Wednesday, May 23, 2007

"Channel Your Fury"

My blood pressure has been through the roof these past two days as I've watched the Democrats puss the fuck out on the Iraq funding bill.

Confirmed: Iraq Timelines Dropped:

"It will split the Democratic caucus in half, with as many as 120 Democrats voting no. Among the nays, I’m told, will be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will have negotiated a bill that she thinks is the best option for House Democrats but which she personally can’t support. Most other Democratic leaders are expected to vote in favor. Still, if only 100 Democrats vote yes, the amendment will require at least 118 Republicans in order to pass."

I'm not sure what else my party (and the 'my party' part is under serious reconsideration at the moment) needs to grow a pair of balls.... lady balls even (Colbert calls lady balls "Thatchers")

72% of the country hates Bush.... 75% of the country thinks we should be out of Iraq by the end of the year... Republicans have no intention of doing a goddamn thing in September... It's just all they've got right now "Wait until September! Wait until September". Yeah, we'll wait until September so they can say "Wait 6 more months! Wait 6 more months!".

All Bush wants to do is run out the clock so he can pass Mess-opotamia off to Barak or Edwards or Hillary. Then when they try to get the fuck out of Iraq he can say "Everything was going good on my watch. It's this new President's fault. They fucked it up".

Bush ain't nothing but a spoiled fucking brat. He's Paris Hilton in fake cowboy boots.

Goddamn, I hate carpetbaggers.

So, I'm fucking distraught. Feeling betrayed.

Called Pelosi's office twice and really let her have it.

But I ain't gonna quit and I ain't gonna give up my party. Largely in part because of this paragrph from the below diary written on Daily Kos:

It took the Abolitionists 40 years (and a civil war) to win their crusade. It took the suffragists 80 years. It took the civil rights movement, depending on how you count, 60 to 80 years. Amazing how people who talk about standing tough and fighting back surrender so easily.

It is a long hard slog, so I'm going to do what I hope a lot of you do. I'm going to keep on calling Nancy and Boxer and Reid and every fed politician in my state and I'm going to express my displeasure over and over and over and over and over again until it seaps into their ballless pants.

Read and be inspired.

Daily Kos: Channel Your Fury

It would be hard to find a progressive who had a good Tuesday as far as Iraq is concerned. The Senate-House conference committee put together an ugly compromise that would give Mister Bush tens of billions of dollars to continue the catastrophe in Iraq. Call it what you will - a blank check, a sell-out, a surrender - it ultimately amounts to failure, unless victory is defined as getting a signable bill on the President's desk regardless of its contents.

Compromise is when two sides each give up something they want in order to get something they want in return. But from this compromise among themselves, what exactly is it that the Democrats will be getting in return from the White House?

Nothing. Because the President refuses to compromise.

Many say "be realistic," "be calm," "this is the best we could get," "wait until September."

September is a mirage, folks.

The supplemental bill that will apparently be sent to the President funds the occupation through September 30. The Defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2008 (starting October 1) has already been passed by the House and includes $141 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. Does anybody REALLY believe that more than a score or two Senators and Congresspeople will vote against the overall Defense bill with an election year just around the corner, risking the accusation that they are "weak on defense"?

As David Mamet noted in a well-regarded Op-Ed in 2005, Democrats need to play better poker. They need to stop calling, calling, calling, then folding. They need to raise.

Nothing could be more true. To watch a few elected Democrats - far from a majority but enough to keep the party from behaving like a majority - is beyond frustrating. It's infuriating. It makes you want to hit the tequila. Some of these infuriators are House Blue Dogs, some are conservative Dems in the Senate, and they, to say it frankly, are holding the party hostage to a strategy of folding instead of raising.

Both they and everyone who doesn't call them to task deserves every bit of the criticism and disgust that has been laid at their feet at length today by Kossacks screaming @#$@%$ %&%$#*#@ #@#$#@%^!! $%#&(*+.

However, it is also beyond frustrating, deeply troubling, indeed, to see rank-and-file Kossacks folding or threatening to fold, abandoning ALL the Democrats because of what SOME have done.

Yes, the Democratic Party is deeply flawed. We all know that, whether we voted in one election or the past 20. But progressive politics is about the long haul. It wasn't merely about 2004 or 2006. It's not only about 2008. It's about 2010, 2012, 2016, 2020. It took the Abolitionists 40 years (and a civil war) to win their crusade. It took the suffragists 80 years. It took the civil rights movement, depending on how you count, 60 to 80 years. Amazing how people who talk about standing tough and fighting back surrender so easily.

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How about a little irony to soothe the soul. Check out the name of the town in which this occurred:

Golfer killed after cart plunges 75 feet from cliff:

(05-22) 13:44 PDT Fallbrook, Calif. (AP) --

A 65-year-old golfer died Tuesday after his golf cart plunged 75 feet off a cliff and crashed into a road below, authorities said."

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

fore!!!!

AAW said...

nailed, it anon. hilarious.