December 17, 2010

What's happening in the USA: Bernie Sanders' speech

"The speech delivered by Mr. Sanders on Friday ranks among the most important I have ever heard in my life, certainly the single most pertinent expression of fact and outrage that has been delivered in this current climate of "compromise" and collapse. He told more truth in his eight hours than many of us have heard from an elected official in the last ten years..."

"Last week, a battery of congressional Democrats rose up in outrage over the deal, specifically protesting not only the extension of George W. Bush's tax cuts for rich people, but for the attack on the payroll tax, which many see as the beginning of the end of Social Security.

"Leading the charge was Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who took to the well of the Senate on Friday to deliver a marathon eight-and-a-half hour denunciation of the deal. As his speech rose and grew, bloggers and "mainstream" media reporters, and then the networks, focused on the fact that it was happening. Articles debated whether this was a "true" filibuster, or merely a very long speech, and a few snippets of what Sanders said were disseminated."

Journalist William Rivers Pitt on the internet news service truthout has summarized key points of the historic speech in two articles:

What Bernie Said, Part I, Tuesday 14 December 2010 and

What Bernie Said, Part II, Thursday 16 December 2010

For 124 page transcript of the talk: Full Congressional Record Transcript of Sanders Filibuster