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Footnotes to a quiet civil war

By Avedon from the Sideshow

BTD recommends a Democracy Now! debate between Glenn Greenwald and Cass Sunstein in which, he says, Sunstein is an ass. Truly, you'd expect someone like Sunstein to know what he's talking about on an issue like FISA, only he doesn't - or at least, like many apologists for the FISA vote, he's just not a very good liar. (Also: I dunno, is Vanity Fair doing a parody of the New Yorker cover much better? I mean, except that, in this case, what's in the cartoon is actually true - especially what's in the fireplace.)

Barney Frank is pretty good on a lot of things, but he's not having much success convincing corporate America that they have a stake in rescuing America from the mess they've been making. Mick Arran says: "Barney's not naive but I have to wonder if he understands that his own party is half the problem? The conservative DLC leadership is putting ZERO pressure on business to conciliate labor, treat its workers better, or come up with a health care plan that doesn't put all the expense on the employee. So why should they respond? They're paying Blue Dogs to make sure they don't have to and the Dem presidential candidate just made a pilgrimage to Wall Street (Harold Ford set it up; his Wall Street contacts are the reason he was given charge of the DLC) to reassure them that if he wins in November, the investor class has nothing to worry about, nothing to be afraid of. He's on their side."

Bill Scher has posted a bunch of interviews he did with people at Netroots Nation over at Liberal Oasis, such as with Jim Hightower and Natasha Chart.

Don Siegelman has his own web page, and he wants you to send your rep a letter. (Does anyone know if Sammy's interview with Siegelman has been posted anywhere yet? His article about Siegelman's case is here.)

Comments

(17)

Does anyone know...

...if Sammy's interview with Siegelman has been posted anywhere yet?
--------------------------
Yes.
http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/jul/14/gov-don-siegelman-netroots-nation...

Don't mind the 10 minutes of music before and after the actual interview.
____________________
"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace."
"Power to the peaceful..." --Franti

By SJerseyIndyJuly 22, 2008 - 2:15pm

Yes, I was fooled by the long musical lead-in.

But thanks.

AC
More liberal media at The Sideshow.

By AvedonJuly 22, 2008 - 5:30pm

The oft-repeated urban myth is that repubs are good for the

economy, while dems hurt it. Every statistic I have seen shows exactly the opposite. The stock market does better; the budget deficits are smaller, or become surpluses; there is more job creation; best of all, income disparities are less too. So reassuring corporate America that it's ok to have Obama in the White House is just plain ridiculous. Those statistics are available to anyone, and you have to know that business people know them too. I think the reason the lie keeps getting repeated is that it is the elite that do best under repubs, and they are the ones that own the companies. They go with the party that benefits them personally the most. That's fine, as it is perfectly understandable. But when that self-interest becomes harmful to the country and its citizens as a whole, it is intolerable.

Corporate America supports repubs not because repub rule is best for business (statistics say otherwise), but because the people who own or run the businesses know they will get preferential treatment from repubs, and they will gain more wealth personally. If that means their companies and shareholders and employees don't do as well, too bad for them.

By UffdaguyJuly 22, 2008 - 2:46pm

Absolutely right.

Dwight Meredith compiled some of that here.

AC
More liberal media at The Sideshow.

By AvedonJuly 22, 2008 - 5:33pm

Republicans are good for BIG

Republicans are good for BIG business, for example, multi-national corporations. They are hell on small businesses, the individual, and anyone trying to live out the American dream a la Horatio Alger.

I think corporate capitalism is antiethical to small businesses, individual endeavor, individualism, and the pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps values that America used to stand for.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight Eisenhower

By MichtouJuly 22, 2008 - 6:36pm

Corporate-Powered DLC VS. People-Powered Unity

...and the Tug of War over Obama.

Let there be no mistake: the DLC will try (and hopefully fail) to keep its greasy grips on control of this Party if it's the last thing they do.

But, take heart: their grip is slipping.

They succeeded in 2004 by purging Dean from the primaries and pushing Kerry to the right.
They succeeded in 2008 by keeping Hillary's campaign on life support.

And then they tried to push Obama out.

But, they failed.

We can be sure that they will try to be victorious once again now that a nominee has been chosen.

However, it is a nominee who-- contrary to their preferred candidate (Hillary) who was/is an active member of their organization-- has gone out of his way to slap the DLC in the past:

DLC shunned by Obama
Mon Mar 07, 2005 at 06:30:37 PM EDT

It appears the DLC is getting such a bad reputation that even a hint of association with the group sends Democrats running for cover.
Look at Barack Obama's statement after the DLC listed him as one of the "100 New Democrats to Watch.":

"Neither my staff nor I have had any direct contact with anybody at the DLC since I began this campaign a year ago," Obama wrote. "I don't know who nominated me for the DLC list of 100 rising stars, nor did I expend any effort to be included on the list.... I certainly did not view such inclusion as an endorsement on my part of the DLC platform."
After realizing that his name appeared in the DLC's database, Obama asked to have it removed. The message was clear: The DLC needed Obama a lot more than Obama needed the DLC.

The Nation, March 21, 2005

Obama still on DLC's list
Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 11:36:51 AM EDT

Last year, Barack Obama asked the DLC to remove him from their list. He's still on it.
Obama's presence is another bit of proof that the DLC tries to take credit for any Democrat elected for office.
[...]
Do any of these people want to associate with an organization that is urging the eviction of millions of Democrats from the party's ranks? An organization that likes to claim credit for Bill Clinton, but never -- mind you -- helped deliver 50 percent of the American people for any Democratic ticket.

DLC: Oh, I guess Obama isn't one of us
Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 11:31:48 AM EDT

Twice the DLC has tried to claim credit for Obama, slapping him up on their list of members, and for the second time, they've had to back down.
[...]
They may love the guy, but Obama want's nothing to do with the DLC. Remember, Obama raised over $3 million from MoveOn members, the very organization the DLC wants purged from the party's ranks. We know where Obama's loyalties lie, and it's wiith the netroots. He's one of ours.
This little episode also highlights the DLC's interesting tactic of slapping up people on the list without asking for permission to do so, an attempt to take credit for peoples' success. Most politicians won't give a damn, but it's damn weird for an organziation to have "members" when those people never asked to be members.

And we must do our part to keep tugging so that we finally win this war.

Each time he is tugged from the right, we must tug harder from the left.
Until we win...

related: http://www.blackcommentator.com/48/48_cover.html
____________________
"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace."
"Power to the peaceful..." --Franti

By SJerseyIndyJuly 22, 2008 - 4:32pm

So, I take it that you didn't notice...

...that the DLC shifted its support to Obama long before the primary was over. He's further to the right than Hillary, and just their cup of tea.

AC
More liberal media at The Sideshow.

By AvedonJuly 22, 2008 - 5:45pm

By AvedonJuly 22, 2008 - 5:45pm

We already know Hillary's interests lie with the corporations and the lobbyists. Most of the democrats in Washington are the same. Obama represented a chance to get away from that. Perhaps in the end he will turn out the same. In that case there were no good choices (that had a chance).

By f u bush2July 22, 2008 - 5:51pm

By Avedon July 22, 2008 - 5:45pm

So, I take it that you didn't notice...
...that the DLC shifted its support to Obama long before the primary was over.
------------------------
I noticed in much the same way they noticed that Obama would go on to become the nominee. That Hillary was their preferred candidate in no way precluded them from seeing who the winner would be. It surprises/d me little that they would then shift from poking and pushing their leadership loser to trying to get their corporatist pokers into the presumptive nominee. I am less concerned about the apparent shift of focus by an increasingly-less-relevant organization within the Democratic Party and more concerned about the apparent shifts of position by a nominee who is increasingly-more-likely to become President toward positions of that increasingly-less-relevant organization within the Democratic Party.

He's further to the right than Hillary, and just their cup of tea.
------------------------
Um. Yeah. If you say so...
____________________
"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace."
"Power to the peaceful..." --Franti

By SJerseyIndyJuly 22, 2008 - 6:49pm

Tell the House Judiciary Committee to hold Karl Rove in contempt

Go to the linked site, add your name if you agree and pass it on:

Tell the House Judiciary Committee to hold Karl Rove in contempt and send him to jail.

By f u bush2July 22, 2008 - 3:42pm

Done

with a flourish!!

By UffdaguyJuly 22, 2008 - 3:53pm

By f u bush2 July 22, 2008 - 3:42pm

√
____________________
"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace."
"Power to the peaceful..." --Franti

By SJerseyIndyJuly 22, 2008 - 5:06pm

So it shall be written...

...so it shall be done!

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

By nonexistent manJuly 22, 2008 - 5:38pm

By nonexistent manJuly 22, 2008 - 5:38pm

Yeah, right.

I signed it, but I did so with a strong sense of what must surely be the utter futility of it. I don't see the spineless Dems going anywhere with this. How long has it been since Harriet Miers & Alberto Gonzales ignored their subpoenas?

George W. & George H.W. Bush - Living proof that the dumbshit doesn't fall far from the dumbass.

By Guy FawkesJuly 22, 2008 - 5:41pm

A slim chance is better than no chance at all

After all, isn't that why the g0p sheeple-trolls keep pushing for Jukebox Johnny?

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

By nonexistent manJuly 22, 2008 - 5:50pm

Well hello Mr. Fancy Pants!

From where I'm sitting, McBush is leading two polls right now...Jack and Shit. And Jack left town.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

By LiberalIconoclastJuly 22, 2008 - 5:58pm

I tried, but I am getting

I tried, but I am getting this error when I submit the form. Probably Repub trolls launching a DOS attack on the website...

We're sorry, but something went wrong.
We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly

-- McCain = Four more years of the same --

By dtaylo75July 23, 2008 - 11:11am

Comments

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