12 November 2010 Too Much of Nothing Makes a fella mean

From the Washington Post:

Where's the Democrats' fighting spirit?

By Eugene Robinson

Friday, November 12, 2010

“Wednesday night, I gave a talk at Indiana State University.”You watch," said a man in the audience, "the Democrats are going to cave on the tax cuts for the rich, just like they caved on everything else." …

…“Let's examine this issue a little more closely. Making the tax cuts permanent for the wealthy would increase the deficit by $700 billion over the next decade. Which party claims to be urgently, desperately concerned about the deficit? The Republicans, of course. So which party is prepared to bust the budget, if that's what it takes, to serve the interests of the rich? The GOP. And which party, to get its way, refuses to approve desperately needed tax relief for the bruised and battered middle class? Once again, the Republicans.

Now, which party holds the presidency and, until January, ample majorities in both houses of Congress? That would be the Democrats. Which party can point to public opinion polls indicating that Americans support its position that the Bush tax cuts should be extended only for the middle class? That, too, would be the Democrats. And finally, which party somehow appears to be looking for a way to lose this argument and capitulate? Incredibly, the Democrats.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/11/AR2010111106085.html



Cassi Creek:

The news today is discouraging. The Democrats, seemingly led by the POTUS, have rolled over, tits up, like a beaten dog or a jet engine down checked by FOD. Tax cuts for the super wealthy, the Bush II gift to the people who have everything, “may have to be extended in order to maintain minimal tax cuts for the middle class.”

As Robinson points out above, the Democrats still have control of both houses and the White House. Many of them will not be in office in 2011. They have the collective opportunity to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, decreasing the long-term added deficit that the GOP will gladly incur in order to reward its wealthiest patrons for nothing more than being wealth patrons. They have the numbers, they have the power, and they have the moral imperative to halt the slide toward a growing oligarchy. What they lack is the courage to do what they were elected to do in 2008.

If all Democrats were like the members of this Congress and Senate, the GOP could go home and let their opponents screw the public for them. If the Democrats of the New Deal, the New Frontier, and the Great Society eras were as cowardly as this crop, we’d never have gained Social Security or Medicare; and Jim Crow laws would still be enforced by unchecked racists.

All below sent to Whitehouse.gov:

Obama was not my first choice for the Democrat’s nomination. I thought others might be better equipped for the office. I was not captured by the internet packaging/marketing that his campaign used to secure the nomination. I’m not impressed by his oratorical skills. I’ve heard FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, and LBJ lay out the truth. Obama can read and speak more clearly than Bush II, but that is no real task for anyone who can read at all.

When he won the 2008 election, I expected him to follow through on the mandate to effect changes in health care, to fund federal job programs, and to regulate the financial industry to stop the economy being raped by the new robber barons. He had the mandate and the political numbers to push his changes through despite the instant GOP refusal to cooperate on any legislation. He should have had the intelligence to realize that he was not going to make friends but that he could make history. Instead, he let the right wing demagogues and a petty GOP stop any progress. He acted as if he was more concerned with being liked than doing what he was elected to accomplish.

His administration has done some positive things. His party, and he by association, are the biggest Wimps ever to sit in the Capitol and do nothing. They collectively have no spine and no balls. They are not likely to produce new little Democrats.

They have less than a month to make changes. If they love this nation, if they really want to make the necessary changes, they need to do it now.

I didn’t think it was possible for Palin to obtain a nomination. But this batch of do nothings are primed and ready to hand the reins of power over to the know nothings and saddling the middle class, once again, with cleaning up the mess the GOP and the super-wealthy have made of America while paying the super-wealthy for not contributing.

The current Democratic party, the Democrats in Congress, the supposedly Democratic Obama administration – looking more right wing every day – have less than a month before they close up shop and Congress goes home to a vacation it in no way deserves. Grow some balls, boys and girls, and do what we sent you to D.C. to do.

Mr. Obama, I voted for you because you were the lesser evil to the McCain/Palin retreat to the 19th century. I’ve supported you since your election in polls, on line, in conversations with friends and family. It is time you realize that the GOP, Teavangelists, and the rest of the lunatic fringe on the right will never like you or support anything you propose. That doesn’t matter while you still have the numbers in Congress. If you are worried about your legacy, how history views you, start acting like a President and not like a community organizer. This community can’t be organized but you can make the changes you promised if you start shoving back and demanding your party’s cooperation and support.

Here’s another thing to consider. However much you may wish to build bridges to a Muslim world, you need to drop that project. Most Americans have no interest in building bridges to Islam. They’re trying to survive on fewer and fewer dollars that purchase less and less while you opt out of the fight to end the Bush tax cuts that you promised us in 2008. If you don’t begin to take care of domestic problems in the next month, there will be no bridge building and no legacy for you to worry about in 2011-2012. Like the Congress, whether you intended to or not, you have also become too much of nothing.

I’ve already had too much of nothing. It looks like we’re going to be handed even more nothing. As the song says, I’m feelin’ mean!

I've lost hope and patience with the Democratic Party, its candidates, and its future. If the Democratic Party goes belly up, there will be no hope for America or its citizens.

Please do as you promised. We can’t take another round of tax cuts for the super-rich paid for by the middle class. Remember the people who put you into office, not the people who want only to remove you from office. End the Bush Tax cuts. We can survive an across the board increase. Rewarding the super rich for nothing but their greed will assure you leave office in 2013.





TOO MUCH OF NOTHING

Bob Dylan- Dwarf Music SESAC

Too much of nothin' can make a man feel ill at ease

One man's temper might rise, while the other man's temper might freeze.

In the days of long confessions, we can not mock a soul

When there's too much of nothin', no one has control.

(Chorus)

Say hello to Valerie, say hello to Marion,

Send them all my salary, on the waters of oblivion.

Too much of nothin' can make a man abuse a king

He can walk the streets and boast like most but he don't know a thing.

It's all been done before, it's all been written in the book.

But when it's too much of nothin', nobody should look.

(Chorus)

Too much of nothin' can turn a man into a liar

It can cause some man to sleep on nails, another man to eat fire.

Everybody's doin' somethin', I heard it in a dream

But when it's too much of nothin', it just makes a fella mean.

(Chorus)