I won't be there, but I want to hear all about it. n.t (4.00 / 4)

They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

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by: dkmich @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 16:47:20 PM CST

See you there! (4.00 / 2)

"Incrementalism isn't a different path to the same place, it could be a different path to a different place"
Stoller

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by: debcoop @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 16:58:12 PM CST

Back a progressive for NY Senate (4.00 / 4)

I live in NY, so maybe my concern is more parochial: but from my perspective, it would be extremely helpful to see a movement backing a more progressive alternative to run against Gillibrand.   This would be helpful both for NY and the entire country.

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by: Jim Neuman @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 16:58:57 PM CST

If you have Karl Rove arrested... (4.00 / 5)

...then anything else you may do in your Congressional career is just gravy, and I'll celebrate your birthday, June 13, like a national holiday forever after.

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 16:59:02 PM CST

Push for Appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute Bushco crimes! (4.00 / 3)

Stop beating around the bush (sorry about the pun).  These guys need to be in jail.

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by: ammasdarling @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 17:01:18 PM CST

Jerry is on the case (0.00 / 0)

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/23/rep_jerrold_nadler_d_ny_calls

He's been pushing for the DoJ to name a special prosecutor for a long time.

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by: marymaryquitecontrary @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 17:14:26 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Sorry broken link fixed below (4.00 / 2)

http://www.democracynow.org/20...

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by: marymaryquitecontrary @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 17:15:35 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Thanks, Cong. Nadler (4.00 / 5)

Keep us posted on this "Entitlements Commission"!

Sounds like it could be a Trojan Horse to gut Social Security and Medicare.

And come out strong against any such effort!

sTiVo's rule: Just because YOU "wouldn't put it past 'em" doesn't prove that THEY did it.

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by: sTiVo @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 17:07:25 PM CST

several questions and a few comments (4.00 / 2)

First of all, despite knowing that you didn't fit Gov. Paterson's demographic (progressive white male from NYC wouldn't help him upstate), I hoped against reason that you would be my new Senator, but alas.  You were my rep growing up and a finer rep I have yet to find.  I am now represented by Yvette Clark here in Brooklyn, who votes correctly but is somewhat absent on most issues.

That being said, here are the questions I would like addressed if you have the time and inclination:

1.  What is the timeline for the replacement of the current US Attorneys (i.e., Bush appointed)?  Will any of them (other than Fitzgerald in Chicago) be permitted to stay on the job?

2. Is there any legislation in the works to address the FISA abomination and warrantless wiretapping/unconstitutional privacy invasions generally?

3. Recently several journalists have written that their conversations with sources were listened to and recorded by the NSA and/or other Bush intel apparatus, is there is any legislation in the works to protect journalists and their sources?

4. Recent articles have speculated that Specter voted for the recent jobs/stimulus bill in part in return for some veto power on Barack's judicial appointments.  Any merit to this?

5. Many of us are concerned that there are no populists on SCOTUS (in fact, while 7 of 9 current SCOTUS members are Republican nominees, a full 9 out of 9 employ the business friendly cost-benefit analysis in their employee/employer decision making process, a decidedly anti-populist methodology), and that Barack will appoint a "moderate" in order to continue his efforts to reach out to the very people who want him to fail (aka Republicans).  What are the chances that Barack will appoint a liberal populist to SCOTUS if and when such a vacancy arises?

6. Will we be waiting for Franken to be seated before we start the epic battle regarding the Employee Free Choice Act?

7. Has there been any discussion in the progressive caucus about getting more of its members on the teevee?  Think Progress and other progressive/liberal sites have given lengthy analysis to the fact that despite being in the minority and being reviled by a majority of this country, Republicans still outnumber Democrats 2 to 1, and that is not even including the fact that of the Democrats on the teevee, many of them are blue dogs like Jim Cooper (TN-5) and others, who are only on the teevee to badmouth other Democrats.

PLEASE get on teevee more.  Barney Frank cannot do it alone.

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by: Ajax the Greater @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 17:15:35 PM CST

Activism (0.00 / 0)

Unfortunately I attend high school in Missouri, but I would like for you to address the issue of utilizing the infrastructure created during the Obama campaign (Students for Barack Obama) to advance progressive and create progressive pressure.    

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by: youth_for_social_hope @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 17:45:23 PM CST

Here's my wish list as someone who worked tirelessly to elect Barack (4.00 / 4)

-Single Payer Health Care (Fully Funded Medicare For All Americans)
-The Gore Plan 100% clean energy, efficiency, and electric cars in 10 years
-End DADT, allow gays to serve openly in the military, legalize gay marriage
-Legalize Marijuana
-Investigate and Prosecute the Bush Administration for any crimes they've committed, and end torture, extreme rendition, and warrantless wiretapping
-Restore the Eisenhower tax system 90% on the highest bracket, cut taxes for the lower and middle class
-Save and increase Social Security benefits by raising the payroll tax cap from $95,000 to $250,000 or more if necessary
-Using Free Trade as an incentive for other countries to enforce fair labor and environmental standards
-Pass the Employee Free Choice Act
-Invest in a high speed rail system linking our major cities together
-More public transportation within cities
-Repair our nation's crumbling infrastructure
-Make higher education free for all Americans

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by: FloridaLefty @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 18:07:42 PM CST

I absolutely support your list, and (4.00 / 2)

I would add a touch to it.  

We need JOBS!  HIGH WAGE JOBS!

-Renegotiate trade to balance the trade deficit while using it to enforce fair labor and environmental standards.
-EFCA won't accomplish anything if the tax structure isn't used to "keep" jobs in this country.  If they strike, the company simply closes and moves offshore.
-Buy and build American is more than a slogan.  It is a matter of national and economic security for the people of this nation.
-TAA and other job retraining funds aren't worth a hill of beans if there are no jobs to retrain for.
-Kill TANF!  It is barbaric and punitive.  How can we justify punishing unemployed welfare moms and babies when there are no jobs, and we are bailing out WS crooks and refusing to cap their pay or bonuses for destroying our economy.  Supporting corporate welfare while punishing poor people is a crock!
-Stop USDOL from auditing/regulating the hell out of job training.  It has more documentation, regulation, and accounting requirements than it needs or that is cost effective.  While Haliburton sole sources and rips off this country, job training programs have to prove their shoe size in triplicate.  People seeking access to job training programs have to DOCUMENT their eligibility down to the smallest nuance, while Congress gets no documentation from Haliburton or the WS bailout and loses 9 billion in Iraq without blinking an eye.

I could go on, but I'll stop.  

I am happy to see this request from Nadler, and I hope Howard comes back and gives em hell.  I am sick to death of the two party system:  insiders and outsiders.  

They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

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by: dkmich @ Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 06:10:43 AM CST

[ Parent ]

One more thing... (0.00 / 0)

The performance standards for WIA, TAA and other job training grants need to be adjusted to accommodate the depression this country is in.  We can't have success defined at the current high rate of entered, retained and wage employment standards that are currently in place.   Oakland County MI has to achieve a 90% rate, which is ridiculous given the job loss that is going on in the country and in MI in particular.

Boy I sure would like to see those WS crooks in jail.

They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

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by: dkmich @ Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 06:51:20 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Nadler, You should run for senate in 2010 (4.00 / 2)

I know you wanted to be appointed, and you should've been, if you ran, although I don't live in NY, I'd be sure to phonebank for you and write you a check. We need more progressives in the senate.

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by: FloridaLefty @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 18:11:01 PM CST

Fix Heath Care. THE Greatest Obstacles are going to (0.00 / 0)

be

1. they're typical messages on commies and socialists and harry and louise and EVERY FREAKING LIE THEY CAN CONCOCT.

2. OUR incompetence on messaging (See #1.)

To NOT just pass some patchwork of garbage, BUT, to REALLY lance this 15% of GDP carbunckle, it is going to take some great messaging. great messaging SHOULD not be that hard - we only have the f'ing TRUTH on our side!!!!

Messaging For Dummies:

1. anyone who worked on dukakis or clinton's triangulation gore's or kerry's campaigns, NEVER HIRE THEM.
2. ask them what they would have done about ailes and getting the government off the backs of the people. ask what should been done about atewater's regrets over willie. IF they don't know what you're talking about, THROW THEM THE HELL OUTTA THE OFFICE.
3. give them 3 days to get visibility, 1 week to get lots of attention, AND FIRE THEM IF THEY DON'T.

Look - American universities churn out all kinds of communications / powerpoint wizards every year - they're a time a dozen. Some of htem HAVE to be capable of more than the typical dem whining about meany liars.

Oh, and, by the way ... aside from this is the right thing to do - It makes economic sense for EVERYONE!

Ford and BOA don't want to be in the healthcare business,
AND
how many of us could tell our boss to take this job and shove it IF WE WEREN'T TERRIFIED FOR OUR HEALTH 'INSURANCE'?

ugh.

rmm.  

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way

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by: seabos84 @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 18:49:01 PM CST

Lot's of good ideas presented here, but (4.00 / 1)

one I would like to add is improving the morale of the Federal workforce.  Thirty years of regressive approaches to governing, constant insults, insane personnel policies and retirement backpedaling have produced agency performance that can be generously labeled poor and more accurately described as dysfunctional.

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by: NMRon @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 19:18:12 PM CST

Not to be insensitive, but (0.00 / 0)

they ought to be glad they have a job and some of the "best" jobs still left in this country.   I'm in MI, and we are bleeding jobs in this state.  You look into the eyes of thousands of unemployed people facing bankruptcy and foreclosure and then talk to me about morale.  

Of all the things wrong with this country, "feelings" are the least of it. Sorry.


They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

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by: dkmich @ Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 05:54:36 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I think we all agree on some things ... (0.00 / 0)

Single payer health care; anything to improve air, water, food safety; any green reform possible, including mass transit.
And -- we have to come up with an initiative to change the dialog in the media:  the right wing meme, and the mindless right wing attacks given so much time and weight.
I believe the continuing bias must be a heavy-handed political decision of the media corporations to support attacks on Obama, from a really tiny minority of haters and extremists ... in the same manner in which they continued to prop up the Bush-Chaney regime.
To someone who remembers a different media reality, what we have now is the media of an oligarchy or a dictatorship.
I don't think they could possibly be so stupid as to think
the bias, the attacks, the emptiness and the repetition are really appropriate.
THE QUESTION IS -- WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

 I once lived in NYC, now in CA.  I appreciate your work for all of us.  Thank you.

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by: syolles @ Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 22:19:20 PM CST

Resurrect HR-676... (4.00 / 1)

...Rep. Conyers' Medicare-for-All, for the 111th Congress, and try your best to bring and keep single-payer in the healthcare-reform spotlight. And thank you so much for signing on to the bill as a co-sponsor in years past.

The more I read about the emerging proposals for healthcare reform, such as those from Sen. Baucus and AHIP, the more concerned I become that a true public option, such as a Medicare, won't be included in any reform plan. Americans don't need a portable junk-insurance plan with high deductibles and co-pays, nor do we need more tax gimmicks like HSAs; we need to join the rest of the civilized world and transition to single-payer.

Please try to make sure that when we get around to healthcare reform that voices like those PNHP's and other single-payer advocates are included in hearings and in helping to craft legislation.

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by: Willa Rogers @ Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 00:41:43 AM CST

Raise taxes on rich people (0.00 / 0)

Bring back the 70% income tax on rich people. The day that tax was repealed is when the economy started going to shit.

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by: NealB2 @ Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 01:45:39 AM CST

TWO THINGS Congressman (0.00 / 0)

1. Publicly urge Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor.  Just re-send the letter that you all sent to Mukasey.  It's the same laws and the same crimes and there has been no movement, and there's a new guy who did not get the letter.  And do NOT fail to do it just because Chairman Conyers does (if he does).

2. Use inherent contempt.  If you want Congress to continue to exist as an institution in our government and/or you want Rove to testify, instruct the Seargent at Arms and the Capitol Police to lock him up.

And tell us anything we can do to help advance those two bills you've introduced!

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by: davidswanson @ Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 12:38:35 PM CST

Either we're a nation of laws or we are not! (0.00 / 0)

No American citizen could ever refuse a subpoena and not appear at a designated time and date, without being held in contempt and jailed.  This whole charade of Rove's has made a mockery and disgrace of this legal process.  Rove has been in contempt for a long time now and still nothing has been done.  Use the inherent contempt law NOW!

Push your colleagues to sign on to your bill calling for a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute the Bush Administration war crimes.  Make this request to Attorney General, Eric Holder.  Accountability is the FIRST step toward return to the rule of law.  Our country is guilty of heinous war crimes.

Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture said, unequivocally,

. . . The incoming American President Barack Obama is legally obligated to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld because the US has ratified the UN Convention on Torture and has also recognized it as legally binding, he said.

"Therefore they must do everything they can that persons who are accused of torture, are put on trial," added Nowak who published a UN report in 2006 on the situation in Guantanamo.

Nowak charged the US in the report with violating international human rights standards. . . .

Urge Attorney General, Eric Holder, to release documentation to Reprieve's attorney for Binyam Mohamed, in the case of Mohamed v. Jepperson DataPlan, who was tortured relentlessly in Pakistan, Morocco and Guantanamo, at our behest.  What private state secrets?*  It's very well known to the world over that we have been torturing people -- torturing them to death in many instances.

We are currently in violation of all national and international laws by our inaction to investigate and prosecute those responsible for war crimes.  This must be done for ourselves and for the world -- to show that we are a nation of laws and that we adhere to them.

A special committee should be appointed to review all laws enacted by the Bush Administration, including all signing statements, as to their Constitutionality and legality, and each repealed where not in compliance.

It is a legal and moral imperative that investigations of the Bush Administration commence, the sooner, the better.  This IS the first step to getting this country back on track and will ensure further that others of like mind will think twice about hijacking our Constitution, our laws, and our monies.

Once investigations begin, I believe the path to focusing on the grave serious and fragile issues confronting can be tackled with greater concentration and ease with solid footing beneath those efforts.

*Thank you for introducing the State Secret Protection Act!

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by: tahoebasha @ Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 14:16:19 PM CST

First of all, ... (4.00 / 1)

... THANK YOU for your many years of committed public service, and for inviting our comments.

I'd simply wish to strongly support the appeals of several of the preceding people, most particularly as phrased by "tahoebasha", for vigorously restoring the powers of Congress through the further investigation and appropriate prosecutions of Bush-Cheney administration crimes.

Why is it that each time the surely self-evident assertion that "no one is above the law" has been cited since January 20 by the new administration, it has invariably been followed with a "But ..."? I can think of no bedrock principle of American constitutional governance more absolutely essential than that one. Since faithful and disinterested enforcement of the laws must rank supreme among the duties of the Executive Branch, what justification is there for the current "dancing around" the matter?

As just one example, many of us were stunned by Monday's announcement of the White House's request for further - IMO, unconscionable - delay as to Mr. Rove's committee appearance. Even more overwhelmingly ironic, though, has been Attorney General Holder's next-day assertion, albeit in different context, of ours being "... essentially a nation of cowards." "It's not easy to talk about.", he said. "We have to have the guts to be honest with each other, accept criticism, accept new proposals." With regard to the prior administration's grotesque array of crimes, yes, sir, indeed we do!

The concept of negotiations or "bargaining" with Mr. Rove is repugnant. Upon reflection, so also is the White House's reference to not "weakening" future presidential privilege as the possible legitimate cause for its involvement in the Rove testimony affair. It is unambiguous to many of us who financially supported and actively participated in President Obama's election that it is precisely the "weakening" of the power engorgement of the prior administration that is so paramount among current priorities.

When 62% of Americans support action to be taken on the Bush-Cheney crimes - with the plurality of citizens explicitly calling for possible prosecutions - how can "no one is above the law" be so apparently debatable to the new administration?

Inimica Tyrannis.  

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by: Firelock @ Thu Feb 19, 2009 at 06:21:41 AM CST