Hell, No

If Obama tries to gut Social Security, I and every other liberal who supported him will rise up to kick his ass back to Chicago. Maybe back to Hawaii. Or, to the moon, Alice!

Don't even think about stealing the safety net from the people whose taxes have already been stolen to prop up the thieves on Wall Street.

There. Is. No. Crisis.

William Greider, The Nation: Looting Social Security

Liberal Weigh In

Reportedly Congress is getting hit with 100-1 constituent response against the stimulus bill. The rightwingers are out-organizing us, people! Call your Congresscritter and Senators and let them know in no uncertain terms that you support the stimulus bill!

I emailed my senators because obviously Ted Kennedy and John Kerry are going to vote for it. (I also told them I don't like the tax cuts in the bill, but to vote for it anyway! Also to reinstate the family planning funding that the House cut.) But if you live in a state where your rep may be on the fence I'd take the time to call.

The Senate switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. If you can't get through or would rather send an e-mail, you can look up your Senator's contact information and web form at the Senate.gov site.

Group News Blog: Call the Senate: Show Our Numbers

WSJ: McCain Urges Supporters to Sign Petition Opposing Stimulus

Trust But Verify

yahoo: President-elect Barack Obama (L) introduces retired General Eric K. Shinseki as nominee for Veterans Affairs secretary during a news conference in Chicago, December 7, 2008.
REUTERS/John Gress

Barack Obama was elected little more than a month ago. He won't take office for another month and a half. He has run one of the quickest and smoothest transitions ever, rolling out appointees and being essentially a shadow government (for the nonfunctioning Bush bunker White House) in waiting.

So what's the problem? Liberals don't like his cabinet choices. Where are the liberals? Rather than appointing the economists who predicted the meltdown of the mortgage and credit markets, Obama has appointed people who were part of the Wall Street posse that got us into this mess. Apparently sensitive to the criticism, Obama has his deputy Steve Hildebrand post on Huffington Post asking liberals to, essentially, STFU.

Me, I'm still rather sanguine about the whole thing. It's not like FDR appointed a bunch of raging liberals to his Cabinet, and from that group we got the New Deal. (FDR did appoint one raging liberal: Frances Perkins, the first woman ever to hold a Cabinet position, and the longest-serving-ever Secretary of Labor. Obama still needs a Frances Perkins type in his Cabinet.)

But, jeez, he hasn't even taken office yet. Cabinet appointments haven't all been made. He hasn't even announced his Secretary of Labor yet. I am willing to give Obama a little slack here. The people aren't the policies. And while I may not agree with all his appointments (Larry Summers, chauvinist pig, grrrrrr) I'm going to hold my fire for now. I'll wait until actual policy making is done. Patience, people, patience.

Speaking of Cabinet appointments, I was very happy to see that General Eric Shinseki - the guy who told Donald Rumsfeld that his Iraq plan was a crock and got forced out for his truth-telling -- has been named Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Duh

Rob Bennett for The New York Times

Rachel Maddow on the set of her new program for MSNBC.

America is a liberal country (sorry Jon Meacham, you are eight ways of wrong). Put a wicked smart liberal on TV, people watch!

NYTimes: Fresh Face on Cable, Sharp Rise in Ratings

RIP Paul Newman

Paul Newman, Eugene McCarthy delegate, at the 1968 Democratic Convention

Paul Newman died on Friday night. He was a great actor and philanthropist who lived a full and rich life. He was a capital L Liberal who put his money where his mouth was, endorsing Democratic candidates (from Eugene McCarthy to Ned Lamont) and raising hundreds of millions for charity with his Newman's Own food brand and Hole in the Wall camps for kids with serious illnesses.

You had to love a guy who said "the highest single honor I ever received" was being #19 on Nixon's Enemies List. You had to love a guy who was #19 on Nixon's Enemies List. Farewell to a great man.


Vanity Fair: The Newman Chronicles

NYTimes: Paul Newman, a Magnetic Titan of Hollywood, Is Dead at 83

Vanity Fair: Hard Act to Follow (photo gallery)

Telegraph (uk): Paul Newman, a life in pictures (photo gallery)

NYTimes: Paul Newman in Pictures

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

I saw this at Brilliant at Breakfast, via DownWithTyranny!

Donna Edwards: A Better Democrat

Last night the voters of Maryland's 4th District had a choice, between their incumbent Blue Dog Democratic congressman Al Wynn and challenger, liberal Donna Edwards. Wynn, during his time in the House

[d]espite representing an overwhelmingly Democratic district, [] voted for the Iraq War, for pro-bank bankruptcy legislation, for massive fossil fuels subsidies, for repealing the estate tax, and for letting the likes of Verizon and Comcast have untrammeled control over the Internet.

The netroots supported Edwards. The establishment, and entrenched interests including many unions, the Democratic party establishment, even NARAL supported Wynn. He had seniority and the money. But Donna Edwards is a better Democrat and a liberal, and her message triumphed last night.

The motto of the netroots is "More Democrats, Better Democrats." That's Donna Edwards. (While this was just the Democratic primary, it is a reliably Democratic district; she'll win in November.)