Democrats, Stop Coddling The Children! STOP BEING SO DAMN FREAKING WEAK!!

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/23791

Democrats, Stop Coddling The Children! STOP BEING SO DAMN FREAKING WEAK!!
Submitted by Linda Milazzo on Wed, 2007-06-20 00:01. Activism | Congress | General Discussion | Impeachment

Democrats in Congress, this message is for YOU! There's a reason Republicans call Democrats weak. IT'S BECAUSE YOU DAMN FREAKING ARE!!

When Democrats took the majorities of the Senate and the House in November of 2006, your promise to America, YOUR PRIORITY (although NOT why you were elected), was to make Washington a more civil place. You pledged to take the high road and not do to the Republicans what the Republicans did to you. Your goal was to show America just how freaking nice you were, and to change the tone in Washington from bellicose to genteel. What you failed to realize is that America doesn't need you to be nice. America needs you to be strong. You've succeeded at being nice. But not at being strong.

snip//

To put your 'kindly' memories into their proper perspective, let us reflect on some key events over the last dozen years of your PERSECUTION by the Republicans.

* There was that lovely day in May 2003 during Hammer-time, when Majority Leader Delay sent a Homeland Security aircraft to chase down Democrats from the Texas House of Representatives.

* There was that lovely day in July 2003 when Republican Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas of California called the Capitol Police to evict Democrats from a committee room.

* There was that lovely day of June 10, 2005 when Republican James Sensenbrenner abruptly shut off the microphones and gaveled to a close the Judiciary Committee Hearing on Patriot Act abuses - in the middle of Democratic testimony.

* There were those lovely times when Democrats held meetings in the basement because Republicans refused to give them space.

* There were the many occasions when Republicans passed legislation at untenable times, in underhanded ways.

For a dozen years the treatment of the Democrats by the Republicans was virulent, suppressive and undemocratic, yet the Republicans were always re-elected. Not being nice cost them NOTHING. To their fellow Republicans, their petulance was strength.

more of this righteous rant...

[givemebackmycountry]

1. Oh my Babylon Sister....

You are so right on with this post.

I saw cartoon today, maybe on here.

A bunch of Donkeys (that would be us), all cowering, hugging each other, screaming "What is that?!!??" to the object in the corner of the room.

What was that object?

A spine.

I'm at the point when someone starts spouting some RW bullshit at me, I tell them "Don't FUCK with me because this LIBERAL will kick your stupid BUSH loving ass" and I've tried it recently with much success.

Of course, being 6'4" and 255 helps.

My hats off to you girl.
Great post.

k/r

[babylonsister]

3. Glad you liked it - I did, too. But I'm just the messenger and did not

write this rant; I think Linda Milazzo wrote it.

[opihimoimoi]

4. This kind of rant gives strength to the GOP....and divides the Dems...this is not good.

[babylonsister]

6. Who is gaining strength from this in the GOP? I think the author

was pretty accurate. Dems were stomped on for years, are playing 'nice'. Witness this immigration bill that is supposed to elevate the dim one's 'legacy'. Dems are working hard (supposedly) to make that happen. I have a few problems with how they have been approaching issues. I would never vote for a rethug, but there's nothing wrong with a wake-up call; God knows enough people have been trying to wake them up!

[tbyg52]

17. Well, if it divides them

Between the progressives, who seem to have a spine, and the corporate Dems, some of whom don't seem to have one, then that may be necessary.

I'm not necessarily going to support someone who *calls* themself a Dem if they don't act at least somewhat like *my* definition of one. Take a look at Lieberman for an extreme example.

[Phredicles]

21. What gives strength to the GOP is Democrats sitting around doing nothing of consequence,

punctuated only by the occasional admonishment to those of us who elected them to fall in line and shut up.

[seafan]

8. Here it is. It's a classic.

Below is a post I wrote on April 5, 2006. Time to light a roaring fire under these people.

The 2 x 4 upside the head hasn't worked.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=849990&mesg_id=849990">Upon January, 2007, to Democrats who will control our House and Senate:



As soon as your posteriors take all the Committee leadership chairs, here is your initial mission:


1. Immediate breakup of media conglomerates. Re-institute the Fairness Doctrine that was gutted during the Reagan years.


2. Strong corporate regulation, with tax incentives to maintain employment ranks and the manufacturing base inside the 50 States and with tax payments to the U. S. Treasury. No offshoring or outsourcing without heavy, heavy penalties assessed on the U. S. corporation. Revoke corporate personhood.


3. Publicly-financed political campaigns. No exceptions.


4. Prohibit pay-to-play lobbying.


5. All retiring politicians must be prohibited from working as lobbyists for 5 years after leaving office. This would stop the revolving door from making legislative decisions benefiting a brand-new lobbying job, soon after leaving Congress.


6. Re-examine all financial support for other nations, with an eye for fairness and based upon true need to support their populations. Open these discussions to public Congressional hearings.


7. Leave Iraq. Now. Turn over all newly built bases to Iraqis. Begin planning for the UN to preside over Iraq's rebuilding and peacekeeping, putting all competitive bidding for rebuilding contracts under UN control and supervision.


8. Make cash payment reparations to Iraqis, to be disbursed through the UN, for what we have destroyed in their country, and for support for the fractured families in mourning and catastrophic circumstances, to help them to pick up the pieces of their lives and livelihoods and rebuild their infrastructure.


9. Make an exhaustive list of harmful * policies in effect, and surgically excise each and every one of them.


10. Commence with criminal investigations for treason, of members of the * Administration, leading to indictment, public trial and conviction, followed by sentencing.


11. Revoke/block all pardons * may try to bestow upon his criminal cohorts. Iran-Contra-style pardons will not happen again.


12. Nullify all Supreme Court appointments under the illegitimate * Administration. For Roberts and Alito, require new and open confirmation hearings if they are still interested in serving as justices. Require them to answer all questions fully. No detailed and truthful answers equals no confirmation. Simple as that.


13. Expressly prohibit the merging of church and state, as written in the U. S. Constitution. Enforce this law.


14. Promise The People of America that elected officials will run our government for the people, not for a wealthy few, and certainly not for faceless, mercenary corporations.


15. Return to pen and paper voting nationwide, hand-counted immediately after polls close, under direct public observation, with the results telephoned into the Secretary of State's office. Permanently ban all electronic/electromechanical voting machines.


16. Abolish the Electoral College. Every person's vote is equal in our country. It's time to stop ignoring 40 states when we elect our President.


17. Immediate planning committees to establish universal, single-payer health care for our people, throughout our lives.



We, The People, have only just begun.

Thus, if the 110th Congress, controlled by the Democrats, fails to get the information it needs -- and the public wants -- about the workings of the Bush/Cheney presidency, it will not be because it does not have the tools with which to obtain that information. Rather, it will be because it lacks the will to use those tools. -----John Dean, December 29, 2006

[babylonsister]

9. That's the ticket! They need to find 'THAT'! nt

[tbyg52]

18. Yes, thank you. This is all I ask. nt

[John Kerry VonErich]

19. I took a look at the list of demandments, here is my take...

1. That's a toughy to get passed, there could be DINOs that won't like it.

2. Give it another election or 2 and it could be passed.

3. Never will work. If a candidate wants to use his own personal funds, thats his/her business.

4. Agreed

5. A double edged sword

6. Agreed

7. Agreed!!!!

8. Even better, allow the mourning families in Iraq the right to sue. there are lots of lawyer who believe this and would jump at the chance pro bono.

9. Could you be a lil more clearer on that demand?

10. Not gonna work, waste of time and money, and thats not my thought, thats the way it is there.

11. Probably the best idea yet, but you have to have a constitutional ammendment for that. I believe a pardon override should be the same as Vetoes, 67 votes. Be careful though, it also is a double edged sword. See Mark Rich.

12. Never will work, that is close to an coup de tat as it can get.

13. agreed

14. Saying and doing are 2 different things, beware.

15. That to can be just as flawed.

16. No abolishment, the problem is not the college. The problem is redistricting. We need redistrict reform. We don't wanna suffer another loophole sneak attack like what Tom Delay did.

17. Agreed.

[tom_paine]

24. Good analysis...one thing though...I'd go further in slamming #12 as a concept

#12 is really reprehensible. The move of tyrants everywhere. #12 could only be possible if full "holds up in a court of law" level proof of stolen 2000 and 2004 elections had been tried & found guilty.
(not that the evidence doesn't exist, but it will never be acted up even if someone in authority dedicated some resources to investigate)

#12 is dictatorship of the worst, most incompatible kind.

[John Kerry VonErich]

25. I wouldn't go that far

He overlooked seperation of powers. Thats why his proposal looks like a coup de tat.

[tom_paine]

27. Ok, then. Point taken.

I still don't like the idea one little bit. Amen to the rest of it though.

[KoKo]

12. If you find that cartoon could you PM it to me or post it.....

It makes me want to cry...but I'd like to see it.

[Middle finga]

2. Babylonsister I feel your pain

Reid and Pelosi doesn't seem to be cutting it, they are just too damn laid back and easy going for my taste. I would like to see those Republican traitors get abused where's the democratic version of the "Hammer"?

[babylonsister]

5. I'll give Reid and Pelosi a pass with a caveat; find their spines! Listen

to their constituents, examine their integrity, do the right thing.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. what you said, my love, what you said.

there is no avoiding it. period.

[bonito]

10. K & R ! n/t

[GeorgeGist]

11. Some children are cowards and bullies ...

some children are just cowards. Do you know where your children are?

[H2O Man]

13. Thank you.

We have a bunch of cowards who are afraid of power. They refuse to take the reins of power into their own hands, and instead allow the administration to use those reins like a whip.

I'm a democrat. I believe in the democratic values found at the grass-roots level. But I do not think that the majority of democrats in Washington DC are doing even a poor job --- and I do not think they have any intention of representing the grass-roots.

Last week, two democratic groups called me asking for another donation. No. No. No. That isn't going to happen. I will only donate to the tiny minority of democrats who deserve my support. The rest will not get a penny.

[Ghost in the Machine]

14. K&R

[Pooka Fey]

15. I'm sick of this "soft-on-crime" Democratic majority in Congress

Impeach already :mad:

[bigtree]

16. I don't think our party should emulate republican muckraking

just to prove to someone that they aren't 'cowards'

I think the rhetoric about cowardice is as false as it is divisive. Our party IS engaged in MANY confrontations with the Executive right now. It would be nice if those efforts were highlighted and supported instead of unilaterally declaring them ineffective just because of the initial republican opposition; or because Democrats are resisting what they rightly complained was republican disregard and abuse of the democratic process.

[tom_paine]

26. Nobody's talking about the democratic process, we are talking about MULTIPLE FELONIES!

Not just multiple felonies, but multiple felonies openly performed, a nation's laws and tradition brazenly and repeatedly defied. Shamlessly performed, if you will. How can the Rule of Law be anything but an obscene joke with such conditions at the top?

Get it? Gonzales has alreday committed repeated perjury, the evidence to convict is already there. I also think a charge of witness tampering could be made form some of the Goodling testimony, and others.

Testimony from the Libby Trial points a blazing arrow of evidence right at the White Castle of Bushler. Fitzgerald won't go further BECAUSE THAT'S CONGRESS' JOB. Their job to investigate high crimes and misdemeanors.

The investigation arm of Congress has done a pretty good job in highlighting the felonies, which would come to light further with just a scratching or two of the surface, so arrogantly were they performed. But Congress has taken ZERO ACTION on these many threads to punish the wrongdoers. They may do so in the future, much to the rejoicing of all, but from here it seems as if 70% of Americans are represented by about 1/20th of the membership. If they do so in the future then Huzzah and we will all hug and we'll admit we were hasty in our judgements, that it sure was a good thing we kept that powder so dry for so long.

Here's what it boils down to: It seems to me that we are in basically two camps. One says that this is politics, everything is fine and we just have to let the System work it's gradual way through this mess before the economy implodes or something worse.

The other camp says we are well beyond conventional politics now because we are facing an a-Constitutional cabal of barbaric aristocrats straight out Machiavelli's and Leo Strauss' wettest dreams. We are saying this in all the way on the other side of politics as usual.

We are seeing another version of perhaps the oldest story in the world.

It is Caesar vs. the Roman Republic and Senate.

It is Hitler vs. the Reichstag.

It is fucking Palpatine vs. the Old Republic Senate/Jedi, complete with Dukoo Bin Laden. That's how old and retold this story is, it is part of our mythos, we have as a species lived through it so many times.

Only time shall tell which camp is correct, because only one can. Good luck to your camp, because that is the only palatable one. The other is too horrific to contemplate as our children or grandchildren will likely have to.

[coco77]

20. Yeah!

[ShortnFiery]

22. Well, it's NOW really one big happy Millionaire's club that fleeces the citizen ...

in order to fatten up the corporations who comprise our BELOVED Military Industrial Complex.

Oh, and don't forget the need to give Corporate Welfare to BIG OIL? - They're Double Plus Good-est!

[tom_paine]

23. Amen to THAT!

My God, it's like living in the Twilight Zone. When did our System, when did WE become the Soviet Union of the 70s...or the Roman Republic of the minus 60s, 50s and minus 40s BC?

How is this possible? We threw the vampires off our necks with a mighty heave and nothing changed.

Ok, a little something. But all noise and no real ACTION. The felonies, dozens of them, are in plain view and in many cases on video tape or otherwise part of the public record.

THE DOWNING STREET MEMOS! How in God's name does that NEVER get brought up? Or the Anthrax Assassain who just vanished into the ether, the memory hole.

Insanity.