I will not vote for my Democratic congressperson-someone I USED to support-in 2010

[Ardent15]

Anna Eshoo has betrayed her constituents, including me, by putting in a POS amendment that basically denies people the drugs they need (unless they have a LOT of money, of course) to survive.

Furthermore, she has the gall to claim this is "health care reform."

We've been sold out. All of us. Every congressperson who supported this facade of health care reform should be voted out and replaced with people who actually care about their constituents. But that won't happen, because they ensured that the elections themselves would be bought and paid for so that only those who support the establishment-the corporate owners of this nation-have a chance.

One day, I hope, there will be a House full of people like Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich, Raul Grijalva, Alan Grayson, Anthony Weiner,and Barbara Lee, and a Senate full of people like Bernie Sanders, Al Frankern, Russ Feingold, the late Paul Wellstone, etc. But that is just a dream. Of course, everything starts with a dream.....

[bigwillq]

1. I am not voting for Dodd.

He's got to go. Out with the old...

Not voting for the repuke, so I am not sure who I am voting for yet.

[Ardent15]

2. Find a liberal Democrat or third party liberal candidate...

..and do everything in your power to support that person.

[bigwillq]

4. Slim pickings.

I haven't done too much research on the DEM running against Dodd. I will have to check him out more. I 100 percent supported, with time and money, Ned Lamont over Lieberman. Lamont won the DEM primary but the repukes put LIEberman back in office.

[BolivarianHero]

25. Lieberman is a fucking coward...

He should have had the guts to run against Lamont as a Republican.

If the Jewish vote is anything to go by, though, Lieberman has actually been a miserable failure in helping the right.

[demodonkey]

3. Start by getting someone truly Progressive to run against the corporates everywhere.

I mean it -- from dog catcher to Congress Democrats need to get these corporates out of our party. The best way to do it is to NOT give money and support to a corporate when there is a Progressive alterative. AND THEN MAKE SURE THERE IS A PROGRESSIVE ALTERNATIVE and support him or her!

Even though we are being sold down the river, the worst thing we can do is to sit out 2010 and 2012... read the history of what happened in 1968 after Bobby Kennedy died. The upshot was that we ended up with Nixon and the groundwork was laid for the right wing chickens that have been coming home to roost for the last 30-plus years.

[Ardent15]

5. Exactly. There were people saying that Feingold and Wellstone couldn't have been elected...

back in the late 80s/early 90s.

They used to joke about that, they were too "extreme" for the Senate.

[cry baby]

6. Actually, Alan Grayson says this is a bill that will save many lives...

and he says it's a good one.

see the video: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x396009

[tridim]

8. Dr. Howard Dean likes it too.

[HughMoran]

10. Interesting

Those are two people who's opinion I value greatly.

[Ardent15]

11. A polished turd is still a turd.

I think they were saying, "this isn't what we hoped for, but it's better than what we had before."

I guess a little gradual change is the best we can do. In the mean time, many more Americans will still die because of lack of affordable health care.

[slipslidingaway]

24. Dean on the data exclusivity amendment by Rep. Eshoo and in the HELP bill...

Biotech firms lobby for say on healthcare
$66m effort to protect drug-patent exclusivity

http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/07/21/biotech_firms_lobby_hard_for_say_on_healthcare/

"...You get one crack at it,’’ said Robert Coughlin, president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, speaking of the task of drawing up a licensing system for “biogenerics.’’ “If it isn’t done right, it could literally put the biotech industry out of business.’’

The quest for influence is not always obvious.

Howard Dean, the former Democratic Party chairman, wrote an opinion piece this month in The Hill, an influential Capitol Hill newspaper, arguing that fewer than 12 years of monopoly rights for biotech companies’ products “would prematurely rob innovators of their intellectual property and . . . destroy incentives to develop new cures.’’

Within hours Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant who ran Dean’s 2004 presidential race, hyped Dean’s opinion piece in a blog post that he sent to The Huffington Post, a widely read website. “He’s a doctor and lifelong advocate for health reform - he knows what he’s talking about,’’ Trippi wrote, urging readers to contact their lawmakers.

Dean failed to note in his editorial that he is an adviser to McKenna, Long & Aldridge, a global law firm that is advising the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the influential trade group...

...But Dean said his editorial was part of McKenna’s rapid-fire response to an unexpected, eleventh-hour Senate health committee proposal (which biotech firms ultimately fought off).

“It was a huge scramble, all hands on deck,’’ Dean said."

[bobbolink]

12. Reasonable people can disagree. I hear the pain in the OP, and I care about it.

[Ardent15]

13. Exactly. I'm not in lockstep with Grayson or Dean on this one...

I like them, but I used to like Eshoo as well. I can disagree with them some of the time.

[bobbolink]

18. There are so many ins and outs to all of this....the only certainty is that this is NOT

what is going to save this country...and that is sad that the opportunity was squandered.

This bill is complex, and will help some and not help others, so of course there are different views.

I guess it's now like that elephant... some are seeing an acceptable elephant, and some are seeing big piles of elephant shit on the carpet.

We just have to keep respecting those differences, and care about what people need.

[cry baby]

15. no need to paint me as uncaring

I wanted single payer - and I'm not giving up on that. I'm disappointed in how this bill came out, but it may not be as bad as we think. For now, I'm gonna trust a person's word that I have respected for weeks now as a truth teller.

I care that there is pain in the OP...I was trying to soothe that pain just a bit.

[bobbolink]

17. Nobody painted you as anything.

I'm glad you heard the pain.

I'll give you a hint, though.... you can't change what someone is feeing... all you can do is acknowledge it and care. People have a right to what they feel.

[cry baby]

19. thanks for the hint...however, I disagree that one can change how

another feels...with compassion and a glimmer of hope (what I was trying to give). Certainly, the OP has the right to feel however they feel.

I acknowledge how you feel about it and I do care...and thanks for the advice.

[bobbolink]

20. I hope you will see how trying to change how someone feels is controlling.

I hope you will look at that, because believe me, it robs people of all that we really have in life... our thoughts and our feelings.

There are two good books on this that I hope you will take the opportunity to read through... I think either will give you a different view, but better... will help you to know how to really help others, and build peace on a personal level.

Parent Effectiveness Training, by Thomas Gordon. An old book now, it really helped me learn new ways of listening when my son was little. The chapter on Active Listening is powerful.

The Good Listener, by James E. Sullivan. This one is much newer, and goes into more detail. It's a small book, quick to read, yet it answers so many questions, and helps people practice a new skill. It has god-talk in it, but the material is right on.

[cry baby]

21. thanks again for your unsolicited advice...I appreciate you trying to

change me, but can you see that it is a control issue you have? And you are very condescending as well.

I have raised 2 great dem citizens and I'm as old as the hills (or at least tonight I am feeling my age). I'll look at the books if you look in the mirror. Deal?

Things aren't as dark as they may seem sometimes. That is all I was saying to the OP. I'm sorry for you if no one has ever told you that to try to make things seem brighter in dark times.

Please save your advice for someone who asks for it in the future.

Have a good evening.

[bobbolink]

22. You may remember that YOU were the one who first offered your "advice" to someone who was expressing

pain.

You have a choice... you can learn how to let someone be in peace, or you can continue to try to "fix" others, which causes more pain.

I presented that in a kind and considerate way. Your snarky reply says a lot about your real motivations.

This thread belongs to someone who is feeling pain... I refuse to add more to it. If you think that means that you can have the last ugly word, then have at it... it will further serve to show your TRUE motivations.

Good night.

[B Calm]

7. And Senator Bayh can kiss this vote goodbye!

[bobbolink]

9. The really sad thing is... by sticking with your principles, you won't be able to post it here.

And that really bothers me.

What I came to quite a while ago is that our party is pretty much bought and paid for.... yes, different from the RW, but NOT in the service of We, The People.

Sooooo, the only ones I will give any effort to are those who are willing to not take money from the lobbyists.

In '72, I wrote in Shirley Chisolm, and the more years that go by, the prouder I am of that vote.

Her motto? "Unbought and Unbossed".

Says it all for me.

[flyarm]

16. she was a damn special woman! none of that kind left! eom

[flyarm]

14. will be sitting out the election and most real dems i know feel the same damn way!

this is not what we worked our asses off for , this is not what we gave big $$$ for..this is not what we pounded the pavements for!

so fuck them all!

[southernyankeebelle]

23. It looks like allot of us will be sitting this next election out. I won't vote

for my representative for a weak public option.

[cecilfirefox]

26. Then you may as well vote for a Republican. Stand up job. nt