Schumer is the schits

One of the more depressing thoughts for Democrats these days has to be that if we do manage to win back the Senate next year, as it stands now, Chuck Schumer would become the majority leader, replacing the ever feisty Harry Reid.

As if being a Wall Street apologist and being one of only four Democrats to oppose the Iran Treaty wasn't bad enough, today Schumer said a pause may be needed in allowing Syrian refugees to enter America.  At a moment when he could have chosen to show the moral courage of  Democratic Reps. Tammy Duckworth and Keith Ellison, or Democratic Governors Jay Inslee or Dannel Malloy, Schumer chose instead to stand against widows and children and stand with cry baby republicans.

Over the course of the next year, we as Democrats are going to be asked to donate money again and again, donate time again and again, but I'd like to ask if in return Chuck Schumer is the best we can do as our leader in the Senate.

Because I find it really hard to believe that he is.

Peace,
emaycee

Over the cuckoo's nest

Insane.  Nuts.  Bonkers.  Dotty.  Batty.  Wacko.  Delusional.  Bananas.  Haywire.  Daffy.  Deranged.  Off their gourds.  Out to lunch.  Off their rockers.

You get the picture--adjectives that best describe today's republican party.

To wit #1:  Thirty-four percent of republicans--for non-math majors, that's one out of every three--believe that President Obama is an imminent threat to America.  I'm not even sure there are enough words to describe the sheer lunacy of those who hold such beliefs.  Suffice to say, it doesn't just worry me that I have to share a country with these bozos, but that I have to share an entire planet and still won't be able to get far enough away from them.

To wit #2:  Not content with just the Benghazi bullshit to feed their conspiracy theory lust, conservatives are now floating a story that Nevada Senator Harry Reid's New Year's Day injuries were actually the result of his being beaten up by the Mafia.  While the link absolutely shreds the story, I myself have difficulty believing it because if the Mob had attacked Harry Reid, he'd have kicked the shit out of them.  Hell, he's been kicking the shit out of republicans for years and has had plenty of practice slapping around thugs.

Man, somebody really needs to keep the door to the rubber room closed....

Peace,
emaycee

Yeah! That's the ticket!

With a completely straight face, Mitch McConnell this week took credit for the improving American economy because..wait for it...republicans are now in charge of the government.

I've always thought that McConnell was like one of those people at work whom you have to tolerate, but you'd really like just once to pop in the fucking kisser.  This confirms it.

Fortunately, Democrats didn't just refute McConnell, they made him look like the fool he is.  The DNCC and the White House openly mocked his comments.  Harry Reid was quick to point out that republicans were the problem, not the solution.  President Obama used his weekly address today to take another well- deserved victory lap on America's resurgence.

 It's important that we fight back quickly on this kind of bullshit--not doing so is why Ronald Reagan is remembered as a good President, when in reality he was a belittler of America's poor and middle class crushing fucking bozo.

Peace,
emaycee

Bottled Kochs

I've been pretty lukewarm on Michigan's Democratic candidate for Senator Carl Levin's seat, Gary Peters, because he seems to me to be a milquetoast candidate, i.e., he's always come across as republican lite.  When we run republican lite, we lose.  Guess what?  In what should be a safe seat for Democrats, the last few polls have shown Peters trailing.  His opponent, Terri Lynn Land, is your run of the mill republican toadie and despite millions being spent on her behalf by the Koch brothers it's still in a statistical dead heat.

Apparently Peters is having a come home to Jesus moment--this week he gave a big fuck you to the Koch brothers (a la the increasingly feisty Harry Reid) by reminding Michigan voters of their true agenda:  watching ordinary Americans live in a Road Warrior post-apocalyptic world while they sit around their four Olympic sized pools enjoying circle jerks while they count even more billions of dollars.

Peters is correct to point out to Michigan voters that the Kochs don't live here and are trying to buy our state's Senate seat to entrich themselves and themselves alone.  He would be wise to spend the next eight months hammering home how his opponent is leading their charge at every Michigander's expense.

Peace,
emaycee

Boom goes the dynamite, BOOM!

The funniest thing about today's use of the nuclear option to end republican filibusters of the President's judicial and executive nominees (and wasn't it wonderful to watch Democrats go badass on republican obstructionism) was the republicans' claims that eventually Democrats would regret it.

Regret what?  Democracy working the way it's supposed to?  If the republicans win back the White House in 2016 (and, boy, what are the odds I take up drinking and smoking again should that happen), they should be able to nominate and have an up or down vote on who they want for the nation's courts.  Frankly, we have hearings on the nominees--if a republican nominee turns out to be a member of the Klan (not as unlikely as you might think), Democrats can vote against him, republicans can vote for him and try to explain to the American people why they think a member of the Klan belongs on the bench of one of our courts or in the President's inner circle.

What the republicans are really bemoaning is that this was another colossal fuck-up on their part--they pushed too far and the Democrats had finally had enough.  And now there are 93 judicial vacancies that President Obama can fill if he so chooses which would give the Democrats a commanding majority in America's courts.

Peace,
emaycee

Damn straight

We've been told that elections have consequences...but apparently that isn't so when Democrats win them.

Republican obstructionism on judicial nominations and vacancies to oversight organizations like the NLRB has virtually reached the point of absurdity.  We've held the Senate and the Presidency since 2008 and there are still an inordinate amount of vacancies on the courts.  The NLRB will soon be unable to do its job because of a lack of board members due to republicans filibustering President Obama's nominees.

Harry Reid is threatening to change the Senate rules (again) so that nominees can pass with a simple majority (this is what we call a democracy, for our less than bright republican friends), but it appears his margin of victory is so thin its anorexic.  Nice then that Larry Cohen, President of the Communication Workers of America, is threatening Democrats who do not support this with both a complete loss of support and primaries from candidates who actually care about the American people.

One hates to reach a point where we sound like republican fanatics, and even though we are the party of the big tent, we have to have bare minimum support from our Congresspersons on the core principles of our party.  As Mr. Cohen states, without that support such Congresspersons are worthless to us.

Even worse, it makes it so republicans don't have to win elections--they can merely obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, and any hope for making life better for the working men and women of America fades like the setting sun.

Democracy destroyed.

Peace,
emaycee

MSNBC's lonely hearts club band

Seems the ratings at MSNBC have been falling and it's giving republicans the warm fuzzies because we Liberals are tuning out.  As Digby notes, it seems to be happening across the blogosphere as well.

There are a number of reasons this could be so--it's not an election year and I don't think the enthusiasm is quite the same in off years.  President Obama hasn't exactly been inspiring.  Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi make the Cowardly Lion look like fucking Audie Murphy.  There's also the fact that we Liberals have never tuned into radio and TV quite like conservatives do.  And being in power (at least the Presidency and the Senate) always makes for a bit more complacency.

But as someone who rarely watches MSNBC anymore (and I used to be a regular viewer, as in every night, sometimes watching the same show twice), I wonder if the people who have tuned out have noticed what I've noticed:  the station is suffering (at least the nightly shows, I'm not home during the day) from a terminal case of tin man's disease--absolutely no heart.

Don't think so?  Watch the way Rachel Maddow gets all glassy eyed when some foreign policy wonk is discussing drone strikes, though she doesn't have nearly the same reaction when discussing striking fast food workers.  Or Chris Hayes when he has a panel discussion on climate change.  Or Lawrence O"Donnell when he's taking about the workings of the Senate.  Christ, Ed Schultz was about as clumsy on air as I would be wearing a tutu and performing Swan Lake on a Detroit street corner, but his love for ordinary Americans was a joy to watch.  Most of the time watching MSNBC anymore I get the feeling their big three are a lot more interested in extolling their intellectual bona fides than they are in the problems of everyday America.

Don't get me wrong--I think Guantanamo and the use of drone strikes are antithetical to everything America stands for.  I know climate change is real...but these days, I'm a lot more concerned with my family making it from payday to payday than I am about how much Arctic ice will be left a hundred years after I'm dead.

And I'd be willing to be there are a lot of Liberals in the same boat as me.

Peace,
emaycee

Not feelin' it

Pardon me, but I'm having a real hard time feeling President Obama's indignation today over the Senate's failure to pass any gun control legislation.  Perhaps if the President had fought just a little harder to get the equally feckless Harry Reid to move filibuster reform.  Perhaps if the President--even after four years of their obstructionism, for God's sake--had ever stood up to the republicans.  Perhaps if President Obama had actually, just once, got out there and fought for ordinary Americans.

Instead, he held onto some Pollyanna dream that he could get republicans to cooperate with him in some kind of bipartisan bullshit, and we're all worse off for his inability to grasp reality.

Today wasn't a failure of Washington--it was a failure of the President.  Too little courage, no fight, and another epic fail for Barack Obama.

Call my Congressman?  You have to be kidding, Mr. President.  He's just the same as you, satisifed with the status quo.

But look at the bright side--three more years and you can make countless millions giving speeches and selling your memoirs.

Peace,
emaycee

Lessons from the motor city

Dear Sen. Reid,

    It is my understanding that during a particularly heated discussion with Speaker of the House Boehner during the fiscal curb negotiations, Rep. Boehner told you to "Go fuck yourself."  Your reponse was reported to be, "What are you talking about?"  Speaker Boehner, perhaps thinking you had not heard him correctly, repeated his curse.

     As you are a Mormon, it is possible that you are not familiar with how to respond to such an insult as the one Speaker Boehner hurled at you.  As I am from the Greater Metro Detroit area, let me school you:  the correct response is not, repeat not, "What are you talking about?", but  rather, "Blow it out your ass, mother fucker!"

     I hope this helps you in your future dealings with Speaker Boehner.

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