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Archive for December, 2009

Getting Ready for 2010: More ‘Centrism’ Is A Loser

December 28th, 2009 by admin | No Comments | Filed in elections, financial crisis, pushing obama

Democrats Do Not Need to Become More 'Moderate' to Win in 2010

Four Rules for

Victory in November

By Bob Creamer

Huffington Post

There is little doubt that over the last several months President Obama's poll numbers -- and those of Democrats generally -- have taken a swing for the worse. The president's job approval numbers have drifted below 50 percent. The popularity of some of his signature initiatives has dropped. Last week, Democratic Congressman Parker Griffith of Alabama announced he was switching parties -- presumably in order to enhance his odds of political survival next fall.

These events have given rise to calls that the Democratic agenda needs to become more "moderate" or "centrist" and that this would somehow be more attractive to Independent voters.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

"Moderating" our goals is not a recipe for victory. It is a recipe for failure. Last fall, voters overwhelming voted for change, and they knew then -- and still know now -- the kind of change they wanted.

They wanted to end the stranglehold of the private insurance companies that continues to put every American a single illness -- or one layoff -- away from financial catastrophe. They want to take bold, clear action to assure that America is in the forefront of creating the clean energy jobs of the future -- and leave a thriving healthy planet to our children. They wanted to fundamentally change the bull-in-the-china shop foreign policy of the Bush years and re-establish American leadership in the world. Most importantly, they rejected the failed economic policies that allowed the recklessness of huge Wall Street banks to plunge the economy into free fall -- and cost millions their livelihoods. They desperately want leadership that will lay the foundation for long term, bottom-up, widely shared prosperity. In other words they wanted... and still want... fundamental change.

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Finance Capital as the Main Enemy of Jobs

December 22nd, 2009 by admin | No Comments | Filed in financial crisis, rightwing

Regulatory Reform -

Then Break Up the

Big Wall Street Banks


By Robert Creamer

Huffington Post

Dec. 15, 2009 - Last Friday, the House passed critical regulatory reform legislation aimed at preventing the recurrence of the kind of financial meltdown that devastated our economy at the end of the Bush administration.

The lobbyists from Wall Street worked hand-in-glove with the Republicans, and a few Democrats, to try to kill the bill. Astoundingly, the Republicans argued that Wall Street should continue to be free to engage in the same reckless speculation that led directly to 10 percent unemployment and required the taxpayers to inject hundreds of billions into the markets so that the geniuses of private finance would not plunge us all into the abyss of another Great Depression.

With no regard for history -- and here I mean the events of only 12 months ago -- the Republicans and Big Banks have the audacity to contend that the creation of jobs and a growing economy requires the lowest levels of regulation and government involvement possible.

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The Fight Is On – Antiwar Counter-Surge vs. Obama War & Escalation

December 1st, 2009 by admin | No Comments | Filed in afghanistan, antiwar, pushing obama

Obama Announces

Afghanistan Escalation

By Tom Hayden

December 1, 2009
It's time to strip the Obama sticker off my car. Obama's escalation in Afghanistan is the last in a string of disappointments. His flip-flopping acceptance of the military coup in Honduras has squandered the trust of Latin America. His Wall Street bailout leaves the poor, the unemployed, minorities, and college students on their own. And now comes the Afghanistan-Pakistan decision to escalate the stalemate, which risks his domestic agenda, his Democratic base, and possibly even his presidency. The expediency of his decision was transparent. Satisfy the generals by sending 30,000 more troops. Satisfy the public and peace movement with a timeline for beginning withdrawals of those same troops, with no timeline for completing a withdrawal. Obama's timeline for the proposed Afghan military surge mirrors exactly the 18-month Petraeus timeline for the surge in Iraq. We'll see. To be clear: I'll support Obama down the road against Sarah Palin, Lou Dobbs or any of the pitchfork carriers for the pre-Obama era. But no bumper sticker until the withdrawal strategy is fully carried out. (more...)

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