Kiku's Comments (295)

“Costco has stopped carrying lots of name brand stuff that works, and they sell only their Kirkland signature brand. They did it with paper, yogurt just happened, and now Coke? I don't buy Coke, so I don't care about that, but the overall trend is giving me less reason to go there. Prices aren't so cheap anymore either.”

“The President's group, OFA, has just roused over 130,000 calls to Congress in one day to support his agenda, which includes the public option.

How is that not getting tough? I believe that this is a continuation of his past efforts to rouse people and to get them to push their Congress members to support the public option. Obama can't bully people to support the public option, if people are opposed to it, he isn't going to make any difference. Instead, he is telling "Make me do it". Rahm is his bad cop, pushing the progressives to get involved. We have to do it, Obama cannot. And, we are doing it.

I don't give credence to reports that blame Obama anymore, I think it's just conservaDems scapegoating their lack of support and blaming Obama.”

“Let's read the polls and the graph properly. Both Republicans and Dems have declined in proclaimed affiliation by about the same amount. Republicans by 4.5% and Dems by 2.7%, while Independents have picked up that slack by increasing a full10%!

I think that people are getting tired of each party, and are tired of the party politics. I think that people will not be led blindly anymore and they are start to expect results from individual politicians, independent of party. It isn't ok to support Baucus as a Dem, when he acts like a Republican. It isn't ok for Grassley to vote Republican against the wishes of his constituents. The public is acting bipartisan, but the parties are taking a while to catch up.”

“Obama does seem to be turning around the anger from a tough August and a stalled health care plan. But, what this really says is that the Dems haven't lost yet, but they still can, if they don't start doing what the were elected to do and pass a health care reform bill with a strong public option.

Nothing less than the future vote for Dem members in Congress is riding on this. Vote for strong reform and the supporters for change will reward the Dems by turning out in the polls. Cave to the insurance companies, and what's the point?”

“He said he's an elected official, we're his boss. Not sure people in LA will reward or punish this.”

“Right, he follows the couples he's married through them having children to know that their families have rejected their children? Highly doubtful. It an excuse for an old racist laws against interracial marriages that were still on the books in the 1960s, in our lifetime. Some people just seem to get stuck in a certain timeperiod, like ducks imprinting on their mother.”

“I think Obama is behaving like FDR:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7808133

"In one situation, a group came to him urging specific actions in support of a cause in which they deeply believed. He replied: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

He understood that a President does not rule by fiat and unilateral commands to a nation. He must build the political support that makes his decisions acceptable to our countrymen. He read the public opinion polls not to define who he was but to determine where the country was – and then to strategize how he could move the country to the objectives he thought had to be carried out.

If Obama wants to govern as liberally as the political circumstances allow, then we need to work to make sure that the political circumstances include a strong liberal base. Mindlessly cheerleading out of a misplaced sense of loyalty will not help him. ...

In the current political world, I believe that Obama and the Democrats need a strong left wing that is out there agitating in order that we can continue to build popular support and also give them a political excuse to do things that the political establishment finds too liberal. Being cheerleaders all the time, however enjoyable that is, is not going to help them. Leaving them out there with no left wing cripples them."”

“They just showed us the gaping hole in the bill, no control over the premiums, and that we can in no way trust them to play fair.

There is only one solution, we need a strong public option available to everyone on day one.”

“It isn't patience that they respect. Every parent knows at some point, you stop explaining and simply discipline. Did appeasing a bully ever work?

Now, this can be done with grace, we don't have to stoop to their level, and Obama is a master at this, he addresses it, but rises above it to let the other person make a fool of themselves. We're at that point, and it's working well. Best to keep it up.”

“These people died fighting for the rights of all Americans, not just Christians. It makes me sad to think that someone would turn their death into a political/religious statement, when they were fighting for just the opposite, to preserve our freedoms.”

“Maybe they'll rename the Virgin Mary to be Ayn Rand.

And, Mary Magdeleine will mean it's ok to have a mistress.

The poor should be heal in the churches, Jesus didn't set up hospitals.

When Jesus shared bread and fish with the multitudes, he could have made it a feast, but he didn't. Why should the wealthy share but a pittance?

Jesus turned water into wine, vices are ok.

Jesus didn't tear down the market in the temple, he used it to fund the church.”

“Let's get the analogy right.... A md or a democracy that launches a war that kills innocents to steal oil resources.­...”

“It would be racist to treat him any differently than a white person.”

“The House has specific rules that were broken, and I support their action on this. If they don't adhere to their rules, there is no point in having the rules.

Glad it's over, time to move on.

I get into lots of arguments with trolls in my listserv groups. There is really only one way to shut them up, I've found, and that's to ignore them.

I think Obama is making a mistake to continue to cave to them. But, he has higher fights he want to address, so he trims off the unnecessary arguments where he has to.

At some point, though, this bipartisan caving has got to stop.”

“We don't expect much from Republican screamers and birthers anymore. There was some hope for the GOP elected officials. More and more, they loose the respect of people in the US. It will be harder and harder for them to recover.”

“I voted no, I think that it distracts from the discussion we need to have about health care to continue with petty partisan bickering.”

“Obama is the master of political jujitsu. I think Wilson was hoping to pull Obama into an embarassing moment, and it backfired.”

“There are some people who are funded to undermine the efficiency of the government, based on the principle that small government is best. So, when they can, they destroy good government programs, like FEMA, and then use that to justify the argument that government programs cannot be properly managed. They are doing what they have been paid to do (although maybe not elected to do).

What that is proving, is that government programs cannot be properly managed under Republicans.”

“Linda Hansen, a beautiful writer, and diarist here in the past, is from SC. There is a budding Democratic movement there. Antics like this will help move it forward.”

“Olbermann and Matthews used to co-comment. MSNBC needs to team up Olbermann and Maddow.”

“Obama shouldn't be taking responsibility for the Republican nuttiness, they would have gone there anyway, nothing he could do about it.”

“The public option is the best path to fiscal responsibility toward the American people and the budget deficit, according to CBO reports. So, when Grassley talks about fiscal responsibility, I can only assume he's talking about conserving the private insurance companies' income.”

“Read the article: some things were left behind in state parks, others were confiscated.”

“Ok... Obama has done this before, and it usually works out well. He isn't willing to take the bait and raise this to a partisan battle, at least until after every Republican votes no.

I hope that the logic is to trade counseling (easy enough to pass later, and possible with Republican support), for support of the public option. Let the Republicans win something for their votes, but get something bigger done with the public option.”

“Every time I read this, I feel like I have a fur ball in my stomach because of the negative publicity it is going to inspire.

But, I actually don't mind that Obama did this. If he had done this to personally profit, as Cheney did from Haliburton with the Iraq war, that would be one thing. But, Obama had this discussion to divide and conquer, to focus on insurance reform, to minimize the opposition. I think it's a brilliant strategy, and we have to use strategy. Clearly, given the divisions in the American public, the right wing has an intriguing control over a small but very vocal segment of the US, and they have lots of money, meaning power. We can't take it all on at once. I'm glad that he's thinking about this, and working to neutralize the opposition. I think it's the only way to move forward, and I'm even more proud of him than I was.”