This blog was originally published at brainspank.org
I watch a lot of that liberal, progressive, socialist, pinko media. Olbermann, Maddow, The Daily Show, Hardball, The Colbert Report...........love Bill Maher and Michael Moore. I’m a voracious reader: The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Truthout, The Nation, Salon.......you get the idea. I do my level best to monitor the other side, I listen to Limbaugh and Hannity everyday for as long as I can possibly stand it. Fucking blow hards be as they may.
So it’s sometimes difficult to abstain from merely parroting various points of view, being a liberal, progressive socialist, pinko myself. Often I’ll author a piece only to discover that an article, op-ed or televised segment is so congruent to what I’ve already written that I fear being accused of plagiarism. Great minds think alike? It’s true, they do. Having said that, I can’t help but agree with Olbermann’s special comment this eve and endeavor to expound on it.
See, the other day, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs waded in with some fairly innocuous sentiments: "I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested," Gibbs told The Hill’s Sam Youngman, in an interview published Tuesday. "I mean, it’s crazy." -The Washington Post. Yes, that is crazy. George Dumbya Bush was an inarticulate, intellectually incurious puppet. A consummate fool. Obama is much further down the the road than that. He is his own man and I believe him to be doing what he believes is the best he can. However not good enough it is.
He also said less auspiciously: "This "professional left," he added, "will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality." -The Washington Post" Well, that’s a little slipperier. As for the former, I Remember Obama campaigning on single payer and affordability of prescription drugs like Canada. But before the health care debate even had flame beneath, single payer was off the table and the public option was on the altar at the church of big pharma/big insurance with a knife wagging from it, gore and vital fluids oozing. All this sacrificed, before the shouting even began. Why did that happen? The hard right does not even pretend at the spirit of compromise. They are there for the whole pot or to insure that nobody leaves with a goddamn thing. The current administration appears to have not yet figured this out Regarding the latter, I’d be more than happy with a 2.5 sided building devoted to our massive expenditures, more than any other nation, to killing, as long as the other 2.5 sides could be devoted to fomenting peace, prosperity, potable water and nutritious foods and all that. That would be cool.He also said something like, and I’m paraphrasing here, that we of the left wouldn’t be happy if Kucinich were President. Well, Kucinich was my first choice, I called him the "little paste eater" because he was geeky but had the the courage of his convictions and the rather obvious heart of a lion. I still like him and I can’t help but resent that observation. I can’t help but think that he never would have folded so easily. Pissing on Kucinich is misguided, thoughtless and sloppy. We need him like we need Weiner and Franks and Sanders and Feingold and Grayson (telecom bullshit notwithstanding)......
Let me me tell you people something, Mr. President and your administration, something about why we’re pissed at you and why you’re frustrated at us for being pissed at you. The amount of good you’ve been able to implement thus far, pales in comparison to the amount of havoc they were able to so expertly and efficaciously wreak in a similar amount of time. Their hare of damage has passed your turtle and I’m fretting over your pace. You’ve had some monumental legislative achievements for sure, but too many are in name only. Sure you passed health care legislation but it’s weak. A government mandate without a public option is just lame. The protections against being denied coverage and care for pre-existing conditions are merely a financial disincentive to abide. You appointed most of the same people who fucked us financially to prevent us from being fucked again. Toothless legislation. Way too many foxes in the hen house. Don’t wag a finger at us, your base, for concerning ourselves with what is is right and fair and opposing institutionalized injustice.
Net Neutrality is in the shitter and what’s up with Elizabeth Warren? Don’t ask don’t tell? Gitmo? Afghanistan? Military commissions? The Patriot Act? C’mon man. Do you guys mean it or not?
Under the Bush administration, when they controlled both houses like we do now, reconciliation was used to the point of abuse. It’s how we got tax cuts for the wealthy. How much has that cost us? How many times have you employed that tactic? There is considerable doubt as I write this that your administration will even be able to resist the extension of those cuts. And now that Democrats are in power of both the legislative and executive branches? The threat of filibuster has been invoked more than ever in the history of the Senate. Reconciliation Sir. There comes a time when you fight fire with fire.
Can we get you all a testosterone cocktail?
I’m happy that you so compassionately seek to be President of all of America, to serve and and protect even those that didn’t and wouldn’t ever vote for you. You’re a nice man. But we don’t need a nice man. My father, quite the brawler in his day, told me once that is hardly ever the toughest, strongest or most skilled man who wins a fight, it’s the meanest. They hate you and everything you’re about. Thank the powers that be that you’re smarter than them, but you need to get your mean on. They will never give you a goddamn thing, so stop giving them anything at all. At fucking all. Oppose them and call them out when they so consistently act like jackasses by opposing any and all job stimulus so that the economy will be a hot mess and they will be so able and willing to blame you come November.
This is a done deal by the way. We will lose seats because they will be successful in blaming you and your administration for this economic clusterfuck. It’s over. The fat lady is warming up and she’s gonna belt it out. You’ve completely allowed yourself to be sucker punched. The economy isn’t your fault, you probably saved us and the world from an economic depression. But the sucker punch, that’s on you. You all walked right into it.
I see you fighting, but not nearly hard enough. Not even close to mean enough.
And tell your spokesholes to stop whining about us. THEY, the right wing fucktards are your problem. They are defining you. We are in your corner but don’t blame us for lack of voter enthusiasm. They smell blood and they aren’t wrong. Make no mistake, this is a brawl. If Democrats in general, and you in particular fail to man up, to get in there and throw hands and feet, we’re fucked.
We’ve watched for eighteen months now and you cannot blame us for being somewhat nonplussed. If you didn’t think this was gonna get dirty ugly, maybe you don’t belong here. We will still turn out and vote, we wouldn’t miss it because we can’t help it, but it’s not us you should be concerned with, it’s all those independents and reluctant voters that you sold that hope and change thing to. Those people are just as unhappy and even less motivated than we are. Quit fucking around and go punch Mitch "frog face" McConnell and and John "agent orange" Boehner hard in the mouth. While you’re at it, bitch slap Michele Bachmann. Stop, like Anthony Weiner said, bringing library books to a gunfight. Let’s get this show on the goddamn road.
Nothing less than America hangs in balance.
Drinks for my friends.