December 13, 2010
If you didn’t catch the speech live, below are links to the three segments of the entire 8 ½ hour speech.
Sanders Filibuster: Part 1December 10, 2010
Bernie Sanders has been filibustering in the Senate from about 10:30 this morning.
I am watching the proceedings right now, 5:30 PM EST on C-SPAN2. You can see the Sanders’ filibuster live on the web.
He is reading constituent letters describing how hard people are working to heat their homes, feed their children, educate them for the future, and prepare for their own retirement. The struggle that many of them describe is heartbreaking. Yet he is filibustering against tax breaks for wealthy bankers who were bailed out by these very tax payers who are struggling.
If you are thinking of giving President Obama a pass on the capitulation to the Republicans, I urge you to watch the filibuster.
If you live in Massachusetts, contact Senator Scott Brown and John Kerry to beg them to help Senator Sanders in his filibuster. At 6:53PM, I called Senator Kerry at (202) 224-2742 to urge him to get to the Senate floor to help Senator Sanders in his filibuster.
At 6:37 PM EST, Bernie Sanders is begging the electorate to call and write your Senators and Representatives to convince them to change their mind and work for a better bill than what the President has agreed to. He knows that he cannot do this by himself.
At 7:00PM EST, Senator Sanders ended his filibuster and a quorum call is being done. I only wish that he had called on other Senators to carry on his filibuster. I tried calling him, (202) 224-5141, with that suggestion, but his phone was busy.
If you live in Vermont, you can call him and send him email
Apparently Bernie Sanders says that this was just a long speech. It was not a filibuster. He did have a couple of Senators help him out When the time comes to have an actual filibuster, I hope he gets lots of help.
Garland,
I know what you mean, but I have never liked the quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Our government (the country) was put in place for the mutual benefit of all of our citizens. It is not there for me to do something for its benefit.
I know it doesn’t sound as cool to say “Ask not what your fellow citizens can do just for you. Ask what you and your fellow citizens can do for the mutual benefit of all.”, but I could accept it more easily in this ungainly form.
Hey rich man,
Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
Tax payer