Living Liberally's blog
Is Obama's fatal scandal whether the President called Benghazi an "act of terror" or "terrorist act" or are Republicans reaching for any reason to deploy weapons of mass distraction?
Is the new Watergate whether the IRS scrutinized political groups seeking tax breaks, unfairly denying none of them tax-free status? We're irritated & irate -- but not quite IRS-gate.
Or is the biggest scandal of this administration drone attacks or whistle-blower-crackdowns, record deportations or the Keystone Pipeline? Where are those Congressional hearings?
While the right-wing rustles up an Obamagate, the real scandal's that he never got out of the gate on climate change bills or stronger gun laws, reversing the sequester or closing Guantanamo.
The IRS & Benghazi business can't hold a candle to losing its way: the real Obamagate scandal.
Vent, laugh and share, debate if you date and have a drink while you say what you think at your local progressive social club
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
Banks behind foreclosure fraud & the mortgage crisis are failing to comply with the meager settlement, underpaying homeowners, facing no real enforcement. They continue to pass go and collect $200.
While Lauryn Hill serves time for tax evasion, Enron's Jeffrey Skilling gets a reduced sentence & Wall Street's criminals evade repercussions. Some folks have a Get Out of Jail Free card.
Student debt has now surpassed credit card debt, both of which are at an all-time high. And since bankruptcy can't discharge that debt, Americans are force to keep rolling the dice.
It can feel like 99% of us are on the losing side of a big game of high-stakes Monopoly. Yet in Monopoly, we all start with the same cash & the same rules apply to everyone.
Maybe Monopoly is fairer than what we're seeing now.
Take a Chance on a night of pints & politics, like a Community Chest for like-minded liberals at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
The President got in bed with Republicans to help him pass gun control legislation, but it was no love-match, they screwed him over & the morning after has left us with no new laws.
He continues to court conservatives on immigration reform & budget deals, and he's willing to make big compromises that the morning after look more like mistakes.
Now to do extend a hand to the Christian Right to appeal to those who won't ever be appeased, his administration is opposing access for young women to the morning after pill.
Just because there's no pill to fix the bad political mistakes Obama has made doesn't mean he should deny Americans a legal course out of a bad situation.
Whether a pill or some political will, we could all use a way to make things right -- it's better than mourning after the morning after.
Join a night that you won't regret with conversation, comrades, discussion & drinks at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
As we try to make sense of the Boston bombing, some say it should make us fear Islam, distrust immigrants & be suspicious of our neighbors.
Some set off alarms & say the rules don't apply invoking WMDs, seeking military tribunals, arguing against Miranda rights & defense attorneys.
We're scared so we consider desperate steps: more surveillance, monitor Muslims, cancel public events, limit individual rights.
But it's also a moment of extraordinary generosity, as people open homes, hearts & wallets; of communities pulling together in caring; of respect for our public first responders.
And tempered voices call for patience, speak against stereotypes & frenzied reactions & affirm that a stronger civic space will keep us all safer in the end.
The last Boston Massacre was part of a Revolution. Maybe this one will be part of our Evolution and the Massacre can turn Mass Scare into Mass Care.
We'll think of Boston as we share a drink together, sharing public space & public space in a pub at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
We demand answers to Monday's horror, but aside from consoling the injured & showing support to the city of Boston, there isn't a quick way to assign blame, exact revenge or salve our grief.
We seek just action in response to Newtown but foolish Senate "traditions" halt progress, allowing the conservative mindset of a minority to prevent a majority from passing gun laws.
For many immigrants, it's been a long road, sometimes painful, frightening, exhausting, yet it seems that there may be a finish line if we all have the stamina to continue.
A Marathon is a democratic event: the terrain is equal, it's free to watch, the public is there every step of the way. And it's long. Painful. Yet achievable.
In American democracy, right now we're running a marathon, not a sprint. Let's hope we have the training, focus, courage, will-power & endurance of those Marathon runners we all admire.
Our hearts are in Boston, Newton & with all our fellow Americans. Come share your thoughts with friends as we share a drink & share the night at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
More Social. More Security. We can reform immigration in a way that builds community with people & families who are contributing to America -- or we can keep criminalizing our neighbors.
We can pass sensible gun regulations to create a sense of trust, safety & relief -- or we can succumb to the paranoia calling for more guns, danger and distrust.
Our budget can strengthen our country, invest in infrastructure, provide a safety net -- or can cut successful social programs that support the most vulnerable among us.
So why is Obama out to cut Social Security, when on issue after issue, we need policies that are More Social for More Security?
You can be secure in the social scene where you share views, and sip some booze at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
As the GOP tries to connect to Latino voters, they first apologize for a Congress member's slur -- which he says he didn't realize was a slur.
While Congress considers steps on gun violence, conservatives oppose action, deny the facts & cling to the myth that more guns make us safer.
And though some on the Right have come out for marriage equality, others still claim that same-sex couples are a threat to marriage.
It can be hard to tell whether right-wingers are truly ignorant of the world around them...or whether they just prefer to ignore it.
If only we could ignore them a little more...
Here's a fact you can't ignore: good company & good conversation at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
As arch-conservatives cling to definitions of marriage as between a man and a woman, more and more Americans come to believe that people have the right to marry whom they love.
While the Supreme Court's right flank seems uncomfortable recognizing gay families, Anthony Kennedy, the presumptive swing Justice, is recognizing history's swing toward equality.
Dem leaders finally follow public sentiment, 2016 contenders and coming out for gay rights & though the Republican Party lags behind, more GOP voices are calling for change.
In the end, people love who they love, couples have the right to start families, and why stand in the way of a great wedding?
Whether through Courts, States or the Capitol, before long, even the Grand Old Party will be celebrating a Gay Old Party, and we'll all be better off for it.
Speculate about SCOTUS, pipe up about politics & pass around a pitcher to share a toast as you gather with like-minded lefties at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
Even the recent heinous acts of gun violence aren't budge the US Senate, which is too scared to tackle a restoration of the assault weapons ban.
Superstorm Sandy, the series of climate crises & the hottest seasons on record can't budge the climate change deniers in both Houses into any action on carbon reduction.
Despite an election that rejected him, nothing will budge Paul Ryan from a Tea Party budget plan that slashes popular, essential programs.
It's one thing to say Congress can't budget. But when it comes to Congress, nothing -- not common sense, popular sentiment or urgent necessity -- can budge it.
Congress: can't budget. Can't budge it.
If you need a drink to lift your spirits, or some comrades to share spirited talk, join your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
The President having GOP Senators for dinner didn't stop them from having him for lunch. He may win over their taste-buds and tummies, but it's a far reach to their hearts and minds.
Paul Ryan's past budget proposals have turned the Republicans into lemmings, yet despite a decisive national defeat,Ryan's new budget is a lot like the old.
More Americans speak against the sequester but stopping cuts requires Washington action,and in DC these days, the hardest task is getting Congress to do anything at all.
We need a group of proud aging men with differing goals & fractured alliances to can get together to make a decision.
They just did it in the Vatican -- why is Capitol Hill having so much trouble?
Whether discussing the white smoke in Rome or just the hot air and dark tempers in DC, share your thoughts, a drink & a night with your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.
Because Congress created a Doomsday device that it was unable or unwilling to confront, we're now stuck with the sequester & it's senseless, severe service cuts.
Because conservatives remain in the grip of the dystopian paranoia at the NRA, commonsense gun laws finally introduced
already face a steep uphill climb.
Because Democrats were too timid to stand up to their own Prez over illegal drone strikes, it took the bane of liberals, Rand Paul, to raise the issue through a filibuster.
When a man droning about drones is the most functional, uplifting act in the Capitol, we might as well cheer a filibuster -- because otherwise we're feeling busted.
Lift your spirits, your voices & libations and fill-a-pitcher instead of filibuster at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
Instead of stalling senseless sequester slashing, the GOP prefers to prove a point by sinking a ship instead of saving it -- but it's their Party's that's submerging slowly.
The 75 Republicans who speak for repealing DOMA are former players, out of step and out of power, dreaming of a moderate GOP future, but stuck in a moderate GOP past.
A former Senator nearly gets blocked from becoming Secretary of Defense because he had the good sense to get out, while he left the senseless back on the Hill.
They say rats flee a sinking ship, but this time everyone else has fled the Party and the rats in the GOP are doing the sinking.
After the haggle and Hagel, you need a huggle, so embrace an evening of engaging imbibing at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
We could have political leaders who seek to create the prosperous economy of tomorrow. Instead Congress avoids responsibility and follows the path of yesterday's bad choices.
Elected officials could make it their quest to inspire confidence in all Americans. Yet now they make Americans question
what our representatives are representing.
They could strive, champion and lead, but they hide, chicken out and flee from a self-created crisis with a silly name
that was a silly solution to another mock-crisis.
Their choices: calm crises, or create them? Ambitious inspiration or anxious perspiration? They can seek or quest...or sequester?
I guess the seekers and questers weren't available.
Come seek some solace in liberal company as we sequester ourselves for political conversation, sharing what we think while sharing what we drink at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
Bleeding Hearts Vs Heartless Beasts
The President's leftward lean in his Address made hardy liberals' hearts beat faster, while Boehner's stony, silent stare made you wonder if his heart beat at all.
Increasing the minimum wage, cap-and-trade, immigration reform, pay equity, gun controlwere all valentines to progressive partners, while Rubio proved more heartless than heart-throb.
Investing in education, infrastructure, science, Obama wrote a love letter to the future. Saying that we're better off on our own, Rand Paul wrote a break-up note with reality.
On this Valentines Day, the direction of our nation may be as simple as following our hearts: we'd rather be called bleeding heart liberals than conservatives without beating hearts at all.
If it's bleeding hearts vs heartless beasts, we know who will be our Valentine.
Your heart needn't bleed alone as there are plenty of like-minded lefties ready to share politics and a drink
at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
After years of attacks by unmanned drones -- a practice that has seeded fear & enmity -- it takes a confirmation hearing for the Senate
to finally question the White House about it.
After years of increasing tension & confusion for non-documented workers in the US,
a group of GOP lawmakers finally speak for reform, but maybe not as loudly as those who oppose it.
After debt ceiling struggles, Super Committee foibles and Grand Bargain scuttles created sequestration, Congress is now talking about avoiding the crisis
of severe cuts that they themselves created.
They act like a bunch of unmanned crafts -- maybe it's a Congress made up of drones.
Even when they are poor at legislating, they still prove pretty adept at droning...
Instead of droning, join for discussion, and choose a drink instead of drone
as you share a night with like-minded lefties at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
