Taking food out of the mouths of babies

The Senate passed the Food Stamp Slashing Bill today, with only nine, count 'em fucking NINE, Democrats voting against the cuts.  If you live in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut, you can be proud of your Democratic Senators--just about anywhere else, well, your Senator decided that giving government money to agribusiness trumped feeding children.  Over 1.7 million people will see a cut averaging about $90 month, thereby forcing children to go hungry.

Noted Liberal stalwarts like Bernie Sanders, Barbara Boxer, Al Franken, Jeff Merkley, Tom Harkin, and my state's own Carl Levin voted for the cuts.  It's not surprising when lame-ass Democrats like Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, and my state's own Debbie Stabenow fuck over the poor--you always knew that while they are marginally better than republicans, they were really only in it for the money.  But people that we've been asked to help again and again because they were really the good guys, and stood up for what Paul Wellstone famously called the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party?

I know days like today really pump me up for the elections in November.  Unfortunately for Democrats running for the Senate this year, what little money I have will be going to food banks.

At least I know that they give a shit about the poor.

Peace,
emaycee

No man an island

David Atkins wrote a nice piece today taking President Obama to task for his many errors on economic policy (Digby threw her inimitable two cents in as well) and outlines a framework for changing the narrative.  While I couldn't agree more--and I'd be the last to defend the President, who has been a monumental disaster from the Liberal standpoint on help for the working men and women of America--President Obama hasn't exactly had a lot of support from the spineless Democrats in the Senate:

• There's no way a $4 billion dollar cut in SNAP benefits can pass the Senate without Democratic votes (we provided 28).  Michigan's own Debbie Stabenow had the gall to say it was about cutting waste and fraud.  Au contraire, Senator Agriculture Industry, it's about taking food out of the mouths of children and giving the money saved to millionaires.
• Don't know about you, but I signed, oh, about a thousand petitions in the last couple of months to keep student loan rates low.  That worked out well--the Senate, with fifty-five fucking Democrats, managed to pass a bill that significantly raised the rates.  So much for competing in the global economy....
• Republican use of the filibuster has been unprecedented, but even with their minor victory in getting the President's nominees through recently, there still is great doubt Sen. Reid has the votes if he needs to go nuclear in the future.  I did, however, get a letter from my gutless Senator, Carl Levin, this week, outlining why he is against it.  Seems Sen. Levin can cite about three instances where Democrats successfully used the filibuster to prevent bad bills from becoming law.  What exactly Sen. Levin plans to do about the hordes of President Obama's judicial nominees that are languising while republican appointees run roughshod over American workers and support every bad bill/law/decision made by corporations and the chamber of commerce, Sen. Levin didn't say.  One supposes it's the usual gutless Democratic Senator answer:  we can suck on it.

Look, I get that the U.S. House is out of our hands--there's nothing that can be done.  And I really appreciate Senators like Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, and a few others.  But where's the love from the rest of the rotten bastards? 

For fuck's sake, without our votes they'd be back home doing what the rest of us are doing--actually working for a living.

Peace,
emaycee

Who?

Meteor Blades hits the nail on the head with this piece--we should be hammering Tom Harkin's Rebuild America Act at every opportunity.  Unfortunately, he neglects to tell us exactly who should be using the bullhorn to spread this information far and wide.

Because it seems to me if we don't have it out before the elections this fall, it's not going to help much.  Not to mention, this isn't exactly the kind of plan that has the time to ferment for a few years before taking off--we need jobs now.  Mind you, I'm not talking about getting it to pass--just getting the information out as what we Democrats are offering, what distinguishes us from Romney and his circus clowns.

So...as we've seen over the past few years, President Obama the Centrist Wonder is pretty much out.  And the major media outlets, too--fewer and fewer are reading newspapers and Rachel Maddow and the MSNBC gang don't have that many followers.  I think Harry Reid is a possibility, though the Senate Dems that would support it (like our Senators, Levin and Stabenow) are not likely to be able to make enough noise.  Nancy Pelosi is likely the best choice, but even at that, she doesn't have that strong of a caucus.

I truly believe Sen. Harkin's Rebuild America Act is the best economic vision I have seen from the Democrats in years.  But as all too often in the past, it will turn out to be mere wishful thinking because we can't get the information to the mass of Americans it needs to be successful.

Because if preaching "Isn't this cool?" to the already converted were a successful strategy, a whole hell of a lot more of your high school classmates would have been in the Chess Club.

Peace,
emaycee

And I say it's all right

Not a bad few days for the good guys... Do I have the coolest Senator or what? I heard Senator Levin say "shitty" at least five times. Do I think this was done to get people's attention? You betcha! But if there's a word a good chunk of the American public understands, it's "shitty." Some smart and talented son of bitch ought to do one of those will.i.am type videos for this.... Could the Dems be developing cojones? This strategy is actually brilliant--though somebody should be running all kinds of national ads on the Repugs voting against financial reform again and again. Just beat it into Americans' brains: Dems against big banks, Republicans for. Not only that, unlike healthcare reform, they have a real chance to make it even stronger--bonus! Amidst all the blather about the Dems getting crushed in November, I've often had the same thoughts as Digby mentions here (which is why she's Digby and I'm just a putz from Michigan). In the end, Democrats are going to vote for Democrats, Republicans are going to vote for Republicans, and Independents will have to make a choice. While I'm sure some will opt for change for the sake of change, I'd imagine there's a greater number who are going to ask, "Just what am I going to get for this vote?" and when they look at the record (Republicans zero ideas, total lack of bipartisanship) may have their doubts. And let's not forget that Republicans racism is the gift that keeps on giving. One supposes if they're happy enough to lose 90% of the African-American vote, they must be shooting for similar numbers in the Latino vote. Well done (white) gentlemen! Not sure I understand this post's logic at all. Frankly, the people making comments seemed to be much more perceptive than the poster--unless it's one of those Chicken Little warnings to scare Dems into giving more money and getting out to vote.... What the fuck? I mean seriously, what the fuck? Because what America really needs is drunks carrying guns. Can we please make sure the people introducing this bill never get anywhere near a .38 and a beer? Adding stupid to the mix spells disaster. Peace, emaycee