no taxation without representation
The cluelessness of netroots is truly amazing. The most scurrilous of accusations is hurled based on zero evidence. It is simply breath taking the way a notorious troll working with a notorious hypocrite can put slime into circulation and national netroots will accept it, all because they have a grudge against one of the candidates.
Really, does running against defense contractors in the greater Washington area sound like a winning strategy to you? How is it possible to be so clueless?
First, I want to lay out what I want to see happen with the party and this primary season:
# I want the process to proceed fairly.
# I want all voters to be counted and respected.
# I want Florida and Michigan delegations counted so they make an impact on the nomination.
# I want Obama and his enablers to back off.
# I want Donna Brazile and anyone else at the DNC to stop putting their thumb on the scales for Obama and against Clinton.
# I want the Rules and Bylaws Committee to waive the rules for FL and MI and seat all delegates as voted on by their voters on the dates of the primaries of those states without any “gifts” to Obama to make the process seem fair to him. The votes are votes. He lost Florida. He took his name off Michigan’s ballot in order to game the system. He obstructed revotes in both states. It’s too late to do one in Florida while they change their voting machines and almost too late in Michigan. He displayed poor sportsmanship and doesn’t deserve a redo at the expense of counting those votes toward the nomination. And Tom Harkin, the purpose of voting is to determine an outcome. It doesn’t matter if Michigan goes first or last, if their votes do not help determine an outcome, then the whole primary was a waste of time and the voters of Michigan will not forget come November. The time to act was back in February-March when counting the votes in both states would have had minimal impact. Obama squandered that opportunity. Tough for him.
I think there is some truth to this, added to flavor of the day, so once somebody is adopted what they say or do ceases to matter.
I think one of the reasons Lieberman was able to win the general is the way Lieberman’s Democratic supporters were savaged on the Lamont blogs. After being personally attacked, many of Lieberman’s Democratic supporters probably wanted nothing to do with Lamont.
As for Webb’s supporters, they are the biggest bunch of sore winners ever assembled. They want to define the whole world in terms of the 2006 primary. At least in the 11th CD they are about to come up short.
Revolutions are nasty. The old leadersheep of the Democratic party failed the country, and what is being pulled in its wake is not pretty.
Long before Republican Tom Davis read the writing on the wall and announced he would not run for re-election, Virginia’s 11th district was at the top of every Democrat’s wish list. With Northern Virginia trending blue over the last two cycles, it’s perfect for a red-to-blue turnover. But first we’ve got to make sure we don’t elect another Blue Dog/DLC-type “corporate Democrat.”
Fortunately, we have a great candidate in the field. Leslie Byrne has been a strong, progressive voice for decades in the state legislature, in Congress and as our nation’s consumer advocate. She opposed the war in Iraq from the start, will fight to make health care more affordable and more accessible, and has always supported a woman’s right to choose. Please check out her live blog session at FDL from last March.
As the Washington Post has pointed out, Leslie’s opponent, Gerry Connolly, basically a Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman type Democrat, is trying to trick voters into thinking he’s suddenly a progressive, just the way Lieberman persuaded Connecticut voters in 2006 that he had seen the light and had suddenly become anti-war. Let’s go over why Connolly is such a terrible choice for grassroots and progressive Democrats.
First off, Connolly’s record conforms to the worst stereotypes of the corporate Democrat and threatens to cost the party a long-awaited takeover. Connolly has been mired in questions about his employment with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), one of the worst of the major defense contractors, his cozy relationship with business developers and his general affinity for what most of us would call pay to play politics.
Connolly’s most egregious offenses against the progressive agenda are only recently coming to light, largely due to his own hypocrisy on the Iraq war. Connolly, who was a proud “moderate” until the moment he declared for the House, has taken to touting his anti-war credentials by claiming that he’s “been against the Iraq war from the beginning” and that he plans to “hold CEOs criminally accountable for wasting tax payer’s dollars.”
So, why is this a problem? Well, it’s an issue because Connolly’s employer, SAIC, is one of the most secretive defense contractors in the world.
Defense contractors are a huge voting block in the 11th Congressional District, which may explain why Gerry has a 20 point lead, or maybe it is just that people like Gerry.
Resistance? Insurgents?The US Army has fallen hard for counter insurgency, COIN. However, NPR reports:
An internal Pentagon report is raising concerns about whether the Army’s focus on counterinsurgency has weakened its ability to fight conventional battles. The report’s authors — all colonels with significant combat experience — say the Army is “mortgaging its ability to (successfully) fight” in the future.…
The counterinsurgency doctrine emphasizes the use of minimal force, with the intent of winning the hearts and minds of a civilian population.…
The idea in a counterinsurgency campaign, Nagl says (Lt. Col. John Nagl, one of the Army’s top experts on counterinsurgency doctrine) is to drive a wedge between the civilian population and insurgents who live among them.
However, when we talk about counter insurgency, is it really counter insurgency we have in mind? In Iraq the “insurgency” looks a lot more like a resistance.
BTD is a tough cat to read. Is he blogging about this because he’s concerned about Florida and Michigan? Or does he just like the attention? The good news is that if BTD really feels disenfranchised, he can campaign for voting rights for our nation’s capital. It’s easy to forget after a bruising primary like this, but those of us that live in Our Fair City, DC, don’t get a vote in congress. That’s not just during the Democratic Party primary. That’s all the time.
Btw, where was BTD in 2004 when DC moved up it’s primary to vote for Howard Dean, and got the same treatment that Michigan and Florida did in this election? (Okay, the punishment was to make the vote “non-binding,” but if the issue is making every vote count, it’s hard to see how that differs from MI and FL in any practical way.) You can read about it here.
If Alternative Hippopotamus has ever linked to the DC Vote site and written about our situation, I have not seen it. Nor have I ever seen diaries on the community sites. Maybe there have been and I just wasn’t reading that day.
If you go look at the past speakers for DC Drinking liberally, you will look in vain for DC Vote, Empower DC, or any other LOCAL group. It is as if DC were a foreign country. Or as my father used to say, the problem with liberals is that they’re not liberal. Nor has any of the DCDL crowd taken any notice of the disaster capitalism that is being visited on our local school system.
Here are some people you won’t see invited to DCDL:
Save our Neighborhood Schools, or those who merely blog about schools
The LOCAL CWA
The LOCAL SEIU
Because the DCDL crowd is much too important to pay attention to their own city.
Looks a lot like Vladimir Putin’s idea of unity. Clearly he wants to eliminate an rival sources of power.
I will try to expand upon this later, I just wanted a time stamp on this to create a record of my reaction.
The 1,800 InterCon officers who guard Kaiser healthcare facilities nationwide are the only workers inside Kaiser who have been denied the right to form a union. But not all security officers at Kaiser face these problems.
