Wow. I got attention for an OP about the woo-woo stuff; let's do something real. Click here.

[genwah]

Okay so for once I got an audience about an OP about crap. Really kids is this what we're here for? OPs about why we can't change the minds of flat earthers, or Xians or spiritualists? I say no, if we have people reading our little blogettes, let's make them mean something!

Here is a link to a HuffPo artical about House Democrats. Clip from the top;

"The atmosphere is a little bit different," Himes said. "I think there were 35 Democrats who voted yes. On similar legislation in the last Congress, that number was more like 75 or so. So yes, there were some folks who looked at the same thing this Congress and thought that they felt differently about it."

Here are the 35 "Democrats" who voted the wrong way: Brad Ashford (NE-02), Ami Bera (CA-07), Don Beyer (VA-08), Sanford Bishop (GA-02), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Cheri Bustos (IL-17), John Carney (DE-AL), Gerry Connolly (VA-11), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), John Delaney (MD-06), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Elizabeth Esty (CT-05), Bill Foster (IL-11), John Garamendi (CA-03), Gwen Graham (FL-02), Jim Himes (CT-04), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Ron Kind (WI-03), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Dan Lipinski (IL-03), David Loebsack (IA-02), Sean Maloney (NY-18), Patrick Murphy (FL-18), Scott Peters (CA-52), Collin Peterson (MN-07), Jared Polis (CO-02), Mike Quigley (IL-05), Raul Ruiz (CA-36), Bobby Rush (IL-01), Kurt Schrader (OR-05), David Scott (GA-13), Terri Sewell (AL-07), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09), Albio Sires (NJ-08).

Call them up! Here's how:
To call your Member of Congress:
US Capitol Switchboard [phone]

To locate your Member on-line:
U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov

Really! It's easy. It may not work but it's better than asking your Invisible Friend in the Sky for stuff. And about those 35? Yes, I sent money to Ami Bera (CA-07) when he was running against a sitting Republican. I did not get what I paid for. I'm remote looking for a primary challenger. He proved that a "Democrat" could win in his district. Let's see if we can put a real democrat in his seat.



This brings me to my next point. We need decent primary challengers to these Wall Street owned creeps. And we need to start now. Who do you know? What do you think of your town mayor? Your state representative or state senator? Can you run?

No kidding, can you run? School board, county commissioner, dog catcher? House or Senate? Who reads this blog?

Really, who reads this? Am I speaking to a bunch of whiny white people who follow each other around from OP to OP so that they can snipe and snark at each other, or are there people here who want to DO SOMETHING?

I now think there are people here who want to do something. My OP about a smart waitress and her smart father and a chicken fried steak got traction, which I didn't expect. Did that happen just because I annoyed the woo-woo crowd, or are there actual Democrats in the Democratic Underground? Let me know and if there are people who are willing to do something, I'll spend more time here.

[NYC_SKP]

1. "bunch of whiny white people"? "Invisible Friend in the Sky"?

OK, no more coffee for you!

[Fred Sanders]

2. The first OP was great satire, good points. A storyline. The follow up could use some polishing.

[NYC_SKP]

3. I know, right?

And, heck, OPs about crap get the most attention around here.

5,371 replies on this one at the top of this DU board: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=set_sort_key&forum=105¶m=replies

Warning: may take a moment to load!

[Fred Sanders]

4. At least the thread did die....new technology killed it.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Oh, no. The thread is still alive! I just posted in it!

Slow as can be to load, but still there:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=8358611&mesg_id=9843122

Good old DU2!

[Denzil_DC]

6. "Slow as can be to load"

Thanks for the belated heads up, buster. My ISP thanks you ...

[genwah]

7. Hey, I'm open to suggestions. How can we get people to

act out here?

My chicken fried steak story was funny but real; we can't change the minds of the flat earthers or the birth certificate loons or apparently, the spiritualists whatever that means. But I'm hoping that we can find common ground and actually do something.

I don't care that the flat earthers think the earth is flat if I can get them to vote because the flat earth is getting warmer. Birth certificate? Hey, he's not running again. Spiritualists? Beats me, I can only repeate myself.

[NYC_SKP]

8. I missed the chicken fried steak story and anything else related to your OP here.

A link would be helpful!

[genwah]

17. Sorry, here you go.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026099094

[daleanime]

9. K&R....

we need to flood the party as well as the ballot box.

[blavine2]

10. Kurt Schrader? I don't think so.

As an Oregonian, I was shocked (shocked) to see Schrader on this list, since he is normally a reliable vote for Progressive matters. I went to the link and he is ABSENT from the list there.

Please correct the record, if indeed this is a mistake. Our honor is at stake!

Thanks.

[genwah]

18. I'll check and let you know.

[zeemike]

11. It got attention because it was a reason to mock and deride the stupid ones.

Because if you are not an atheist you are a stupid one.

Despite what your intent was, it will launch a campaign to vent anger and hostility toward people of faith now that it is a proven popular thing to do...seen this all before.

[ND-Dem]

12. ? so democrats should vote the goldman-sachs party line?

Anyone who wants to understand the current state of the Democratic Party should pay close attention to what happened this week in the House of Representatives, where Democrats cut down a GOP-backed Wall Street deregulation bill. In response, the bill's supporters avoided talking about who the legislation would have helped (hint: two big banks), focusing instead on calling its victorious opponents a bunch of flip-floppers.

"They were for this bill before they were against it," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a Goldman Sachs alum, made the same point more softly during an appearance on C-SPAN Thursday morning.

"The atmosphere is a little bit different," Himes said. "I think there were 35 Democrats who voted yes. On similar legislation in the last Congress, that number was more like 75 or so. So yes, there were some folks who looked at the same thing this Congress and thought that they felt differently about it."

Actually, 95 Democrats supported a very similar bill as recently as September. Both bills were 11-point packages chipping away at the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The most serious attack of the bunch came in the form of a partial two-year delay of the Volcker Rule, which would ban banks from speculating in securities markets with taxpayer money. The bill would have allowed Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase to hold onto almost $50 billion in risky corporate debt packages known as collateralized loan obligations through 2019. Since that perk wasn't included in the September version of the bill, the alleged flip-floppers can make a case that this time around, things just went too far.

Democrats approved a previous two-year delay of the same Volcker Rule provision last spring, pushing it to 2017, and dozens of House Democrats spent much of 2013 and 2014 lining up to support bill after bill that dealt blows to the party's second-biggest policy achievement of the Obama era.

This infuriated financial reform advocates. In isolation, many of these bills would have meant only minor trouble for Dodd-Frank. Others, however, were quite serious, and collectively, they functioned as a repeal strategy that may ultimately prove more effective than the GOP's straightforward assault on Obamacare.

The Democratic domestic policy agenda is remarkably uniform across the caucus, with one major exception. Nearly every House Democrat supports same-sex marriage, stronger environmental protections and increasing the minimum wage. But on bank reform, the party remains divided.

Things have been shifting lately, however, and the 44 Democrats who switched their votes between September and January show which way the wind is blowing. They're listed at the bottom of this article. As for the other supporters of the September bill, 12 aren't in Congress anymore -- a politically significant point in its own right -- and four didn't vote.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/10/democrats-wall-street-deregulation_n_6446414.html

[MindPilot]

13. I've found that calling my reps and praying to god yield roughly the same results.

Although I do occasionally get a letter back from my rep, I suspect much like the note Santa left thanking me for the milk and cookies, it was written by someone else.

[jtuck004]

14. I think one's an invisible friend in the sky. The other is a myth.

Irony. Some people who believe in politicians think they are different from christians for believing someone else has their salvation, if they just say the right things.

[MH1]

15. Some friendly critique.

If you want people to "do stuff" you should communicate as clearly as possible "what" and "why".

You do have the "what" in there fairly well, but really missing on the "why". What bill was this, what was it about?

Yes, yes, I know, I can click the link, but why should I have to? If you want to motivate to action, don't make the person click a link just to find out what the heck you are talking about.

[AllyCat]

16. One question I always have in situations like this:

If I am not a constituent of one of those in question, are they on some committee that I can reference so that hey still "have to" listen to me?

Thanks.