthood would be crippled by a dependent, uninformed mind. That if my opinion of government was simply the product of others’ rambling, I had no personal identity or significance.
So I started reading and I started listening. I tried to be as impartial as possible. When I read something clearly biased to one side, I tried to balance it by reading an account from the other side. I backtracked all the way to President Obama’s campaign speeches and promises. I attempted to objectively pair those past promises with later or present action. My findings were disheartening. Although I did find Obama had followed through on some of his campaign promises, there were many he had flatly and apathetically dropped.
Civil liberty promises such as closing Guantanamo Bay have not only been cast aside by the President, but he’s now sending September eleventh terrorists to be tried in their fake, unconstitutional trial system.
Amidst a current national union rights battle, I recollect on the words once spoken by our president. ‎”If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America,” he promised during a campaign speech in 2007. But it has yet to be seen and it is years later.
“I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years,” Obama said in a press conference on Dec. 7, 2010. “In the long run, we simply can’t afford them. And when they expire in two years, I will fight to end them.” Unfortunately, when the time came as president, Obama extended the tax cuts for two more years. America is waiting, perhaps hoping, but not changing.
It was a personal betrayal I felt with Obama. He was the only politician I ever trusted, and I was punished for opening my trust with such vulnerability. The political system took a beloved revolutionary; a savior; a personal hero and stripped him of his ostensible, distinguishing integrity.

I repeat, If President Obama is a one term President it will be his own damn fault.
All I am going to say is President Obama has no one to blame for himself because the first thing he should have done after he was sworn into office on January 8, 2008 was to restore honesty and integrity to the United States Justice Department.

But did he do that? Hell to the NO. His first act was to clear Republican Senator Ted Stevens. Meanwhile the former Democratic Alabama Governor Don Siegelman languishes in the wind and other Alabama Democrats are still under attack.

I tried to tell President Obama is was time to kick a$$ and take names back in September 2011.

Line the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and the White House Press Corp up, make them bend over, go down the line kicking them in their a$$e$ for using the public airways to distort what we decide by lying and misinforming we the peeps. Then go back up the line and kick their a$$e$ for the lack of diversity in the MSM. In case you haven't noticed, the MSM and the White House Press Corps is ALL white and that's not right (pun intended). It's the media Mr. Obama. They want you to fail. He/she who controls the information controls the outcome. You need to take control of the information Sir.

Seriously Mr. President, it's time to send in the A Team, because the B Team has been a miserable failure.

Obama has regularly snubbed progressives, from health care to jobs, from Copenhagen to Afghanistan, from civil liberties to the Employee Free Choice Act.

It hasn’t been a winning strategy.

If Obama had been more progressive, unemployment would’t be so high, foreclosures wouldn’t be at record levels, he wouldn’t be bogged down in Afghanistan, he and other Democrats would be in a much better position politically.

It's Do or Die Mister President Sir. F the so called Independents and Moderates. They are really republican cowards. Independent/Moderate are words created by republicans to disguise them selves because they are afraid to reveal themselves fro who they really are. Stop pandering to them at the expense of your base. All you are doing is putting a noose around your neck, tying it to a tree, jumping on your horse, and riding out to a battle you already lost. Ask Artur Davis.

While Congressman Artur Davis's stunning loss in his quest to win the Alabama Democratic Gubernatorial nomination was a sad turn for one black man, it was a great moment for black voters. It revealed a heightened level of political sophistication among black primary voters who rejected Davis's "I-don't-need-to-spend-time-on-them-'cause-I-know-they'll-be-with-me" approach to campaigning. black Alabamans did not simply genuflect before a polished black candidate. He gave them nothing; they returned the favor. Davis has ambitiously positioned himself for higher office for some time. In so doing, he took his base for granted. That's the best way to lose an election

I'm just saying....

Saturday Quick Rant

Between my real life and working on the Huntsville City Schools update I don't have time to write an in-depth diary but there are some things I just have to get off my chest.

If you don't read anything else I ever post, please read 8 Political Myths about Blacks you shouldn't believe.

By Anthony Jerrod
English novelist and essayist George Orwell once stated, “Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” Indeed, throughout history, the political landscape has been littered with mental trash that subsequently has been accepted, processed and etched into the minds of certain individuals as truth.
To date, members of various ethnicities continue to witness the deep democratic struggles and the courage of people of African descent, who continually clothe themselves with love and justice in the face of monolithic adversity, resistance, malevolent acts, and attempts to diminish and eradicate black beauty, intelligence and potentiality.
As we embark on communicating the whole truth, it is essential that we persist in debunking lies intended to hold blacks captive. To be sure, the following is but a snapshot of popular myths and does not represent the full breadth of lies leveled by politicos on both sides of the aisle.

We Professional Lefty's tried to tell y'all The Tax Cut Deal was a hidden threat to Social Security. But did you listen? Nooooo. Can you hear us now?

WASHINGTON - The tax cut deal that President Obama struck with congressional Republicans contains a provision that could ultimately be the undoing of Social Security, say Senate Democrats and backers of the old-age and disability program.

Obama, as part of the Democratic package, secured a roughly 30 percent cut in the payroll tax, from 6.2 to 4.2 percent. Allowing it to expire in a year will mean that workers will see a nearly 50 percent jump in payroll taxes as the rate reverts back -- an event that will surely be described as a tax hike. The cut is estimated to cost $120 billion per year.

You are wrong ADP chair, Mark Kennedy. There is no civil rights struggle going on in Alabama about over immigration and I resent the comparison. This is not a civil rights struggle over immigration, it's an economic struggle. Did you forget the origins of the so-called immigration movement? President Reagan granted immunity to millions of Mexicans so they could come over here and do the jobs not that black didn't want to do, but jobs employers didn't want to pay blacks to do. They didn't start having a problem with them there illegals until they started wanting to be paid and have some rights. African Americans were brought to this country in chains. Hispanics came voluntarily.

Just call us the N-word Already and get it over with

My father used to say, in dealing with racists, you had rattlesnakes and you had water moccasins (his analogy). The rattlers were the ones who hollered “Nigger!” every time they saw your ass, so you weren’t surprised or upset by his bigoted ass. In time, you learned how to tune him out, and avoid him in the road, because he rattles, which lets you know he’s planning to strike.

OTOH, the water moccasin, like the black mamba, is a sneaky SOB that gives no warning when it’s going to strike. They lull you to a sense of safety…and, WHAM!, you’re snakebit and it just might kill you if you don’t get to a doc in time. IOW, you think someone’s not a bigot and then they drop that hammer on you – and you never knew what hit you.

Just another day in America

"A Negro's body was found on the outskirts of a small Mississippi town. The victim had been bound hand and foot, stabbed seventeen times, and had six bullet wounds in his body. "What's your verdict, sheriff?" asked a reporter. "Worst case of suicide I ever saw!" replied the lawman."

The following story from Connecticut reminds me of the joke you just read.

"Stamford Connecticut police have identified the body of a young woman found naked and dead under a tree this past Saturday.
Jasmine Brown, 21, [IN PIC] moved to New York from New Orleans a year ago to attend the Art Institute of New York City. Police believe the aspiring designer either fell or jumped to her death from the tree."

It's the job of Faux News to sell wars and misinform people. Which is why Fox News is blasted in every Airport, Hospital, Mall, The Utility Company, and Restaurants.

The FOX agenda is not to report the news to us in a straightforward fashion,it is to give the news they report a conservative slant and to influence and brainwash the A-merry-can people into their way of thinking. Goebbels would be proud.

7 winning issues for democrats if only they had the guts to fight. I have to give it to the right wing. Right or wrong they stand united and fight. Psst ADP chair Mark Kennedy! Read this and you won't have to beg democrats to "fight with you".

It's not enough for progressives to count on Republicans to lose in 2012. Democrats need to find some issues to fight for.

Congratulations to my friend Legal Schnauzer for reaching a milestone. He is bravest, most talented Blogger I know.

What did I set out to do? More than anything else, I wanted to accomplish these two things: (1) To call attention to the problem of corruption in our justice system, an issue that is mostly ignored in the mainstream press; (2) To write about legal corruption in a way that I didn't think was being presented anywhere else on the Web.

Thank you for personal sacrifice, hopefully, it will not be in vain.

My background is in journalism, and I knew that credibility would be crucial if this blog was going to have an impact. That's why I've posted under my real name, from day one. And it's why I frequently link to real case law and use Scribd (a wonderful tool) to publish documents from real court cases. I did not want this blog to be a theoretical exercise; I wanted it to cut close to the bone--to show what can happen to people in court and give a sense for how it feels to be victimized.

That approach has come with a price. If I had chosen to write under a fake name, Mrs. Schnauzer and I still would have our jobs. If I had used my real name, but focused only on my opinion about various subjects, we probably would still have our jobs. If I had used my real name, but been way off base on my factual assertions, we might still have our jobs. After all, I've come to realize that folks in power don't worry much about opinions or reporting that isn't solidly based in facts. But if you focus on genuine reporting that is on target--and you do it under your own name--that makes powerful folks uncomfortable. And that can make you a target.

Do I have second thoughts about starting the blog, or the approach we have taken? No, I don't. I knew I could not live with myself if I just "let it go" on the cheat job Mrs. Schnauzer and I experienced in the courts of Shelby County, Alabama, where we live. And when I researched the Don Siegelman and Paul Minor cases, and came to understand what had been done to them, I knew I could not stay silent about that, either.

Thank you for not staying silent. Silence helps the oppressor not the oppressed.

The Left is NOT like the Right

I want to debunk the right wing, media enabled, rhetoric that it is illegitimate to hold the gop infused, media enabled, Tea Party responsible for the present toxic political culture. The school yard meme claiming the overzealous nature of partisanship on both sides of the aisle is straight up Bullpoo. There is a huge difference between the rhetoric on the right and the rhetoric on the left. For one thing, the right has a wider platform.

The left isn't responsible for the anger and the vitriol that produced the random acts of domestic terrorism. It's those on the right who have exploited the arguments of division, reaping political power by demonizing immigrants, or welfare recipients, or bureaucrats. The Left doesn't use Hate Speech to incite violence.

The Left is not on Talk Radio 24/7 using the public airways to misinform the uniformed to keep the bigots in line.

Where does one start in the wake of the political killing spree that occurred in Arizona on Saturday?

With John Wilkes Booth putting a bullet into the head of Abraham Lincoln?

With the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy?

With the shooting of Martin Luther King?

The right-wing culture of hate and implicit coded call to kill the enemy, as if on a mission from God, is a subset of our larger national culture of violence.

From our policy of maintaining superpower status through wars and coups to going back to the conquest of America by the slaughter of Native Americans, we have had a history of a large segment of our population that views violence as a remedy for personal and political grievances - as well as the fulfillment of ideological goals. For them, "putting down your enemy" is as American as apple pie.

MSNBC is NOT like Fox News

Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will.

What if the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party were Black?

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

IMHO President Obama doesn't need to be leading a moment of silence for the Arizona Victims, he needs to be speaking out. This is another one of those teachable moments where he has the opportunity to reaffirm the belief we are not red states and blue states we are the United States of America. He should take the lead in in quieting the voices of hate and bigotry.

You won't see wall to wall, breathless coverage of the One Nation Working Together rally held in Washington D.C. today because it's not a bunch of Obama hating white folks waving their flags while they waive their rights. Nope, it's red, yellow, black and white Americans from red states and blue states coming together to reclaim The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and demanding the CHANGE we voted for.

It's the media.

President Obama is NOT moving to the Center

Despite the latest right wing Talking TeeVee Pundit Head chatter, President Obama has not abandoned his "base" and decided to govern from the center. That's just the C-Y-A spin they are trying to put on the shellacking President Obama (D), Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D), and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D) laid on them. They never saw it coming. *snicker* I repeat...Liberals don't hate President Obama.

Do Liberals hate the Obama Compromise, where the super rich get a tax cut for two years, unemployment is extended for one year and the 99's get nothing? Hell yes we do! As well we should.

The bill, H.R.4853, is estimated to cost $858 billion, and is entirely financed by increasing the federal deficit. In addition to the income tax extension and the unemployment insurance, the bill includes a one-year reduction in social security taxes, a two-year reduction of the estate tax (35% with the first $5 million fully exempt), a smattering of tax cuts designed to help middle-class families, and about $55 billion in pork for special interests.

Serioulsy, what's so wrong with being "far left"? Think about it,, what has the "far left" ever been wrong about? Were we wrong about the Iraq war? When has the "far left" ever been on the wrong side of social issues? Was the far left wrong about the Civil Rights Act? President Obama is being urged by some to govern from the center. The center of what? My daddy says the only thing down the center of the road is a yellow line. The President can't govern from center

Black Agenda Report editor and columnist Jared A. Bell says it's the Professional Left versus the Left of Us.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was partially right when earlier this year he dismissed the “professional left.” There is indeed a professional left, those whose entire careers and claims to fame are based on permanent liberal challenges to power and who arrogantly dismiss as immature, and worse dangerous, those who would push leftward beyond those limits. “Don’t go too far,” they tell us, “vote for us or THEY will get elected and then we’re in real trouble!” But that’s because liberals aren’t in real trouble. They don’t really believe that. If they did really believe that corporations were leading the planet to doom or that the fascists they are protecting us from are just outside the gates would they really only respond by a few rallies and a vote for a Democrat? Then maybe they are as “f&*king stupid” as Rahm Emanuel said they are.

Way, way under the mainstream media radar the biggest prison strike since Attica went unnoticed in the MSM in favor of a "missing popular dancer in Las Vegas".

In the spirit of Attica, nearly 40 years later, prisoners at six prisons in Georgia organized a non-violent labor strike to demand better conditions for themselves. Specifically the inmates demanded a living wage for their work, educational opportunities, decent health care, an end to cruel and unusual punishment, decent living conditions, nutritional meals, opportunities for self-improvement (rehabilitation), access to their families and just parole decisions.

Perhaps even more remarkable than the strike, in which inmates shared information via text messaging on phones bought from prison guards, is that the strike went virtually unnoticed by mainstream American media. That so many chose to ignore what has been called the largest strike of its nature in American history, speak volumes to how Americans continue to think of the American Prison System or what scholars and activists have more commonly referred to as the "Prison Industrial Complex." The inmates themselves have another word for their reality: "Slavery."

So, if prison inmate can rise up in protest of their conditions what's wrong with us so called free folks? IMHO, until President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder make good on their promise to restore integrity to the Justice Department,there will be no peace on this earth.

The Department’s public integrity section is under new leadership—the most highly qualified it has seen in recent decades. It has seized the right moment for an internal reassessment of the approach to prosecuting public corruption. That should entail recognizing that dedication to fair process must take a center seat even if some scoundrels get off the hook as a result. This reassessment must include some introspection about mistakes and abuses of the past as well, because the most serious misjudgments in the public integrity arena relate to active cases in which the Justice Department is defending utterly indefensible positions. In the end, the Justice Department will also have to learn to operate in the harsh sunlight of public attention, disclosing its mistakes and striving to correct them. This is the essential path back to public trust after years spent straying in the wilderness.

As long as elected officials pander to what Ministry of Truth describes as the perfect gop voter there will be no peace on this earth, they are not in the center, they are far right, and us far lefty's are nothing like them.

You can basically break Republican voters into 4 subgroups, and they are Cruel, Hateful, Wildly Misinformed, and Constantly Scared S#@tless. The perfect storm of Republican ideology on the MooseMeter of "WTF are they talking about" is all 4 at once.

The four steps of creating the perfect GOP voter:

1. Find some way to wildly misinform people
2. Play up to their hate (Try calling your opponents Hitler)
3. Play to their cruelty in persecuting the object of their hatred
4. Do your best to scare the living s&*t out of your captive, misinformed viewers about the IMMINENT DANGER of terrorist attacks, socialists, communists, race based cruelty, anti immigrant furor or the Next Big Government Takeover that is going to destroy America.

Our President is not walking the center line down the center of the road just because the gop put a horse head in his bed. They got their tax cut for the rich, at the expense of the country, but that's OK, because it exposes the gop for what it really stands for, Greed Over People. President Obama takes the far left position on DADT, the Dream Act, Equal pay for equal work and access to health care reform. His job approval rating among us far left liberals is just fine.

A friend of mine said they wanted President Obama to act more like George W. Bush and just bull doze his agenda through. I said I wanted President Obama to act more like John Shaft (Richard Roundtree or Samuel L. Jackson). But in the end I believe he acts more like Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, what we've gote here is a failure to communicate directly to the American people with out the mainstream media distorting what we decide with all spin all the time, unfair and unbalanced, pandering to the typical gop voter.

President is NOT moving to the Center. There is NO Center.