BuzzFlash Mailbag for November 19, 2008

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Subject: Auto Industry Job Bailout

Hi Buzz & Friends,

I can hardly believe my ears when I read and hear the discussion of the GM bailout. This is not about retribution for past sins or mistakes no matter how egregious they have been. This is about keeping a vital American industry and whether America has any future in it or not. We couldn't do anything about the sins and mistakes at the time they were happening - but now we can and have to. We are poised on a revolution in transportation and energy - do we want to drop out now as the race is just getting started? Trained workers are not a problem they're an asset. We can't let these plants be sold by the square foot to greedy interests on Wall Street, who, while not willing to "risk" loaning money to GM, would love to buy it for pennies on the dollar. They could even do it with some of the TARP money that they're hoarding so jealously. Is that what we want?

With wild fires raging in California and great swathes of western forest dying we need to think about products not punishment. Throwing some GM executives under the wheels is fine by me - but not the whole company. Will buzzards picking over the bones of GM, Ford and Chrysler be more likely to produce the products that we need in anything like the time frame that we need them in? Why on earth are we so complacent about the biggest supply-side rip-off in history and yet sit around debating whether we should jump-start a progressive industry - one that can produce products that we desperately need? We should be steam-rolling over the republicans to get things done. Make them align themselves with big banks and credit card companies that don't even have a product but are content to play King Midas while the country is literally going up in flames around them.

People don't need more credit or $600 Wal-Mart stimulus checks - they need jobs so that they can pay off their debt and maybe buy a home. We can't base our entire economy on cosmetic appliances like the iPhone or Blackberry. They scale down like a burst balloon when times are bad and people decide that they don't really need one after all. We need real industry to melt down these old behemoth SUV's into steel that can be used to modernize our transportation and power infrastructure - getting them off the roads as quickly as possible.

If we want to be angry and vindictive about something then lets direct it towards J.P. Morgan, BofA, CitiGroup and a handful of others who have decided that America is no longer credit worthy (thanks in very large measure to their business practices). But they're willing to use our tax dollars to further consolidate their already bloated organizations and executives. We need to BREAK them up. They're too big too fail and too big to feed - let's have done with them - and AIG as well.

Barack Obama is no Reagan. He's not a golden idol for us to worship like Reagan was and is for the wingnuts who believe that he actually accomplished something. Barack won't be able to get anything done either if the public doesn't clear their eyes and back things like a federal gas tax structure that will neutralize price manipulations by Exxon/Mobil and Chevron. If we don't it'll be like a botched hanging with us dangling on a rope until we're finally strangled to death.

We need to be deluging congress with phone calls, letters and emails to stop throwing money to the wind and help GM.

Tim Mooring
San Francisco

Subject: Bill Kristol and the Moneyed Class

Buzzers -

Since the topic of the Republican party debacle and what to do about itself etc. has been in the news and discussed a little on BuzzFlash, I thought I'd offer the text of a comment I wrote in response to Bill Kristol's column in the NYTimes on Monday headlined "George W. Hoover."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/...

Here's my comment which was #24 (one always aims to be near the top because more people see one's 'brilliant' thoughts, although there's often such a flood of comments that even writing at 1 am as soon as an op-ed or column is posted is not enough to ensure prominent placement.)

Anyway here it is.

Kristol writes, "They’ll [Republicans] have to figure out what institutional barriers and what monetary, fiscal and legal guardrails are needed for the accountability, transparency and responsibility that allow free markets to work."

Sounds to me like what Democrats are committed to. The national Republican party is in disarray because it has been ideologically committed to dismantling "guardrails" and denying that "accountability, transparency, and responsibility" are desirable and even essential to manage an economy in a democratic society. Cheney was quoted as saying that the Bush tax cuts "were our due." (from Ron Suskind's "Price of Loyalty") Responsibility entails public efforts to ensure that society at large participates in the benefits the economy produces.

The Republican Party has degenerated into trying to let the moneyed class grab as much of the pie as it can get its hands on and whipping up fear, distrust, and prejudice among the least educated so that the plutocrats can stay in power. The American public is getting sick of this game and being manipulated for the benefit of the few.

The cynical choice of Governor Palin as the Republican candidate for vice president may have been the final straw for many voters. We know Kristol champions her, but she had nothing of substance to offer. She's uninformed, inexperienced, and narrow-minded. Her demagogic ability to whip up crowds of supporters has been connected by the Secret Service with an increase in death threats to Obama. Where's the "accountability, transparency, and responsibility" in her behavior and in the national party's choice of her?

Wander in the desert for a while and find your souls.

— CJGC, Cambridge, MA Recommended by 187 Readers

Cheney's cynical comment about the tax cuts is especially telling in light of the story about his and Alberto Gonzales' indictment by a grand jury in Willacy County, Texas related, apparently to a "private prison." Will this trap him? Who knows? But it's a revealing tidbit, nonetheless.

Colleen Clark
Cambridge, MA

Subject: 12/02/08, The Day The Deal Was Sealed

"What deal?"

"Voters in Georgia elect a Democratic senator."

"In exchange for?"

"President-elect Barack Obama going on to deliver on his campaign promise to end the Iraq War, negotiate with Iran plus turning things around here at home."

"Sealed how?"

"By a filibuster-proof Senate."

"Anything else?"

"Yes we can."

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: I need an Obama bumper sticker

I'm kind of tired of reading about all the racist blacklash/assassination/shootings crap since Obama got elected. I had planned to leave my Obama sticker on the car for sometime (since I still see BUSH CHENEY O4 stickers on trucks from time to time.) But I think I'd like to replace it with another one, designed for we southerners.

Does anyone sell CONFEDERATES FOR OBAMA stickers anywhere?

Mike Curtis
Greenbrier Ark

Subject: gingrich projection

Hi, Buzz!!

I thought nothing the Repugs said or did could faze me, but I must admit Newt Gingrich's remarks about the so-called "gay and secular fascism" made my jaw drop to the floor.

In psychological terms, what we have here is classic projection: In accusing the "gays" and "seculars" of wanting to impose their ways on everyone else, he is describing himself and his party. The correspondence is uncanny. What's pathetic is that he doesn't seem to hear himself or realize what he's saying. In a very disturbing way, he does not know himself.

The unexamined life is still not worth living, Newt. Take a look in the mirror while you still can.

Jane Hawes
Edmond, OK (still a red-state Democrat)

Subject: Michelle Obama

Thanks for the "Wings of Justice" piece on Michelle Obama. It was beautifully written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Obamas could be living the safe, easy life of a rich power couple. Instead they have decided to risk their lives for the good of this country. Barack and Michelle knew the risks involved for a black man to offer service for the highest office in the land. The nuts are out there. Admittedly, many people hate Obama strictly because of his race. (Unfortunately, some of these fears were stoked by John McCain and Sarah Palin during the campaign.)

I pray for him daily and I remind myself that fear occurs when we give up on faith. If Michelle can keep the faith, so can I! Thanks again BuzzFlash for a wonderful choice and for the beautiful write up.

Dee Turner

Subject: They speak with forked tongue

Fox drone Huckabee this AM on CNN gave out the same gibberish Republicans have been spouting for at least a century. That Republicans say what they mean and mean what they say. That "Republicans stand for balancing the budget, smaller government, less taxation blah, blah, blah."

But no one challenged his view of history. No one reminded him it was Republicans who got us into depressions in the 1870's and 1920-1930's. It was Reagan who got us to a trillion dollar debt (so much for balancing the budget and meaning what they say and saying what they mean). It was Bush Senior's "Read my Lips" (so much for less taxation and meaning what they say and saying what they mean).

It was Bush JR spouting off before the foregone conclusion that he would attack Iraq that he was a "patient man," yet quickly invaded a nation that had nought to do with 9/11. It was Bush JR. who gave tax cuts to the wealthy even as he fought the war that should never have been with our children's credit cards. It is Bush Jr. who has raised the debt limit every few months that were he to fall off the top of that debt limit he would be beyond the limits of known outer space. It was Bush Jr. who increased the size of government astronomically. It was Bush Jr. who appointed incompetent political hacks who not only did internal damage to this country which is easy to assess and external damage that has yet to be determined.

What Huckabee should have said like the saying in the Iroquois book, "The Great Tree and the Longhouse," That the "good twin" "always said what he meant and meant what he said." The "evil" twin "never said what he meant or meant what he said." It seems Republicans with their take on regulation and governance being so bad have long been drinking the Kool-Aid that has so devastated this country.

Salvatore DiChristina
Frankfort, NY

Subject: Eric Holder, Number Two to Janet Reno, Set to Become Attorney General. Head of Congressional Budget Office Also Reportedly Named.

"O's" latest foray into nepotism hardly has the experience or intestinal fortitude of a Vince Bugliosi to remotely define the "change" that the past eight years demands of our or any other justice system and culture of corruption. He is patently unqualified to set precedent in the tough arena of basic balanced fairness that is the only way to purge the corruption that has infected most areas of American moral life but to also ultimately establish a genuine unity under the rule of law to vigorously prosecute on the level of Nurnburg all those responsible for the painful deaths of 650,000 genocide victims; victims dusted under the rug by that same military-industrial-corporate media conspiracy that continues to aid and abet the contemporary genre of war crimes, torture, constitutional destruction and crimes against humanity with its latest $700 billion corporate welfare installment!

Will Wyche
Palm Springs, CA

Subject: Give Obama a Chance

Wow! Can we please give Obama a chance to take office before we tear him to pieces? I, too, am disappointed with what the Democrats decided regarding Joe Lieberman. He is the ultimate traitor and should NOT have been rewarded for his backstabbing. But Barack Obama is no dummy and wants to succeed in making changes. (Also, apparently, he wants to keep some of his enemies close.) He is an intelligent man and I would like to wait until he's been in office a while before I start complaining. After all, he has only named a very few people to his staff. He ran on "change" and anything that differs from the Bush administration is change to me.

Dee Turner

P.S. Please stop complaining and keep Obama in your prayers ... he really needs them more than Bush/Cheney ever did.

Subject: The United States has only one President at a time

I just finished watching Barack Obama's video-recorded address to the currently ongoing "Global Climate Summit."

http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/president...

It is clear that Obama is not planning on waiting until January to begin acting like the President. How stunning it is, though, to see such an overt reference by Obama to this premature assumption. In his message he declares (in reference to the later climate change meeting in Poland):

"While I won't be President at the time of your meeting and while the United States has only one President at a time, I've asked Members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there."

How gutsy! Innovative, even. Yet, worrisome.

I'm having flashbacks to the video clips of the Obama/Bush White House meeting a short while back, with the back patting, hand gesturing and posturing that seemed to sum up this whole contest of power.

But, is Bush really such a lame duck? Is it a very good idea to step on toes like this? I really hope that the Obama team has not overestimated their current immunity while they push hard against the current "most powerful man in the world".

Obviously Obama expects to be full swing into his presidency on the day he takes office. But if, during the transition period, the Obama team fails to maintain the momentum which is being pushed by such a strong message now, then what will happen on day one? They say, first impressions are everything. I must trust that each step from now on is a step up, with the understanding that I risk being disappointed by too many promises too early.

Jason Bury
Chicago, IL

Subject: Sarah Palin can not appoint herself to Senate ...

She would have to be elected.

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: The Anchorage Daily News ran some analysis on that question of self-appointing. But now that Stevens has lost, it's a moot point.]

Subject: Kudos to the wannabes

"Kudos to the 13 who stood up for integrity of the party 11/19"

Has anybody counted how many of the 13 were in line to take some of Lieberman's juicy committee chairmanships for themselves?

Maezeppa
Los Angeles CA

Subject: Lieberman

Much as I loathe Joe Lieberman, I am confident that President-elect Obama knows what he is doing. At this point, I am not about to denounce Harry Reid and the other dems for not kicking Joe out on his sleezy a--!

We need that critical 60 vote capability. By letting the Lieb stay on, we may well have it. He would not dare enable the repugs to filibuster now without proving himself to be a totally treacherous traitor.

Let's not start fragmenting. Changes, they are coming.

Creed Ballew
Arkansas

Subject: joe lieberman

joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman joe lieberman look i'm very liberal and i do not agree with what he has done but.............

let's move on, Barack knows what he's doing.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: so what else is new?

All this talk about the "bailout"...bailout my *ss, it's just the last panicked looting of our treasury before the Bush crime family is out of office

Phil in Vermont

Subject: How About Giving President-Elect Barack Obama Some Space?

"Yes, but he just said this, did that, appointed so and so while turning down what's his name."

"Doesn't matter."

"What matters."

"That he make good on his promise to get us out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, negotiate with Iran, plus turning things around here at home."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Then why all this criticism before he's even sworn in as president of the U.S.A.?"

"Because it's easier to criticize than to be an agent of change."

"An agent of change, how?"

"Yes we can."

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Re: Automakers

We need to remember Bethlehem Steel they went bankrupt and the idiot Supreme Court put pensions and health care for retirees behind paying creditors and, guess what, they all lost everything promised them.

We have to fight this crap because the Supremes would take candy from a baby and give it to a CEO. They knew about the Golden Parachutes decades ago and didn't mind until it all fell through.

These retirees need protection and they won't get it from the Supreme Court or the GOP.

One of the stations in OKC did a poll about the Big 3 and most of them said to let them go under, but then we lost our GM plant here a few years ago.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok.

Subject: Presidential Election: Missouri

How much longer does it take them to finalize the results?

In my opinion it is a lack of respect for the presidency.

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: Wednesday afternoon, AP called Missouri for McCain.]

Subject: obama magnet

No, I do not want an Obama car magnet or anything else Obaman until I see some real change. So far, support of Lieberman, the appointment of Emanuel, Clinton and former Clinton staff. I'm really disappointed and discouraged, so far, as are many of my college peers. This was my first vote and possibly my last vote in the presidential election. Starting with the local politicians seems to be the way to go. So, please, stop promoting Obama stuff until he shows us some real change. Thanks!

Very Sincerely,

Janice Straub
Richmond, Virginia

Subject: Joe L.

Hey, you are soft pedalling again.

Democrats? It is your boy Barack who refuses to kick him out of the caucus. I would in a nano-second.

John T. Lucas
Victoria BC Canada

Subject: Joe, the Bummer

I agree with anyone who thinks that Joe should not be allowed one bit of leeway.

He was against Bill Clinton, how in the world can anyone think he is a fair democrat.

He bragged to the entire world that he was the first to berate Bill Clinton for his behavior... does he actually want us to believe that he deserves anything? Well, you, Buzzer who thinks he should be allowed to do whatever he wants, do not sound like much of a democrat ... and I would not even allow him in the party ... NO party. BuzzFlash is right to be against his silliness. He was there with that possum sh++ grin behind McCain ... every single time ... he is disgusting to me, and does not belong in a democratic administration with any power of his own. People like Joe Lieberman are why this country is going through the economic hell it is going through right now ... no doubt in my mind.

Shirley ... St. Louis

Subject: Lieberman

Get off the Lieberman kick. He votes with the Dems on most issues, certainly the social ones. WE don't need to start a new administration that is based on change by internecine disputes in the Democrat/progressive side. I'm all for playing hardball, but not at the cost of being absolutely practical.

cloazul
Alpine, Texas

Subject: Bush Sets U.S. Up For Another Terrorist Attack

Today President Bush has opened military airways to commercial traffic. Last month he increased the number of nations from which travelers don't need a visa. If this leads to another terrorist attack he can nullify the election and rule as dictator. Bush is walking around with a big smirk on his face.

JTR

Subject: Change?

Like a lot of people who supported and voted for him, I'm holding high hopes that President-elect Obama will do as he has promised the millions of his supporters and bring true change to Washington and the country. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and take a wait and see approach.

However, I have to say that I find myself more and more disappointed with each new revelation of the forming of his administration and the attitude it is taking regarding some critical national and legal matters. It's beginning to look to me like he's just reviving the old Clinton guard. What this country needs is a completely new government of fresh faces. There are plenty of highly qualified, intelligent, competent people to choose from out there.

Why is he bringing in all these old Clinton people and career people who have been lurking around Washington like sharks for years? That's not change! That's just re-establishing the old status quo. I find it uninspired and disappointing, to say the least.

He wants the democrats in Congress to let Lieberman keep his position? WTF!? And now we have insider chatter that he's going to play that old "let's just move on" routine regarding the past eight years of Bush administration lawlessness? He's not interested in holding these people to account? That's utterly outrageous! It's a betrayal of the millions of people who worked their collective and individual asses off to put him in the White House on the promise of restoring the nation to its rightful place as the leader of the free world.

The American people and the rest of the world need to see that the new government is serious about upholding the rule of law and justice and applying it to ALL. He visits Bush for a couple of hours and is schmoozed and apparently impressed by him, and now he wants to let Bush and his gang of thugs off the hook? He simply MUST bring these people to justice. Lincoln would not let these affronts to the Constitution go unpunished. Anything less is a betrayal.

Lieberman goes out and supports Obama's opponent and trashes Obama on the stump, and Obama wants to play nice and coddle the Benedict Arnold? Bush Admin. et al. wipe their rears on the Constitution and U.S. laws, torture prisoners of war, enlist our telecom companies to set up huge drift nets to illegally spy on innocent Americans' daily lives, and Obama wants to forgive and forget? Bush lies the nation into a war of aggression, and Obama wants to just "move on"? To not hold Bush and his gang to account is to let all Bush's lawless behavior set a permanent precedent that will be used and extended by some future lawless administration. To do nothing will be to weaken this nation and increase the threat to our democracy.

Progressives put him over the top and into the White House, and he revives a Clinton-esque center-right administration, even though the nation is center-left and yearns for a complete break from the past career politicians and Washington insiders?

Where are the progressives in his administration? The progressives need to use their influence now, while they still can have some. Otherwise, he's just going to be completely surrounded by the very same people who for the past 20-30 years have been in Washington and have been part and parcel to the making of the crisis in which we now find ourselves.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now and continue to hope that he will finally be the politician and President who cares enough about the nation and the people, especially the poor and down-trodden, that he is serious about living up to his campaign rhetoric and will show the world what a truly great U.S. President looks like again.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Still 60 Senators Short...

Given the ballsy spit-in-the-eye move that Senate Democrats put on progressives vis a vis the Joe Lieberman scandal, at least two facts become clear: 1) voter approval ratings don't mean squat to those Senate folks, and 2) the election of a mere 60 Democrats will not be nearly enough to assume control. If progressives are to improve there sway in the Senate, it now seems more likely that 120 might not be enough.

Dorothy
Caldwell , ID

Subject: Lieberman

Do you really believe that Reid had anything to do with Lieberman's future? I don't.

There are at least two people I would not play poker with ... Obama and Emanuel.

Cheers,

Clare

Subject:On PNAC and Starve the Beast Strategies

Hi Buzz & Friends,

Even with everyone on full alert the neocons pulled off the October Surprise right under our noses and without a hitch. As everyone will recall the neocons published two major plans to achieve their objectives: PNAC and Starve the Beast. Implemented as the War on Terror, PNAC has not lived up to expectations - largely because the Iraqi people turned out not to be the sheep they were assumed to be. STB, on the other hand has been an unqualified success - largely because Americans are the sheep that they're known to be.

Right now people are scratching their heads but no one can tell if they're just pondering the Obama Puppy dilemma or wondering "what the hell just happened." One would like to hope that it's the latter - but I get this scary feeling that it's the puppy thing. If by some miracle if is the TARP thing - here's a clue: your pocket just got picked big time.

Americans apparently are as naive as the Democratic members of congress pretend to be. What, a nice man like george bush - pick my pocket? Oh go on, you've got to be kidding. Congress? Lie to me? Never happen. Now what about that puppy and have you heard the silly things Palin is saying? Does anyone remember even yesterday? Short-term memory loss is pandemic in America. The money is now in the hands of our worst enemies. It doesn't matter whether it's tax money, drug money, blood money or whatever, they're motivated to take it and they're motivated to leverage it against Americans at every single opportunity. They hate American government and they have nothing but contempt for "dumb" Americans who part with their money, their jobs, and their lives so easily.

No one but a complete blithering idiot could look at the current situation and believe that mass layoffs in the auto industry is the way to go. We need electric cars and the Volt is nearly ready for production and we have a skilled motivated work force. So we need to can these people so that the greedy, myopic managers of GM can have a "fresh start"?

We're better than that. We don't have to let this happen. We may have seen the last of the 700 billion dollars - but I damn well want my pound of flesh out of the deal. Somebody has got to go down over this. Enough with these vague references to greedy people. We know who they are and we want their names written down in court records. There should be a squad of policemen waiting for bush to exit the WH.

Tim Mooring

Subject: The Mass Uprisings Of The Early Twenty-First Century

The first such uprising followed the passage of California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8. That this uprising wasn't confined to California but quickly turned nationwide, hinted that something momentous was underway. Was this a byproduct of the 'Yes We Can' populism of Barack Obama's winning campaign? If so, during the first year of the Obama administration one would have expected there to be widespread uprisings whenever the big issues of the day (stopping the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and health care for all, among others) came before Congress. Which indeed is what happened. Only there was something very atypical about these uprisings in that, although initially each uprising was in response to a particular issue, the participants in said uprisings soon became engaged in the other big issues of the day, with the outcome being that unity was forged out of the coalescence of these initially separate struggles. And since then what sort of world? It's been up to us.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Lieberman

I don't know why progressives are surprised by what the Senate did today. After all Obama and Clinton both supported Lieberman against the Democratic Party candidate Lamont. How come no one is mentioning that?

Steven Huddleston
bend oregon

[BuzzFlash Note: Clinton and Obama supported Lieberman in the primary, but Lamont in the general.   "Obama campaigned for Lieberman in 2006 when he was challenged (and ultimately defeated) in his primary race for his Senate seat. When Lieberman opted to run as an independent, Obama wrote a supportive email endorsing Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, but he did not appear in person for him ..."]

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