Throughout our nation’s history, hope and optimism have defined the American spirit. As a nation, we have always emerged from difficult times of war and economic uncertainty stronger and more unified. And every generation has struggled to leave our children a world that is stronger and more secure than the one left to us. That is our legacy, and it must… return to article
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Reader Comments (13)Page 1 of 1 pagesWell Ms. Pelosi I think you made a few interseting points. The first one I noticed is in one paragraph you mentioned “robust” transportation bill. With whose money? private or government (taxpayer money) funds? You go on in the next paragraph to mention fiscal responsibbility? Almost evrything you want displays the old democratic party platform of more government programs. Social security is a major issue. It is my understanding that this “trust fund” is succeptible to being taken from for “programs”. I may be wrong on that but I don’t know . Democrats need to rely more and get used to the fact of the private sector and not government may very well be the answer to some(not all) of the problems of fiscal responsibility. I know one of the democrats main platforms is “social justice” and that is a noble persuit but it needs to encompass the rights of people who you personally or as a party do not neccesarily agree with. I think you need to think of it in terms of the stance that a lot of people take on the first ammendment-I do not agree with what you are saying but I will defend you right to say what you want with my life if neccesary.
respectfully yours, the (semi official) troll of In These Times- Redstate
Posted by redstate on Nov 18, 2004 at 8:26 PM Nancy-Here is a translation for you of what Redstate was trying to say: He doesn’t want to pay for any of your crazy social programs like transportation, healthcare and education as they would take away from our ability to spend 100s of billions on a war based on false assertions. I think he would be reassured to know that President W won’t let anything like trying to balance the budget get in the way of spending/corporate boondoggle bills (of which W vetoed a total of 0 in his first term) as he racks up record deficits of 400+ billion. Wow, this is one Democrat who may have a tough time getting used to this new breed of fiscal responsibility, but if Redstate says I need to, then I’ll just have to give it a shot.
Posted by Mattdog on Nov 19, 2004 at 12:52 AM No hard feelings Mattdog but I don’t need you to tranlate what I am saying. If you read my posts on ITT, exclusive of the ones that you and I have been less than civil to each other you would see that I am trying to be civil and learn something. If anything from reading and talking on these posts I am staring to realize that I am not as conservative now as when I started out. I am learning that maybe I have as much skepticism about both parties. I also said that not all social programs are bad- maybe mismanaged and that I am not so sure that I am100% for this war anymore.
Posted by redstate on Nov 19, 2004 at 1:10 AM No hard feelings at all Redstate, and I must admit that I don’t really read too much of these postings. My initial response to you was based on one or two of your postings which I found shallow and unnecessarily provocative. As it turns out, my judgement appears to have been hasty. I am glad to hear that you are actually open to different viewpoints. Have a good night.
Posted by Mattdog on Nov 19, 2004 at 2:25 AM It’s time those of us who care about issues such as global warming and social justice abandoned the Democratic party altogether. If it couldn’t win in 2004 it will never win again. For me this was absolutely definitely the party’s last chance to redeem itself. It seems clear to me now that the party’s losing streak over the last few years has been no accident. After all, they COULD have kept the governorship of California if they had thrown Gray Davis over for a better candidate but for some strange reason they declined to do so - with the inevitable result that the Repugs bagged it. Political ineptitude - or design?
Personally, my view is that most of the party leadership, if not all, are crypto-Republican. Their job is to channel all the energy in the country that would otherwise rise up through the Democratic party and overthrow the GOP insanity that began once the party fused with the Christian right in the 1990s, into harmless, conventional politicking. The Dems are now irrelevant and the sooner its supporters wake up to that fact the better.
Posted by James Paterson on Nov 19, 2004 at 6:23 AM With all due respect, the first and most important item on the agenda must be to make all voting systems nationwide auditable and recountable. We must have a paper trail for all voting systems or there is really no point in having further elections. In addition the current practice having openly partisan officials, such as Katherine Harris and J Kenneth Blackwell, make, enforce and change the rules as it suits them must be stopped. Until we have open transparent election procedures overseen by objective non-partisan officials, all talk of policy positions and campaign strategies are a total waste of time and effort.
Please see http://www.votergate.tv and http://www.blackboxvoting.org
Posted by DAS on Nov 19, 2004 at 4:51 PM I second DAS, the main thing we all should be working on right now is the integrity of the voting system in this country. Without that, well we’re rightly and truly f*cked…
After that 1) end the war, 2) do something about global climate change.
Posted by Planet B on Nov 19, 2004 at 4:56 PM The war will end—no troopstrength, no money to fight it and…no victories.
This is where the real war will come from—those thousands of Americans wounded in Iwreck who have been secreted at the main hospital airbase in Germany are going to come home eventually and when they find out that BushInc has ORDERED that VA officials discourage those vets from seeking their benefits they are going to scream bloody murder.
How long do you think the Falwell/Dobson/Robertson cabal will tolerate their dream of securing a place at the Second Coming to evaporate? They have shown no tolerance for anything so far.
Look for Bush to get a call from the Big Boys who pull the strings right before his inauguration to give him his orders. The President has not been in charge for decades, Bush is no different.
Here is a reminder, how long did it take Cowboy George to soft-peddle his bombast leveled at China when they retrieved our wandering submariners at the beginning of his term? There are BILLIONS invested in China so the T-Square thing doesn’t mean squat.
STOP! An excellent book on the Middle East beginning with the British to the present is “Oil, Power & Empire” by Larry Everest. Check it out—it is documented fact, not opinion.
Redstaters who are curious about who is really paying the taxes and why should try “Perfectly Legal” by David Cay Johnston, it will turn your stomach.
Dump Fox News, Rupert is an ex-patriate Aussie, and NONE of them have ever worn a uniform, so why listen? Didn’t you always suspect Holy, Holy O’Reilly?
Sorry for the rambling outburst but I am running low on my meds & I haven’t gotten over the Series yet.
Just remember this—Now we really ARE in this thing together. So let’s stop yelling and start listening…be nice and maybe someday we will all meet up at a meet-up and make some friends.
Posted by David T. Gray on Nov 20, 2004 at 5:49 AM Hi,
Some of us in the Democrats Abroad are setting up a ‘faith-based caucus’ in the DA in order to take the issue of faith back from the radical right and put faith-based politics back where is was in the 1960s. We now have the moral support of Rabbi Michael Lerner and the agreement in principal to consider this on the part of the DA.
I believe that the issue of progressive/leftist political activism can span the gap between Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. as I have seen it being done in Europe and the Middle East. I can also stop the radical right from turning faith into a dirty word.Best, Eugene http://www.libanlink.org
Posted by Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous on Nov 20, 2004 at 6:04 AM Hi Eugene,
I have read Rabbi Lerner’s sentiments and he definitely has the right approach—no religion should be forced on anyone, and it should not be the basis on which waging an erroneous war. Lord knows we have had enough of those throughout history already.
We have to replace the Radical Right’s convincing argument, that is full of outright perfidy, cynicism and condecension, with a more convincing argument—the Truth. Despite a high population of TVidiots in America, we can handle the truth.
Truth will ultimately destroy the Radical Right because the fuel they run on is Hate.
I think this process would have been postponed with a Kerry Administration as the Media, at the Radical Right’s insistent fulminationss, would have been a continual inquisitional gauntlet that would distract and exhaust Kerry’s ability to accomplish anything meaningful.
This very process would be brought up by said media at every opportunity as a self-perpetuating prophecy, ad nauseum.
Since the RR control all of the branches of government and hold the media in their sway THEY have to clean up their own mess—it is too big to hide or disguise.
As long as BushInc maintains an imperial intent our political, economic and psychic capital will continue to be exhausted—a painful but necessary catharsis will result…I hope.
Posted by David T. Gray on Nov 20, 2004 at 6:48 AM Dear David,
I agree that a Kerry victory would have only postponed the inevitable, wherever that leads us. The Democratic Party is now waking up to the grand tradition of the 1950s to early 70s, when faith (“I have a dream”) was still something you could be proud of, you didn’t need to out yourself as a believing Christian or Jew during the civil rights movement, you were welcome in the party. Remember the Berrigan Bros.?
Now that we have been “closeted,” it’s time to undo the damage, together. (You can get my coordinates from my website above.) Have a look at this PBS posting:
You can watch and read the interview online: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week811/news.html
There is also an extended write-up of the interview here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week811/interview.htmlBest, Eugene
Posted by Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous on Nov 20, 2004 at 9:03 AM Hi Eugene,
The first matter of business is to categorically dismantle the DLC headed by Terry-boy McCauliffe.
That means that Hillary has to change her stripes or continue on as a Senator/Authoress—her chances in 2008 are delusional.
I read a lot of progressive pubs, Mother Jones, The Progressive Populist, The Progressive and I remember reading a story about a certain vote on a piece of legislation in the US Senate that concerned a senator from Wisconsin, Max Feingold, and he was sticking to his guns and Hillary admonished “Oh come on, Max, you have to get into the real world!”
This philosophy of “expedience over ethics” is what has destroyed the Democratic party and set them up as a weak-imitation of the GOP. This has worked against them time and time again. But they don’t alter course, they just dilute their voting base more and more until they evaporate.
It allowed the Four Stooge Media to paint Kerry as a flip-flopper, when a good dissection of Bushie’s political decisions would expose him as the Archduke of Flipfloppers.
The DLC has presented a facade of inclusion while creating a de facto exclusionary party. I think there is room in the New Democratic Party for everyone who subscribes to the simple motto quoted by Jim Hightower as passed on to him by his father,
“Everybody does better when everybody does better”
This also brings to mind an interview with Michael Moore on C-SPAN. He said when he talks to conservatives he points out that liberals feel the same as conservatives on many issues, so Michael has coined a very appropriate acronym—RINO
Republican in Name Only
Together we make up a HUGE majority that would be unstoppable and invulnerable even to the lowest of Cheney-Rove stratagems. And that is pretty low.
Have a happy, David
Posted by David T. Gray on Nov 24, 2004 at 11:38 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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