DC Dems to Hold Official Forum With Wal-Mart, Chamber of Commerce

As David Sirota says in this piece (click on 'read more' below), be prepared to puke. He reports on our Beltway Democratic leadership setting up a kiss-kiss meeting with all the big money culprits pushing "free" trade on workers here and around the world. Given that a significant number of newbie Dems won in '06 by running on a populist, economic fairness agenda, doing something like this takes real nerve. Apparently the Dem leadership in both the U.S. House and Senate has guts when it comes to making nice with the forces working against labor and the common folk, but can't find the gumption to go up against the Bush-Cheney all war all the time machine. That certainly makes me want to puke. How about you?

Reminds me of the recent actions of some of our local Dems -- like Sen. Lidio Rainaldi of Gallup introducing a "Defense of Marriage" bill, or Sen. Michael Sanchez of Belen whining that the proposed ethics and campaign finance reform package represents unwarranted punishment against legislators or Rep. Joni Gutierrez of Las Cruces changing her vote to resurrect the despicable $85 million tax subsidy for the filthy, coal-fired Desert Rock power plant on the Navajo reservation or the long list of Democrats fighting effective regulation of payday loan sharks in the state. Of course, there are many excellent, true to our core beliefs Dems, but these days I think way too many are being swayed by all the wrong forces.

I'm sure big dollar donors have nothing to do with it. Just like "campaign contributions" from insurance companies and HMOs have nothing to do with the Dems, at both the state and national level, refusing to do anything meaningful to stop the escalating shoveling of money to those interests so that universal, high quality health care can be provided to everyone. Just remember, they're ALL "for health care" (as they put it) -- just not enough to risk pissing off the people who cough up funds and perks for them. Ordinary citizens be damned.

It's always instructive to remember that it was Bill Clinton who pushed and signed NAFTA, put Robert Rubin in charge of the Treasury and gave us the telecommunications act that allowed all that power to gather in the hands of big, global media conglomerates. You can see what will happen if Hillary or another DLC clone gains the presidency again. The results of our "win" in the Congress appear to be disappointing enough. Think what damage such a Congress and DLC Executive branch working together would be able to do.

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