“Work as if you are in the early days of a better nation.” —Alasdair Gray We were delighted to see President Obama’s fiery, fightin’ spirit Friday as he swung into Elyria, Ohio, in full campaign mode with his “never stop fighting” speech. You go, O. But, listen,...
Politics/Economy
Democrats, Be Bold. Do Not Freak Out.
Stand up straight. No cringing, no cowering. The loss of the Massachusetts senate seat is dismaying but unfortunately not surprising. What worries us is that Democrats will learn the wrong lessons from the loss—they have a way of doing that. Some have said “we should...
OMG! Wake-Up Calls and Queasy Stomachs
Two posts that should be read in full—“A Wake-Up Call” by Robert Kuttner on what the Massachusetts special election for senator tells us about the Rahm Emanuel White House’s wrong priorities—and another by a reader at Talking Points Memo who was calling voters in...
“Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam”
In the first two years after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. maintained a skeptical but moderate and relatively quiet position on the war in Vietnam. He spoke out forcefully and at length against the war on April 4,...
Country First
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqaNbazBmKY&feature=player_embedded “The campaign we raged” John McCain is a United States senator. In the past he was a candidate for president. He prides himself on having survived some five years in a North Vietnamese prison and...
“Winter of Our Discontent”
In the already-dark of the shortest day of the year, the first day of winter, rather than denying the obvious it feels appropriate to acknowledge a certain lowness of spirits, a mood that the holidays will warm temporarily but not dispel altogether. “Winter of our...
Obama, Lieberman, Emanuel—
All Skewered as Not “Tough Enough to Govern”
Joe Conason in a hard-hitting Truthout op-ed rips Joe Lieberman for demanding, and President Obama and his chief of staff and “self-styled tough guy from Chicago” Rahm Emanuel for bowing to the gutting of the elements of real reform in the Senate health care...
Senate Dems, Stop: Go to Reconciliation (51 Votes)
“Not Health, Not Care, Not Reform” Ed. Note: The writer of this post volunteered for about a half-dozen Organizing for America phone banks to ask voters to call their senators to press for a public option. The Senate Democrats’ over-compromised health reform...
Deeper into Afghanistan: 360 Degrees of Damnation
“we must rebuild our strength here at home . . . . the nation that I’m most interested in building is our own.” —President Obama, Dec. 1, 2009 We wanted to take time to try to make sense of President Obama’s speech at West Point last week in which he announced his...
“We Need Strong Leadership” on Health Care Reform
Talking Points Memo reports that Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, released a statement Tuesday that calls “troubling” the White House and Senate Democrats’ compromises on the public option—by this point a mere shadow of the...
It’s Not About You—It’s All About Joe
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETAFMgGTMiQ&feature=player_embedded When long-serving Connecticut senator Joseph Isidore Lieberman lost the Democratic primary to telecommunications executive Ned Lamont in August 2006, rather than bow out as defeated candidates...
Wrong Call, Mr. President
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953 Having taken a long walk after a filling Thanksgiving...
Coastal Conservation Corps:
A New CCC for Coastal Restoration—and Jobs
Levees Not War is pleased to direct your attention to LaCoastPost, where you can read a guest post titled “Why Not Institute a ‘Green’ Corps for the Coast?”, or, “Reinventing the CCC and WPA.” In collaboration with LaCoastPost editor Len Bahr, a coastal science and...
“Whose Side Is Senator Landrieu On?”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PwiO44cGPY&feature=player_embedded Public-Funded Health Care Has Been Good Enough for Landrieu Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage, besides being a celebrated citizen-blogger + whistle-blower about the New Orleans Affordable...
Dems, Heed Creigh Deeds
(or, How to Make Voters Stay Home)
Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Loses by 18 Points “I’m not afraid of going against my fellow Democrats when they’re wrong. . . . A public option isn’t required in my view.” —Creigh Deeds, quoted in Firedoglake We hope the White House political strategists...
Read the Senators’ Mail—About Health Care Reform
We fax and mail a lot of letters to members of Congress—often demanding robust flood protection and coastal restoration for Louisiana, and in recent months pressing for health care reform with a strong public option. Sometimes they write back. Below are excerpts from...
Public-Supported Health Care Has Worked for You, Joe Lieberman
“. . . individual senators being able to hold up legislation, which in a sense is an extension of the filibuster . . . it’s just unfair.” —Joseph Lieberman, 1994 Following is a letter we’ve faxed and mailed to the WDC office of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. (We tried...
Thanks, Harry! Now Let’s Push Harder
Damn liberals are never satisfied . . . Encouraged but not satisfied by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement yesterday of the inclusion of an opt-out version of a public option in the Senate health reform bill that he will bring to a vote, we sent the...
Majority Leader Reid Says Public Option Is In
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE8EpzSYdvI Just announced this afternoon. Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announces the merging of bills from the Senate Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will include an...
Obama Welcomed, and Challenged, in New Orleans
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL7aldiQLS0 Maybe he wished he’d planned to stay longer, though there may have been a point when he began to wish he hadn’t come at all. President Obama’s visit was criticized days in advance even by supporters for being too short. The...