March 31, 2014

At least they could *try*

Today I received 2 separate emails from the Democratic Party asking me for cash. That makes 19 in the past two weeks.

I took a quick look through the 19, and not one of them says what the Democratic Party will be doing to help the 99%. Most just ask for money. Some tell me that they need money or else -- Republicans may repeal ObamaCare, or take over Congress. And there's a couple that want me to enter a sweepstakes for a trip to see LBJ in NYC with Biden, I think.

What would be so awful about setting some positive goals and fighting like mother@#$%ers to achieve 'em for the 99%? That's how we take back the House and keep the Senate, by fighting and winning battles for the 99%, not by sweepstakes and pointing out that the other guys are worse.

I know, I suck for saying this. But I can't imagine that I'm the only one who feels this way.

Update Let me be crystal clear here: I'm highly in favor in fundraising, and in contributing - I give to candidates, including Elizabeth Warren (of course) and Barack Obama. What I'm against is playing defense instead of offense, of selling a political party like this:

March 29, 2014

It amuses me to no end that some folks want

to institute a purity test to throw the people off of DU that they call... the Purity-Test Left.

If this is intentional comedy, it's brilliant!

March 29, 2014

America used to do big things.

Telling our teenager tonight about what it was like to grow up in the 1960s. Space geeks, even tiny ones like me, we knew all of the astronaut's names and thrilled as they went from the first 15-minute flight to the Moon in what... 8 years? Was it really just 8 years?

A real-life adventure. Starring nerds. Serious, serious nerds. Engineers with nerves of steel, riding huge controlled explosions into the stars. Absurd in all respects, but the job got done.

I get very excited reliving it, my son thinks I'm a little crazy. He's never known an America like that, how exciting it is to launch forward as a nation instead of civil warring over achingly stupid crap.

We'll do big things again! Good, big, things! Hopefully soon!

March 28, 2014

In Support of a Great DUer

William Pitt and I don't always see eye to eye. And calling the President a "used care salesman" isn't my style.

But I will say:

1. Nobody on DU knows more about the Iraq War than Mr. Pitt. Nobody. When Mr. Pitt speaks, we should listen.

2. Mr. Pitt has done more than you or I to advance the Liberal cause. He's been in the trenches, fighting the good fight, since long before it was fashionable.

3. To call Mr. Pitt racist, or a right winger, is simply absurd and awful.

Look around: do you think things are getting better in America? Are the 99% better off than 30 years ago?

Many of us answer both of these questions with a thunderous NO!, and we want change, real change. No more one step forward and three back. We don't think that more hungry and homeless children, in exchange for the wealthiest still paying hyperlow taxes is shared sacrifice, or that ending Medicare is a serious proposal. We think these things are feeding a cancer.

We see deepening pain, and deepening desperation, on our streets and in our homes. We see a generation of children adrift, who've never known economic security. We see an America that's a sad shadow of the highly-imperfect but marvelous country we knew as children, an America that marched, day by day, towards a future of shared prosperity.

Sometimes we dreamers get emotional and say stupid things. Especially me. But to doubt the sincerity of our cause... particularly for a person who has done so much, so publicly, as Mr. Pitt... is a shame.

Please.

March 27, 2014

Look people - the Iraq War was an honest mistake

Not everyone wanted it, and to be sure some little mistakes were made in interpreting intelligence. But they were honest mistakes. It was all initiated and managed properly, by men and women who love their country. Patriots.

We tortured, killed, and were killed for all the right reasons, and things just didn't work out quite the way we'd hoped other than a lot of the right people making a huge, huge amount of money. But there's nothing wrong with making ginormous money in America off of well-intentioned wars: we don't begrudge the 99% having to make sacrifices so the 1% can buy solid-gold dog houses, because that is who we are.

Schmucks. We are schmucks.

So, to the Purity-Test Left, I ask that you stop the talk of "lying us into war", of "war crimes", of "the need for human decency", and all the rest of your crap that loses elections. No more hatred. No more #%^*ing retarded ideas. Enough from you people.

We must look forward, not back. The future is bright, schmucks.

Regards,

Movin'-forward Manny

March 25, 2014

No, Moonbats, it's NOT about YOU

So President Obama will be calling for an end to the collection of everyone's phone records.

Some of Those On The Left will attempt to take credit for this. They'll say "Oooh, but the President's continually defended this practice! Only because we whined and complained like spoiled toddlers did he stop this violation of our Constitution! Yay, we win!!!"

No, you didn't win.

Look, people: President Obama never, ever defended spying on every American before it was made public by Comrade Eddie Snowden. Not once.

It was all Moscow Eddie's fault that the President had to defend this practice, that he never, ever wanted to defend in public. Having to defend this plan in public has been very, very troubling for him. So the President will simply be doing what he's always wanted to do: end the program, as far as the public knows.

So Liberals: suck it up. You had nothing whatsoever to do with this and it's not a victory. You are still a miniscule and puny fringe group, incapable of changing anything. Other than, of course, ruining Democratic election chances by your vast numbers staying away from the polls in a humongous, nation-crushing pout.

So you get nothing. No credit. None.

Sweet dreams,

Third-Way Manny

March 24, 2014

"But we couldn't *possibly* have gotten single payer!"

Could we have gotten single payer, a.k.a. Medicare for All?

Well...

Polls consistently found that two-thirds of Americans were in favor of Medicare for All when the ACA was being negotiated.

Two thirds!

Including, IIRC, more than half of Republicans.

Two thirds!

Any political party that can't turn the will of two-thirds of Americans into law either doesn't want what The People want, or they totally suck as politicians. Either way, they ain't getting the job done.

Two thirds!

That's all you need to know. Everything else is a detail, a needless distraction.

March 23, 2014

You are either a Freeper or a Purity-Test Democrat

Unless you believe in the same things that I do.

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

March 22, 2014

I think DU members who favor spousal abuse should go to a different site.

We should stop tolerating spousal abuse. It's not what Democrats do.

March 21, 2014

Why are we arguing about Obamacare?

It's here, and it's probably the only thing that can't change until 2017, the one change Obama won't negotiate.

Anyone with a brain and a heart knows that Medicare for All will be far, far better. Let's work for that. And let's work to elect FDR Democrats who'll work with us.