Democratic :slashingtongue

Harry Reid’s make or break moment

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 3:21 am  
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now being bombarded with attacks from the Republicans on his comment “linking” slavery and the health care bill. What I would like to see, is the mettle of the Leader of the Democrats in the Senate, a good indicator for the future.

This is the exact phrase he used. “When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said slow down, it’s too early, let’s wait, things aren’t bad enough.” Now this phrase has brought about a tirade of Republican opposition to it. RNC Chairman Michael Steele has demanded an apology. Others have gone down a path of bashing, with even CNN’s David Gergen, one of television’s most respected pundits, slamming this statement.

This exposes a media double standard. When Republicans do something rough, everybody expects it to be so. When Republicans say that this Health care deal would pull the plug out of grandma, everybody was okay with it. When Governor Sarah Palin and company still has the cheek to come out and question the citizenship of President Obama, it is okay.

But when Leader Reid comes about and say that delaying health care reform is the same as delaying the abolishment of slavery, it becomes a big deal. I think this saga, along with the fact that the Tea Baggers who represent 5%pf our population gets a ton more coverage than the Public Option which is supported by 60% of the population; should shut the Conservative myth of a liberal media up.

Now, I am an Independent. I am a person that would love to see the discussion being about substance and details. I would prefer to see the discussion being set in Maine where it is more sane rather than the backdrop of the rest of the country.

But that is not how American politics work. If there are drawbacks of having a democratic system, this is it. Of course it is also fun to watch! It is the reason we are doing sites like this, to showcase our point of view in a sea of mess.

In this case, it is very interesting to see how Leader Reid is going to react to the barrage of Republican criticism. So far, he has stuck to his statement, but appear to be hushing it. This to me is the significance of Democratic weakness. Democrats shy away from a fight, Republicans take it up by its horns no matter how stupid it sounds.

To save his election next year, this is what he should do. Focus the media attention on himself. Reiterate the statement that not doing anything about this is the same as not doing anything about slavery. He is not entirely wrong, as health care would bankrupt our country by 2016 if nothing is done about it as soon as possible. The urgency is there. He should declare that. He should expose the Republican’s plan and the fact that it only covers 2 million uninsured Americans.

That is how the game should be played. But do you think he would do that? No. the reason is that Democrats are dumb! The only Democrat that knows how to fight back is Senator Alan Grayson. A good example is the “rape” bill. That is the most obvious thing for the Democrats to have pounced on, say that the Republicans voted for “rape” while Democrats voted to protect rape victims. Sounds unfair, but that is how the game is played.

Too bad for the Democrats, they do not know how to do it. Anyway, Leader Reid is an ass of a lawmaker anyway. He is way too far left and is not fit to lead a body in the Senate. His loss next year, and I predict that he will, may be devastating to the Democrats, but is inconsequential to the rest of us.

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Why Howard Dean is right

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 5:36 pm  
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We have not talked about health care for a while on this site. But this I cannot ignore. We have said it for a long time and this time I am being echoed by Governor (Dr.) Howard Dean months later : No public option; Kill the Bill!

In a segment with the ever so boring Dylan Ratigan, Governor Howard Dean basically threatened to stop sending in money to the respective Democratic committees in Congress if they do not have a bill in it that has a public option.

Looking back, we know that not nominating him is the biggest mistake that the Democrats ever made. They overlooked a governor that is a proven success and a person that is well informed in 2004, and they picked a long-jaw douche-bag named Senator John Kerry. So not only are the politicians pathetic, their far left voting base in the primaries are pathetic too.

Coming back to health care, I stress that this is the most important part of health care reform : the public option. The biggest problem with the health care cost in our country is cost. That should be the primary objective. And yet, our politicians came up with just one solution to curb costs : public option. (For Republican readers, I would explain in paragraphs below why their idea of buying across state lines would not work.)

Without the public option, there would be a mandate for the public to have health insurance to drive up demand and there is no other counter measure to keep the cost down. Therefore, we are literally throwing our money to the insurance companies with the Bill.

With the public option, there would be pressure to keep the price of the insurance down. If the insurance companies charge us too much, people would switch their plans to the public option which is non profit. It is not very difficult to understand the public option actually.

The Republican proposal of allowing customers to buy across state lines would not work. For it to work, there need to be national rules and guidelines. For example, in football, the rules in Saint Louis is the same as that in Dallas. If you cannot spit at the referee in Dallas, you cannot do it anywhere else.
The rules need to be the same, else you would have all the companies flocking to the state with the lowest amount of regulation. That is the case for the Credit Card companies.

So why can’t there be a national rule: The tenth amendment which guarantees states rights. With that, the federal government cannot force local governments to conform with other states on these issues. Even if our politicians want it, it would be very tricky. I also do not want it to go down that path as I think states rights are very important in our country.

A way around the Republican proposal is the idea that we in ST put up months ago. Allow the foreigners to flood the market. If the Japanese can make cars here, they can also sell their insurance, which is much more cheaper than ours, here. If Indian companies can create for us computer programs, they should also sell their insurances over here. Then let the competition begin!

Though, I hate it when politicians make threats when they can, in this case I am with Governor Dean. The Democrats should not receive any party donations if they cannot fulfill what the people want. A health care bill without the public option would wreck our country and make our lives much tougher than it already is.

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Jesse Ventura bombs again!

Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 6:10 am  
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He may not know how to run a state, but boy, isn’t Governor Jesse Ventura right on the issues. Though it is a couple of days old from Larry king Live, I think what Governor Ventura said was tremendously important. He also exposes American politics at its core.

Larry king asked Governor Jesse Ventura : “ Whats your read on tonight? Is this a national implication from result here” in Virginia? Governor Ventura fired back : “I just think it is the pendulum swinging, around between the Democrats and the Republicans. The thing I find most interesting is the lemming mentality of America and how they can be sold the ‘fact’ that the economy is bad and it is President Obama’s fault. Excuse me, it is George Bush’s fault.”

Had the Democrats campaigned anywhere as close to the manner that an Independent can in this clip, they would have won handily! The economy was always the number one issue in all the races. ALL! If they could have pinned the blame on the Republicans, they would have won.

He added : “The other interesting thing for is what David Gergen talked about how this could cost Democrats to back off from health care and all this because of (the) fear of losing. What you notice is that Democrats and Republicans; its not about standing for what they believe in, its about what I have to do to win or lose!.. And these guys hold their finger up to the proverbial wind to see which way it is blowing so then they can decide where they are going to sit politically.”

So damn true! I also would add that to the Republicans and the Democrats, it is also about their ideology. This is particularly so for the Republicans. They do not care about American values as much as they care about their Conservative or Liberal values. It is a fact!

Later, he completely ignored Larry King’s question and attacked the point that James Carville made, regarding Democrats being uncomfortable about health care after the election results. Governor Ventura fired, “Larry, why is that the election results has such have such a bearing on how other Democrats would vote on health care? Why they don’t stand up for what they believe in, instead of holding their finger up to the proverbial winds? That the whole problem. Democrats are spineless. They do not know what they believe in!” Wham-bham thank you ma’am!

Again how right is Governor Ventura! Democrats are really a spineless bunch. They have no idea what to go for and what to go against. They control the House of Representatives and have 60 votes in the Senate. Yet, they still kow-tow to Republican demands. That is why they suck and would not win elections.

The best part of the interview was when Governor Ventura suggested that politicians come in NASCAR like uniforms so that we know who their sponsors are. I think that it is funny, but at the same time I think it is so true! Voters have a right to know who is paying the person that they are voting for!Else we have buy-outs like we have right now.

Next, he went after odd yearn elections. Now this is true. I would rather have all elections in even years. To make it simple, all local and state elections (gubernatorial, mayoral etc.) happen on a year would be followed by Federal elections two years later ( Senate, Congress, Presidential). Isn’t this much cheaper and easier for the voters to follow?

Though he ended up about withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, something I do not agree with, I sill stay that Jesse Ventura is the man. He should be a Senator some day. He is really that good.

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Elections not going to stop healthcare; says the democrats

Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 2:54 am  
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to have legislation on the House floor for a vote on Saturday. Across the Capitol, there was evidence of incremental progress toward passage of the bill atop Obama’s domestic agenda when two swing-vote Democrats sent signals they would vote to allow debate to begin over Republican objections.

One of them, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, described Tuesday’s elections as a referendum on the economy rather than health care. He said blocking debate on the bill would mean the end of efforts to control health care costs.

At the same time, a president’s party almost always loses House seats in midterm elections, and often Senate seats as well. “Let’s throw his bill aside,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said of Reid in remarks on the Senate floor that referred to the election results. He said he sensed hesitation among Democrats, and noted Reid does not have 60 votes needed to pass the overhaul.

“You wouldn’t vote for this bill if we offered it,” he said to the Democrats. One group, the conservative “American Future Fund,” readied a print ad that warned Democrats they risked their majority if they pursued the health care legislation.

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ST : 2 out of 3; shock at NY 23; lessons learnt

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 7:54 am  
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2 of our 3 predictions came out true with NY 23 being a stunner. I really do not think anyone expected NY 23 to experience what I call a Ron Paul effect on Doug Hoffman. As for the other two, I think that there are some lessons to be learned.

First, lets talk look at the gubernatorial race in Virginia. I suspect that if it was a race between the incumbent Governor Tim Kaine and Governor-elect Bob McDonnell, the race would not have been such a blowout. This goes down to terrible political management a.k.a Democratic political management by Creigh Deeds.

We can go about all the twists and turns, but to win American elections, you got to do two things. One is that you got to keep your base and the other is to get the Independent vote. And in both fields, Creigh Deeds lost. He went far to the right of his usual positions, to the right of center. That alienated his left wing base. Also, Independents could see through his insincerity right away. This was really a no brainer.

Governor Corzine’s case is a bit different though. The reason he lost to Governor elect was because, to put it simply, he screwed up big time while he was supposed to do his job. While we know that Governor elect Christie has a checkered past, there is still a chance that he would not screw up like Governor Corzine did.

Secondly, as we stated yesterday, Independent candidate Chris Daggett, whom we endorsed, definitely stole more would take more votes from Governor Corzine than Governor elect Christie. Voters always value deeds over promises.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the shock effect in New York 23rd congressional district. Remember, this is a place that has never been Democratic in over a decade. And the manner that it has fallen is astonishing. While it is debatable that Daggett caused Governor Corzine a victory, there is no doubt that Diedre Scozzafava cost Doug Hoffman his seat. 5% of the voters wrote her name down!

I really do not think that she intentionally told her voters to write her name down when she has already withdrawn from the race. This is what I term as the Ron Paul effect, because there were so many people that put Representative Ron Paul’s name down even though he was out of contention in last year’s Presidential elections. While his votes were harmless last year, this cost Hoffman.

While I have mixed feelings about the “Ron Paul” effect, I am ecstatic with the result this time. It is really a slap to the nutty far right that tried to hijack this process. What would this do in the next yeat? Should polls be changed to include this effect? Should it even be allowed, since we already have Independents and Primaries?

I was really stunned by the treatment that the far right led by Governor Sarah Palin dished out on Scozzafava. I hope that this stops them in the tracks right now. They planned to go after 25 moderate Republican next, with people like Governor Charlie Christ and Senator Lindsey Graham.

So at the end of the day, it is not really a bad day for people who think like us. We stayed neutral in Virginia. We supported the Independent candidate in New Jersey, but we know that the system was against him. We got the race prediction for New York 23rd Congressional District wrong and we loved those results!

So not a bad day at all!

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