Mr. Obama,

In 2007, you said:

If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes [&] I'll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America because workers… Read full post »

People have a tendency to treat "Progressive/Liberal/Left/Democrat" as though the words are remotely equivalent. To do so is to lose control of the discussion before it starts. A Democrat is a member of, or voter for, a political party, one with no philosophy or principles, merely the desire to maint… Read full post »

Keith Olbermann made numbers of powerful and accurate critiques of DC politics, but he was a man making about $7.5 million a year and, consequently, well-removed from the concerns and problems of everyday life in the US. And, as a journalist, he was (mostly and ethically) not putting his money… Read full post »

In the Washington Monthly they have a "Special" which has a group of answers to the title question. I was inspired to give you this:

"You know I completely fooled the Democratic base that got me elected. But I do want to thank them for the hard work they did. That's what… Read full post »

[My take is between the brackets.]

Obama Pushes an Agenda Without Keeping an Eye on Disapproving Polls
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Published: July 16, 2010
WASHINGTON - If passage of the financial regulatory overhaul on Thursday proves anything about President Obama, it is this: He knows how to push big bill… Read full post »

Several times in a discussion about things: politics, religion, science, particularly, I have been offered by the person with whom I am disagreeing that we should "agree to disagree."

 I state that I will not agree, because, in my not at all humble opinion, this formulation is used when someone… Read full post »

I wrote to Obushma in response to the announcement of Elena Kagan as the next Justice of the Supreme Court:

Elena Kagan is the latest example of your right-wing, anti-American politics and policies.

Since you have been unwilling to investigate war crimes and torture by the GWBush regime, you are a war… Read full post »

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Based on this definition, we are ruled by crazy people.
The Republican's psychosis is obvious: after an eight-year test of a vast transfer of wealth from the many of us in the middle & lower classes to the few very… Read full post »

Organizing for America is sending around a survey (http://bit.ly/5yHBTP) soliciting our opinions.

You have to fill in the short answer questions and the parts that ask you about volunteering. Then there is this:

"Please share your reflections, concerns or highlights from the work we did together in 20… Read full post »

Justifying war in the face of Gandhi and King, Obama said the following receiving his Nobel "Peace" Prize:

"I know there is nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naive in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I… Read full post »

Today, Glenn Greenwald points out the gross irrationality of so many Obama defenders. It's nice to have a like-minded individual in such a visible place in the media. Unfortunately, it seems to make less difference than one would think, so I thought I'd point out his column to folks here who… Read full post »

An email arrived today ostensibly from Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, Valerie Jarrett.

It's first two paragraphs went like this:

On Thursday, President Obama is hosting a discussion at the White House to explore every possible aven… Read full post »

From an email ostensibly from Obama mailed by Organizing for America:

> This evening, at 11:15 p.m., the House of Representatives voted to pass  
> their health insurance reform bill. Despite countless attempts over  
> nearly a century, no chamber of Congress has ever before passed… Read full post »

Well, the House passed the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to HB 3962, the current health care so-called reform bill. And it did reform health: back to before Roe v Wade. Any woman who needs a government-subsidized plan will be unable to get an abortion without buying a rider.

President Obama promised that peo… Read full post »

While I've just read that Saturn is going on a "I've got a real job (two, actually) where I get actual money" sabbatical, this applies to her because of her previous reporting and any future reporting she, or any of us at OS, does.

Empty Wheel (Marcy Wheeler) reports on… Read full post »

this is a test

Ross Douthat is the new right-wing kid on the NY Times op-ed block. He lives up to his job description by writing a plea for an end, by 2028, to what he calls "race-based discrimination."

According to Douthat this horrible thing, that corrodes racial attitudes among whites, is affirmative action.&nb… Read full post »

The Department of Justice is floating trial balloons about—finally—investigating torture. BUT, only those actual torturers who went beyond the parameters of the torture memos, so-called rogue torturers, rather than people who tortured by the rules.

This means, if the current UFOs are acc… Read full post »

Reading Jodi Kasten's post,  "American Ingenuity: But Wait! There's More!", and having just heard from my Congressman, Earl Blumenauer, a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus, I was inspired to look at the Congressional caucuses, coalitions, task forces and working groups (all more or less the same… Read full post »

CNN headline: Was Navy Sailor Killed Because He Was Gay?

Or, he might have been killed because he was black. Or, he might have been killed for both. When the military has a policy that requires you to hide who you are, to not know if asking for help because of homophobic… Read full post »

"Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS [Spenard Building Supplies] in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gift… Read full post »

Was Iran's Election Stolen?

Iran and Leftist Confusion 

That's all. Go read them.  Read full post »

If George W. Bush took the action or made the statement that Obama did, would I be critical?

If the answer is yes, and you are not treating Obama the same, why the hell not?  Read full post »

I did not vote for Barack Obama. I was already convinced that he was not to be trusted because he went back on his promise to filibuster the FISA Amendments Act, because he abased himself before the Israel lobby AIPAC, because his health care bill was not promising universal care and… Read full post »