The Filibuster—let them REALLY Filibuster

The other night on the Daily Show, Doris Goodwin Kearns told John Daily that what is stopping legislation is not the Filibuster, but the threat of the filibuster.  Her solution: Let them filibuster.  Let one senator drone on for twenty four hours without peeing.  Eventually, they will have to pee. it will be broken.  Let them quote the bible for 24 hours, and recite letter after letter from constituents.  Then break it.  and vote, damnit!

The problem, however, is that the filibuster makes it unlikely that the administration will get much done this year. And the White House's disinterest in making an issue out of the filibuster ensures that the public won't really know why they're not getting much done. A Pew poll released today found that only 26 percent of Americans could correctly identify 60 votes as the numbers needed to break a filibuster. Twenty-five percent thought 51 votes was sufficient, and 37 percent had no idea

Ezra Klein - David Axelrod: 'Reconciliation is a tool that is there to be used'

Closing The Book On The Bush Legacy - The Atlantic Politics Channel

Marc Ambinder points out that during the Bush year’s the haves did quite well, and the have not’s – well they have even less.  So when we try to turn the tables today, we are met with labels of “socialism” and “Nazism".

Go figure. 

Thursday's annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and access to health care-the Bureau's principal report card on the well-being of average Americans-closes the books on the economic record of George W. Bush.

It's not a record many Republicans are likely to point to with pride.

On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush's two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked. By contrast, the country's condition improved on each of those measures during Bill Clinton's two terms, often substantially.

Closing The Book On The Bush Legacy - The Atlantic Politics Channel

Health Care and Obama

Will Obama take a hit in the 2010 elections?  Maybe.  Remember, he was elected largely from engaging young, motivated voters, and getting them to the polls.

Obama is staking his immediate political future on passing health care.  It’s an important issue, just not that important for the 18-30 year olds.  It doesn’t engage them.  Health care does, however, engage the status quo, and even though Health care reform seems like it should be wildly popular with those of a more older persuasion, it doesn’t seem to be THE issue for them.  And all of a sudden, 2010 is in play for the Republicans.

Depression 2009?

Robert Reich calls it:

This is still not the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it is a Depression. And the only way out is government spending on a very large scale. We should stop worrying about Wall Street. Worry about American workers. Use money to build up Main Street, and the future capacities of our workforce.

Robert Reich's Blog

AIG Bailout: A round of Bonuses……again

Robert Reich once again nails it on the head.  Where is our government?  Why is it the rich are still entitled to get richer, but when we talk about bailing out the common person--who was taken advantage of by the people being enriched—everyday people are called lazy and stupid?  This is not right—and I am extremely disappointed.

But if our very own Secretary of the Treasury doesn't even learn of the bonuses until months after AIG has decided to pay them, and cannot make stick his decision that they should not be paid, AIG is not even accountable to the government. That means AIG's executives -- using $170 billion of our money, so far -- are accountable to no one.

Robert Reich's Blog

An Inauguration for the Ages

Take a look at this New Republic article. The cover of the New Republic depicts civil rights leaders and others who have sacrificed much that will evenutally result in Barack Obama's inaugaration. Hats off to Artist John Mavroudis for this accomplishment:

An Inauguration for the Ages

The spirits of the civil rights movement--and movements for social
justice everywhere--will be with Obama on this historic Inauguration Day. Artist
John Mavroudis imagines the occasion. It was on August 24, 2008, on the
forty-fifth anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, that
Obama accepted the Democratic party's nomination, becoming the first black
American to be a major party's presidential candidate.
And on January 20,
2009--one day after Martin Luther King Day--Obama will be sworn in as the first
black president of the United States. No doubt the spirits of the civil rights
movement, and of movements for racial justice everywhere, will be with him then.

An Inauguration for the Ages

Inside the editorial page - 'My heart swelled with pride' | The News Tribune | Tacoma, WA

Quincy Jones grew up in Seattle.  His story offers a local and African American perspective on the election of Barack Obama.  It hits home in many ways.  But it also offers a glimpse into what I can’t feel, not having the experiences of growing up during the Civil Rights movement nor as an African American.

Obama offers a sense of hope for the country

By Quincy Jones
Like many Americans and citizens of the world, on the morning of Nov. 5, 2008, I awoke with a renewed sense of purpose. The night before I had seen an event I could never have imagined, the election of an African-American as president of the United States of America. It’s true — if you live long enough, anything is possible.

As I sat with family and friends watching the election results, I resigned myself to tempering my emotions. Like all of Barack Obama’s supporters, I was encouraged by the strength, poise and deftness with which he ran his campaign. I knew that he was the best person for the job. But as a black man in America, I knew from experience not to let what I wanted to happen stray too far from the reality of what I knew could happen.

Inside the editorial page - 'My heart swelled with pride' | The News Tribune | Tacoma, WA

It's over: Bush staffers make exits - Daniel Libit - Politico.com

YES!! It’s really happening—it will happen.  A peaceful transfer of power, and a party unlike I have seen during my lifetime!

The president will be the president until 12 noon Tuesday, but most of his employees will be gone by the close of business Friday.
They’ll turn in their BlackBerrys, laptops, building passes and gym keys.
And by the time the weekend is out — before the new administration can reverse course on waterboarding or SCHIP or anything else — teams of painters and carpet cleaners will have wiped away any hint that they ever set foot in the White House.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17497.html

Not Doing Enough

John Judis of the New Republic points out that an $800 billion stimulus package will not do nearly enough to bring our country out of this recession.  It's a beginning.

Judis goes on to say that we need to fight this as a war and on two fronts:  at home and internationally by bringing stability to the International Monetary Fund.  Given that our world is so much more connected than it was during the depression in the 30's, I would agree that it is imperative.  It's an interesting article, and I encourage you to click on the link and read the entire article. It sums up the problem and potential solutions nicely.

There's much to like in Obama's plan. But there are two important ways he may have to go further. Most economists agree that what finally pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression was military spending for World War II. Some liberals argue that if the Roosevelt administration had not abandoned a Keynesian stimulus strategy in 1937-38, the U.S. might have gotten out of the depression without a war. But in 1936, unemployment was still at 16.9 percent; by 1942, after two years of war spending, it was 4.7 percent, strongly indicating that it was war spending that did it. I am not suggesting that the United States start a world war in order to solve the world's economic problem. But I am suggesting a strategy that could be called the fiscal equivalent of war.

Not Doing Enough