Alex Epstein paraphrased:

Blah, blah . . . Humans bad. Blah, blah . . . Property good. Blah, blah . . . Humans bad. Objectivism is keeps us safe by allowing folk to kill themselves the way they want to. Hoo-ray!!! Humans bad. Hoo-ray!!! Property good.

As I write this post, the voters of Mass. are putting a stake in the heart of the President's agenda and jettisoning a years labor towards achieving health care reform. It is hard to feel sorry for this administration. It seems as though they are getting what they deserve. It has been reported that staffers at the W.H. are referring to events as being Shakespearean. I couldn't agree more. They seem to forget that they are the authors of this failure. This unforeseen outcome is not so much the result of the winds of fate, as it is the natural consequence of the hubris and arrogance in doing the people's business, making deals, behind closed doors.

Our President made no secret that he intended to "Change the way that Washington did business" during his campaign and at his Inauguration. He spoke often of his intention to bring bi-partisanship forward. His hubris was in assuming that he could do so by the force of his words and efforts. He forgot that he had only half the say in such things. He mis-judged the intentions of his opponents and assumed the force of his personal abilities would prevail. Arrogance. The last time major social legislation was accomplished in this country was under President Lyndon Johnson. Barack Obama is no Lyndon Johnson. Johnson was a master of legislation. He had vast experience, he knew where the bodies were buried, he knew the levers to pull, and was clear eyed and comfortable pushing the buttons and spilling the blood when it was required. Johnson was also willing to sacrifice to achieve his goals. He was willing to throw under the bus members of his own coalition and party who stood in the way of progress. The landmark Civil Rights legislation he muscled through stands as testament to this. Johnson understood the necessity and use of muscle in the Capitol. Barack it seems counted more on finesse and nuance to push his agenda. Barack refused to recognize the dead end that bi-partisanship is when your opponent refuses to deal in good faith. He continued to betray his base by making concessions to the enemies of reform. Republicans. He gave power to those in his party who least deserved it. Blue Dogs. He made deals with the devil by refusing to consider the best solutions and instead allowing the Insurance and drug companies to set the agenda. NO universal, comprehensive, single payer health care, even though the majority of experts and the majority of the people favored it. His lame excuse for doing so? "It would be too disruptive." To who? We all know the answer: it was too disruptive to the special interests! (Never mind the best interests of the people.)

What can be stated as fact today is that President Obama bit off more than he could chew. He promised more than he could deliver. He squandered his opportunities and power and time, and, in doing so, emboldened the forces of the status quo. At best it was half a step forward followed today by a step and a half back. I lament the loss of this health care bill less than I do the loss of Ted Kennedy's former seat in Mass. Few people did more to elect Barack Obama than Sen. Ted Kennedy. Now through his Administration's incompetence, not only the good Senator's dream of health care reform is dead, but his former safe seat will be occupied by a charlatan intent on destroying his predecessor's legacy. It is Shakespearean. It is a tragedy.

No need to blow up the filibuster right now. Just extend today's Medicare rights to all ages through Budget Reconciliation. Do the same for the tax on the Uber Rich. Dare Obama to veto them.

Of course Super Hack Rahm Immanuel won't let the whole thing happen. He is just as tied to the military industrial leaches as anyone.Only the next BIG dip in the economy will be enough to convince Democratic Hacks that they NEED the Progressives.

We don't have much of an option except to keep on going at the local level. I doubt if Coakley has had much grass roots support. The Kerry Campaign showed how little Massachusetts Democratic functionaries know how to deal with the grass roots. Obama apparently had no interest in making his election apparatus in Massachusetts or anywhere else anything but ephemeral.

What a waste!

Meanwhile we have no choice but to keep operating at the local level.. This is definitely not a time to stop. Time to take an unsure cynic to lunch.

Is this what we voted for?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2010/01/15/sunstein/index.html?so...

Greg Palast is a great investigative reporter.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/The-Right-Testicle-of-Hell-by-Greg-Pa...

The DNC dropped Howard Dean's state by-by state strategy. I wonder what, if any, effect this has on the Massachusetts special Senate election.

@Mark (without the K?). Point 1. I think you mean to support the constitutional amendment that says every reference to a person in the constitution means a natural person (you know, a living breathing homo sapien)

Congressional Democrats would be well advised to look inward for the reasons why Coakley may lose the Senatorial race in Massachusetts.
But they won’t.
Most are involved in doing whatever they think necessary to assure their own re-elections.
Their first priority is amassing massive campaign war chests. And corporate America is fertile ground. The medical-profits industry, war profiteers, big oil, financial institutions, and Wall Street investors are doling out huge sums of money to their Congressional surrogates in both political parties.
It is not a stretch to say that Congress is all-Americans: made and sold in the USA.
Let’s just pause for a moment to reconnoiter. Where in the hell are we?

 The disparity between income and wealth is greater now than at any time since the 1920’s.

 Over 10% of working class America is unemployed, and millions more are underemployed.

 An additional 2.4 million foreclosures are expected in 2010

 50% of all bankruptcies are the result of medical debt.

 College tuition has risen to unprecedented levels, and is now unaffordable for many families,

 The courts have granted gigantic corporations relief from meeting their obligations to pension plans. Dreams of security in retirement have been stolen.

 Public resources are being transferred to private, domestic and foreign corporate interests.

 U.S. jobs continue to move offshore, mainly to countries where worker-exploitation is a matter of routine.

 A war[s] that will wind up costing every resident of our nation $10,000 (or more) continues to rob our national treasury, and criminal corporations such as KBR, Halliburton, Blackwater, et al are reaping huge profits for their investors.

 Our infrastructure is deteriorating.

 The debacle began long before Democrats had George Bush to scapegoat (although he and his neoconservative handlers are certainly co-conspirators).

The list is a long one.

Common threads run trough the whole sordid sell out: a) Congress has been at the helm during the three decades that working class America has been under attack; b) the wealthy will have entered the current financial crisis rich and will emerge unscathed; c) only working class Americans will have suffered.

Sadly, it appears that a stain of Stockholm Syndrome has everyday people in its grips. What else would explain why we keep re-electing our abusers?

As George Orwell wrote: "For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance. ... Ignorance is Strength" .

Democrats won’t look inward, and neither will the sociopaths who control the GOP. Just as with most of us, the teabaggers sense something is amiss, but they have picked the wrong target. Big government is not our enemy. After all, we the people are the government! Our enemy is the Congressional cabal that has turned responsive big government into a watering hole for their corporate benefactors. Big government – of, by, and for the people – should be protected and cherished. The first step is to toss a lot of people out of office, and thereafter prohibit any corporate money in politics.

Or we can pick the wrong target and choose to remain in “poverty and ignorance”.

Can't seem to get through in the phone anymore. Thom, just want to say we need to keep things focused and as simple as possible. There are two things we need to do to get this country back: 1. Change the definition of a corporation to NOT have the same rights as individuals. 2. Term limits. We need to start a grass roots movement to do this.

Glenn Beck, Rush, Hannity, etc... are Sociopathetics.

Why not just call the "Free Market" the "Anarchy Market" instead. Whenever someone talks about the "Free Market" correct them with "You mean the Anarchy Market?"