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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron who wrote (249997)	3/31/2014 8:54:11 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362334

Daily Kos Obama is an 'imperial president' who is weak and ineffectual. P.S. Send money Short version: He makes them sad. by Hunter Mar 31, 2014 12:20pm PDT Go figure. Republicans, poised for strong gains in the midterm elections, are offering starkly conflicting messages about President Obama to rally their voters. In one moment, they say the president is feckless and weak. But in the next, they say Mr. Obama is presiding over an “imperial presidency” that is exercising power that verges on dictatorial.Ah, the Conservative Conundrum. President Obama is an indecisive wimp who rules us with an iron fist. There was never a more clear-cut example of whatever the rubes need to hear. Luckily, we are truly living in a new golden age of rubes; I blame the History Channel. Representative Paul Broun, Republican of Georgia, who has criticized Mr. Obama for “leading from behind” on foreign policy, stood before a gathering of Republican women here recently, his voice loud and deliberate, as he raced through a long list of areas where he said the Obama administration has veered “totally out of control” — the health care law, Internal Revenue Service treatment of conservative groups, and the National Security Agency’s surveillance program, to name a few. Torture? Yeah, that's fine. But we're willing to go to the mat to make sure Americans don't get marginally better health insurance than they otherwise would, and God help Obama if someone in his administration exercises administrative judgment. Then we've got a long-debunked conspiracy theory and a program which the House and Senate could end in a heartbeat, if they really wanted to. Guess whether they really want to.Read more below the fold. The message is one that motivates the conservative base, whose energy is vital in midterm elections when overall turnout is lower. In early March, House Republicans devoted a legislative week to Mr. Obama’s “imperial presidency,” introducing several bills intended to curb what they view as his administrative overreach.Fortunately the House has given up on most of the other duties of government, so they have plenty of time for their various publicity stunts. By June they'll have turned the House floor into an ongoing fundraising telethon. Just textLIBERTEE to these numbers, a big sign will say, to donate $10 to our efforts to stop the painfully weak but somehow omnipotent president from doing things, whatever things those may be. “This is what we hear about all the time when we’re back in our districts,” said Representative Raúl R. Labrador, Republican of Idaho. “They’re concerned that you have a president who has decided to violate the law, who has decided to not comply with certain laws, that he decides which laws he will execute and which laws he will not execute.”Barack Obama could order a nuclear attack on Russia and most of these same people would be cheering him on, because blowing things up is the highest possible expression of leadership. It's the small-bore stuff that pisses them off, and that's where the Conservative Conundrum comes in. If Obama does not show maximum belligerence to any group that conservatives do not like, it is because he is weak. If he does even the slightest thing that wounds those same conservatives themselves, though—say, by using otherwise unremarkable administrative actions to better support administration priorities, as every president has done and ever shall do—he becomes a near-dictator. Get out the fainting couches, the smelling salts, and every bottle in the liquor cabinet.I don't think Obama's the one who needs to toughen up here. These people sound like the wiltingest wilting flowers in the world. Barack Obama could send Rep. Paul Broun a box of imported chocolates and Broun would fall over dead from fright. m.dailykos.com

To: Ron who wrote (249997)	4/2/2014 1:48:12 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362334

I Think They Can Some of the states where the Moral Monday movement is rising are mighty steep political hills for progressives to climb. By Jim Hightower Like that little choo-choo in the classic children’s book “The Little Engine that Could,” Moral Monday is the little movement that says, “I think I can” and keeps chugging up the hill. This new progressive coalition became a full-throttle citizen uprising in North Carolina early last year. Forge Mountain Photography / Will Thomas/Flickr Fueled by rising public outrage at the rampant right-wing extremism of the Republican-run state government, a few advocates for workers, civil rights, and other people’s issues went inside North Carolina’s state capitol on a Monday in April. Led by Rev. William Barber, head of the North Carolina NAACP, they literally put their bodies on the line in protest of the GOP’s reckless crusade to turn the state into a privatized utopia for unfettered corporate greed and tea party wackiness. Several members of the small group were arrested that day, and Republican leaders berated their protest as “Moron Monday.” Those politicos aren’t laughing now. The protesters kept coming and their numbers kept growing, for Moral Monday had struck a chord. The protest spread across the state. A rally in February drew more than 80,000 people, and public approval ratings for the governor and state assembly have tanked. The legislature is now out of session, but Moral Monday still has weekly meetings and is launching a 50-county organizing and voter education campaign this summer. It’s now a burgeoning multi-issue, grassroots movement for progressive change. And it’s literally on the move, branching out to other states — Moral Monday Georgia is going full steam this year, South Carolina has a Truthful Tuesday movement gaining steam, and the movement is getting started in Alabama, Florida, New York, and Wisconsin. Some of these states are mighty steep political hills for progressives to climb, but success begins with someone saying, “I think I can.” To build a movement, you’ve gotta start moving. otherwords.org