redblueamerica.com

"And they all lived happily ever after."

Just how gullible are the people of the U.S. of America?

You get what you vote for. Change comes with the rising of the sun. A nation inspired is not a nation transpired without a vast resevoir of fundamental wisdom and experience for inciting true accomplishment. Barack Obama promises to build a bridge to the future, but consistently reaches into the annals of the past for mortar long expired. If it's inspiration you want, tune in to Billy Graham or Richard Simmons. If you want to perpetuate real change that directly affects you and your family, don't throw your vote away on cotton candy wishes.

Joel says:

Now obviously, there's a discussion to be had whether these were significant or worthy accomplishments.

Well, yes. And I think that record would strike many people as rather thin if it's the best a Obamaniac can come up with. Heck, the list is so short, why can't his supporters commit them to memory?

Maybe because (1) droning on about "Nunn-Lugar" will put people to sleep and people tend to have little faith that wonkish pieces of paper foster peace, (2) many of he "various bills concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina" amounted to little more than political grandstanding (the problem of Katrina evacuation was on the local level, not with the feds who told Blanco/Nagin to get those people out), and (3) singling out a single ethics bill just doesn't sound all that impressive.

Nice try, though. Obama knows he won't be elected for his record, but in spite of it. So why bother interrupting the chorus of hosannahs to talk about it.

Well I first of all I must take you to task for mentioning "ethics" and Obama in the same sentence.. what audacity !!! .. Obama is a proven liar, who consorts with criminals, takes money from them, flip flops on votes, votes present on issues so he wont have to take a stand, (politically convenient tho!!)..votes against things he should vote for..like the schools to have money to put equipment on computers in school so kids cant access sexually explicit material.. and he votes for things he should vote against.. like denying sexual predators "good time".. (maybe he thinks they should be rewarded??)..He changes his mind after he votes so obviously he doesnt know his own mind.. what kind of quality is that to comittment on an issue??, and I could go on..so please dont talk about Obama and ethics.. together.. it's obscene!!.
Now we also have allegation that he was involved in crack cocaine deals (which he admitted earlier but made it sound like it was when he was a teenager) in recent years and gay sex?? These things need to be looked into to determine if there is any validity to them but again it has colored the water for many when it comes to his character and honesty and good judgment. I will reserve judgment til then on this issue but I have already made up my mind that he has NO PRESIDENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS.

I outsource to hilzoy:

As it happens, Obama does have substantive legislative achievements. I have written more about them here. A few highlights, all of which became law:

* Ethics Reform: Obama was the Senate's point person on ethics reform, and sponsored or co-sponsored the bills that made up what the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet." I'm also a fan of this bill, which I think of as the Journalists, Bloggers, and Citizens' Muckraking Empowerment Act: it creates a searchable database of recipients of federal grants and contracts.

* The Lugar-Obama initiative to strengthen the Nunn-Luger framework for securing loose nukes, and to extend it to securing and destroying stockpiles of conventional arms. (For instance, shoulder-fired missiles that could be used against passenger airlines, fired at our forces, or used to make any number of ongoing conflicts more deadly.)

* Various bills concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina, including an amendment putting strict limits on the use of no-bid contracts after disasters, requiring planning for the evacuation of people with special needs and senior citizens, creating a National Emergency Family Locator System, etc.

There are also a lot of good bills he worked on that did not make it, including the compromise immigration bill and a proposal to create an independent Congressional Ethics Enforcement Commission, and some that are on the Senate calendar now, like a bill to criminalize various deceptive election tactics, like deceptive robocalls, providing misleading information about where to vote or what conditions you have to meet to be eligible to vote, etc.

Now obviously, there's a discussion to be had whether these were significant or worthy accomplishments. But it's not as though he's spent his time in the Senate twiddling his thumbs.

Weird. That's the name of my new band. It's a funk-thrashcore hybrid.