Second, I am concerned that Americans are facing new barriers to defending their individual rights. The Supreme Court is the last court in the land where an individual is promised a level playing field and can seek to right a wrong:
• It is the last place an employee can go if he or she is discriminated against because of age, gender, or color.
• It is the last place a small business owner can go to ensure free and fair competition in the market.
• It is the last place an investor can go to try to recover losses from securities fraud.
• It is the last place a person can go to protect the free flow of information on the internet.
• It is the last place a citizen can go to protect his or her vote.
• It is the last place where a woman can go to protect her reproductive health and rights.Yet from what I see, on each of those fronts, for each of those rights, the past decade has made it a little bit harder for American citizens to defend themselves.
Monday, July 13, 2009
No Laughing Matter
Found at TPM
My favorite part of his statement came towards the end:
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5 comments:
Franken's to the right of me politically but I'm very happy he was seated. He doesn't seem to hunger for power, or more wealth than he has, and his sense of humor (seen in Stuart Saves His Family, among other things) is so decent and thoughtful and caring and gentle that I found myself tearing up when he was sworn in. He seems to be a man in search of a way to make a good difference to the lives of his fellows.
Now, the thing that troubles me about Franken. I went to his website and was reading about his take on health care:
A single-payer system would be the most effective in terms of reducing administrative costs, and I would be thrilled to support such a system. But I believe that today’s political environment requires a creative and flexible approach to covering every American.
The first rule of dickering is aim high, so you have bargaining space. I wish Franken, in addition to being a good guy, was more of an idealist, and (his wrestling chops aside) a bit more of a fighter.
I wish he had a sense of conviction rather than a sense of compromise.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
And so it goes.
CC-
I guess you didn't read the blog rule that states "..no reply to an original post can be more insightful or informative than to which it applies..". I'll let it slide this time. ;-)
While it's not an accepted measure, my gut tells me Franken's in the right place.
One thing about liberals is we are so into nuance. Unlike the other side where "you're either with us or against us," we paint this side in many shades. I guess that's one reason we are always debating each other and that's a good thing because from all the debate comes better ideas.
I believe Al's liberalness is a result of when he became politically aware. It was a different world in the early 60's. We were looking at total nuclear warfare as a distinct possibility. We had the dreaded Communism creeping upon our shores. The struggle for civil and voting rights was yet to come and of course women yet had the right of control over their own bodies.
While he's seen great changes come from the left, he's also more cognizant than most when it comes to the workings of government. I'm assuming that's where his less than desirable language on health care came from. True about aiming high, but in government sometimes aiming high keeps things from reaching the table. I'd love to hear his "long thought" about the health care statement. It might be worth an email request to find out. I'm sure a Minnesotan would have the best chance to get a reply as Al has already shown that he's there for his state first.
Passionate conviction, ah that's the rub
Shit! Franken said all that stuff? Urine imperatives drew me away for the last part of his Moment - but the audio-visual first part was, indeed, magnificent. Who'd o' thought? (I'm a Maron fan.)
Imagine, Mark Maron, Senator (D-NM)
If Palin can be governor, all things are possible.
http://cagle.com/working/090716/matson.jpg
Shoulda:
I wish he had a stronger sense of conviction rather than sense of compromise.
Apparently, my only problem with Franken is he's reasonable. ;)
"True about aiming high, but in government sometimes aiming high keeps things from reaching the table."
Very reasonable, mb. Been thinking about it more after reading this, where Barney Frank makes some excellent points. Still, I think I'm going to persist in my unreasonable desire for more folks in office aiming inconceivably high, and keep my admiration for folks like Franken and John Conyers, who seem to understand what can and cannot be accomplished and work at it.
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