Beyond Discouraged

Tonight? I just feel like crying, or screaming my head off. Pissing into the wind. That’s what it feels like we’re all doing. Our “leaders” are not listening to us. And they don’t give a damn.

From around the blogosphere today:

The Fierce Urgency Of Whenever (Andrew Sullivan)

And what is Obama doing about any of these things? What is he even intending at some point to do about these things? So far as I can read the administration, the answer is: nada. We’re firing Arab linguists? So sorry. We won’t recognize in any way a tiny minority of legally married couples in several states because they’re, ugh, gay? We had no idea. There’s a ban on HIV-positive tourists and immigrants? Really? Thanks for letting us know. Would you like to join Joe Solmonese and John Berry for cocktails? The inside of the White House is fabulous these days.

Yesterday, Robert Gibbs gave non-answer after non-answer on civil unions and Obama’s clear campaign pledge to grant equal federal rights for gay couples; non-answer after non-answer on the military’s remaining ban on honest servicemembers. What was once a categorical pledge is now – well let’s call it the toilet paper that it is. I spent yesterday trying to get a better idea of what’s intended on all fronts, and the overwhelming sense – apart from a terror of saying anything about gay people on the record – is that we are in the same spot as in every Democratic administration: the well-paid leaders of the established groups get jobs and invites, and that’s about it. Worse: we will get a purely symbolic, practically useless hate crimes bill that they will then wave in our faces to prove they need do nothing more.

Obama: “Got the little single-payer advocates up here.” (Lambert @ Corrente)

Bollocks (Lambert again)

Here is the full text of Obama’s remarks yesterday on the health insurance companies vague proposal to promise to reduce their take by 1.5% a year for the next decade in exchange for no public option and as long as there’s no enforcement mechanism. I’ve added some helpful annotations:

Hello, everyone [except single payer advocates]. All right. Well, I just concluded a extraordinarily productive meeting with organizations and associations that are going to be essential [unlike single payer advocates] to the work of health care reform in this country — groups that represent everyone [except single payer advocates] from union members to insurance companies, from doctors and hospitals to pharmaceutical companies. It was a meeting that focused largely on one of the central challenges that we must confront as we seek to achieve comprehensive [but not single payer] reform and lay a new foundation for our economy — and that is, the spiraling cost [that's my framing, and I'm sticking to it] of health care in this country.

They’re here because they recognize one clear, indisputable fact: When it comes to health care spending, we are on an unsustainable course that threatens the financial stability of families, businesses and government itself [and kills people who are denied care when the health care system is driven by profit].

[...]

And, finally, the explosion in health care costs has put our federal budget on a disastrous path. This is largely due to what we’re spending on Medicare and Medicaid — entitlement [right wing frame] programs whose costs are expected to continue climbing in the years ahead as baby boomers grow older and come to rely more and more on our health care system. That’s why I’ve said repeatedly that getting health care costs under control is essential to reducing budget deficits, restoring fiscal discipline, and putting our economy on a path towards sustainable growth and shared prosperity [which is why, since single payer costs 3% administratively, as opposed to 30% for the insurance companies, I'm advocating it. Single payer can be put in place as quickly as Medicare was, when we didn't even have computers: In six months. Taking advantage of that $350 billion dollars a year we're leaving on the table is the only fiscally prudent course of action. Oh, wait...]

(More at link)

The Democrats Seek A ‘Message’ On Health Care Reform (Suburban Guerilla) Susie’s got a message for the Dems.  Would that they would actually heed it.

Obama: Social Security is most definitely in play (Lambert again)

[OBAMA] Now, I will tell you that Social Security disability has gone up significantly during this recession. Some of you may have read in the last couple of days that Social Security — the Social Security trust fund is worse off now because of the recession than it was. We were already having some issues with Social Security, and so we’re going to have to do some significant reforms of Social Security.

We wouldn’t want to inflame anti-American sentiment Obama’s excuses for covering-up torture evidence are as incoherent as they are dangerous. (Greenwald)

Moreover, isn’t it rather obvious that Obama’s decision to hide this evidence — certain to be a prominent news story in the Muslim world, and justifiably so — will itself inflame anti-American sentiment?  It’s not exactly a compelling advertisement for the virtues of transparency, honesty and open government.  What do you think the impact is when we announce to the world:  ”What we did is so heinous that we’re going to suppress the evidence?”  Some Americans might be grateful to Obama for hiding evidence of what we did to detainees, but that is unlikely to be the reaction of people around the world.

A quick review of my posts filed under Feet to the Fire discourages me even more.  In fact, stuff that I thought Obama had done, he’s back-tracked on.  More on that later. I must stop for now. It’s too damn depressing.