I've never heard anyone claim that all earmarks are wasteful. The problem is, it's incredibly difficult to separate the wasteful earmarks from the useful ones. Rep. DeFazio's concept of accountability is obviously self-serving -- "I spend federal money on local projects, and I keep getting re-elected" -- well, imagine that! But what about the rest of us who are paying for DeFazio's projects? Is it unreasonable for us to ask for some oversight in the process? A huge assumption runs through David Sirota's article -- that useful projects can only be funded through earmarks. There is no alternative. This is the …
All 32 comments by...
marcello09
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A very inspiring story, and a timely reminder that "change" comes from the bottom-up, not the top-down. Thank you.
Posted to Building Utopia
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> It was orchestrated, through deliberate and > massive deregulation, by “free market” > Republicans. So the Democrats are off the hook? Really?
Posted to Let’s Expose the Poster Boys of Greed
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After being called a "coward" by the Attorney General, it's refreshing to read a conversation about race that acknowledges the complexities and nuances and doesn't talk down to us with dogmatic snobbery. And it's about time that someone brought "class" back into the discussion. Well done to both interviewer and interviewee.
Posted to Road Tripping Through Whitopia
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Unfortunately, the Obama campaign was a missed opportunity and a huge setback for campaign finance reform. It started with two leading candidates -- both Obama and McCain -- who claimed to favor reform, pledged to use public financing and work within campaign spending limits. McCain kept his promise. Obama didn't, and went on to run the most expensive political campaign ever in the history of mankind. Obama spent more than the 2004 Bush and Kerry campaigns combined. Three-quarters of a BILLION dollars! And it was spent on the kind of marketing and branding that until recently has been the stock-in-trade of …
Posted to The Audacity of Reform
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Hey, I didn't like Prez #43 either. But Robert Parry's Bush-bashing and Obama-fawning is just as much science fiction as anything. If we take an objective look at the last eight years we can see that the blame extends far beyond the White House and far beyond the Republican Party. The Democrats had a job to do, and they failed to do it. They were supposed to challenge the majority, they were supposed to question the rush to war, they were supposed to reject the deregulation that led us into economic chaos. To be fair, some of them did. But most …
Posted to George W. Bush’s Sci-Fi Disaster
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Unwittingly, I think your last paragraph points to a major problem with building a "progressive movement": I mean, who the heck are the Jefferson Airplane? I'm almost forty and I recognize the name from my older brother's record collection, but how is anyone younger than me going to have a clue? The point being that the younger generation seems to have a very different perception of politics than folks my age and older. Many of them see themselves as "unaffiliated political freelancers", forming their own opinions independent of any larger "movement". They're justificably skeptical of organized politics. It's just too unwieldy, …
Posted to Does a Nationwide 'Progressive Movement' Actually Exist?
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FInally! A sensible, reasonable article on a progressive website. There's a whole new generation of progressives that has been hungry for exactly this kind of thinking. We're fed up with the America-bashing, we're fed up with the personal attacks, and we're fed up with the dogma. We can see that it's gotten progressives nowhere except marginalized. We want positive thinking and real results, not endless whining and defeatist attitudes. Thank you, Ken Brociner, and thank you, In These Times. This truly is refreshing stuff.
Posted to Dogmatic Rhetoric is Self-Defeating
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I'm no fan of Nader, but neither am I a fan of Democrats who still blame all of their own failings on him -- eight years later!
Posted to The Nadir of Nader
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> the results so far have been outstanding No doubt about it, scorp,Iraq and Afghanistan are wonderful places to live these days. I suggest you move there immediately.
Posted to Why Exiting Iraq Wont Be Easy
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Dahlia, thank you for your perspective.
Posted to Why Exiting Iraq Wont Be Easy
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Scorp, shouldn't you be busy packing for Afghanistan? Like you said, it's a wonderful place, and I hear that the surf's up in Kandahar. Get movin', my man, you're missing out!
Posted to Why Exiting Iraq Wont Be Easy
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Scorp, my man, where are you? I took your advice and booked the first flight to Kandahar and it's the shizzle! I'm writing to you from the beach, I'm tellin' ya, you conservatives got that wireless internet up pretty damn quick after you liberated the country! The ocean breeze is delicious, and I've got dozens of beautiful beach babes serving me cocktails and massages. I'm sure you conservatives must be really tired after all that liberatin' and democratizin' and war on terrorizin'. So give yourself a break and get your butt over here, Kandahar has a harem just for you and …
Posted to Why Exiting Iraq Wont Be Easy
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Scorp! Mosul is like Las Vegas, I tell ya! Hot babes! And they *love* conservative warmongering right-wing Americans! Why aren't you over here? Are ya gay or something?
Posted to Why Exiting Iraq Wont Be Easy
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Scorpy, have you heard the latest from Kabul? They had a parade today, just for you, with floats and balloons and singing and dancing! They were all chanting "We love the neo-cons, long live the Yankee invaders!" Baghdad was throwing a party, too, I heard it was a blast! So get your gay ass over here, you delusional pansy, it's a beautiful time!
Posted to Why Exiting Iraq Wont Be Easy
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"Outrage Fatigue" seems to be particularly prevalent on the liberal blogosphere. There's not much evidence of it existing anywhere offline. So perhaps the solution is as simple as turning off the computer!
Posted to What Ails Us?
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> That’s a negative, Marcello. Have you tried it? The big problem with the blogosphere is the "birds of a feather" effect gets infinitely magnified, so outraged liberals converse with other outraged liberals and you end up with a self-perpetuating "perfect storm" of outrage. If you turn off the computer and have conversations with the people you happen to meet in everyday life you're more likely to get a wider variety of opinions. That helps keep the world in perspective and mitigates "Outrage Fatigue" Try it. Trust me, it works!
Posted to What Ails Us?
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Maybe I'm just lucky to have had friends and neighbors who are a bit more thoughtful than the average American. I've lived in an extremely liberal, multicultural college town and in an extremely conservative, white suburban enclave, and both environments have same problems that you mentioned: the indifference, the "simplistic analyses", and the willngness to jump to hasty conclusions based on a small amount of information. But I've also found that *most* people I come into contact with are willing to engage in friendly debate, and most of them actually have a solid rationale for their perspective, even if I don't …
Posted to What Ails Us?
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Okay, I think I'm getting it -- I've just read the first chapter of "Crashing the Gate" and I'm already fatigued. For those who don't know, the book is supposedly a blueprint for returning progressives to power, written by bloggers Jerome Armstrong (mydd.com) and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (dailykos.com). It's been noted many times that the biggest complaint about those of us on the left is that we don't have anything to offer besides Bush-bashing. So what does the first chapter of this book consist of? Yup, you guessed it. It's a dozen pages of "GWB is a doofus" and a dozen …
Posted to What Ails Us?
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To be perfectly honest, Hyjinx22, you've got a point, and there seems to be a growing number of *liberals* who are embarrassed by some of the more prominent whiners on the left. The vast majority of us want to find real solutions to real problems, and we recognize that Bush-bashing isn't the way to get things done (although it's good fun, eh?). Let's hope that the hyperbole will soon subside and that smart thinking will win the day.
Posted to What Ails Us?
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I don't claim to speak for all liberals, just the intelligent ones!
Posted to What Ails Us?
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Yes, it's true, Tina -- liberals don't always agree with each other, and sometimes we have heated discussions about the issues. That's because we can think for ourselves, instead of blindly following whatever your corporate conservative TV masters try to make us believe. It's called "freedom" -- you wouldn't understand.
Posted to What Ails Us?
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> First, we have been winning the court > battles on the “War on Christmas”. ROTFLMAO!!!
Posted to What Ails Us?
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Tina, that last one was just boring. The one about the "War On Christmas" was much funnier. Can you give us one about "The Battle Of The Easter Bunnies" or maybe "INtulijent Dizine: wy my theery iz butter then yorz LOL"? I mean, if you're not here to entertain us, what good are you?
Posted to What Ails Us?
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> After all, there was plenty of evidence showing that > America’s national security apparatus had very > concrete concerns about the deal. When asked to produce a single national security expert to explain why the Dubai ports deal posed a threat, the Democrats just plain couldn't find one. Because no security threat existed The opposition to the Dubai ports deal was racist, pure and simple. And it was very, very effective. If racism is the future of the Democratic party (and In These Times) then count me out.
Posted to A Primary Concern
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> The Coast Guard, Senior Customs Officials, > and Homeland Security Officials don’t count > as experts, I suppose? They're experts, they have a long list of port security concerns, and if Dubai is on that list, it's very, very low down. > Understand that the concern was not that a Dubai > Ports World would necessarily work to smuggle in > insurgents on purpose, but that militant groups could > easily exploit such a gateway and smuggle themselves > in without Dubai being able to effectively prevent them. There are dozens, possibly hundreds of gateways that militant groups can exploit, …
Posted to A Primary Concern
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> The Coast Guard was asked to file a report on their > analysis of the deal. It expressed, in their words, > “serious concerns” about the deal. The Coast Guard has made it clear that those "serious concerns" were pulled out of context. The Coast Guard clarifies their position on their website (https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/786/111524/): "What is being quoted is an excerpt of a broader Coast Guard intelligence analysis that was performed early on as part of its due diligence process. The excerpts made public earlier today, when taken out of context, do not reflect the full, classified analysis performed by the …
Posted to A Primary Concern
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> When Democrats came out against the Dubai > port deal and Joe Lieberman, in his best > Droopy Dog voice, said “Hey, the President > deserves the benefit of the doubt,” It's rare -- virtually never -- that I agree with Joe Lieberman or GWB. But there's no question that with regards to the Dubai port deal, they had it right, and the Democrats had it wrong. Has anyone yet found a single security expert who can back up the Democrat's allegation that the deal constituted a security risk? Does anyone have a rational explanation of why despicable regimes like …
Posted to Why Ned Lamont is a Democrat
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> Dubai was killed by the republicans Opposition to the Dubai ports deal was led by Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, both Democrats. If you go to the website of the Democratic Party (democrats.org) and search for "Dubai" you'll find no less than twenty-five editorials opposing the Dubai ports deal. Sami Merhi, a Lebanese-born businessman from Totowa, New Jersey, summed up his feelings about the Democratic Party when he said "I feel like every other person in this (Arab) community feels -- every one of us is becoming another Dubai".
Posted to Why Ned Lamont is a Democrat
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> Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said. > Dubai was killed by the republicans When did he say that? Where's the quote? Do you have any documentation to back that up?
Posted to Why Ned Lamont is a Democrat
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> all you have to do is google numb nuts. > You don’t want to believe Charming. But it simply shows that the Republicans jumped on the bandwagon started by the Democrats. If you'd like to read more about the Democratic position on the Dubai ports deal, go to the Democratic Party's own website (democrats.org) and search for "Dubai". You'll find twenty-five articles written by Democrats opposing the ports deal and exactly zero supporting it. A similar search of the Republican's website (gop.com) produces links to three articles: one is a reprint of a Presidential press conference, in which the President …
Posted to Why Ned Lamont is a Democrat
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Ok, since FrontpageMag is as ideological as In These Times FrontpageMag is published by David Horowitz, who is one of the most hateful men I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. Anger seems to be his only motivation, and it's the only consistent feature of his ideology from his days as a leftist to his current incarnation as a right-wing demagogue. If anyone wishes to discredit President Carter, surely they could find a more credible source than David Horowitz, couldn't they?
Posted to The Georgia Preach
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