Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Back in 2008, after the election, it seemed that Barack Obama was actually going to make things different from how they were under George W. Bush. Remember that?

Here’s what President-Elect Obama had to say on climate legislation:

“My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process… Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, if left unaddressed, will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our national security.”

Here’s what President Obama has to say on climate legislation now:

Yesterday, congressional Democrats announced that they would stop trying to pass “comprehensive energy legislation”. That’s the new term they took on after they had removed real climate action from the bill, and added in big subsidies for oil and coal companies to encourage more fossil fuel use.

Now, the Democrats are saying they’re not even going to try to pass THAT shameful compromise. It was Barack Obama who led the way in abandoning the effort to deal with climate change. He just stood back and watched it fail.

Now, in the middle of the hottest year ever recorded, watch as climate change continues “to weaken our economy and threaten our national security.”

Vote for Barack Obama in 2012? This environmentalist says Hell no!

A year and a half ago, the Irregular Diaries here were consumed with debate between Clinton Democrats and Obama Democrats. PUMA – Party Unity My Ass – was the rallying cry for supporters of Hillary Clinton.

I haven’t heard any of that here since Sarah Palin came on the scene as the Vice Presidential Tragic Clown candidate. So, tonight, I’m wondering – are there any Clinton PUMAs left, ready to pick up the banner again and march into the 2012 Democratic primaries in rebellion?

We sold one of these Clinton 2012 shirts here the other day, but I have yet to see the angry Clinton supporters actually speaking out. If you’re out there, drop us a line and tell us about the state of the PUMA.

Barack Obama angered many environmentalists this week when he promised to promote the coal industry fraud of clean coal. Why would he do such a thing, when there’s never been a single viable commercial use of supposedly clean coal technology, when the technology doesn’t even really eliminate most of the pollution and waste from the process of gaining energy from coal anyway?

Well, there’s a lot of money in that coal. One of the coal giants, Alliance Resource Partners, just announced record profits for 2009. What did they do with all that money? $12,500 of it went to the Central Executive Committee of the Kentucky Democratic Party.

And what did Kentucky’s representatives in Congress do this week? They joined together to reconstitute the Congressional Coal Caucus, which includes Nick Rahall, the Democratic Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Coal dust is settling all over the Democratic Party these days.

There’s a new logo for the Blue Dog Democrats being used by U.S. Representative Jim Costa, and others from the right wing coalition.

It’s got an extra squiggle to it: “Conservative”, it reads. That’s just in case you hadn’t paid attention to the way that U.S. Representatives like Costa have sabotaged the Democratic majority in Congress over the last year.

It’s a not very subtle hint for Republican voters. This Democrat won’t support any of that progressive stuff. Democratic voters, on the other hand, are just supposed to see the word “Democrat” and fall in line.

Hint, hint: There’s no “fiscal” in front of “conservative”. These Blue Dogs are just plain conservative.

It takes a blue dog to call out a Blue Dog, so the animated dog in this video is stepping forward to say the sad, but clear, truth about the Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats in Congress: They’re doing the exact opposite of the message that got the Democratic Party majorities in both houses of Congress and the White House in 2008. They’re supporting Republican politics the year after the Republicans had their biggest losses in years!

Memo to Blue Dog Democrats: The progressive mission for the 2010 congressional elections is to get every single right wing Blue Dog out of office.

The name Democratic Underground is a great idea. If only the DemocraticUnderground.com web site would follow through with the underground approach that its name suggests.

The people over there pretend to have a lot of guts. They dish out the abuse when it comes to attacking George W. Bush. One person there blasted Bush’s decision to ignore Cindy Sheehan, saying of Bush, “He didn’t have the balls to even talk to Cindy Sheehan!”

Ooh, but what does the Democratic Underground do when the Democrats start to support George W. Bush? What happens when it’s Nancy Pelosi who refuses to debate Cindy Sheehan?

Well, then the Democratic Underground just whistles and looks the other way, pretending there isn’t a problem. Or, worse, they censor dissent, kicking people off their web site for daring to criticize Nancy Pelosi and praise Cindy Sheehan.

That’s what they did to the following video: They banned it from being shown on DemocraticUnderground.com. Open discussion of politics isn’t allowed there. It’s just a place for Democratic dittoheads to parrot the party line. How pathetic.

Democratic Underground? Please! They’re more like Democratic Overground.

I was deeply disturbed to read this afternoon that Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston was an official stop on the Hillary Clinton for President campaign today. Every time I see Joel Osteen, with his insincere smile and gospel of divinely sanctioned wealth, I feel dirty. The man is so slick he fairly drips with snake oil, leaving a trail behind him as he leaves his stadium for Jesus.

Hillary Clinton’s political advisors might want to consider: If you win the Democratic nomination through an appeal to the followers of hucksters like Osteen, you’ll do so without the respect of many Democratic voters outside the Bible Belt. Of course, Democratic politicians have been campaigning on a neglect of Democratic voters for a long time, and getting away with it.

Maybe Clinton’s advisors have calculated that the number of Democrats repulsed by the connection with Osteen will be made up for by the number of evangelical Republicans impressed by it. Within Texas, of course, a Democrat is merely a Republican who has trouble pronouncing the “R” sound, so I suppose the Bible thumping will play well there.