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Don't Be Lame Duck Dems: An Open Letter to Congress
Dear Congressional Democrats:
Welcome back to our nation's capital for your one final session of the 111th Congress. Come January, the Republicans will take over the House while the Democrats will retain control of the Senate.
But Dems -- here's something I don't understand: Why do you look all sullen and depressed? Clearly you're not aware of one very important fact: YOU ARE STILL COMPLETELY, TOTALLY, LEGALLY IN CHARGE! When (and if, mostly if) you wake up to the reality that you can do whatever you want for the next seven weeks, you will realize that you have two clear options:
1. You can continue your "Sit Quietly and Hope No One Hits Me" strategy and thus lay the groundwork for an even bigger ass-kicking two years from now;
Or...
2. You can actually use the power you hold for the next seven weeks and have the Senate pass the legislation that the House has already passed!
Wake up, Democrats! You are in an awesome position right now. The House of Representatives, in this current session of Congress, has already passed an astounding 420 bills since January of 2009 -- 420 bills that are just sitting there on the Senate leader's desk. The Senate has refused to take up these House bills because they've been afraid of a Republican filibuster. Well, Dems, here's the truth: You can pass all of these bills and turn them into law RIGHT NOW, TODAY, by simply calling for a majority vote of 50 Senators (plus Vice President/President of the Senate Joe Biden). Yes, you will need to change the filibuster rules. So do it. You have the votes! And yes, the Republicans will scream bloody murder -- so let them! Make them. Let America see them in all their hateful, spiteful ways -- it will act as a beautiful coming attraction trailer for all the world to see. Let all of America watch the Republicans as they try to derail democracy by holding up a bunch of bills that nearly every American I know would want to see as the law of the land. Many of these bills are so safe, so innocuous, I have a hard time understanding what the heck the problem was in the first place. Like the bill that's already passed the House to name a post office after Jimmy Stewart. I know, I know, the idea of a post office named after Jimmy Stewart is really, really, incredibly controversial and divisive and somebody on the other side of the aisle might yell at you. Be brave, Democrats!
There's a whole slew of these bills the House has passed. Some are no-brainers; others are absolutely necessary. You can pass them in the next seven weeks. And because you Dems seem to have a problem with properly naming your bills and communicating effectively with the average American, I have helpfully renamed them for you so they sound like what they actually are -- things people would really want. Here's a partial list of the bills the House has already passed and are now just in need of approval by the U.S. Senate:
• The "Give Mom a Raise Act," officially known as the "Paycheck Fairness Act," which addresses pay gaps between men and women. Now, who out there still believes women should be paid less than men? I REALLY want to see Republicans try to stop this one.
• The "Don't Amputate Our Feet Act," aka the "Eliminating Disparities in Diabetes Prevention Access and Care Act of 2009." Which Republican will stand to speak out in favor of diabetes?
• The "Pay Up, BP Act," aka the "Audit the BP Fund Act," which makes sure BP is paying people hurt by the Gulf oil spill as quickly as possible -- and makes BP pay the cost of keeping track of where the money's going.
• The "Stop Foreigners From Hitting Grandma Act," aka the "Elder Abuse Victims Act." This doesn't really have anything to do with foreigners, but our fellow Americans seem to automatically dislike people from other countries, so this should help just in case the Republicans think an "elders abuse victims act" doesn't sound patriotic enough.
• The "Let's Try Not to Destroy Planet Earth Act" (aka Cap and Trade, a lousy half-way measure to begin with, but about the best you can expect from you Democrats these days).
• The "National Bombing Prevention Act" (it's actually already called that, which is hard to improve on).
And while those of you in the Senate are taking care of all that, the House can come up with a better version of Michelle Obama's "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" to improve child nutrition. The Senate has already passed this bill. (The House should fix it so that it isn't paid for by cutting food stamps to poor people. Yes, you, a Democratic Senate, did that.)
Then there are also things that neither the House or Senate has dealt with. These would take more work during the next two months, but that's what highly-caffeinated "energy" drinks are for.
Jenni Suri of Ligonier, Indiana, has set up a petition with a good list, which anyone can sign here to tell the Congressional leadership to get started. Among the "to do" items on the list:
• Extend emergency unemployment benefits
• Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell
• Pass the DREAM Act (to provide young immigrants with a path to citizenship)
• Pass the Disclose Act to force corporations to say what politicians they're giving money to
• Pass the Employee Free Choice Act, so we can have unions again in the U.S.
• Pass Rep. Donna Edwards' constitutional amendment that -- in the wake of the Citizens United decision -- would give Congress the power to regulate corporate spending on elections
So what do you say, Democrats? What's the worst that could happen -- you'd lose an election? You already did that! C'mon, here's your one last gutsy chance to show us that you're made of something other than wish and wash.
Yours, Michael Moore MMFlint@aol.com MichaelMoore.com
P.S. Be sure to let the Democrats in Congress know right now you expect action from them during this next month. You can call your Senators and Representative at (202) 224-3121 or find their direct number and email at Congress.org.
P.P.S. If you missed Bill Maher or Larry King on Friday, here are the links to watch my visit to both of them: Maher, Part 1, Maher, Part 2, King, Part 1, King, Part 2, King, Part 3 and King, Part 4.
- Posted in
145 Comments so far
Show AllMight as well talk to the wind, Michael.
I rather believe he is talking, not to the Democrats, but directly to us.
Well, Mr Moore, there's lots to disagree with (for instance, cap and trade is a crock) but you left out the most important for all of us.
S510, the pseudo food "safety" act, which puts Monsanto in charge of our food supply and reinforces the FDA claim (in court) that no one has a "right" to eat a specific food is up for a vote. Some are planning a filibuster and I don't know who but there is a cloture vote on Wed 11/17.
If you've never contacted a Senator about anything this is your chance. Go directly to the website: www(senator's last name).senate.gov and send an e-mail. Some sites that send e-mails have been jammed. If they win this, it's all over.
Look.... every industry ultiamately boils down to energy. Yes, cap&trade is dumb; however, we must learn to value energy appropriately. The current economic system does not take into account the real cost of energy.
Yes though, Monsanto will not be happy till they have committed genocide!
Cap and dividend, proposed by Senators Cantwell (D-WA) and Collins (R-ME)earlier this year would help us "value energy appropriately" while cap and trade would reward the biggest polluters at additional expense to you and I.
Wall Street is salivating at the prospect of cap and trade being passed...it will give them an additional unregulated, speculative commodity.
Actually, cap and trade increases the cost of polluting for those who choose to pollute rather than clean up. This rewards those who do clean up, and encourages the search for cleaner production methods -- a way that government can encourage new technology without the need to directly subsidize infant industries. It lets the market mechanism do one of the things that markets do best (allocate resources to their most efficient use) by placing so-called "spill-over" costs back on the firms who are doing the polluting.
Oops, I got overly techincal there; which is one of the reasons that some who supposedly admire the market system are unwilling to even consider government intervention to help the market solve problems which arise from the use of commonly-owned assets like 'free air.'
(So actually, I don't care if millions of dollars end up in the hands of 'speculators.' Not everything Wall Street does is wasteful, criminal, or dastardly --although, after the behavior of the still-unrepentant bankers who got rich gambling with our retirement funds and then got bailed out without so much as meaningful rule changes, I can understand the sentiment expressed by rayelcamino in his post above.)
A form of cap-and-trade saved hundreds of thousands of acres of forests as a result of being included in the 1990 Clean Air Act. Cap and trade provisions were an important part of our nation’s fight to limit sulfur dioxide emissions and the resultant acid rain which was killing trees all over New England.
Check out, for example, http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1085 .
There really are solutions for many of our society’s problems. The stumbling-block is that we have given our government over to ‘the moneyed interests’ to the extent that nothing can be done if it impinges on some large company’s ability to make a profit without making changes which might help us all. So the status quo trumps everything nowadays.
That is not what built a dynamic and prosperous America.
Is does, however, insure that those who are already prosperous can continue to use the United States as if “This Land is Our Land” referred only to them personally.
I thought that cap and trade does some of the pollution cutting but the problem is that companies find too many ways around the regulations. We should have the capping on pollution without the trade. If the polluting companies make more money, do they really care if cap and trade increases the costs of pollution?
Marco Nanto November 16th, 2010 2:55 pm
The explanation given by VRin Michigan November 16th, 2010 1:25 pm is quite good and to the point. In your comment, you use the phrase "we should", which is too often used by lots of liberals who don't understand economic mechanisms and the major concepts of incentives, information asymmetry, externalities and public goods financing - - topics that have been at the centre of economic research, theory and practice for nearly 40 years now, with Joe stiglitz as one of its pioneers and elders. Regulations is one mechanisim that has been tried but often fails in implementation because the regulator is often captured by the very industry that it is trying to regulate (money corrupts). Two glaring examples are the SEC in the financial collapse of 2007-2008, and the oil regulator in the BP scandal.
Cap and trade is not a regulation. It is market mechanism that is created from whole cloth that tries to charge a polluter money for a public good (a free good in scarce supply whose ownership cannot be determined), namely the air that we breathe. That is, it makes the air a valued good whose use or abuse that the polluter does is charged back to him. The "trade" part is that each industry and firm is given a quota. If a firm wants to use more air than it is alloted, it will have to buy surplus capacity from those who have installed anti-pollution measures and have created a surplus unused quota. Thus the total amount of pollution is controlled by the industry cap, but among the firms they can allocate this amount to polluters who pay to the less-polluters to use their quota without the government having to install a massive, corruptible bureacreacy regulating and policing the industry. Hence the trade.
There currently is no market in air, a public good. This mechanism creates a market that allows pollution to be controlled in the self-interest(incentives) of the polluters and non-polluters without government intervention. The efficiency of the market in allocation of scarce resources and mutual policing by firms (hence lessening the need for costly disclosure rules to reduce information asymmetry beteen the polluter and the public)makes this work. Germany sucessfully implemented some form of this.
Yes, Wall street will introduce derivatives on the trade instruments, but that is neither here nor there. Derivatives are NOT ipso fact "speculation". Actually in advanced finance and economics, there are just "beliefs" and trading on beliefs. The word "speculation" has no meaning, even though historically it has meaning from the gambling arena among lay people. People don't have to buy derivatives; and those that do put their own money at risk. This is where the banskters broke the rules because they put many times the money they had at risk and then asked us to bail out their bets.
I'm no economics guru but from what you say, the loopholes were left in place to allow the fuzzy math on Wall Street to continue. Thanks for the explanation and I don't believe that clean air deserves to be market controlled.
Thank you for the common sense apporach all too lacking in these pages.
Well said! I didn't think anyone had noticed S510.
Neither did I. Another stealth bill to help destroy us all.
For those still unaware try www.healthfreedomusa.org and read about Codex. Or just search S510.
I saw the text of the bill and all I read about was the general procedures on food safety and delivery. There were rules for getting the government involved in regulating and enforcing food safety but I saw no link to supporting Monsanto over local growers. I'm no Monsanto supporter but aren't they already in power because of other basic economic bills? I saw healthfreedomusa.org and their interpretations but isn't Monsanto already winning even without this bill?
First of all, food safety problems are mostly caused by CAFO's. Trying to control and regulate everything in sight but ignoring the 800 pound gorilla tearing everything apart is plain stupid.
Second, if you consider the FDA to ba a benign, helpful organization, you will not understand the nature of their evil. This is a gang that say if you make a health claim for a natural food, as cherry growers did, then that food is automatically considered a drug. This is a gang that removes nutritional supplements from shelves because a drug company made a patented version and "how can you expect them to compete with an over the counter item?"
The language gives them the right to mandate chemical use for a farm, can require anyone who "holds food" to keep accurate records of when and where and how, and can ban any food deemed "unsafe"
Monsanto et. al wrote the bill.
For more info see: www.yupfarming.blogspot.com See October articles "Leaked trade agreements..." or www.morninglanddairy.com (recall information) to see what has already happened to a small family farm making raw milk cheese.
I don't know the FDA enough to make a judgment so I'm neutral on that but if the FDA is for classifying natural food as a drug, then this is as good as treason and needs to brought forth. There are too many FDA approved drugs getting advertised daily. I have friends who have been on medications approved by the FDA when they got sick or something. I know about patents in technology but on food would be scary. I try to eat healthy so I don't get sick. If you had a chance to see the candy bar wrappers, they always say "call to ask for the ingredients". If the FDA has anything to do with this, then that's not good.
Corporations have a lot of influence but Monsanto writing the bill is a surprise. I'll have to check the sources on how they did it. It would be the second time I heard of a major corporation writing a bill. I have read about CAFOs on a few articles on this site. I read the text of the bill and assumed that CAFOs would be carefully monitored as a result of new regulations to make government more competent. I shall review those sites you gave and see if I can get the farmers in my town and their thoughts on this. Thanks.
Marco--You seem to be an openminded person. I hope your questioning will lead you to the very sad, but enlightened, truth. If you want more info on the evils of the FDA you can try starting with www.hsionline.com, go to archives and search FDA. Or just google "FDA and pyridoxamine"
Monitoring CAFOs can't work. They are based on an unfounded premise, that one can industrialize food production. They were started because USDA gave them low interest loans. The first year they operated in Missouri, 2,000 hog farmers went out of business. They produced so much the price plummetted. Those with deep pockets survived. Small farmers didn't.
Good luck--Maybe someday you'll be able to tell us what farmers in your area think about this.
I live in Buffalo away from NYC so I think I'm a little healthier. When I used to live in NYC, it cost more to buy my own groceries than to go out and eat.
I hear that almost all our food we eat comes from the CAFOs and I don't know what to do about it. I'm reading up on Salusa's writings with yours. In Hedges's article, he suggested a return to local food. I didn't realize how much the left is missing so much left-leaning libertarianism. I'm still hooked to capitalism and hope that it can be brought to a sane level before we have to go socialism. Thanks again for the tips. I don't know what future awaits us youngies but I'll keep my mind open as always. Thanks for the kind words cassandra. :-)
fyi: 'socialism' ie, 'social democracies' are kicking our butts by every measure all over Europe...
Are you sure? I know Europe's got lots of better things we could use but their unemployment's twice as high. Isn't their population smaller? I don't oppose socialism but I think it'd be sort of risky to do it right away. I've been told that my job wouldn't be putting me through 6-15 hours part time in a socialist system. That's good but if I don't have a job, then what good is it and where do I go? I think we need to transition to it slowly. I'd start out with some good social programs such as Medicare for all and increasing taxes on the wealthy. I think that we could take some socialist programs and incorporate it into the current system. Let me know if I'm wrong.
In an era when data is at our fingertips I simply do not understand the posting of myth as fact. If you want said facts regarding unemployment rates world wide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate
P.S. You did the same thing regarding socialism and unemployment, equivocating the installation of one with the advent of the other. I am at a loss to understand why you do not try to educate yourself.
I looked at your link but the source column has questionable information. Why isn't every country getting 2010 data? We need to be fully accurate about unemployment but I accept that data so that I may correct my assumptions based on what I've heard. The media keeps saying that Europe's unemployment is twice as high as the US.
"You did the same thing regarding socialism and unemployment, equivocating the installation of one with the advent of the other."
I've heard lots of good and bad things about socialism. I think it's okay but what if we have more conflicts between individual and collective choices and then how do we prepare to resolve them? Socialism feels great but I think it feels kind of like me and my fiancee about to enter the swimming pool but afraid to go in because the water feels cold.
"I am at a loss to understand why you do not try to educate yourself."
What do you mean? Do you want me to just look at something and then say "oh I get it" right away? I didn't join the Green Party overnight. It took a lot of disappointments and reading and figuring out to change my mind. I'll educate myself but I'm not always quick to change my mind.
I have heard the "media" speak to unemployment but never once heard the innacuracies you now posted as coming from them.Dig a deeper hole much?
My point remains that your initial statement was patently false, came from an unnamed source and is inexcusable given the ease with which one may verify ones "facts". Fact is much more important than you seem to treat it.
That this nation has, currently, such a high unemployment rate is an important point. That you fail the smell test is equally important, especially in an era when fictions rule and many seek to purposely distort in order to advance agendas.
As to "what I want", I want honesty, an attempt at intelligent dialogue and a thirst for knowledge. Not at all what that post offered nor the follow up of a lame excuse.
Sorry if you are offended but your abysmal and quite unnecessary inaccuracy offended me.
You have a right to say that I got it wrong but calling me a liar is wrong.
I called you stupid, just for clarification.
( sarcasm and pointed humor).....
What does one do when the local food IS CAFOs?
What happens when local farmers are the ones in partnership with the transnationals?
The 'Left-Libertarian' model does not hold up to the reality of the world.
It's not like those are the only two choices available, ParEcon is probably the theoretical underpinning I have looked into that really seems to be a viable framework to build from.
(Which is all it claims to be.) It seems to address the failings of both.
Expand your thinking, there's far more to it than just Monsanto--there's are whole slug of agribiz-transnationals playing the game. Also, seldom appreciated by most outside of actual farming areas is the role played by members of various Mennonites denominations in partnership with such companies as Cargill and Tyson.
Thanks, Cassandra, and here's a link to a summary of the bill:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510&tab=summary
Not only will this bill give Monsanto more power, but (what a shock!) also Homeland Security.
As you said, tomorrow there is a vote.
And let's not forget the one about to be voted on (sorry, I can't remember the name or number..call me lazy...) which would grant the government the power to shut down any website, anytime, anywhere, which it feels is inappropriate or infringing on copyrighted material. Before you flame me: I am against anyone, or any website, infringing on copyrights illegally without permission. But if some website allegedly does so, it should be up to the courts - NOT the U.S. government - to make that decision and just abruptly yank the plug on any website they want. Plus, we all know the government would use this power not just for copyright infringement, but for a plethora of other - political - reasons. If this bill passes, they could yank Common Dreams off the internet with no judicial oversight or review on their say-so alone, for any reason whatsoever.
Anyone know what legislation I am referring to? It needs to be stopped now, and it is barely mentioned anywhere....
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
The bill is called: "S. 3804: Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act". And it only considers "Commercial value" in it's criteria for blocking. So, any site they decide they don't like (and you have already said that "political reasons" will be used) for any reason can be kept blocked if they don't make any money. How many sites do you know that fall under that category? It's not be mentioned on purpose, and when it is, they use the "copyright infringement" argument to justify a law that would have shut down the likes of YouTube and any other site that may have had "copyright" material there while they also ignore the "fair use" clause in the copyright laws.
Thank you, aliensoup. I can't believe that bill hasn't had a lot more mention on alternate news media lately.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Demonstorm--Thanks for bringing up what aliensoup identified as S3804. I've been watching the fraud that is the FDA for so long, I sometimes get myopic. There just seems to be an assault on all levels all at once. I think TPTB are getting scared that sufficient numbers of us are waking up.
It's time for Michael Moore to wake up and smell the sewage:
Dimocraps = Repuglicans = corporate whores.
Stop wasting your breath.
You have just insulted whores everywhere.
If you reread that article you might notice the sarcasm and anger you missed the first time through.
LOL!
Well said.
I just love the way he had to put his appearances on the PPS part. Mr. Moore, I am sorry that you are holding on to hope that this Congress will work for you. Democracy is dead. You should know that from the work you have done on your films. When you exposed the 9/11 crap, that should have been your first clue/
Nice try Mike; however, the democRATs are RATS and the RepubliCONs are CONS. Between them, you have nothing but disdain for the working classes and less priviledged! These rats are screwing us, stealing from us, and preparing to scatter for their next vacation while leaving a mess. The Cons are out their convincing people, and successfully I might add, that the earth is 5000 years old and being intelligent and scientific is the work of the devil!
I believe the saying is "name you poison"!
Michael, Michael. Please, just stop it (I mean, pissing in the wind).
Micheal Moore's efforts to revitalize the Democratic Party are laudable and watching him on Bill Maher's program is entertaining and even enlightening. Unfortunately, his premise that Democratic politicans are basically good is false.
The Democratic Party is merely a different wing of the War-Corporate Party. They, as Republicans have been for decades, have been bought off by Amerikkka's corporations. The corporations don't care which party a politician is a member. Corporations only want to know what a politican's price is and if he/she can deliver legislation that favors the corporations. This is fascism in Amerikkka today.
We the People must form a third party that takes the power from the criminals that control the government. Unless and until a true party of the people is formed that initiates general strikes and boycotts, things will only get worse.
Gawd bless Amerikkka.
Moore won't learn anything useful about the Democrats any sooner than Obama will become a progressive. He's locked into the same tired, stale bullshit of exhorting the Dems to start acting like it was 1933 again, or even 1961. How much are they paying this guy to make people believe the Dems are really these big antagonists to the Repugnants? Or that they have the slightest intention of ever being?
Go home, Mike. Your day in the sun is over. You told us to go out and vote for Dems a couple weeks back. We, of course, wisely ignored you and very rightly so. Obama (or as you called him two weeks ago "a nice guy") has already caved again to the far right and is planning to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy. I'm really not interested in anything you have to say anymore. I cannot even imagine what drives you. You are no longer part of the solution but instead part of the problem. Dump the Dems, Mike.
Watching Michael Moore is only entertaining if you enjoy watching him make a fool of himself. Trying to defend the democratic party, Obama and their drunken path through governance is a chore only fools would pursue.
Though there are some very good bill's he mentioned, most will not pass the Senate because the democrats are in such bad odor and a lot are up for re-election next year.
Cap and Trade is a gift to business profits, The Dream Act has very little to do with education, its a defacto Amnesty and the Employee Free Choice Act is nothing more than an attempt by Unions to Unionize without ballot and if you don't know that you haven't read these bill's. Not one of these bill's will pass the Senate as the vast majority of Americans oppose them.
Time to begin to consider political reality rather than engaging in wishful thinking or Utopian pipe dreams. Simply because something "should" be, because something appeals to an ideology and sounds "right," does not mean it will be.
Pushing dishonest bills simply reinforces people's opinion of the democrats no less thasn when republicans do it. It should be quite plain by now that the American people are rejecting the dishonesty of both parties.
Bravo, Michael Moore, keep fighting the good fight. Or give up, do nothing, embrace nihilism and hyper acidic cynicism, that's always productive. Moore is not just talk, he puts himself on the firing line and has made great documentaries exposing some of the important issues facing ordinary Americans. He is hated by the right wingers and he has been mercilessly slimed and swift boated by them. In spite of all the calumny, Moore muddles on with humor and wit. Moore needs to become a billionaire so that he can fund the campaigns of progressive politicians and progressive think tanks the way the Koch brothers, Pete Peterson, et al fund reich wing politicians and think tanks. Moore is a wealthy man and he does contribute to progressive causes and politicians but he could be even more effective as a multi-billionaire to counter all the right wing/libertarian/Randian billionaires.
Mr Moore,
Absent from your list seems to be doing anything meaningful regarding our relations with the Netanyahu government in Israel. The proposed three month settlement freeze in exchange for F-35s and expansion of US emergency military reserves in Israel is a transparent charade. Instead of promoting peace in the region, this is more likely to exacerbate tension and escalation.
As much as one may appreciate your efforts, it is what you don't say that becomes disturbing. I'd rather this congress abandon all else and devote their energies to a serious resolution of hostilities in the Middle East. The drain in terms of blood and treasure is destroying our nation.
I don't recall ever hearing Moore talk about the Israel thing except wayyyyyyy back when he came out with the book "Downsize This!" in which he openly wondered why the Jews were not relocated inside of Europe.
He was so beaten down by every media outlet for that comment that he HAS NEVER MENTIONED IT AGAIN.
There you go. Brave man this Mr. Moore.
Michael Moore is like a very very large Peter Pan, who will never grow up, and will never believe that the Democrats have signed on to Hook's crew.
I'd pay good money to see him flitting around in green tights!
He seems to be working hard at making himself totally irrelevant with pieces like this one. This article is unjustifiable. Surely he can't be that naive.
Democrats of the last 30 years have shamed themselves for not having any balls to stand up to the fascist GOP.
This is NOT the Democratic party that I remember from my youth(1960s). They have discarded FDR's New Deal, Truman's Fair Deal, JFK's New Frontier, and LBJ's Great Society.
Democrats are not only in full retreat of their legacy, but even are colluding with the Republic party to repeal any progress made in the 20th century.
John F. Kennedy wrote "Profiles In Courage" about politicians who stood up and did the right thing, even if it were controversial at the time. If he were alive today, and looked at what his Democratic party has devolved into, he would write a sequel titled: "Profiles in Cowardice"
Which is why I voted Green Party straight ticket in this year's midterms two weeks ago.