So I included "impeachment" in the tags because I've got a dollar right here that says, before his first term is over, one or another Congresscritter is going to ride the wave of the guaranteed to happen future Obama-hating by introducing a bill of impeachment against him, esp as the Bailout fallout speeds the rate at which the economy tanks and nothing gets better for Little People, and brighter Republicans take advantage of the natural opportunity Obama and his bailout buddies have provided them. But I had the thought, even as I realize this blog is already sort of a running one, that we should create "The List" of Obama's various betrayals and failures to live up to his label of "Democrat" and otherwise chooses to shit upon the progressive and liberal element to his party. I'm betting it's going to be a long list, over the next four years. And Oborg members: please don't whine at me that "he's not yet in office." If you think he's not already directing the actions and statements of the Dem party as its leader, you don't know much about how the Village
works. I said I'd wait until after the election and I lived up to that. Now, I want my promised results. Or does "compromise" and "unity" only mean such between center-rightists and far-right theocrats and neocons? Sorry, but lefties like me aren't going away, and we're not going to shut up.
I'll go first.
1. Ordering Senate Dems to "make nice" with Lieberman, and allow him to keep his chair and other Senate privs, in the name of "working together." Hint from the Wise, Mr. President-Elect: you can't do business with traitors who stab you in the back (and front). They'll fuck you over every time.
Your turn, Gentle Readers.
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Based on his actions (& actions on his behalf) from the campaign
The areas I'll be most watchful about are:
* As with the item you noted, being the Democrats' Neville Chamberlain... against a damaged Republican Party and its heinous agenda
* Feeding on truthiness, feel-goods over substance, building his image instead of doing the right thing, fostering a fan base that brooks no criticism, so-called "pragmatism" over real solutions
* Kissing the ass of organized religion
but i'm saying there's value in making a Formal Bill, VL
a list of *specifics.* things that can be c&p'd neatly into mass emails, or shared with pompous Oborg types. not "he seems" or "i think he will..." but absolutes.
i've made a lot of complaints here lately. it's not always been fun nor comfortable. i'm still firmly in the camp of "HRC was not so great, and i don't want to talk about the primaries now that they're over." but when it comes to the actions of the new leader of the Dem party, and preznit-elect? fuck yeah, i want to name names, call bullshit, and be specific.
because 4-8 years from now, when centrism and cowardice have completed the ruin of this country that Bush and his party began in earnest, i want a Bill of just how we "crazy racists" here were Proven Fucking Right. it'll be the first step in getting the wimpy and brain-dead to accept that progressive solutions are the only ones left. being so untried, as i'm sure they will be, at that point.
Oh, I agree
I'm just clarifying where the past performance suggests scrutiny re: future results.
well, clearly everyone here hates me and doesn't want to play
so nevermind. /kicks can/
i was just trying to come out of my self imposed closet, but i understand why that isn't so energizing to people. hmmm, i guess i have to post on my situation, to regain my creds, if possible.
Now, don't take it all personal-like
There's not much to list, given that, y'know, the Obama administration hasn't taken office yet.
There are numerous ominous (torture-approvers and other right-"centrists" in his midst) and ironic (staff that's chock full o' the Clintonites who were progressive pariahs during Obama's campaign) developments. But the gig hasn't started in earnest yet.
If you want a list of things he did (and should have done but didn't) in the Senate and on the campaign trail, there's plenty documented here and elsewhere. Sins of the Obama presidency, if any, are in the future.
Here's hoping there's nothing for us worrywarts to write about on this topic!
No, no, great idea
It's only that I'm otherwise occupied. My thoughts were:
1. HOLC
2. Single payer
3. Restoration of Constitutional government
but maybe that's not 30,000-foot level enough....
Heck, CD, you're here, which is what we care about.
does this count?
taking credit for things not his, and already in the pipeline before his election-- like SCHIP, etc? there are tons of them coming up.
Add: 1.Sucking up to the pro-Israel lobby
one nanosecond after clinching the nomination
2. And, although I see Lambert has mentioned the Constitutional issue, as long as we're talking specifics: the vote on FISA
VL:
i can't tell you the browser issues i'm having right now. i *do not* blame LB. i'm surei it's all a conspiracy, or something. lemme try again tomoorow. ryualah nggahth yadday hadda! or sometingT!
Safari 3.2 is great!
FF is... Not IE.
Can I just mention that whole separation
of Church and State, aka Faith-based initiatives?*
*I see that VL already brought it up cleverly disguised under "Kissing the ass of organized religion". Note to self - bleach and Roccal fumes are not good for once health.
roccal
been a long time since i've heard that one mentioned.
Had to Google it! Strong disinfectant.
LINK
Making a list, checking it twice
Maybe this is too Progressive an approach, but what if we kept a list with two columns, one for the things Obama does wrong and another for the things he does correctly? Think of it as an exercise in fairness and balance, radical concepts but once put into practice who knows what might happen - they might even catch on.
Combining climate engineering with a reduction in dependence on foreign oil, jobs expansion, reviving the economy, avoiding off-shore jobs out-sourcing and claiming leadership in international affairs, all in a bipartisan frame using the http://www.correntewire.com/the_changing_democratic_demographic">language of business investment tied to national security:
Devil is in the details, to be sure, and those presented here are not entirely perfect choices. We need to get away from fossil fuels completely, coal (there is and never will be a “clean coal” technology) and natural gas included, and the biofuel programs now being pushed are the wrong ones with ethanol a net-negative energy boondoggle and vegetable oil sucking up too much food crop land. Still, all things considered and especially in comparison to the way things have been going, I like this general attitude and approach from Obama very much.
BIO: did you see the "evil twin" discussion
in the chat box earlier? that's really where i'm at these days.
which is to say: i think yours is a GREAT idea! really. useful and productive as well. yes, by all means, let's keep a running list of all the ways in which Obama is NOT a republican and isn't acting like Bush and otherwise does the right thing and brings progressive, or even "center left" change to this country.
i can do that too: my understanding is that he's pushing hard to make SCHIP come alive again, and that's a damn good thing.
...you have no idea what it's like to be a double being. i'm not only a Libra, but also bisexual in experience, of mixed race, and i've got a science degree as well as several in the humanties. worst of all, i know German *and* Hebrew. twoface ain't got nuthin on me. ;-)
Hell, I'm still working on being one whole person
Trying to be two at the same time, not happening. I think instead I'll just sit back and watch you try to reconcile, or alternate, or vibrate, or whatever. Pass the popcorn.
Twaaaaaannnggggg.
We need THREE lists: Good, bad, and where he's flipped from
what he's said he would do. FISA vote is prime on that one.
Good, bad, hypocritical. Need a better term for the flip column.
Actually, keeping a list of what he says he would do is pretty important, bcz I imagine there will be lots WORMs making their way into our discourse. As in you may have thought Obama saidt X, but, see, here's the WORM
which shows he really meant Y. Then one is told to improve one's listeneing skills.
But, defintely three lists. With the third showing the before and after, the "just words" and the reality.
There's the 'good' biodiesel, bringiton
waste veggie oil, which is how I plan to finance my (planned) upgrade to a 2002 Ram 2500 Quad Cab Cummins diesel one of these days.
My 1997 gas-powered 318 is fine. But $1.75 gas is an endangered species -- a damn near ephemeral phenomenon -- and homebrewed WVO diesel does two things; it keeps used french fry oil out of the sewers (hence out of the water supply downstream) and it costs about $1. per gallon.
It's like sourdough starter for your fuel needs; it doesn't call up cropland to further enrich ADM or Monsanto or their (unholy) ilk, it doesn't put idiots who don't know any better on the more-corn bandwagon in deserts (Baja Oklahoma and Colorado, noteworthily of late) and it makes the exhaust smell like french fries (or popcorn, depending; try not to get your oil at fish places, though).
You do still have to convince the cops by yourself that WVO diesel setup in your garage is not a meth lab. (Hence avoiding fish oil.)
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
How is saying only nice things about the popularkid progressive?
I can list upon list of good things to say about President-elect Obama. None of which will have any great import at this time, i.e., nice family, convivial, reaches out across the aisle a lot.....
No, let's keep it the way CD suggested, a list of misdemeanors/missteps/lies. Mentioned upthread - FISA vote - can that be included in the list? Since it happened pre-election maybe we can grandfather that one in.
I heard that he's approving an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq, would that be a reversal of position?
Ah, it's going to be a long 4 years.
I love this job!
Carrot and stick are both good
A, y'know, fair and balanced perspective requires taking stock of both the good and bad things. That said, there are enough Obama cheerleaders out there that my pay grade isn't a mandate to fixate on the half-full.
Reaches across the aisle a lot? Heh, put kindly!
Seems to want move permanently across the aisle at times!
On WNYC call in about Obama appointments and nominations, some of the Obama voters are having some problems reconciling their image of Obama with his actually appointing people with experience who happened to gain that experience under a Democratic president. Since there's only been one Dem prez since Carter, that would be in a Clinton administration. And CDS seems to be alive and well among some Obama acolytes.
One woman actually said she expected Obama to name only people who were like him: No experience under any administration. (Not her words--she just can't understand why Obama would turn to people who have worked in DC prior to this. OMG! Either naive or thought Obama was some sort of Republican?? Or...what? Reality is not going to please this woman, I fear.)
Nice point, Jawbone. The Obama administrations' Clintonesque
composition will certainly bring out the CDS. I guess these folks were hoping he'd pull these appointees out of some Chicago think-tank with similar CVs as his - thin on experience, rich in reference.
I hear from a very reliable source - my mother - that much of the past coverage of theClinton's indiscretions are being reaired on TV. Kind of like a retrospective. I guess these things never get old.
I love this job!
Re: MCMer CDS. Yup-as ifthey're short on Missing White Women
and filling air time by now looking for their 90's Top Twenty Clinton Scandals. Ah, those were such good days for cable shouters! Could gin up a controversy by saying almost anything negative about the Clintons.
I recall MSNBC was making a big deal of its tech savvy and would have lots of comments from viewers. For some reason, perhaps bcz they selected them, most of the comments from web users were anti-Clinton--and ugly. I actually didn't want to get into personal web use bcz of all the ugliness I saw from the users of the Web ion MSNBC.
Those were the days when the only show with people speaking up for the Clintons was Geraldo's! Who after 9/11 went over to the Dark Side.
Thank dog or FSM or heavens for blogs--lefty blogs. Reality-based lefty blogs, of which there were more prior to the Kool-Aid flood.
CD, let me make a suggestion: track the dot
mine is here:
Political Compass.
the test is an old favorite. If you can track your dot compared with Obama's based on his own public statements, you'll have a pretty good measure of how happy you'll be with his presidency.
I'm willing to wait and see, but I like the notion BIO posits: a list -- not just of things done wrong (or, "why I am so pissed off I don't just want a divorce, I want to shoot a Light Antitank Weapon through the White House Oval Office during a cabinet meeting and then have it rain radioactive shrapnel on all the party leadership bigwigs, their staff and their dependents") but of things done well or even things that {Dr. House voice} "makes me smile" {/Dr. House voice}.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
Personally, I'd keep a single list
like a score card, maybe in three columns.
Column one:
1. Promise (with quote, link).
2. Outcome (with link)
3. Score
Like:
1. Impresions left on FISA.
2. FISA vote.
3. -100
For example. (It's not my fault that the betrayals have already happened, and all the good stuff is supposed to come later. We can put the good stuff in column one, and fill in the outcome and the score later.)
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi