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Is there another party President Obama can woo to seem bipartisan?

Submitted by Chad on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 11:15am.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Chad Rubel

Bipartisanship is a great idea -- on paper. Two parties, trying to find solutions, each side giving a little, working hard to reach a common goal.

But the Republican Party isn't trying to find a solution, except for failed ones. They haven't given at all. They are working hard, but not to reach any kind of goals.

If we had a country with multiple major parties, President Obama could woo those parties and say to the Republicans, "The friendly hand is out there. Do you want to shake it?"

Especially in the House, these are not your father's Republicans. They are so far beyond the mainstream realm that they won't even eat Oysters Rockefeller for fear of being called a Rockefeller Republican.

The House Republicans are hard-core, residing in deep-red districts. Voting against "socialism" or whatever buzzword sends their followers into a frenzy appeals to their base. They risk very little in most cases for saying "No."

While there may be a political necessity to appeal to Senate Republicans, there is no obvious advantage to giving John Boehner and Eric Cantor any more power. And it's not like if the GOP gets back control of the House, that they will start playing nice.

But President Obama has given them a chance, and he should be commended for trying. But President Obama is only going to be effective if the stimulus package works for this country. The fate of the Democratic Party in 2010 and 2012 will likely come down to whether this stimulus package works. The fate of the country's future may come down to whether this stimulus package works.

It's time for the Democrats to pass a Democratic-dominated bill to let the GOP and the world see what Democrats if they are really in charge. Perhaps it's a gamble, but the Democratic Party has more to lose with a watered-down bill than a more successful package.

Keep (reluctantly) the family planning money out -- not for philosophical reasons, but to show a streamlined bill -- but reduce any high-end tax cuts, and put money in programs that will showcase Democratic concern for long neglected concerns, such as infrastructure.

Republicans, especially in the House, are going to scream no matter what offers or one-sided compromises President Obama might make. At some point, the House GOP needs to learn what they should have learned in kindergarten. Until then, let them sit in Time Out.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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2 parties viably exist on the actual Left - dont ignore them.

Submitted by ClassConscious on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 3:34pm.
When I read "If we had a country with multiple major parties", I immediately scanned the article for the words Green or Peace as in Peace and Freedom. You're pretty annoying not to give them mention, as you're doing exactly as the MSM does with such an iron fist-- censoring the truly alternative parties from ever being able to penetrate a mass audience.
I for one voted for a black man president back when I saw the Clinton candidacy as basically a continuation of Bush.. now I get to watch all these anecdotes reported by the Boob tube: "gooosh, I'z never imagind I'd see a black president in mah lifetime!".. and I bet they didnt adequately compare Ron Daniels' vs. Bubba Clinton's basic econ policies either. Now we're at a place where Clinton People like Rubin and Greenspan brought about a pending depression, and Obama just put a bunch of that same gaggle back into power.. and the only way to save buku bucks on healthcare, Single Payer is considered a non-starter by BiPartisan sellout establishmentarian Obama.
I was just starting to work up a rant for my.barackobama.com last night when the various versions of headlines about the Repugs holding firm on the vote were hitting the radio.. basically all about how Dems never used the filibuster when it was their only tool whatsoever, and Repugs will damn well use it religiously now. Also-- this stupid Duopoly of parties guarantees a bunch of reverse psychology double-guessing.. i.e. telling everyone at the outset that you want to be BiPartisan guarantees that the other side will spit in your face. (Unless the other side is Dems, who will obey the directives of Repugs again and again, doing whatever they think necessary to spin their base into thinking they tried their darndest.
(Note: I vote in California, where it's continual landslides for Dems for major seats (except governor recently I guess.. I wasnt about to vote for Gray Davis no matter what, though..).. so basically I can always safely vote my hopes and not my fears. Were I in a battleground state, my thinking would be more difficult.)
After that, I was very enthused to vote for a native american woman, Winona LaDuke. Then a guy named Gonzales-- who actually won the SF mayoral election, were the vote count not tampered with (ballot boxes floating in the bay? a story not deemed worthy of elevating to mass distribution status..)..
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Just out of curiousity, ...

Submitted by Yman on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 3:45pm.
... if you saw Clinton as a continuation of Bush, and Obama's policies are virtually identical to Clinton's (or vice-versa), is Obama a continuation of Bush?
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Yes and no.

Submitted by ClassConscious on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 4:54pm.
It's a mixed bag. I mean, wow, I was seriously impressed by Barack going on Arab TV and admitting the US had been doing wrong on the foreign stage. Totally what us peaceniks have been trying to bring about! But that same day we had HRC tossing the same redmeat scraps of soundbytes to AIPAC.. (not even very eloquently BTW-- she should write such things down first because off-the-top-of-her-head doesnt seem to work like it does for Obama.) And there's surely a bunch of basic ways in which approach to governance changed 20 Jan, to be grateful for.
But you can tell Obama doesnt actually have the power to do everything he probably wants to.. or maybe he's just as corporatist as the next establishment politician and just saw the whole left of the spectrum as a fertile ground to steal catch phrases and organizing momentum from. The appointments to power are troublesome: Geithner is said to have been among those to blame for the collapse in the first place. Holder defended Iran-Contra death squads. Vilsack is a Big Agribusiness whore who surely wont redirect absurd subsidies away from factory farms and towards sustainalbe ag which we desperately need. Blair.. ech, I don't have time to go into it. (Consider listening to a podcast like this for backgrounders.) Gates... how is that not literally a continuation??.. who has recently been quoted saying we'll be in Iraq for several years???!
Mandate Watch: Were Democrats Elected to Attack "The Left?" Part II

Basically they always emphasize the emotional, social-progressive types of things for the MSM to obsess with, whilst underneath the basic economics of things (vast, increasing wealth gap) continues basically unchanged and certainly underreported. Failure to go single payer in health is a major affront to the working class-- huge, huge huge.
Then there's the stomach-turning insistence that Cheney/Bush be not tried for warcrimes. Sounds like maybe the abuse of the DOJ for election-rigging might get some hearings, and rightly so, but man, if the treason of the guys at the top wasn't enough to bring about impeachment whereas blowjobs was (with Dems voting along so as not to look insufficiently prude!).. this party, as currently led, is danged spineless.
Ok here's a radio show from an historical figure (who travelled with Malcolm X, etc) that'll provide a POV on Admiral Blair. Search that page for: "Obama's War Cabinet: The Depths of Duplicity"

Free Troy Davis! Peace/out.
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So the big difference ...

Submitted by Yman on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 12:16pm.
... between Clinton being a "continuation of Bush" and Obama not being a continuation was Obama's appearance on Arab TV and Clinton's AIPAC speech? Puh-leeeeez. Either one would have meant a drastic change in an approach to governance when compared to pre-20 Jan./Bush. Enough for the "true-progressives"? Maybe not, but a drastic change from Bush, to be sure.

Still curious, though. Why do you say you "voted for a black man president", you were "very enthused to vote for a native american woman", and then mention for for "a guy named Gonzales" (presumably Latino). Were their races/ethnicity even relevant?

BTW - Did you happen to see Obama's AIPAC speech? Here's a few highlights.



If you didn't like Clinton's speech, you won't like Obama's much, either.
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Conservatives, zero

Submitted by Atmost11 on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 11:29am.
Conservatives, zero credibility on economics let alone anything else, should have Absolute Zero say whatsoever - Zero votes, Zero say. Filibuster it all you want Conservatives.
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Repugs suck, indeedy, but youre over-generalizing

Submitted by ClassConscious on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 4:06pm.
I don't think you grasped the refreshing overall gist from the author-- that just calling yourself the Other party doesnt cut it, when there's insufficient competition in the space to make that actually mean much.
Interesting you use the term Conservative.. actually it appears the Repugs are returning to a more genuine-conservative ideology with the departure of thoroughly-corrupted Cheney/Bush the globalists.. it was interesting to note that Dems rejected a Buy American amendment put forward by the R party. This flies in the face of my sensibilities big time.. our manufacturing sector is totally thrashed and this trend started in Clinton's time.. the ascencion of Wal-Mart and the everything-Made-In-China (yay, slave labour and toxic materials) phenomenae. I for one have boyotted China products since Tiananmen-- an excruciatingly difficult task of late, and Dems havent seen fit to do anything about Country of Origin labelling extending into the the inside of the box, i.e. sub-components will say Made in China after you've torn into the larger package labelled Made or Assembled in USA!
And what's this about "filibuster all you want"... uh, that'll kill it cold, because they arent spineless dumbasses like the Dems when it's the only weapon they weild. Even if a sufficient handful of them want to break ranks, they wont because of the egotrip thing... I dearly hope the BO team can grasp this and play hardball instead of this nicey-nice (aka sellout) jive.. a large majority of Americans voted for actual change and that means reclaiming some of the vast swathes of ground lost to the Right over the last 20 or so years. Leadership http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7260.htmmeans acutal direction - LEFT - not continuing to B.S. about this mythical/nonsense Political Middle.
Between that factoid and the attachment of the sorry-ass Electronification of Everyones Med Records Whether They Want It or Not-- basically giving megaconglomates their wet dream come-true as re databasing the sheeple and totally in the absence of an accountable national health program (a huge affront to our already crapped-upon level of privacy).. I depressingly find myself hoping the Repugs succeed in fending off this turdpile of a Bill.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini. -- www.informationclearinghouse.info

Rachel Maddow has been on-point lately .. please read up.
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