And now a message to the left blogosphere

It’s probably dawned on you that Obama and his recruits are not the ones you thought they were. I’m going to cut Obama some slack here and assume that he looks like he’s caving to the right because he’s part of their milieu and he really thought he could reason with them. That’s because he’s never had to struggle with success and has never met an obstacle that he hasn’t been carried over. Magical things just *happen* to him. There is not doubt in my mind that he has gotten everything he has ever aspired to. He played the game and kissed the asses of the people who could grease his way to the top and now he’s there.

He’s not a politician. He’s a CEO. He was groomed to handle a difficult transaction. Maybe at the time he started to run he didn’t think he’d have to do anything too onerous. I don’t know. But I do know that like many men whose ambition take them to the top, he is a ruthless campaigner, not above intimidating, bribing and bending the rules to win. He doesn’t play fair. That was your first clue that you should have been paying attention to what he was doing and not what he was saying.

In any case, the right is already spinning this vote as a liberal victory when we know it is anything but. So, if I were you, I would do as Ian Welsh suggested a couple months ago and distance yourself from him as far as you possibly can. That goes for Democrats in Congress as well. Put as many miles as you can between yourselves and the White House.

Democrats, you have lost all credibility. First, you shoved off the “old coalition” for this man in 2008. That gave those voters no one to appeal to. Then your party proceeded to capitulate to the Republicans on everything. Now, their lives are a mess and they are blaming YOU. You can blame Fox and Wolf for part of that but mostly, you have to blame yourselves for not being seen to be fighting more aggressively for them. And the first place you screwed up was not controlling the message. Actually, the first place was when you voluntarily divided the party. The Republicans were probably gobsmacked that you made it so easy for them.

This is the time, left blogosphere, to get rid of Obama and find a challenger. You know my preference and you really should consider it. I don’t think she’s anything like Obama. If you want to hang on to your CDS and Big Dawg Urban Legends, go right ahead. But there are few Democrats in the party today who could generate any kind of enthusiasm as well as she would.

But whatever. It is only August. There is still time to turn this thing around. As we said in 2008, it ain’t over until the balloons drop at the convention. Whoever you pick had better be a red meat eating, unibrowed, man or woman who can actually relate to the average American working person of any class. That will not be Howard Dean or Dennis Kucinich or Elizabeth Warren. Bless her heart but she’s not a politician. And this time, you want a *politician*. You know, someone who knows how to negotiate and manipulate the levers of government to get what he wants?

And you’re going to have to stop talking down to the rest of us. We’re not stupid. After all, *we* didn’t vote for the Lightbringer. We come in all ages, genders, education levels, sexual orientations, shapes and sizes. You can either join with us or sit it out for the next four years. It’s up to you.

Obama is no friend of the New Deal Democrat. He’s not a liberal. We reject his candidacy because he does not represent our values.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

One more thing: I’d like to thank my Senators, Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, for voting No on the bill.  Any senator in a northeast state where the R&D industry is being decimated knows that this bill is going to cut like a knife.

And kudos to Kirsten Gillibrand as well.

To our Republican sympathetic readers

I know what they’ve been telling you. They’re telling you that if you can balance your household budget, the government should be able to balance one as well. This is simplistic and misleading. It doesn’t matter. You’ll believe it anyway.

They’re telling you that tax hikes kill jobs. Oh, really? How come they didn’t kill jobs in the 90’s when Clinton was president? And we’re not talking about all tax hikes, just the ones on the rich.

In fact, this has been said for years since Ronald Reagan. The rich have always said, “If you lower our taxes, we’ll create new jobs”. This is untrue and you know it’s untrue because so many of us are out of work and hurting and the rich are paying the lowest amount of taxes in generations. So, you know, this is bullshit. But you’ll believe it anyway.

They’re not telling you how many jobs a deficit reduction is going to cost during the Lesser Depression. But you don’t have to be a politician to realize that if you take money out of the economy when people aren’t spending a lot to begin with, they’re going to spend even less afterwards. This will cause more people to be laid off. Your Republican politicians will tell you that reducing the deficit is going to make it possible to hire more people but they don’t tell you HOW that’s going to happen and they don’t tell you because they don’t have an answer. But they’ll insist that it’s true and they will repeat their carefully worded statements to make sure you remember them and you’ll believe them anyway.

So, believe them if you want. There’s nothing we can do to stop you. We’ve pleaded with you to stop watching cable and network news. We’ve begged you to be on your guard. We’ve shown you time and time again how the Republicans have lied to you about everything from war to the economy over and over and over again. But you will just have to feel the pain personally to really get it.

Here’s the bottom line: The Republicans are trying to make the economy so bad next year that you will not even consider voting for Obama in 2012. And you know what? That’s just peachy with me. He’s a walking, talking disaster and is no friends to New Deal Democrats. But as they’re taking Obama out, they’re going to take us with him. All of us younger voters will be jettisoned from the middle class by these bastards who you listen to. Our lives are going to get much harder. Our kids educations are going to get less interesting and a lot more expensive for us personally. In general, everything in life is going to get harder. You’re going to suffer too. Most countries fought their way out of income inequality and servitude to freedom and prosperity. We’re doing the opposite, with your help.

But there doesn’t seem to be any other way to knock sense into you so here we go.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Tuesday: Born to Run

Run, Hillary, Run!

As you may recall, I have been trying to get this Run for the Employable off the ground since May but suffered some setbacks, like pulling my back and then breaking my toe. The Toe is almost 100% so I’m going to give it a try again this morning.

The purpose of the Run for the Employable is to remind the public that we’re still out there, we’re in great physical condition and we want the country and politicians to know that JOBS are THE MOST IMPORTANT THING that they should be focusing on, not which apocalyptic Tea Party nutcase can hold his breath the longest.

If you’re interested in the Run for the Employable. here’s all you have to do: get out there and run.  Yes, we should probably have identifying T-Shirts.  Today, I’m going to wear my “Hillary for President” T-Shirt that I snagged in 2008 when I was volunteering.  (Cleverly, her campaign left the year off of the T-shirt so these are totally recyclable for 2012. hmmmm….)  Other ideas for a T-shirt are ones that say “Employable” on the front and “<your profession goes here>” on the back.  I’d just use a Sharpie for the back of the T-Shirt but it’s probably a good idea to consult VastLeft to find out where he got his 2L4O T-shirts made because I think his are union.

General guidelines:

1.) Consult your physician before starting any exercise program.  Do only what you’re capable of doing.  If you can run, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, roll.  If you want to do Zumba with a bunch of unemployed friends, that’s ok too just as long as you get attention.

2.) Keep your eyes on your own shoes.  I wear Nike’s to correct a pronation problem when I run.  I have a closet full of old running shoes that did not work out for me.  Nike makes the only shoe that doesn’t give me painful shin splints.  The only alternative to Nike’s for me is not to run at all.  But I’m not going to let anyone guilt me into not running so Nike it is.  If you don’t like it, I suggest you avert your eyes.  If you’re worried more about being pure than being unemployed, you’re missing the point and this is not the run for you.  Otherwise, wear comfortable clothing that is neither too loose or too constricting and warm up thoroughly before you start.

3.) Choose the level of run that is right for you.  I am a lousy runner.  There, I said it.  So, to help me get up to 5K, I’m using the app Get Running on my iphone.  Get Running will gradually train you to run 5K’s using the Couch to 5K program.  The running coach has a encouraging British accent and will gently guide you through a 30 minute running program that gets more challenging over 9 weeks.  By the end of the 9 weeks, you can run 5Ks.  You can also sync Get Running with your run Playlist.  I can’t run without music but your mileage may vary.  If you like to exercise to music I recommend songs that have a good “rolling” rhythm to coordinate your heel strike.  Lady Gaga is out (too slow, believe it or not) but Katy Perry is in (Firework is the best running song I’ve used). Include a couple of slower songs for warm up and cool down.  Here is my current play list:

1.) Amazing Grace- Laura Love (warm up)
2.) Paul Young – Love of the Common Peopple
3.) There is Power in a Union- Billy Bragg and The Pattersons
3.5) O…Saya- A.H. Rahman (slumdog millionaire)
4.) The Heartbreak Rides- AC Newman
5.) Firework – Katy Perry (one of the best running songs.  What a surprise)
6.) Fireflies – Owl City
7.) Real Wild Child- Iggy Popp
8.) Jessica- Allman Brothers
9.) Raise Your Glass- The Warblers (Glee)
10.) Welcome to the Future – Brad Paisley
11.) Iko Iko – The Belle Stars
12.) My Big 10 Inch Record – Aerosmith
13.) Love Today- Mika
14.) All These Things That I’ve Done- The Killers
15.)Let the River Run- Carly Simon
16.) River of Dreams- Billy Joel
17.) Run – George Strait (cool down)
18.) Volcano- Jimmy Buffet (post run stretch)

In the future, I’d like to start coordinating runs with other people and run when and where we’re most likely to get seen.  Let’s go viral if we can.  Yeah, I know it’s hot in the summer so run in the morning.  My plan is to run every other day according to the Get Running program and to do toning with free weights on the days in between in the nice, cool basement.

Can we do this?  Can we afford NOT to do this?

Just do it.

And here’s a funny video I found of a ballet audition featuring two contestants.  The video is entitled, Not All Ballerinas are Created Equal.  Stick with it.  :-^

If the DNC were making the call in 2008, dancer number 2 would have gotten the job after the first dancer was bludgeoned on the knee.  (otherwise the competition wouldn’t have been fair)