Senator Specter (PA) switching parties

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/28/ ... index.html

Assuming Franken is officially declared the winner in Minnesota, the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof senate.

Right On!

The behavior of the Democrats in consistently backing up the Bush programs while crying victim and the obvious reluctance of Obama to back away more than symbolically from the Republican programs indicates to me that the difference between the two parties is merely cosmetic.

Noam Chomsky says that Dems and Reps are two factions of virtually one party that each reflect a slightly different segment of U.S. business interests.

P.S. I can't believe a Fin understands our political system better than us. Abortion, life support, flag burning, gun control are merely cosmetic issues. Budget appropriations and election reform are what matters. Not surprisingly.

Since I was born in Manhattan and grew up during the 1930's in Brooklyn and only left the USA to live in Finland in the late 1960s because my quadriplegic son (who was born in Tennessee) could get no help from the US health system and was offered permanent hospitalization by virtue of my Finnish wife, I believe I have sufficient background to make cogent comment on US politics.

Yup, Sand and Learning2Survive are both correct. The Democrats and Republicans are both corporate parties. That's how they get a lot of their money, and that's how they keep competition out of the media. That's also why we get no real change... just more and more terrible legislation.

So... Arlen Specter is switching from Corporate Party A to Corporate Party B? Wow! What a transformation! (sarcasm, of course)

I tend to agree, with exception to gay marriage, abortion are two massive issues that a major divide is clear, the dems use logic and say "Its hurting no one, who cares?" GOP uses "moral" arguments and says "IT MAKES JESUS ANGRY! GOP SMASH!"

Abortions will always happen and people will always be gay.

And I'm not surprised at all by the switch. One of my favourite senators (former, actually) Mike Gravel, switched parties (Democrat to Libertarian) as did another favourite, Lincoln Chafee (GOP to Democrat) and one of my most beloved nut jobs, Alan Keyes (Republican to Independent)

did Mike Gravel run for President this election cycle? is he the fat old guy - really liked him.

my fave is Sen. Henry Waxman. He talked about the AIDS epidemic before Ronal Reagen did ANYTHING to investigate what AIDS is or how to stop it. In that time, doctors did not even know AIDS existed. People kept dying of what they called Gay Cancer (which they later called AIDS), but Reagen stonewalled ANY public health research into how to stop the epidemic.

Now Waxman has held hearing on Blackwater over billing the government and so other problems that nobody else will talk about. He is not at all crazy. He hears both sides and makes a fair assessment of the situation.

Last edited by Learning2Survive on 28 Apr 2009, 11:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes he did. He was actually my first choice for a presidential candidate, I decided on Obama after he dropped out of the race. Mike was indeed the fat old dude, the one who drew funny stares from all of the other candidates for being so outspoken.
He was a great guy, I wish the media hadn't treated his candidacy like a joke. We really do need a president who is more critical of the military industrial complex.

in 1992 Larry Agran ran against Bill Clinton. He was the best chance US had. he was in the movie Spin. http://www.buyingofthepresident.org/ind ... rry_agran/ [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbvcCWDuRzY[/youtube]

Nice.
I receive email from Waxman, he's one of the better ones. His stance on torture truly won me over.

There is no doubt that there are many issues that are vital to special sectors such as gays, religious fundamentalists, and gun enthusiasts which can be devastating to these sectors but the basic architecture of the economics of the country involving huge outlays of money are the ones in which the two parties have negligible differences and it is these issues such as Iraq and Afghanistan and the military-industrial complex where corruption is rife and the health system which outrageously rips off the country to the benefit of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies which do their best to render paltry service for huge compensation and the entire setup for workers basic rights and proper compensation which is pauperizing much of the country and the financial industries which are scamming and robbing people who believe in the fantasy of the "American Dream", it is here that the Democrats and the Republicans exhibit negligible difference.

hilarious. but i couldnt really care, hopefully obama takes atvantage of this situation though and pushes every bill the republicans hate and sign it into law.

Spector the Defector

Can anyone say TERM LIMITS?

I think this guy got asked to leave the Republican party after his miserable showing with his vote on the budget. What a joke this man will remembered as.

We need more Republicans in Congress.