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A day after President Obama gave a withering speech that eviscerated House Republicans' budget proposal, Democrats said they would use the GOP agenda to help them hold the Senate.
“The foil of this election is not the past; it is the present and most decidedly the future,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), chairwoman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, told reporters at a meeting this morning to discuss the 2012 landscape in which Senate control hangs in the balance.
Democrats face an uphill climb in their chances at holding the Senate -- 23 of their members (or ones who caucus with them) are up for reelection next year. Republicans need to flip four seats to take control if President Obama wins re-election; if he doesn’t, they just need to net three.
Asked what a good night for her party would be on Election Night 2012, Murray said, “Winning the majority of the United States Senate.”
Murray said she is more optimistic today about holding the Senate than when she was first offered the job. Then, it was “doom and gloom,” she said, adding though that she sees a “changing landscape” that is moving toward Democrats. She said the DSCC’s Web site, for example, has seen contributions increase three-and-a-half times since this time in 2009.
With Republicans in control of the House, “we’re seeing most decidedly what their agenda is,” Murray said. She cited, in particular, Republicans’ stance during last week’s budget and spending debate that threatened a government shutdown.
“The last open item wasn’t budget cuts,” she contended, “it was women’s health care” and cuts to Planned Parenthood.
She argued that jobs and the economy are still No. 1 in voters’ minds, especially independents,’ and they are looking at Republicans and thinking, “What? You talked about the debt and deficit and here’s what you want to do?”
Couple that with the Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) budget “and what people are seeing is what they stand for,” Murray said. She described the Ryan budget as one that asks no sacrifice of billionaires, one that would hurt working families, and “dramatically goes after Medicare.”
“This is a real dagger in the heart of a lot of American families,” Murray said, adding later that it shows the “difference between who we are and what they believe in.”
Still, Democrats will largely be playing defense. First Read's latest Top 10 Senate Takeovers showed eight of the top 10 were Republican targets -- North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, Virginia, New Mexico, Florida, and Michigan. Democrats' best targets are in Nevada and Massachusetts. Nevada is likely to be a toss up. Democrats have high hopes for left-leaning Massachusetts in an election year. But so far, they don't have a candidate and, more importantly, incumbent Republican Scott Brown remains popular.
Murray unveiled today what she called Democrats’ “Six in ’12” campaign -- meaning six places they will go on offense next year, including Nevada and Massachusetts, as well as Maine, Indiana, Arizona, and even Texas. Maine and Indiana were there because of the potential for Tea Party primary challengers to topple GOP incumbents; and Arizona and Texas because of “changing demographics.”
In reality, however, many of those are likely long shots.
National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh responded this way in a statement: “While national Democrats appear oblivious to the reality that a number of their incumbents are running in red states next year, Republicans can only hope they continue to demand that every one of their candidates toe the party line in favor of higher taxes, more spending and a record debt. Instead of listening to voters and learning from their losses at the ballot box last November, Democrats are doubling-down on their big government agenda and their extreme, left-wing rhetoric leaves their party even more vulnerable to losing control of the Senate next year.
Murray, though, described herself as “pragmatic,” and said of the job ahead for Democrats: “This is not easy.”
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I appreciate the Democrats' desire to put up a fight in Texas, but it'll come to no avail. I'm sure they could potentially carry Harris and the other metropolitan counties with an aggressive, informed campaign - but fat chance with the rural districts.
The fact that Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) was chosen to head the DSCC says everything about the Democrats' prospects for keeping a majority in that chamber.
In January 2013, the GOP will control the U.S. Senate.
Hi, E.D.
Yo. Sup?
We dont Call her Patty Murkey for nothing here in Washington State.. Choosing her was the Best thing to Ensure that the Republicans take control of the Senate.
Don't candidates still matter? Seems to me the folks calling for the GOP to win the Senate in 2012 are the same folks who called for the GOP to win the Senate in 2010.
How'd that work out?
Actually, Da Noid...
It's simply a matter of numbers...and these numbers are even simple enough for you to understand.
Democratic Senate seats up for re-election in 2012: 23, including the seats of Independents Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman, both of whom caucus with the Democrats.
Republican Senate seats up for re-election in 2012: 10.
In 2010, Republicans needed to win 10 seats (they won 6...including President Obama's Illinois seat) to regain the majority...they only need 4 in 2012.
And, as you can see...many more Democratic seats are vulnerable to flip in 2012.
Want to bet on this one?
MB, are Sanders and Leiberman running again?
MB, you missed my point entirely...candidates DO matter. Don't just point to a generic ballot and say "Republican beats Democrat". Tell me who is running?
I heard a lot of talk last year about incumbents like Harry Reid and Patty Murray and Barbara Boxer who were supposed to be ripe for the picking last year. I heard about the GOP getting ready to take seats in Connecticut and Delaware. Then voters saw candidates like Dino Rossi and Sharron Angle and Carly Fiorina and Linda McMahon and Christine O'Donnell and said, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Candidates matter so don't count on victory until you put a face and a name on the ballot.
Don't know about Sanders, Lisa.
It's my understanding that Lieberman will not seek another term.
Mixed Bag, have an idea. Why not get rid of income tax, deductions etc. and just have a national sales tax. Exclude food and energy. Like the gov. does re inflation. If the goal is to have a progressive tax, what is better. People who make more spend more and get taxed on spending. Let's encourage saving, and what better way at getting at underground economy who report no income. If gov't wants to spend more, then they have to raise rate. Just a thought. This is not a VAT, do not want to be europe. Zero corporate tax, they just pass along to us or they move offshore. Takes care of both of those problems. What is IRS budget, do not need them, nor tax accountants, lawyers .
We know the White House isn't likely--Republicans lack a good candidate or platform. After seeing the over-reach in Wisconsin, and the religious riders in the House, why would anyone vote for Republicans/Tea Party for governor or congress in 2012?
Did people see Gov. Walker's latest statements? He basically said dictatorship is a good thing. Look at Paul Ryan's plan to take from the poor, working class, and elderly so more can be given to the rich. Does anyone think it's a good idea to abolish Medicare and make the elderly get health care through private insurance companies?
Seriously, the GOP/TP is off their rock.
If you're for the current batch of rich man, big corp lackey repubs, you are either filthy rich, or just plain idiotic. Smart voters ARE seeing them for what they represent and I'm happy for you rich folks cuz when the Dems win big in 2012 - you'll still have all your money - well most it. Time to quit playing games, care about someone besides yourself and pay up!! Patty Murray has more brains in her little finger than most of you repub supports will ever have!
With the current batch of rich man lackeys so obviously making fools of themselves, the repugnant party will win nada in '12!!
Unfortunately,most Americans are not politically savvy. They believe what they hear and are told regardless if it is fact or fiction. For example, Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya, Obama is a socialist. Healthcare reform is not good for you. Eliminating Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid is good for America. Stripping people of free speech is a necessary evil. Democrats need to highlight and define the problems with the Republican agenda. They need to keep it on the front page. They cannot leave it to the RFepublicans to define it for them in political speak that makes it sound do sensible.
Allow me to apologize for most Americans being so much less politically savvy than those who share you point of view. That is obviously the reason why we have differences of opinion. Believing your opponent's views are without merit is no different than their opinion of you and yours. How savvy is that?
And to those of us who don't believe Obama was born anywhere but Hawaii (and neither think him a socialist), believe eliminating free speech under any circumstance is inherently evil, but think HCR as it stands will cause greater harm in the long run and would prefer reformation of the entitlements, what say you?
I thought the knock on Obama is that he's a Keynesian not a Kenyan.
In case any idiots don't get the joke. its a pun.
Ira, don't forget how Republicans attach the pre-fix "Job Killing" to anything they oppose, whether it has anything to do with jobs or not. And the media just let's them do it, never pushing back, never asking the Right to explain how it kills jobs.
The Right wing has a knack for re-naming issues to color them their way: "death tax," for estate tax, for example, "cut and run" (when they didn't want to bring the troops home), "self reliance," when they mean "we're not paying for your healthcare, grandma." They are the Kings of double speak.
Free speech and opinion is one of the best part of being an American and should be defended at all costs no matter how offensive it is. I never said that ALL Pepublcan views are without merit but you have to admit that the Muslim, born in Kenya crap is so far fetched it is beyond belief. As for HCR, reformation of the entitlements should not include eliminating the entitlement. There's plenty wrong with Medicare and Medicaid but with all their faults they are still a great safety net for our poor and elderly. Eliminate the programs or privatize them and you have the insurance companies making windfall profits from the millions of new policies they will issue. They get to choose who to insure. We're back to allowing exclusions for pre existing conditions and age. Eliminate the waste but don't kill the reforms and the programs.
Ira, How exactly do we get back to exclusions for pre existing conditions and age? Is it a prediction you are stating as fact or did your caucus tell you to say that?
Rocco-2976776....The pre-exting condition exclusion does not take effect until 2014 as do restictions for age etc. Only children are covered now. If HCR reforms include eliminatiing Medicare are passed prior to that date, there is no protection for our seniors. My caucus told me to tell you to read the law.
Rocco-2976776....and thx for proving my point.
Sadly , there are those out there who don't get the pun....
Um, Ira? It was Obama who moaned that it would be "so much easier to be president of China"- because he would not be bothered by all that free speech,( meaning criticism).
From my perspective, it is democrats who abhor free speech. Disagree with an Obama policy, and get called a racist. Object to his spending, get called a "hater"- which is code for racist.
Seems to me that the left in this country only condones free speech if every speaker is reading the same script- Obama is great- yes we can- hope for change.
You one of those? I hope not.
If only the true-believers on both sides would view their own beliefs and preconceived notions with the same skepticism afforded their opposites...
You can't both be right, but you can both be wrong.
For no joe, no bo, nj
"Um, Ira? It was Obama who moaned that it would be "so much easier to be president of China"- because he would not be bothered by all that free speech,( meaning criticism)."
You have got to be freaking kidding me. If he did say it why is it any worse than Bush being recorded as saying "it would be easier if it were a dictatorship" or have the Repugs changed history once again to their liking? It's not like that's a big news scoop.
IRA, So you know for a fact that any reform eliminating or privatizing Medicare or Medicaid will include exclusions of coverage for pre existing conditions and age!! Amazing. Since you are so good at knowing what is in the future, please tell who will win this years Kentucky Derby. That way, those who get tax returns when they don't pay taxes can bet on your horse, win a boatload, and start paying taxes.
Oldie but Goody Too, ignore no jo, she makes things up all of the time. She also goes to websites that provide false information (like a Churchill 'quote' that he never said). When challenged to provide sources on things she makes up, she doesn't because she can not or provides links to websites and articles that show her to be wrong. Personally, I think she is a paid troll and is definitely not a worthy opponent.
Ira, Some Americans are very well informed about politics. They are neither far-left or far-right. We are Liberal Republicans, Conservative Democrats, and Independents. They will decide the next election and their legions are growing every day.
Independents decide elections. They are neither far left or right. And right now Obama has dropped 23% with independents. They are the ones who voted out the dems in the house in near record numbers. The only way he ges them back is to move towards the center. Fool me once, fool me twice. Obama is doubling down on record deficits. These deficits are now his. Can tax 100% of people earning over 100,000 and still do not balance budget. Would agree to some tax increases but only after spending cuts. Reagan offered 1dollar of tax increase vs. 3 dollar spending cuts. Got the tax increase, but only more spending. Reagan tax cuts doubled revenue. Total revenue is about 18% of GDP. Was true with highest rae of 90% and true with 25% highest rate. Spending is the problem
You know, Matt, this is not the first time you made accusations like these.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/world/africa/11policy.html
Read the last two sentences in the last paragraph.
So, let's see: I think the last time you made the same accusation, I also posted a source. What is it with you- do you just like posti g the same nonsense, or do you not have a sense of embarrassment?
Yes, you did provide a link the last time and it proved, to quote my last post, "She also goes to websites that provide false information (like a Churchill 'quote' that he never said)." It was a an extreme right wing website that had a bunch of 'quotes' from people. The problem was, none of those people being 'quoted' ever said those things.
As far as your link you have provided, I will once again refer back to my previous post, ". . . or provides links to websites and articles that show her to be wrong." Here is the paragraph of which you speak. "How Mr. Obama manages to do that while also balancing American interests is a question that officials acknowledge will plague this historic president for months to come. Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As one official put it, “No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square.”" As anyone can see, you not only took his words out of the context of the paragraph to draw a false conclusion, you also ignored the context of the entire article.
My post stands as true with an assist from you, nj. And you have never answered the question I have asked more than once, just where did you get your economics degree? Wal-Mart or a K-Mart Blue Light Special?
What is it with me? I don't have any patience with deliberate liars, like you, nj.
1 thing for certain - we will not allow the media to dictate the topics or brain wash Americans in voting for a particular candidate.
That's all it did in the most recent election - all the pundits, commentators, voice their opinions or planted thoughts about candidates- instead of just reporting news. Focus on mostly Republicans while short changing Democrats.
The media, commentators, pundits - will not sway the American voter again - the GOP will not steal elections - and the TRUTH will set America free from the polictical slavery for wish the GOP/TP representatives has choosen to become.
Stop the proproganda -
TRUTH - not CRAP
Thank you and GOD BLESS AMERICA
MB-
Don't be so sure that the democrats will be able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2012, as both parties have shown exactly how adept they are at overstepping their perceived mandate and wearing out their welcome with the increasingly fickle electorate. If the economy is on the upswing it will bode well for incumbents of all stripes, If there's a double-dip, or unemployment stays around 8%, look out below!....
Then there's those "unknown unknowns" to consider...
Why Has Every Pro-Repeal GOP Lawmaker Given Their Congressional Staff Taxpayer-Funded, Gov Health Care?
Republicans took control of Congress promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act. However, at the same time they rip the bill as some sort of “monstrosity” of “socialism,” nearly every Republican lawmaker eagerly accepts government health benefits afforded to them as members of Congress. As ThinkProgress has noted, the congressional health benefits mirror the health plan passed by Democrats for the country: individuals choose private plans regulated under an exchange, and are given a subsidy to help them pay for their plan. As federal employees, lawmakers are given an average of $700-a-month in taxpayer money for their health insurance.
From: thinkprogress.org/2011/02/03/repeal-staff-gop/
Hey FZ, I don't think anyone has problems with senators and congressmen getting government health care ,but there are a hole lot of Americans that think all the freeloaders in this country should not get it on our dime !!!!!
actually johnny most everyone is against Congressmen (Senators and Representitives are both "congressmen", thats why they say "in both houses of Congress") getting lifetime healthcare and a pension after just a few years of "work". You must not read the posts much on here or yahoo, that is the number 1 complaint, that Congress has yet to offer to cut their own salary or benifit package while asking everyone else to. And not everyone without health insurance is a freeloader, and even if you had insurance they could claim preexisting condition and deny you claim the way they did my ecoli.
JOhnny N.
This is what makes me angry: "all the freeloaders"
Do you personally know ANY freeloaders? Do you have knowledge of any "welfare queens"(see Ronald Reagan) in your personal universe? In my specific earning careeer, I have worked in several industries where folks "live on the edge", which usually meant they had none or could not afford individual health insurance. NONE of them went on welfare or mediacaid even though they may have qualified. The main societal effect of the uninsured/underinsured is that when they have a major or catostrophic emergency thay have to go to the ER, where they will get care and then the bill will be "covered" buy the taxpayers. Would you rather assist others to have insurance from the start ( i.e. single payer) or would you rather cover the "freeloaders" later? as the old teevee commercial goes, "pay me now or pay me later!"
I am SICK and TIRED (pun intended) of hearing about these freeloaders when I rarely meet one in person. I am beginning to think it is a boogeyman or straw man that has been brought up enough by the sqwalking heads so that "if you tell a lie often enough it gets perceived as the truth".
Gosh you must've read the teabagger play book.
Hey chris are you a real teabagger ????
The Democrats will not let the teapugs get by with the antics that they used in 2010 nor will the thinking public fall for them this time around. Having the teapugs in control of the House has certainly opened the eyes of those who voted for them and added to the resolve of those who voted against them. They have no chance of taking the Senate, Presidency, or retaining the House in 2012. They have been exposed as the party that has been bought and paid for by big business and the greedy.
Hi Chris,
Great Point.
From your lips to the ears of the Democrats, Chris.
Unfortunately, we have seen this film before. Remember that if the Democrats had addressed the tax cut issue before the 2010 election, they would not have suffered as many losses. But they fumbled the ball back then . . . and many times before that. I recently read something about Newt Gingrich telling President Clinton sometime around 2004 that if the Republicans had tried to compete with the Democrats on the truth, they would have lost. This was referring to the Clinton presidency. I do not know the source and am still looking for it but, if it is true, it highlights how badly the Democrats truly fight.
Just think,if the Democrats would actually fight rather than 'fearing to go there', they could have much better success. The fact that we have gotten Democratic majorities, despite this behavior, tells me that the Democrats could possibly have permanent majorities simply by challenging the Republican/TP Inc. party with the truth.
You are correct. We have only the party leadership to blame for the lack of a backbone in our party's dealings with the teabaggers. I think that 2010 has managed to stiffen their resolve now though. The elections proved that running away and hiding from bullies only benefits the bully.
Hey Chris , can't wait for the senate to go conservative if only to hear you liberals whine and say more hatefilled garbage about republicans. Isn't it funny how the libs came up with the derogatory comments about the conservative party and call the republicans the mean spirited party for wanting to put some controls on spending , immigration, multitudes of programs thought of for the poor and minorities, at the expense of the taxpayers children ???
I feel your pain, Exodite. I live in Tennessee and look forward to the day when Democrats get a foothold in my area. Don't see it ever happening, the Southern Baptists won't tolerate any "anti-abortion pushing, blue personnel that hates guns" anywhere near their precious flock. Tar and Feather them, then run 'em out of town.
Yeah - Florida wouldn't have mattered if algore could have won his own home state.
black-belt, every news organization recounted fla ballots under freedom of info act and found GW won every single count. By the way, both GW and Gore both went to Yale at same time, GW's GPA was higher.
Too bad he's wasn't too bright.
 T bagging is not a gay slur it means by definition To lower ones testicular sack into someones warm mouth as if dunking a tea bag into a steaming cup of water.
I am pretty sure that can be done in a heterosexual manner!!
RMV, Your right. Bev and Feisty can tell you all about it. Based on their posts, they are teabagging experts.
I think that I should share with you my thoughts about our nation today, its condition and its relationship with the antagonists of western
civilization particularly in the middle east.
I believe that you and I live in the finest nation with the finest government (civil servant class) that has ever been devised by collective human thought. We are a young nation with its own unique problems but we have the resources, human and otherwise, to solve all of them in time. The two key behaviors that the American people must permit one another at this time in our history are civility and patience. Sooner or later these behaviors always lend themselves to understanding and convention.
In my estimation there are a number of reasons for the unfortunate decline in the overall quality of life in our country over the last 30 or 40 years. The conflict in Vietnam deeply divided and unsettled the American people. We were simply on the wrong side of a nationalist uprising regardless of the involvement by the communists. Conflict and conformity both always inflict hardship on the growth of a nation. Conflict destroys lives and when people are taught only to conform they do not create. They procreate but they do not create. At best conformity lends itself to apathy among a people. They become cogs in a mindless purposeless machine. Conventional wisdom is not always the best wisdom.
Ronald Reagan was one of the most destructive forces to arrive on the scene in this country since the wealthy anarchists of the 1920s and the 1930s. Reagan assumed that because men and women in this country had become captains of industry they must be all knowing, all wise and capable of collective leadership in fulfilling the needs of our entire nation. This was a foolish assumption on his part. History has shown us now that his notion of trickle down economics has not worked. It was never a reflection of the way that the American people have been led to believe over the generations. The American people have been tacitly led to believe that if a person has more they should want more and it should be the other person who gives and not them. This is the way of wealth in this country. Furthermore the wealthy families in this country have shown time and again that they can hardly agree on the time of day. The only two things they do agree on are the taking of profit and the control of the thoughts and actions of their own minions. So much for this idea of collective leadership by the wealthy families of this nation. It is a curiosity at this time in our history that so many of the republican mouth-pieces for the wealthy families are desperately trying to legislate religious morality for our entire diverse nation of people. Morality belongs to the individual and each person develops their own sense of what is good and bad for them from the time they are born. No two persons are alike. In most cultures somewhere along the line of a persons moral development religious values and convention become embedded. This is a good thing and usually leads to general convention in a society but for any one person or group to try to legislate religious morality to an entire diverse nation such as ours is foolishness at the outset.
George Bush Jr. was truly the bane of our nation. He did his best to bring Reagans deranged fantasy to life. He deregulated virtually everything and this put us all on the road to national suicide if we do not turn away soon enough. The very same thing happened in Vietnam in the 1940s and 1950s. A small handful of wealthy families were raping the Vietnamese people until the people decided they had had enough. The fantasy of the wealthy man all too often is the establishment of a "merchant class paradise" where the only laws that matter are those of the wealthy ruling class. The translation of this is feudalism for you and I. Feudalism demands the maintenance of private mercenary armies, associated peasantries and eternal conflict. The descent into feudalism always signals the death of any modern nation. Capitalism at this point in history is a good thing as long as it is regulated for the good of all the people. Personally I would prefer Nationalism over Feudalism and I refuse to believe that anyone truly wants to be someone elses peasant.
For nearly a century now all too many of our wealthy ruling class in this country have done their best to dismantle our unions (believing it is their God given right to ignore the health and well being of their employees), destroy our middle class and of late neglect our educational systems as much as possible. These tactics are not new ones but very old in their origin. They are all based around the idea of feudalism. Too many of these families reason thusly: “Why should we defer to the worker in our employment when we enjoy God given good fortune and should not be compelled to share this with anyone else even with respect to the health and longevity of the workers in our workplace?” Many of these persons and families feel that Unions are in defiance of their authority with this line of reasoning. “Why do we need a middle class to protect us from the peasantry we have been cultivating and abusing all along the way because we now have the worlds largest and most heavily armed police and armed forces to protect us from any uprising on the part of the peasantry in this country?.” This line of reasoning on the part of many of our wealthy families stems from guilt and fear over the sure knowledge that they have taken liberty with the poor and working of this country often beyond any reasonable boundary. “Why do we need a progressive educational system with integrity in this nation when an educated peasantry would be a danger to us?” This last line of thought lies at the very root of feudalism: ignorance of the masses. All of these lines of query and reasoning lie at the very heart of the feudal mentality and this is a mentality that the American people must overcome if we are to survive as a nation.
For the last 30 years we have seen that the wealth of this nation have had the best of both worlds. They have pursued a program of less and less pay for the American worker and investment in low paying sweat shops in other nations with whatever profits they generate here. This has been not only a betrayal of the American people but the peoples of other nations as well. This will all lead to a severe decline in the quality of life in our country for the people as a whole and will only keep the peoples of other nations in despair.
I am a Nationalist. I am most closely an FDR Democrat. I am one who believes in limited BUT effective government (this seperates me from the anarchist on Wall Street who in reality believes in no national government at all). I believe in a strong military and intelligence community. I believe in strong unions in this country though I question the need for unions in the government workplace (because I assume the basic goodness of government to begin with). Unions should and must exist in the private sector of this country to guard against the excesses and opportunistic inclinations and behavior of the merchant class as a whole. I believe in strong and healthy religious institutions in this country. These do a great service to the collective spirit of the American people. We do not need communism in this country because unlike the Russia and China of old our religious institutions are not wrapped around the finger of our government. Our religious institutions serve the people more than they serve the government.
The reemergence of Islam on the world scene today will likely continue to be a problem for the civilized world for some time to come yet of late we are witnessing the birth of nations in the cradle of Islam. We are witnessing millions of young Muslims demanding societies based on Democratic Ideals and this is a wonderful thing. We must be vigilant. We must guard ourselves internally, hold to our own beliefs and maintain an iron clad intelligence gathering capacity around the middle-east particularly. These things can be done cost effectively with very little military intervention.
I myself am a Democratic Republican. I believe in the ideal of Democracy first and then the Republic I believe that a Republic can be as any people would have it so long as the ideal of Democracy is held as its precursor. I am Judeo-Christian because these modern times demand it and really the times always have. One without the other would be weakened and without context knowing that too many of the opponents of western civilization perceive the Jew and the Christian as one and the same anyway. Now more than at any other time in history the Jew and the Christian must stand together as one. Most of all though I say these things because the great dynamics between Judaism and Christianity are what have given us the wonderful western civilization that we have today. To be sure the Oriental mind, the Persian, Arab and many others have contributed along the way but for the most part it has been the Jew and the Christian who have brought everything together and given us western civilization as we understand it today. There is hope but more than this we must have determination in our efforts. We must be vigilant, without promiscuity in our thoughts and willing to work together side by side at all times to see to the needs of our collective future in western civilization.
---Yoda
Yoda,
Long speech and if I have lots of time will read the rest.
One point on Reagan... in brief, yes, he popularized privatization though heavy conservatives had been around for years. The problem has always been that central to all economic theory is the fact that none of this cr*p works unless the corporation, company, organization runs efficiently. The more efficient the better and faster one produces at the least cost for the best price. If one does not managed well then it takes longer to produce, paying workers more time to finish the job (more cost) and prices increase to cover the increased cost just to break even then add what little profit margin one can to make a living. If one shortens the time (rushes) to cut labor cost then the product has more flaws (inferior)...etc (you get the point).
What we are now fighting about is now having to pay for the waste, fraud and abuse that has been adding up for decades. Here's the kicker.. private industry AND government run just fine if managed correctly and efficiently. Unfortunately, both sides have been managed so poorly as to be more criminal than we would like to realize. How do I know this? ..because I have seen both sides in action for years.
Yoda, history, Ho offered to place vietnam under us protecterive after ww2. Roosevelt needed french help in europe so gave it back to france. that worked well. Ho fought the french, then japanese, he was not a communist, we forced that on him when we did not support him, sort of like india and the british. like us, we eventually prevailed against colonialism.
yoda, just read a little bit more. so, who created more jobs, gov't or aapl, msft, csco, intc. who cost jobs, gm, unions(except in public sector) In one of the bluest states(Washington) they have run out of money and public sector unions are up in arms. How did that election go in Wisconsin for supreme court judge. (another reason judges should not be an elected position) Will bet you now that there will be more recalled dem state senators recalled than rep in Wisconsin.
Good luck with that strategy democrats. Use it if you dare, but most voters are not as dumb as you all are, and the independents will have the final say.
How do you propose to show the American public that the US has no debt problem?
How do you propose to tell the American public that SS, medicare and medicaid is sound?
Seems that you had better hope that no one is successful in obtaining waivers for obamacare as well.
You had better hope that any problems in the middle east and N Africa have all abated by then also.
How will you explain obama passing the buck on job creation over to the dark side (republicans) as they are more business friendly and understand that business creates private sector jobs?
Got a plan on how double taxation of the wealthy and business will work, and when it doesn't your beady little eyes will turn on the middle class and poor to steal from them as well.
Lots of luck girls!!
Hey, Dem senators, Roll Call says the GOP may get to 60 votes in the Senate in 2014! (President Mitch Daniels will have a supermajority to pass legislation repealing every last vestige of ObamaCare!)
"Republicans won 24 of the 37 Senate contests last year, giving them a head start not only on winning a Senate majority in 2012 but possibly winning a 60-seat supermajority two years later.
They will need to net 26 or 27 of the remaining 67 contests over the next two cycles to win a majority in 2014, or 36 of the next 67 to get to 60 seats during the next midterm elections.
The Senate is always a different kind of numbers game than the House. With unbalanced classes, Senate control — to say nothing about a filibuster-proof majority — hinges on which party has more seats up for election in a particular election cycle…
…The Missouri Senate race has changed significantly in the past few weeks. Sen. Claire McCaskill once appeared to be a savvy, well-positioned Democrat who was likely to have a competitive race simply because of the competitiveness of her state.
But recent revelations about a possible conflict of interest and unpaid taxes — issues that she used to attack a former primary opponent and that undermine her message of transparency and integrity — increase her vulnerability greatly."
Bob Casey is in trouble in PA. He is the last Dem to hold a statewide office and he will be kicked out of the Senate after 1 term of following Dirty Harry Reid and 0blamer.
WOW, Who do these "new" politicians think they are? Voting for what their constituants want vs what thier party leader wants to promote? What possible good could come from that????? Come on the Democrats can be lemmings why can't you new guys........ :/
I think that I should share with you my thoughts about our nation today, its condition and its relationship with the antagonists of western civilization particularly in the middle east.
I believe that you and I live in the finest nation with the finest government (civil servant class) that has ever been devised by collective human thought. We are a young nation with its own unique problems but we have the resources, human and otherwise, to solve all of them in time. The two key behaviors that the American people must permit one another at this time in our history are civility and patience. Sooner or later these behaviors always lend themselves to understanding and convention.
In my estimation there are a number of reasons for the unfortunate decline in the overall quality of life in our country over the last 30 or 40 years. The conflict in Vietnam deeply divided and unsettled the American people. We were simply on the wrong side of a nationalist uprising regardless of the involvement by the communists. Conflict and conformity both always inflict hardship on the growth of a nation. Conflict destroys lives and when people are taught only to conform they do not create. They procreate but they do not create. At best conformity lends itself to apathy among a people. They become cogs in a mindless purposeless machine. Conventional wisdom is not always the best wisdom.
Ronald Reagan was one of the most destructive forces to arrive on the scene in this country since the wealthy anarchists of the 1920s and the 1930s. Reagan assumed that because men and women in this country had become captains of industry they must be all knowing, all wise and capable of collective leadership in fulfilling the needs of our entire nation. This was a foolish assumption on his part. History has shown us now that his notion of trickle down economics has not worked. It was never a reflection of the way that the American people have been led to believe over the generations. The American people have been tacitly led to believe that if a person has more they should want more and it should be the other person who gives and not them. This is the way of wealth in this country. Furthermore the wealthy families in this country have shown time and again that they can hardly agree on the time of day. The only two things they do agree on are the taking of profit and the control of the thoughts and actions of their own minions. So much for this idea of collective leadership by the wealthy families of this nation. It is a curiosity at this time in our history that so many of the republican mouth-pieces for the wealthy families are desperately trying to legislate religious morality for our entire diverse nation of people. Morality belongs to the individual and each person develops their own sense of what is good and bad for them from the time they are born. No two persons are alike. In most cultures somewhere along the line of a persons moral development religious values and convention become embedded. This is a good thing and usually leads to general convention in a society but for any one person or group to try to legislate religious morality to an entire diverse nation such as ours is foolishness at the outset.
George Bush Jr. was truly the bane of our nation. He did his best to bring Reagans deranged fantasy to life. He deregulated virtually everything and this put us all on the road to national suicide if we do not turn away soon enough. The very same thing happened in Vietnam in the 1940s and 1950s. A small handful of wealthy families were raping the Vietnamese people until the people decided they had had enough. The fantasy of the wealthy man all too often is the establishment of a "merchant class paradise" where the only laws that matter are those of the wealthy ruling class. The translation of this is feudalism for you and I. Feudalism demands the maintenance of private mercenary armies, associated peasantries and eternal conflict. The descent into feudalism always signals the death of any modern nation. Capitalism at this point in history is a good thing as long as it is regulated for the good of all the people. Personally I would prefer Nationalism over Feudalism and I refuse to believe that anyone truly wants to be someone elses peasant.
For nearly a century now all too many of our wealthy ruling class in this country have done their best to dismantle our unions (believing it is their God given right to ignore the health and well being of their employees), destroy our middle class and of late neglect our educational systems as much as possible. These tactics are not new ones but very old in their origin. They are all based around the idea of feudalism. Too many of these families reason thusly: “Why should we defer to the worker in our employment when we enjoy God given good fortune and should not be compelled to share this with anyone else even with respect to the health and longevity of the workers in our workplace?” Many of these persons and families feel that Unions are in defiance of their authority with this line of reasoning. “Why do we need a middle class to protect us from the peasantry we have been cultivating and abusing all along the way because we now have the worlds largest and most heavily armed police and armed forces to protect us from any uprising on the part of the peasantry in this country?.” This line of reasoning on the part of many of our wealthy families stems from guilt and fear over the sure knowledge that they have taken liberty with the poor and working of this country often beyond any reasonable boundary. “Why do we need a progressive educational system with integrity in this nation when an educated peasantry would be a danger to us?” This last line of thought lies at the very root of feudalism: ignorance of the masses. All of these lines of query and reasoning lie at the very heart of the feudal mentality and this is a mentality that the American people must overcome if we are to survive as a nation.
For the last 30 years we have seen that the wealth of this nation have had the best of both worlds. They have pursued a program of less and less pay for the American worker and investment in low paying sweat shops in other nations with whatever profits they generate here. This has been not only a betrayal of the American people but the peoples of other nations as well. This will all lead to a severe decline in the quality of life in our country for the people as a whole and will only keep the peoples of other nations in despair.
I am a Nationalist. I am most closely an FDR Democrat. I am one who believes in limited BUT effective government (this seperates me from the anarchist on Wall Street who in reality believes in no national government at all). I believe in a strong military and intelligence community. I believe in strong unions in this country though I question the need for unions in the government workplace (because I assume the basic goodness of government to begin with). Unions should and must exist in the private sector of this country to guard against the excesses and opportunistic inclinations and behavior of the merchant class as a whole. I believe in strong and healthy religious institutions in this country. These do a great service to the collective spirit of the American people. We do not need communism in this country because unlike the Russia and China of old our religious institutions are not wrapped around the finger of our government. Our religious institutions serve the people more than they serve the government.
The reemergence of Islam on the world scene today will likely continue to be a problem for the civilized world for some time to come yet of late we are witnessing the birth of nations in the cradle of Islam. We are witnessing millions of young Muslims demanding societies based on Democratic Ideals and this is a wonderful thing. We must be vigilant. We must guard ourselves internally, hold to our own beliefs and maintain an iron clad intelligence gathering capacity around the middle-east particularly. These things can be done cost effectively with very little military intervention.
I myself am a Democratic Republican. I believe in the ideal of Democracy first and then the Republic I believe that a Republic can be as any people would have it so long as the ideal of Democracy is held as its precursor. I am Judeo-Christian because these modern times demand it and really the times always have. One without the other would be weakened and without context knowing that too many of the opponents of western civilization perceive the Jew and the Christian as one and the same anyway. Now more than at any other time in history the Jew and the Christian must stand together as one. Most of all though I say these things because the great dynamics between Judaism and Christianity are what have given us the wonderful western civilization that we have today. To be sure the Oriental mind, the Persian, Arab and many others have contributed along the way but for the most part it has been the Jew and the Christian who have brought everything together and given us western civilization as we understand it today. There is hope but more than this we must have determination in our efforts. We must be vigilant, without promiscuity in our thoughts and willing to work together side by side at all times to see to the needs of our collective future in western civilization.
---Yoda
First off, I don't know what she's been reading but the majority of Americans want the spending to stop. You can't just keep pooring money into things that don't work. Besides, these places Women go who do you think pays for that? Tax payers, not the goverment. She needs to stop drinking from Obama's cool aide and realize that people are upset with them not the Republicans. They're trying to fix the problem and the Democrats are just sitting back not doing anything to help. That's what people are seeing. Another thing, Medicare and Medicaid are bankcrupt. There's not enough money coming in. So yeah let's raise taxes on the people who provide jobs for people like me. That's a brilliant idea. Where did you come up with that one? Enough about that. The Democrats are all going to be voted out not because of all this spending. It's going to be about the gas prices. Republicans will drill and they won't. End of story. No one belives in global warming anymore except the tree hugers and that's not enough people to re-elect the Democrats.
During the last election many republicans ran adds against democrats that stated they voted to cut medicare when they supported the health care bill. This appeared to help a lot of the republicans with senior voters. You can bet the democrats will turn the tables in the next election. As for the debt, Medicare/MMedicaid and SS, the democrats will say they have a plan that won't be on the back of the poor and muddle class while giving tax breaks to the wealthy, they will say their plan as everyone to share in the pain to include the wealthy by asking them to pay a little more in taxes. We'll see how it works.
If you read Ryan's plan you will find out that Sr's will be much better off under the Repub plan instead of 0bummercare. You buy your own private plan and in the Sr's case they are provided with the former Medicare funds to purchase a private plan. The govt doesn't get to take over 1/6th of the economy. The Govt is to provide Defense and build roads and stay out of our personal lives.
black_belt3---what happens when the voucher that the seniors get isn't enough to cover the premiums? Also, what happens if the republicans repeals the healthcare act-Do you think the insurance companies will not raise rates astronomically like they have been doing for the past few decades? These same insurance companies will deny seniors coverage because of pre-existing conditions, or they put a lifetime cap on coverage? Then the insurance companies (like they have been already) once again become the real death panels.
Congress -
Now go after the 105 billion ( 105,000,000,000 ) Obama, Reid & Pelosi HID in the
obama-K-Martcare package. and for God's sake take the checkbook from this Menace
in the White House. The answer to healthcare reform is Not Big Brother Controlled K-Mart
(no offense K-Mart).
FA3290157,
To say you are uniformed is paying you a huge compliment. I would almost say that you must be some backward, illiterate, swamp rat who has been lost for the better part of the century in the backwaters of Louisiana but that would be insulting the nice folks that actually live there.
PEOPLE WANT JOBS PERIOD, SO STFU, GET THE H*** OUT OF THE WAY AND LET THE REAL GROWN UPS DO THE WORK.
In fact, why don't you do us all a favor and get together with your buddies Limbaugh, Beck, Palin and Bachman and take a dive off that bridge like you guys have been talking about for sometime. I guarantee your ilk is too stupid to guess that no one else will follow.
It amazes me that the media buy into the GOP analysis that the Dems cannot hold the Senate because they have too many exposed seats. Ignores any discussion about who has the better agenda/programs. It really does accept as a foregone conclusion that the GOP can outspend the Dems in defense of these seats and that that is the only determining variable. How sad our politics have become. How sad our reporting media.
The Dems have no chance of holding the Senate. It will be a victory for them if the manage to keep 41 seats. Plain and simple facts - look who is running in each race and tell me how it will be different.
How can you even think the republicans will win the senate after everyone can see what the republican agenda is. Republicans won in 2010 and have shown their agenda at the state and federal levels. Do you think the bulk of the population wants to privatize medicare. The republicans in their 2010 platform even included saying that the healthcare act would cut medicare (when it really cuts the subsidies to insurance companies to run medicare advantage plans and the higher fee for service that these plans currently get--you know cutting waste, why should we pay more than we have to) then once elected what do they do, nothing that they ran on - you know jobs, saving medicare from the dems. They attach social agenda riders to budget issues, totally want to dismantle medicare.
It is clear to mostly anyone that the republicans are not looking out for most of the citizens of this country. For this reason I believe they will lose most of the contests in 2012. The dems will retain control of the senate, maybe win the house back and definitely will keep the presidency!!!!
I also believe that the dems will win at the state level too.
"Senate Democrats plan to use GOP agenda in 12"
OK, does that tell me something about the Democrat agenda or the Republican agenda.
Does that tell me something about the Democrats or the Republicans.
I am confused.
It tells you that the Dems have no plan - something we have all known for quite some time. 2012 will be a repeat of the 2010 elections with the Dems getting shellacked again and 0blamer getting sent back to Chicago to organize for Rahmbo!
No it show you that the democrats are going to highlight the differences between the two agendas and use the republicans own agenda against them.
I’m getting a little tired of hearing, we have to give more tax breaks to the top 5%, because they are the job creators, they had the Bush tax cuts, the extension to the Bush tax cuts in Dec. and now they want even more, where are they hiring, not here the jobs created has only been in the last few years and I do not see all those big corporations running to our aide. GOP blackmailed the president to pass the extension, to keep the unemployment benefits, they said it would help create more jobs, where are they. Now the GOP cuts are costing jobs.
Sorry fool us once shame on us, fool us twice shame on you, American companies really need to start hiring people, not just a handful here and there to appease us, put real hiring
I'm tired of hearing their excuses for not hiring, to high of taxes, to high of health costs, the top 5% should take this cost up with their corporate buddies in the health field, insurance companies etc.
jjj
Now here is something I want you to know, and that many will hold against Obama, Clinton and your party tomorrow.
THERE IS A GENOCIDE TAKING PLACE UNDER ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC WATCH!!!!!
There is a little known country where people are good, generous and welcoming, and life is relatively good....It is Ivory Coast, a former French colony.....but STLLL very much so, ie a COLONY. You see, The French have NEVER taken their needles out of the arms of their former colonies and are bleeding them dry.
With the help of the UN, they have just rigged an election. in order to place their puppet at the helm, and America had played a very significant role in this. The French VERY ILLEGALLY invaded, bombed and killed thousands on civilians (MORE than 09/11), and KIDNAPPED the President that was constitutionally elected to put him in the arms of the rebel opposition, a bloody group of illiterate killers who have already eliminated more than half the members of one of the most competent and honest governments in African history..
The Ivory Coast has become a killing field where ethnic cleansing and genocide is going on in silence....the UN has deposited (I DID say the UN forces there) hoards of rampaging, illiterate KILLERS from neighboring countries in the Sahara,that are wiping out entire villages....the crimes are horrendous (slit throats, cutting open the bodies of pregnant women, burning entire villages, throwing living and dead in wells, pursuing those who flee with hound dogs, placing land mines around churches that serve as refugee centers.).In the capital Abdijan, thousands are killed, houses illegally occupied while their owners are fleeing or hiding, the contents of others are emptied and carted away.
WE (the US: Obama, Hillary, Rice) support the bloody leader of this rebellion.....who has been trying for the past 20 years to overthrow the legal government.
He is NOT even Ivoirian but was accorded nationality by the sitting President , to appease the tense situation. He is from Burkina Faso, his wife is French....President Sarkozy married them when he w as Mayor of Neuilly, France in the 90s. He is the French puppet candidate to facilitate the plunder of Ivoirian resources as has been the case forever. France and Burkina Faso have been very active in this coup d'etat and the destabilization of the Ivory Coast. The countries CANNOT develop under this system of plunder and enslavement.
Obama has preferred pushing a part of Africa back in the hands of colonialism....Africans across ALL Africa are angry and VERY disappointed; they just expected something better, more honest.
Amazingly, it is a REPUBLICAN Senator, Inhofe of Oklahama, who has decided to bring this GRAVE injustice to light; unfortunately, he is in the minority and Obama thinks it is in the US best interest to hope it goes away. Believe me, it wont.
THE FRENCH AND THE UN ARE GUILTY OF VERY GRAVE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AS WELL AS GROSS INGERENCE IN THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF A SOVEREIGN NATION. AND WE ARE BACKING THE WRONG CANDIDATE, A BLOODY BUTCHER, AND AN ILLEGAL PRESIDENT. AFRICA DESERVES BETTER>
Here is an article containing some images of what is taking place....and there are more horrible ones yet....like 800 burnt bodies (RedCross, HRW, Amnesty Int'l).
SEARCH YOUR CONSCIENCE!!!!!...even
www.cameroonvoice.com/news/news.rcv?id=3547
www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=119142914828410