VOTING IN LOCKSTEP IS NOW A GOOD THING? (Not According to SOME Democrats in Congress…)

~~By Kenosha Marge

We just get used to hearing from the left about how too-too terrible it is when the right tries to muzzle and/or oust it’s “moderates’, aka too liberal members. Those evil GOPers don’t want/allow dissenting voices in their party. Big Tent? More like little pup tent. Gives us more reason to hate them.

Some sort of tent...

So now we appear superior while welcoming (yuck) Snarlin’ Arlen Specter over to our side. Because of course he was too moderate for those evil rat-bastards on the right. Ignore the fact that he knew he couldn’t get re-elected by the voters of his state. So after being promised all sorts of lovely baubles he turned to the light. Hallelujah!

Meanwhile when some recalcitrant Democrats dig their heels in it isn’t seen as being moderate. They’re ignoble “conservative” Democrats from evil conservative districts and states. They must be expunged. Or whipped into line. Threatened even.

Under no circumstances are they to show any sign of individuality or be given the right to think for themselves. Or vote the way their constituents want them to vote. Mercy me no. What an idea!

What happened to the frenzy about those moronic Republicans that voted in lockstep with their leadership and White House? Wasn’t that supposed to be a really bad thing? What’s different now? Oh right, the Democrats are in the majority, a Faux-Democrat is in the White House and now lockstep voting is de riguer.

Locksteppers...

I just can’t seem to get the whole double standard, hypocrite thing right. It’s not as if as a normal human being I haven’t been guilty of being a hypocrite or of using a double standard. There is no halo above my head and I am ashamed when someone points out my hypocrisy. And therein lies the difference because I am ashamed.

The difference between normal human beings and politicians is that we normals take offense when people call us names and insult our families.

We normals are ashamed when caught out in some wrongdoing. They are just ashamed they got caught.

We normals are ashamed when we’re caught being hypocrites. Hypocrisy is part and parcel of their DNA.

Politicians like to pretend that the drivel they spew contains words of wisdom. They also like to ignore the fact those words are a complete contradiction of what they formerly said. Evidently to them this is of no consequence.

You often read that politicians decide to ride out a crap-storm because they believe they can depend on the public’s well-known short memory. They also count on the fact that the media is usually too busy with dead rock stars, live half naked young women, and kissing the buttocks of whatever party is in power to bother with actual reporting on who said what and when.

So now the Democratic Party seems intent on eating and beating up on it’s own:

DNC targeting centrist Dems in health ads

And then there are those damn Blue Dog Democrats which must be spayed and/or neutered.

A Blue Dog...

Cause we like lockstep voting now.

Flip Flopping?

Yellow Dog Democrats anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Democrat

A Yellow Dog...

Oh, for the record, here are the Blue Dogs as listed at the Blue Dog Coalition site if you want to know more…That is,  instead of just taking the word of some one ranting about how evil they are and how they must be punished for their un-lockstep ways…

Blue Dog Leadership Team

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip

Blue Dog Members

Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06)

While Obama is Overseas, Congress Sets Us Up to Go Broke…Where We Stand Now

~~Via W.A.M. (Wake Up America)

PRESS RELEASE

April 3, 2009

OBAMA APPLAUDS  HIS NEW PARTY ON GOING FOR BROKE!

The House of Representatives and the Senate moved merrily forward toward their decimation of the U.S. economy in a party-line vote in favor on Obama’s break-the-bank budget this week. Only 20 House Democrats voted against the measure, with many Blue Dog conservatives still acquiescing to the Administration’s massive social engineering expenditures which result in a staggering debt to be paid for by generations to come.

Although a new coalition of “moderate” Senate Democrats emerged in March, many of these members voted in favor of the budget excesses, with minor  adjustments intended to ‘save face’ in their home states. Even the much-touted ‘small change’ middle class tax cuts expire in  the 2010 budget, leading observers to wonder just what these Senators ‘hope’ to claim credit for with their constituents back home.

In a first show of party unity this year, all GOP voted against the budget, including Senators Specter, Collins and Snowe, who until now have aligned with the Pelosi driven flurry of Socialist engineered “Change” laws. It remains to be seen where their loyalties will lie when the particulars in the budget return to the  floor for final decisions – particularly related to massive Health Care and Energy programs yet to be finalized.

Estimates are that Obama’s new Energy Plan, alone, will cost the average American household $3,000 to $4,000 annually in added utility costs. His Health Care Plan remains fraught with special interest advantages,  combined with federally-regulated mandates to trim diagnostic tests while increasing cost-saving regulations to increase “hopeless cause” diagnosis-thus reducing the quality and coverage of U.S. Health Care overall, especially affecting senior citizens. Overall advantages of his plan would be afforded to illegal aliens with the Federal government floating their health care costs.

Although it currently lays on the cutting room floor, some credit is due House Minority Whip Eric Cantor for steering a more sensible GOP Budget Plan, which would have trimmed back the gluttonous spending of the already passed OMNIBUS and HR 1 Stimulus Plan. While given no substantial attention by Obama-controlled  MainStreamMedia, the careful crafting of these alternative Republican budget proposals debunks the Democrat’s propaganda campaign that has falsely disclaimed GOPers in Congress to be no more than negative naysayers.

As with all legislation so far flying through the 111th Congress, achieving this appearance of a Budget consensus, due diligence and fair reflection were swept under the rug. Only 55 Senators voted for the budget while rule shuffling allowed for its passage with a simple majority of 51.

The only good news on the Budget blueprint are signs of minor cracks in Democratic cohesion and the emergence of  greater GOP unity and clarity. These indicate growing Capitol Hill apprehension on Obama’s Break America Plan.

Expanded public awareness of the dangers and deceits in this unprecedented New Party takeover of our nation, combined with Activist Actions on Congress -lcould continue to erode Pelosi’s stranglehold on Congress. That’s up to US!

This week’s passage of the revisionist budget blueprint is just one step in a longer term battle whose outcome will show whether We the People take back our government or let it overtake US. The emerging crisis conditions within America’s overburdened, no-longer-represented mainstream middle class needs to move US from shock and outrage to Get Involved and make our voices heard in online, in the media and in Washington, D.C.

***

For more information follow the links above or visit W.A.M via the sidebar to the right.

The Past Week: March 29-April 4, 2009 (Hugo Chavez Takes Over Food Producers, Sounds Off on the G-20; A Government Bailout Special; “The Reluctant Ones”

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

As the  G-20 circus brought out the whole gang in London, Hugo Chavez was doing his thing in Iran.

Chavez had this to say about the G-20 summit:

Venezuela’s Chavez: Capitalism Must End

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday ridiculed the G-20 summit’s attempts to deal with the global financial meltdown, saying that capitalism is in crisis and must end. Chavez criticized the G-20 nations’ pledges of more than a trillion dollars for lending to struggling countries at Thursday’s summit in London, calling it “the same medicine that’s killing the patient—a trillion dollars … more money for a bottomless pit.”

SNIP

The IMF and the World Bank are “tools of imperialism” and must be eliminated, Chavez said.

MORE

Well, he has a point…But does this mean that he’s no longer Obama’s “best buddy” since Obama is part of the Obama Borg?

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago, Chavez took steps to deal with Venezuela’s economy during this global economic crisis:

Chavez trims budget, adds debt to counter crisis

(SNIP)

Chavez, who won a referendum last month allowing him to stay in office as long as he keeps winning elections, is popular for spending oil revenues on health and education programs for the poor majority.

During 10 years in office he has nationalized much of Venezuela’s economy including major oil projects as part of his drive to build a socialist state.

On Saturday, he cut the 2009 budget by 6.7 percent to $72 billion, raised the minimum wage 20 percent and increased planned government financing to $16 billion from $5.6 billion. And he increased a sales tax to 12 percent from 9 percent.

(SNIP)

Economist Luis Vicente Leon described the package of measures as moderate but said the government was gambling crude prices would recover later this year.

“These are not truly deep measures, they don’t attack the fundamental problems of the economy,” Leon told Reuters.

Faced with Latin America’s highest inflation, Chavez has in recent weeks increased pressure on business to lower prices by taking over farms and rice mills and threatening to nationalize the country’s top private employer, which makes food and beer.

What do you think of that last part?  When does Obama go after the food supply?

***

The next two items courtesy Kenosha Marge:

***

A couple of weeks ago we learned that Evan Bayh has put together a group of “pragmantic Democrats.”  Then there are the Blue Dogs:

Centrist Dems: Dogged If They Do, Dogged If They Don’t

By Froma Harrop

There’s trouble around the Democratic campfire. The party has the White House and solid congressional majorities. But what it doesn’t have is everyone on the same page, strumming the same chords, singing the same tune.

Liberals who kept the fires burning during the long Republican reign now fear that moderate Blue Dog Democrats will thwart their much-delayed dreams. Elected from purplish parts of America, the Blue Dogs are fiscal conservatives who regard expensive new programs with a wary eye.

What’s a liberal to do? First, recognize that the Blue Dogs are the reason Democrats have such nice majorities. They are why the dreams are even on the menu. Second, concede that the Reluctant Ones have a point.

(MORE)

“The Reluctant Ones”…has a certain ring to it, yes?

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THE PAST WEEK

*By American Lassie

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (April 4, 2009) Spring Winds; Squirrel Wars; Bees Invade Feeder; Wounded Butterfly; Sunrise Over the Organs; Slick Lounges Around

Non-Stop Campaigning Here in NM-CD2 By Bill Richardson’s Hand-Picked Freshman Rep Harry Teague, Who’s Splitting His Votes Pro/Con on Obama Policies

Iowa Gone Wild With Nazi Reference at Public Hearing (Listen to the Audio) as New Yorkers in CD-20 Test Obama’s Popularity

Canada Follows the U.S. Terms for GM/Chrysler; Harper Still Worrying About the “Eased” ‘Buy-American’ Clause in Stimulus Package

Closing Out Women’s History Month With Dr. Mary Schweitzer, Ground-Breaking Molecular Paleontologist, and a Special T. Rex

*China, the Treasury, and Real Estate (As in the New World Trade Center); Cross-Pollination:The New America Foundation/Council of Foreign Relations

The Past Week: March 22-28, 2009 (A Split in Russian Political Forces as Putin Weakens; The Voice of Korea, North Korean Propaganda Outlet; G-20 Protests Begin; A Prescient Wish for a Bush Successor ca. 2006; X-Rated Google Earth)