The Latest Obama Thread...
January 13, 2011 - 1:14am
...with more answers from Comrade Ralph...
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Syndicate
It is time to associate yourself with civil society, name some with approbation as you have done with companies, express your support for the expansion of their budgets and activities, in short, identify with them.
Open Letter to President Obama: Meet with Civil Society Leadersmore...
The danger that the last nail is about to be driven into the New Deal's coffin is real and imminent. Republicans may still be better than Democrats at engineering the tax system to redistribute wealth upwards. But Republicans can't touch the 'third rail' of American politics. Even with the vaunted "political capital" he acquired after the 2004 election, the first that he actually won, George Bush couldn't privatize (gut) Social Security. Clinton probably could have but for la Monica, and so can Obama, at least so long as the "folks" who routinely vote Democratic, the only people left who can block the Reaganite tide he is riding, continue to stand by their man.
Obama is counting on Tea Partiers and their representatives in Congress to scare those voters into line and to bring "moderates" back into his fold. Perhaps they will. But as he hastens along the path Bill Clinton blazed, he just might miscalculate and overreach. Let's hope so – because this time Monica Lewinsky is not there to save us.
New Congress Leaders Promote 'Clash of Civilizations'
http://www.voltairenet.org/article168177.html
"the majority would appear to be Israel-firsters amd rabid advocates of the 'clash of civilizations'.
Speech Pathololgy: Rain Puddles in Heaven, Hell Fire on Earth by Chris Floyd
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2076-...
"As President Barack Obama consoled the nation Wednesday with talk of 'rain puddles in heaven' his agents were murdering 4 more people in his illegal war in Pakistan.."
Massive crowds came out to see him during his campaign. Stadiums full.
Where did they all go? All those young people who never vote?
The Tea Party always seemed to me to be organized for the purpose of wading into those crowds after the election in bloody street fights.
like the Hardhats before them.
But the Obama crowds vanished.
Why shouldn't they have vanished? "Yes, we can" became "No we won't".
Obama is certainly an "establishment guy", but I had been hoping that he was going to cut back on military spending and activity. NOT!!
Obama the Warmonger? Evidence is mounting. Here is the short list:
* With the creation of the Pentagon's Africa Command (AFRICOM), American foreign policy on the African continent has become increasingly militarized.
* Obama's administration has expanded covert special operations throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa
* The Obama administration has been saber rattling with North Korea
Pres. Obama has:
- rapidly accelerated the war and occupation of Afghanistan
- expanded the war into Pakistan
- started a new war in Yemen
- supported a military coup in Honduras, which removed a popular democratic government in favour of a brutal dictatorship.
In fact, the Obama administration has expanded Special Operations forces into 75 countries around the world (compared with a height of 60 during the Bush regime), including:
- Yemen, Colombia, the Philippines, Somalia, Pakistan, among many others.[6]
I got those from this article> http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22781
In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Obama said the country's complex regulatory structures have sometimes had a "chilling effect" on job growth and, giving a nod to the priorities of the new House Republican majority, observed that small businesses often feel that burden.
Obama launches review to target 'excessive' regulations
The illusion of US democracy continues...
...as do the Clinton parallels...
Obama Pulls a ClintonSeems to me expecting an American Presidential politician of any stripe to actually attack American corporations is like expecting a Catholic cardinal to attack the Vatican. It's not going to happen.
Well, yeah. Presidents aren't elected to fight the system, they're stewards of the system.
The State of the Union is...SALMON
Obama is a libertarian? I do not think that word means what he thinks it means...
http://www.counterpunch.org/levine02012011.html
Obama is a libertarian? I do not think that word means what he thinks it means...
http://www.counterpunch.org/levine02012011.html
Levine: "Obama used the occasion to reveal more plainly than ever before what his underlying political philosophy is. It is not what is widely supposed. Obama is a libertarian, and therefore not, according to the most pertinent sense of the term in our political discourse today, a liberal."
Not to be impertinent, but I agree with Levine that Obama is not in the "most pertinent sense of the term" liberal. Neither is he in the most ridiculous sense of the "term", libertarian.
...The US is now arranging for a coup against the will of the Egyptian people. It requires utmost vigilance and steadfastness and thus far those qualities have been abundant among the Egyptian people. This move by Obama towards Egypt can be described as criminal because it will lead to blood on the streets. I wonder if Obama during his talk with Mubarak discussed numbers like: just don't kill more than 50 or 60 a day, or something like that. His unprincipled cynicism reminds me of the conspiracies of the 1950s. I am so glad that I resisted all efforts by my liberal and leftist friends who were urging me to vote for this personification of the Bush Doctrine.
Pictures of Egyptian toddlers waving flags from atop tanks in Cairo streets this morning. Why does "the left" continue to do it to itself in this fashion?
Which "left" do you have in mind, and to what fashion are you referring?
Seems to me expecting an American Presidential politician of any stripe to actually attack American corporations is like expecting a Catholic cardinal to attack the Vatican. It's not going to happen.
It absolutely can't.
In his recent State of the Union speech, Obama offered only cold comfort to the millions of Americans who are unemployed or barely employed, saying blandly that "The rules have changed." Well, yes--and who changed them? Self-serving CEOs like Jeffrey Immelt, that's who.
America's working families--our endangered middle class--have a right to expect Obama to fight for rules that are fair to them and our country, not meekly accept rules that have been skewed by an elite corporate class to profit them alone. Instead, our president is waltzing with the devil.
He's rebranding his presidency, all right. It's becoming Obama, Inc.
Jim Hightower
Seems to me expecting an American Presidential politician of any stripe to actually attack American corporations is like expecting a Catholic cardinal to attack the Vatican. It's not going to happen.
It absolutely can't.
Some understanding of recent historical events brings understanding and concensus on this one...while others foam in 1940's fashion. Bad stuff is happening for sure, but all the yapping won't change it. Trick will be to use the corporation for the welfare of the commons, use the new structure to put the Immelts out of work.
You suggest you have the key to the solution. Please stop being so coy. Can you add any substance to these hints, or is yapping all you'll contribute?
Take your time responding, though; I have to take my zoot suit to the cleaners now and won't be back for a while.
People with your intellectual profile will, of course, be very careful about where their savings are stashed in the corporate world, aQ. But I'm afraid that mainstreeters will continue to invest in the Generous Electrics, even while tut-tutting about their CEOs. They might even get a warm, cozy feelings watching all the verbal spitballs being tossed by your radical element. Morally uplifting.
others are trying to take that capital and put it where it might do some good, where the sun really shines:
SLOW MONEY. Green Calgary presents Woody Tasch, founder of the Slow Money Alliance. 23 February. (I've got his book, and would really like to hear from others about their experience with/knowledge of this venture. I believe it's not just co-incidental that interest in this shows up in Calgary where, perhaps, an element of Green Communities Canada has been driven by the idea of growing food in a capital-obsessed climate.
There's a growing resentment of the use to which savings are being put in our capitalist world. Take your time coming back with your next , well-thought-out missive from google, aQ. Perhaps you might like to comment on the Tasch profile, rather than indulge in juvenile one-liners. Hope springs eternal. : )
America's working families--our endangered middle class--have a right to expect Obama to fight for rules that are fair to them and our country, not meekly accept rules that have been skewed by an elite corporate class to profit them alone.
Really? The endangered middle class has the RIGHT to EXPECT Obama to fight for them?
Obama, like any Imperial president, will only fight those battles when/if the people make him. So far, the Left is not making him do anything. Neither the endangered middle class nor the working class is politically engaged, and Obama is not feeling any pressure to fight for them.
Now that I think more about it I suppose people have the right to expect all kinds of things to happen, for all the good it will do them.
Finally we have George's solution: everyone has to invest in "green" capitalism!
Finally we have George's solution: everyone has to invest in "green" capitalism!
And grow veggies! Don' forget to read the article. It isn't all that bad. Really. A german friend visiting Detroit industry for a couple of weeks - a health nut - dropped off some Stonyfield yogurt the other day. I might get through it if the frozen fruit holds out. I'd like to see little food producers popping up all over the blessed place, replacing the corporate preparations. I'm told that if there were a halt to traffic across the border, the local food suppliers might be good for about 3 days. Hell, we might be lucky if the local marketing boards for poulty and eggs and milk survives the Doha round and the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade agreement deal that Maude Barlow's been warning us about. We need to support little producers who will be impervious to those bastards.
On the use of stashed cash: But everyone now invests in UNgreen capitalism, MS. Take your pick...or are your savings going into a sock, under the mattress? :)
Obama To Cut Energy Assistance For Poor; Kerry Urges Him To Reconsider
But everyone now invests in UNgreen capitalism, MS. Take your pick...or are your savings going into a sock, under the mattress?
What makes you think I have any savings? In fact, if I were typical of North American workers, I would be heavily in debt up to my eyebrows, not sitting on piles of cash or clipping coupons. Your perspective is decidedly one of middle class privilege.
People's capitalism, like green capitalism, is a myth promoted by those who seek to obscure the class nature of our society and to encourage the belief that capitalism is the only solution to problems that capitalism itself has created.
More on that story noted above by NorthReport ...
New Obama Strategy: Beat up poor people
The news is generating a lot of outrage from progressives, in large part because of a paragraph that suggests that the White House wants to gain political advantage from being seen as tough on the most vulnerable Americans -- people who can't afford heating oil during cold winters.
Says Leonard: "I can't imagine that Republicans are doing anything else but laughing. Heartless incompetence is not going to win a budget fight."
Heartless. Incompetence. Hoo rah. "Yes, we can" TO "No, we won't" indeed.
But everyone now invests in UNgreen capitalism, MS. Take your pick...or are your savings going into a sock, under the mattress?
What makes you think I have any savings? In fact, if I were typical of North American workers, I would be heavily in debt up to my eyebrows, not sitting on piles of cash or clipping coupons. Your perspective is decidedly one of middle class privilege.
People's capitalism, like green capitalism, is a myth promoted by those who seek to obscure the class nature of our society and to encourage the belief that capitalism is the only solution to problems that capitalism itself has created.
We all know that American workers have not improved their standard of living appreciably in the last one-third of a century, that credit has replaced higher earnings. The middle class is disappearing. But we also know that the RRSP has been used extensively in Canada to avoid taxes on money for folks' golden years. And, of course, those people without anything to tuck away, are in the situatiion you describe.
But you will notice in Woody Tasch story that people are relectant to talk about their financial situation, and that is reflected in the absence of input in this thread. Somehow, the savings amassed by mainstream Canadians, including those of "the left", never finds its way into investments in corporations. Not even the premiums in all of those insurance policies.
Gaia only knows what future sources of funding for any of the services and pensions of that society we would all like to see, is going to come from, where class privilege has been abolished along with any means of funding the New Jerusalem.
The green commodity campaigns, flat screen televisions, hybrid cars, it's all the same marketing. The same ones that have expended so much of their energy toward planetary environmental extincton are now telling us they have a few solutions so long as we have the coin to ante up. We're expected to pay corporatism all over again under a revised marketing and packaging construct, and trust that the new products will be less harmful than everything that has gone before them. I'm supposed to believe that purchasing green and organic labelled bananas at premium cost from a corporate grocery warehouse is the new right thing to do, while being expected to ignore how they arrived there in the first place.
I'm sure you can explain the connection - in your mind - between Slow Money's focus on locally grown food as a place of investment, and flat screen TVs ,bananas and "corporate grocery warehouses."
Where is your coin invested, jack? So far, nobody, but nobody, hereabouts, has accumulated - or invested - a nickel. But Tasche explains how it's hard to get honest in talking about one's own $ situation. Or did you bother to read that link?
You are still avoiding this question: "Gaia only knows what future sources of funding for any of the services and pensions of that society we would all like to see, is going to come from, where class privilege has been abolished along with any means of funding the New Jerusalem." Or are you only progreammed to operate in critical mode, devoid of Earth-based remedies?
People with your intellectual profile...
Yikes! "Intellectual profile?"
Remind me never to sing "'Oranges and lemons' say the bells of St. Clemens" in your presence.
Gaia only knows what future sources of funding for any of the services and pensions of that society we would all like to see, is going to come from, where class privilege has been abolished along with any means of funding the New Jerusalem.
George labours under the misapprehension that all wealth emanates from capitalism, and that without capitalism the workers would starve. It never occurs to him that collective ownership and operation of the means of production, freed from the necessity of providing massive profits to private owners and investors, would generate plenty of social capital to provide services and pensions for all.
There seems to be a cognitive dissonance at work here. The presidents of the United States are both complicit in the rapacious activities of the corporations that are stripping the planet of resources, and powerless to stop them, so they should be tolerated. Egyptian tyrants have abetted these rapacious corporations in reducing their populace to poverty, so they should be kept in place because the alternative might be worse.
Nowhere in this deference to the status quo is there a suggestion that a political solution is possible, even though the political system is largely responsible for the problems that are noted and condemned.
And then when we point out the contraditions and incongruities of this position we are insulted.
Imagine. Corporations are reduced to diddly squat value and all investors' savings , ditto. And then: "what future sources of funding for any of the services and pensions of that society we would all like to see, is going to come from, where class privilege has been abolished along with any means of funding the New Jerusalem."
No generalized statements about "collective ownership and operation of the means of production, freed from the necessity of providing massive profits to private owners and investors, would generate plenty of social capital to provide services and pensions for all."
How do you get from one to the other with no consideration for the welfare - the very lives - of people involved, the institutions needed to bring it about.. Forget 1917. It can't be brought about in that manner, and I've no time for such bloody-mindedness.
aQ: "when we point out the contraditions and incongruities of this position we are insulted." ]
You, aQ, provide the snotty little one-liners: "You suggest you have the key to the solution. Please stop being so coy. Can you add any substance to these hints, or is yapping all you'll contribute?
Take your time responding, though; I have to take my zoot suit to the cleaners now and won't be back for a while."
Where are YOU pointing out anything? Where are YOU NOT insulting? I posted in-depth information about people trying to make a peaceful transition to a society that values Earth first and leading the way to a means to finance the transition.
It is the electorate that brings these monsters to postions of power, and they do so in ignorance of another means of structuring their society. Go to the roots of the problem, the economic structures underlying the political. Try to imagine something else...and have the decency to read and comment on new ideas that are put before you.
Imagine. Corporations are reduced to diddly squat value and all investors' savings , ditto. And then: "what future sources of funding for any of the services and pensions of that society we would all like to see, is going to come from, where class privilege has been abolished along with any means of funding the New Jerusalem."
God forbid we should do anything to curb the rule of the corporations; our very livelihood depends on their continuance as providers of wealth to our workers; without them we'd have nothing. Get rid of capitalism and you make the wealth of the world disappear. Abolish class privilege and money will vanish into thin air.
Who writes your material, George? Arthur Laffer?
You have no alternative ideas for the transition, apparently, that do not involve blood, MS. You simply avoid reality, and now you're getting as bad as aQ.
Lots of people WANT to change the existing situation before our biosphere packs it in. Give them something to go on, a perspective involving the necessary economic AND structural social change, not just repeated rants about what exists. And don't leave them with an either blood or nothing choice. They'll tell you to stuff it, as do I.
Whether or not blood is shed will depend on how hard the capitalists want to fight to hold onto their privileges. Their choice. See, for example, Egypt today.
If you have no appetite for fighting for social change, then you're welcome to remain on the wrong side of history.
I must find some reading that lets me live so vicariously distant from the world.
Imagine. Corporations are reduced to diddly squat value and all investors' savings , ditto. And then: "what future sources of funding for any of the services and pensions of that society we would all like to see, is going to come from, where class privilege has been abolished along with any means of funding the New Jerusalem."
God forbid we should do anything to curb the rule of the corporations; our very livelihood depends on their continuance as providers of wealth to our workers; without them we'd have nothing. Get rid of capitalism and you make the wealth of the world disappear. Abolish class privilege and money will vanish into thin air.
But wait? There are no factories or mills! They've de-industrialized before we had a chance to takeover the means of production! The mills and factories were offshored to Asia! Money is the new commodity. And there aren't even many mints printin money these days - it's all imaginary money created as interest bearing debt and recorded in the bowels of computers. Now what, comrades?
Not get rid of capitalism - get rid of capitalists. Then we takeover what's left of the factories and mills for basic production to meet the needs of workers. And then we get hold of some nanothermite, sneak into the banks and towers on Bay Street, and wait for the signal.
That's the reading material I need, Fidel.
This should get you started.
I must find some reading that lets me live so vicariously distant from the world.
*biting tongue*
I was waiting for a Caribbean beach and frosty Cuba libres and you send me Jack, Jack?
Has anyone else thought over the last 19 days that the Egyptians are showing us what real "hope and change" looks like, as opposed to the ad copy that B. Obama, CEO and Chief Managing Director of USA Inc., has been spouting?
Yeah. Now if we can just get the military to march on Washington the comparison will be (sort of, kinda like) complete (in a way...
They're too busy occupying other capitals like Baghdad and Kabul, and issuing instructions/orders to a few dozen more.
Then if and when they get back home, that Egyptian/'Merican comparison can be made with a straight face? All other things being equal....
Yeah. Now if we can just get the military to march on Washington the comparison will be (sort of, kinda like) complete (in a way...
The whole world saw THE PEOPLE rise to throw out a dictator, giving us all an example of what is possible, and here you are emitting this sort of dismissal. Oh well, carry on in your devotion to the way things are and always have been, but there isn't really anything to say to you any more.
Thank Gaia. I was afraid I was going to be told about how left and right, rabid evangelical and feminist could hold hands together and demand the overthrow of capitalism.
Promise you won't ?
Notwithstanding the ludicrous claims of the mouthfoamers on the right that Barack Obama is non-American Muslim socialist, this president is in fact to progressivism what the Monkees were to rock-and-roll. Except that, for all their flaws and artifice, I can actually stand to listen to the Monkees. Increasingly, I can no longer say that about Obama anymore. Despite the fact that when he speaks he says absolutely nothing – or is it precisely because of that fact? – when this human-platitude-production-machine of a president speaks these days, I can barely stand to listen.
Obama is both symptom and cause. It is now fully clear that he is part of the wrecking crew sent to annihilate the standard of living for 300 million people, so that a handful of plutocrats and oligarchs can add third football-field-sized yachts to their existing two. That an individual of his background and promise (not to mention promises) could sell-out so entirely is saddening and maddening, but ultimately more a statement of egregiousness than novelty. It happens a lot. Indeed, Obama didn’t even pioneer that ugly and shameful path. Bill Clinton did.
Joining us as our guests: Roger Hodge, the author of Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism; Dr Stefan Halper, the former foreign policy advisor to the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations; Ralph Nader, an independent presidential candidate; As'ad Abu Khalil, the founder of the Angry Arab news blog.
al Jazeera: Obama 2.0
wow. As'ad Abu Khalil and Ralph Nader together. i love it.
Has anyone else thought over the last 19 days that the Egyptians are showing us what real "hope and change" looks like, as opposed to the ad copy that B. Obama, CEO and Chief Managing Director of USA Inc., has been spouting?
Sorry AQ (and others here), but we in the USA are in hard times right now, not end times. Not that I intend on convincing anybody here but we are far from being so bad off we'd have to resort to what the Egyptians finally got around to doing; over throwing their government with force. As we all know: good guys don't always win in real life. As I've said before we're not to the point where the majority of 350 million plus people, and that's going to have to be well over 175 million, are willing to risk it all on all out civil war.
And carful what you wish for... [humor]do you really want the 1000 pound gorilla next door going ape shit on it's self?[/humor] I doubt Canada would get through the ordeal unscathed; a flood of millions of refugees fleeing the fighting being the least of it.
Not to take away from what the Egyptians had to do and endure but if it ever came to us down here "overthrowing" our government it isn't going to be no two week long rock fight on the national mall in front of the Capital Building: it's going to be Civil War 2: Hell on Earth. I'm talking warfare on a conventional level on the land, air and sea with organized units, modern equipment and generals commanding armies on both sides. It will be a hot fire indeed at we will rip ourselves apart with (for years probably)... and from the hottest fire comes the hardest steel and you had better hope whatever comes out isn't worst than what went in. I doubt I'll have to worry about it; I'll probably be dead along with millions of others.
Of course the other alterative is the seemingly slow as molasses change you (can't?) see us going through right now. There might be some burst or spurts' of change here and there but for the most part it's going to be a slow grind. I know most here can't stand it... it just isn't fast enough (for some) but for now it's what we down here are content with (and I know that can be aggravating at times).
I prefer that over war any day.
Back to lerking...
The Egyptians haven't overthrown their government. They haven't made a revolution. They haven't taken up armed struggle. They haven't started a civil war.
Could we please dial back the hyperbole?
What they did do was rally in the streets and refuse to be intimidated, until their president was forced to resign. It's nothing that Canadians and Americans couldn't do in their own countries, without even taking up arms.
Whether the struggle in Egypt results in the overthrow of the government and a revolution or a civil war remains to be seen. But mass mobilization of the citizenry is far more promising for "hope and change" than sitting on your ass in front of the TV and the computer, hoping that some capitalist politician you voted for will bring about the change you need.
Exactly, M.
The Egyptians haven't overthrown their government. They haven't made a revolution. They haven't taken up armed struggle. They haven't started a civil war. What they did do was rally in the streets and refuse to be intimidated, until their president was forced to resign.
I understand what you're saying, but I don't totally agree with it, the president and his cabinet are gone, parliament was dissolved and the army is in control as a transitional government until a new government can be elected once the opposition can form political parties to run candidates... I'd call that more than just forcing the president into resignation. They, perhaps unwittingly, over threw the current government without having to tear their country apart (so far). Aside from re-writing their constitution it seems to me they are getting to politically start over again. But that's my perspective of that; yours is obviously a bit different.
You'll never get them past "mass mobilization of the citizenry," BDC. No idea how to get progressives to the tea party. But it has a romantic ring to it.
I don't care if they call it a latte party. Just somebody call for something.
The only mass mobilization of the citizenry that happens in the USA right now is during the Super Bowel.
Besides, that giant rock fight they had those few days last week would have turned into a full blown gun fight in about 10 minutes in the USA, we as citizens are WAY TOO armed to just throw rocks at each other now days.
Yeah that, and the throwing of shoes is so yesterday.
Has anyone else thought over the last 19 days that the Egyptians are showing us what real "hope and change" looks like, as opposed to the ad copy that B. Obama, CEO and Chief Managing Director of USA Inc., has been spouting?
Sorry AQ (and others here), but we in the USA are in hard times right now, not end times. Not that I intend on convincing anybody here but we are far from being so bad off we'd have to resort to what the Egyptians finally got around to doing; over throwing their government with force. As we all know: good guys don't always win in real life. As I've said before we're not to the point where the majority of 350 million plus people, and that's going to have to be well over 175 million, are willing to risk it all on all out civil war.
And carful what you wish for... [humor]do you really want the 1000 pound gorilla next door going ape shit on it's self?[/humor] I doubt Canada would get through the ordeal unscathed; a flood of millions of refugees fleeing the fighting being the least of it.
Not to take away from what the Egyptians had to do and endure but if it ever came to us down here "overthrowing" our government it isn't going to be no two week long rock fight on the national mall in front of the Capital Building: it's going to be Civil War 2: Hell on Earth. I'm talking warfare on a conventional level on the land, air and sea with organized units, modern equipment and generals commanding armies on both sides. It will be a hot fire indeed at we will rip ourselves apart with (for years probably)... and from the hottest fire comes the hardest steel and you had better hope whatever comes out isn't worst than what went in. I doubt I'll have to worry about it; I'll probably be dead along with millions of others.
Of course the other alterative is the seemingly slow as molasses change you (can't?) see us going through right now. There might be some burst or spurts' of change here and there but for the most part it's going to be a slow grind. I know most here can't stand it... it just isn't fast enough (for some) but for now it's what we down here are content with (and I know that can be aggravating at times).
I prefer that over war any day.
Back to lerking...
I highly doubt that there will be a "Civil War 2" in the United States. The security apparatus of Washington is vast and their tentacles are everywhere. In reality Americans saw the last true vestiges of their liberty effectively castrated when the Homeland Security Department was set up and the Patriot Act was passed under Bush. I find it amusing how so many Americans are under the illusion that they are "free". That is utter nonsense.
The US maintains the world's largest prison population and the world's largest internal spying network. Warrantless wiretaps are now routine. Nobody even bothers to remark on it anymore. So there has been change of a sort but not of the kind that I suspect you're thinking of. The political discourse in the United States has certainly become more hysterical and the rise of the Tea Party certainly provides for some amusement in the same way clowns in the circus do but it is all just a ruse to provide the peons with a source of distraction while what remains of the social safety net in their country continues to be slowly dismantled and the union movement is vilified, degraded and destroyed.
Americans will continue to shoot each other in the streets controlled by gangsters and drug lords and they will continue to be slaves of personal debt issued by the banks and credit card companies. High unemployment will keep the peons living in fear for their jobs and their health insurance and thus effectively cowed and silenced.
In this light Obama's hope and change rhetoric was truly hilarious. Not to mention ironic.
The budget U.S. President Barack Obama submitted to Congress on Monday proposes to slap a $5.50 fee on every visitor from Canada who travels to the U.S. by air or by sea.
The fee would not apply to visitors arriving in private vehicles.
Currently, visitors from Canada, Mexico and a number of Caribbean countries are exempt from "passenger inspection fees." It's an exemption these countries have enjoyed since 1997.
But Obama's 2012 draft budget includes a legislative proposal to lift those exemptions - a move that a supporting document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates would bring in an extra $110 million a year.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/02/16/obama-budget-canada-fee.html#ixzz1EDlgkxog
I find it amusing how so many Americans are under the illusion that they are "free". That is utter nonsense.
Well in that case at least we keep each other amused: I find comments like that amusing as well... it's like a humorous what the fuck moment.
It's like me telling you that you better worry about being eaten by a polar bear (you are in Canada where polar bears live after all) next time you step out of your apartment... while based in some facts how ridicules does that sound to you as a Canadian?
It's like me telling you that you better worry about being eaten by a polar bear (you are in Canada where polar bears live after all) next time you step out of your apartment... while based in some facts how ridicules does that sound to you as a Canadian?
In Canada, these specific carnivorous predators live far away from the highly populated areas, while your flesh consuming predators live in Washington and on Wall Street. But you never know what we'll eventually have to contend with if the human predators keep piling on with the planetary scale global warming projects.
Free people are entitled to political change when they vote for it. A mere changing of the corporate guard doesn't count. Beyond that, the last election only witnessed a demonstrated change for the worse.
In Canada, these specific carnivorous predators live far away from the highly populated areas,
Nope, WRONG!, polar bears live in Canada and you're going to get eaten by one right outside your apartment... becouse I know polar bears live in Canada... and I saw this posted this on the internet so it has to be true.
Don't believe me? Stick your head out the front door and see what happens...
Right. So the wall street swindle to the tune of trillions, and the political collaboration of both parties to that end are just the ravings of a bunch of habitual whiners on the internets, and the corporate backpocket ownership of your political processes is a figment of some stoners imagination. The endless need for wars and enemies isn't for the sake of corporate hegemony the world over, but is part and parcel of the entire worldwide peace and freedom crusade. I'm glad that you dropped by to clear that up, because how would we have otherwise thought well of you.
This is not Alaska you know, where one can see everything off the back porch.
Right. So the wall street swindle to the tune of trillions, and the political collaboration of both parties to that end are just the ravings of a bunch of habitual whiners on the internets, and the corporate backpocket ownership of your political processes is a figment of some stoners imagination. The endless need for wars and enemies isn't for the sake of corporate hegemony the world over, but is part and parcel of the entire worldwide peace and freedom crusade. I'm glad that you dropped by to clear that up, because how would we have otherwise thought well of you.
You're still alive? Hummm there's no way I could be wrong... I know! the bears having a hard time gettng to your place...
Ok I'll be serious for a second (and let you off the hook). My post you quoted was not about economics, corruption or whatever... it was about other people, here, telling me how free I am (or am not) with no regard to what I think... please read back up the thread a bit. Care to discuss that?
What makes you think you, up in Canada, can tell me, and I mean me right here, that my freedoms I believe in are a joke without ever really knowing me? As I said before; that sounds as ridiculous as my polar bear posts (which obviously irritated you)... What the fuck do I know about polar bears in Canada to be saying that to you? The answer: I don't know what I'm talking about (polar bears in Canada that is).
Oh and lighten up a bit will ya... that last picture is funny as fuck...
This is not Alaska you know, where one can see everything off the back porch.
A Sarah Palin joke... now we're getting some where.
My post you quoted was not about economics, corruption or whatever... it was about other people, here, telling me how free I am (or am not) with no regard to what I think...
What makes you think you, up in Canada, can tell me, and I mean me right here, that my freedoms I believe in are a joke without ever really knowing me?
I took the liberty of bolding portions of your post to illustrate why I think you are under a serious misapprehension about what freedom means.
Evidently you think freedom is all in your mind, not a matter of objective reality - that as long as you believe you are free, then where do we strangers get off telling you otherwise?
Interesting concept. No need to fight for actual freedoms - just convince yourself you are free and all is well with the world! What's more, nobody else is entitled to challenge your belief.
Some of us here, on the other hand, have this quaint idea that objective reality actually has something to do with the degree of freedom one enjoys.
BDC, you are an example of freedom-hunting America, good as they come, either side of the border. To "fight for actual freedom," is open to interpretation. Define "fight." What does "actual freedom" mean? The syntax will come.
I find it amusing how so many Americans are under the illusion that they are "free". That is utter nonsense.
Well in that case at least we keep each other amused: I find comments like that amusing as well... it's like a humorous what the fuck moment.
It's like me telling you that you better worry about being eaten by a polar bear (you are in Canada where polar bears live after all) next time you step out of your apartment... while based in some facts how ridicules does that sound to you as a Canadian?
I can see no evidence that any real progressive change in the US is underway. The much vaunted HCR bill for instance was really only a rip-off of a conservative plan which is a giant subsidy for insurance providers like Humana which rake in billions. Ordinary Americans will be forced to buy their services in exchange for a few petty, meaningless baubles called "reform".
Yet, the level of hysteria over the intrusion of so called "big government" reached a fever pitch! Obama was going to turn you all into commies! The result? The politcial discourse in your country became even more radicalized towards the right. Your country is being turned into quasi-fascist security state before your very eyes without a shot being fired without realizng at all that the HCR bill is in fact a "big corporate" plan.
I have travelled in your country extensively and the disparity between the wealthy and the poor literally shocked me. Rich gated communities filled with mcmansions surrounded by dilapidated once middle class neighbourhoods stripped of their wealth. You've been looted of your wealth and snookered into blaming the victims of the looting. The elite billionaires who control you laugh as they watch you tear each other apart over the few petty crumbs they allow you.
You think you are free? Good luck with that.
You think you are free? Good luck with that.
Yes and thanks... nice rant by the way
. Let me worry about the Tea Party... and the "quasi-fascist security state" (wow).
@ everyone else: I'm free enough to waste some of my spare time on things I enjoy doing. We got problums, sure, but still it's not all gloom and doom down here.
Obama will be re-elected
BDC: "@ everyone else: I'm free enough to waste some of my spare time on things I enjoy doing. We got problums, sure, but still it's not all gloom and doom down here."
The right is bound to shoot itself in the foot quite often, with all those weapons about, and with Sarah still on the loose, we can only wait in giddy anticipation for the next foot-in-mouth lesson. Go get em BDC.
My post you quoted was not about economics, corruption or whatever... it was about other people, here, telling me how free I am (or am not) with no regard to what I think...
What makes you think you, up in Canada, can tell me, and I mean me right here, that my freedoms I believe in are a joke without ever really knowing me?
I took the liberty of bolding portions of your post to illustrate why I think you are under a serious misapprehension about what freedom means.
Evidently you think freedom is all in your mind, not a matter of objective reality - that as long as you believe you are free, then where do we strangers get off telling you otherwise?
Interesting concept. No need to fight for actual freedoms - just convince yourself you are free and all is well with the world! What's more, nobody else is entitled to challenge your belief.
Some of us here, on the other hand, have this quaint idea that objective reality actually has something to do with the degree of freedom one enjoys.
Never underestimate the power of jingoism, patriotic platitudes and flag waving.
Why deal with reality? That part sucks!
Now this is an interesting development
Wisconsin Protests: State Police Pursue Democratic Lawmakers Boycotting Vote
Wisconsin Democrats on Thursday fled the statehouse in an effort to prevent legislators from reaching a quorum and passing a bill put forth by Gov. Scott Walker (R), which would cripple the collective bargaining rights of public unions.
(Scroll down for the latest updates from Wisconsin)
The move produced a frantic political drama, as state troopers were reportedly sent out to find the fleeing lawmakers and Walker hinted that the National Guard would be called in to fill the void left by protesting union workers.
One Democratic senator told the Associated Press that he and his fleeing colleagues are currently in Illinois.
Their flight further heightened the drama that has surrounded the Wisconsin statehouse this week. On Wednesday there were an estimated 30,000 peacefully rallying in front of the state capitol building, and on Thursday an estimated 25,000 turned out.
Madison public schools are closed for the second day running, as teachers call in sick and students walk out.
Wisconsin is a stronghold of the labor movement -- the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the nation's largest labor unions -- with a long history of successful battles for workers' rights. This is part of the reason the pushback to Walker's bill has been so strong. It's also why, if the bill does pass, the precedent it sets for other conservative governors looking to go after collective bargaining rights is so powerful.
Story continues below
You see, we can take it to our government if we want...
I like how whoever created Enduroman's graph has to tell the reader how many countries fall between #3 and # 21.
Oh, and ON WISCONSIN!
But in the meantime...
Obama has arrived in his element, and he has nothing to be ashamed about. Way back on the campaign trail, he told everyone willing to listen how much he admired President Reagan. So, why be surprised when you get a Reagan-type budget?
"Obama has always been a dangerous, corporate creature."
No, the shame is not Obama's. The people who should be scandalized by the president's budget are the enablers on the Left who abrogated their political responsibility to the people - and to Truth - by inventing an Obama that did not exist, back in 2007 and 2008. The shame of the proposed 2012 budget rests on the heads of those Blacks and progressives in leadership positions who chose to mis-lead their constituencies in '07 and '08, who refused to make even one demand, or even a mild request of Obama, the candidate - and thus rendered Blacks and progressives politically irrelevant. As we at Black Agenda Report and honest analysts like Paul Street pointed out all along, Obama has always been a dangerous, corporate creature. But like the frog that allows the scorpion to hitch a ride on his back across the swollen river, Black and progressive misleaders act shocked and hurt when Obama stings them with his deadly budget halfway through his term. But the frog should have known the nature of a scorpion. Obama's corporate character was no secret to anyone except those who wished not to know
Obamaland, Where Right Meets Center-Right
Now, one doesn't make comparisons thoughtlessly. It would seem hubristic to reference the revolutionary struggles in the Middle East in connection with this. Those struggles, continuing in Egypt and Tunisia, emerging nascently in Saudi Arabia, and manifest in Bahrain, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, and Iran too, are taking place in very different circumstances. But the global crisis that links them is raising the same questions everywhere. It's turning what was a chronic dilapidation and slide in popular living standards into an acute, unbearable crisis for millions.... And sometimes a local struggle resonates far beyond its immediate boundaries and becomes the stimulus for a wave of wider revolts, especially when it taps into something that is popularly perceived as intolerable and for which the ruling class is held responsible. And given what's happening in US states, I'd suggest keeping an eye on Wisconsin, because this could be the trigger for something beautiful.
Source
You see, we can take it to our government if we want...
For now...
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protestors and do not allow free expression, 71-year-old Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes, brutalized and left bleeding in jail. She never paused speaking. When Secretary Clinton began her speech, Mr. McGovern remained standing silently in the audience and turned his back. Mr. McGovern, a veteran Army officer who also worked as a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, was wearing a Veterans for Peace t-shirt.
Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon him, Mr. McGovern remarked, as he was hauled out the door, "So this is America?"
At Clinton Speech: Veteran Bloodied, Bruised
and Arrested for Standing Silently
Democrats correct in Wisconsin; ignore the beating of old veterans in Washington. Why couldn't that insensitive woman have intervened? Perhaps the glare of the lights?
Watch for this thread go beyond bathos to bizaare. Something approaching "Democrats behind bayonetting of babies!"
The protester turned out to be none other than Ray McGovern, veteran Army officer, former CIA analyst who was an intelligence briefer for former President Ronald Reagan and who put together the Presidential Daily Briefs for the first President Bush, and now anti-war/pro-justice activist.
A video of the arrest can be seen here. Notice how Clinton never allows the incident that highlights her hypocrisy to interrupt her speech. While she was giving her sermon from the bully pulpit on how other governments need to be more tolerant of dissent-otherwise they "will eventually find themselves boxed in" in their own "dilemma" where they will "have to choose between letting the walls fall or paying the price to keep them standing"-an elderly American dissident is dragged away in plain sight. I guess Washington has made their "choice."
How did our media cover it? I looked at the New York Times, the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal and as of today I have found no mention of the incident at all. None. Nada. Zilch. One Washington Post blog was about the speech but the arrest of McGovern was nowhere to be found.
"Everybody," naturally, does not include ultrarich dudes like our multi-millionaire president. Obama, who declared a whopping $5.5 million in annual income for 2009 (the last year available), has neither reduced his salary nor donated a penny of his $7.7 million fortune to the Treasury to help adjust to those "new fiscal realities."
Hard times, doncha know, are for the little people. "We had to[my italics] impose a freeze on pay increases for federal workers in the next two years as part of my overall budget freeze," said Obama. "I think those kinds of adjustments are the right thing to do [in Wisconsin]." "Had to." Interesting pair of words. They imply that there was no other choice. What a brazen lie.
Ted Rall
What bullshit edited innuendo.
Name one thing that Obama has done for working people?
Health care? That fetid trillion dollar giveaway to big pharma?
That just doesn't cut it.
Obama has called for a spending freeze government workers pay for the next 5 years while renewing the $700 billion Bush tax cuts at the same time. That's a feat that even Reagan couldn't have managed without igniting a revolt in the ranks. But smooth-talking Obama pulled it off without a hitch. In fact, his devotees are more ga-ga over him than ever.
Two weeks ago, Obama wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal promising to reduce "burdensome" regulations for his friends in big finance. He figured that the trillions they'd already been given wasn't quite enough to keep them happy, so he decided he'd find more rules that he could eliminate.
Then he slithered over to the Chamber of Commerce to assure them that he'd do whatever he could to "change the tone" at the White House to help them increase profitability. Just days later, Obama delivered an entirely different message to striking Wisconsin teachers. He told them that everyone would have to "make sacrifices" to make up for state budget shortfalls. Everyone except his rich friends, that is.
Obama to Teachers: "Drop Dead"Cue the abuse from the resident Obamaphiles.
Veto Costs US Last Shred of Credibility - by Stuart Littlewood
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16674
"Hang your head in shame, O Peace Prize laureate. The Nobel award, said Barack Obama at the time, was 'an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations' and must be shared with everyone who strives 'for justice and dignity.' Where was the justice and dignity in the sad story of America's UN veto?
Having blocked the UN Security Council's draft resolution on Friday, which would have condemned Israeli squatter colonies as illegal, Obama has now written America completely out of the script on Middle East peace."
Obamaland, Where Right Meets Center-Right - by Glen Ford
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obamaland-where-right-meets-center-...
"The First Black President just gave birth to an unmistakeably Republican budget and everybody knows who that ugly baby's daddy is. Obama loves Reagan. Obama has always told everyone in range of his voice that his main goal in life is to forge a grand consensus with the GOP.."
That's a great article, NDPP.
Glad you liked it al-Q - Glen Ford and BAR is one of my faves..
One thing you didn't see during last night's Academy Arwards telecast:
Homeless in Hollywood
Last year, some 254,000 men, women and children were homeless in Los Angeles County (population 10 million) at some point, and 82,000 were on the streets on any given night. Not surprisingly, almost half of them were African-American, though blacks constitute just 9 percent of the county’s population; Latinos make up 47 percent of the county and 33 percent of its homeless. As many as 75 percent of people on the streets are not receiving the public benefits to which they are entitled. Some 20 percent are physically disabled, 25 percent mentally so. ............
Prosecution of Ray McGovern is Dropped
The charges against Ray McGovern have been dropped and the government has decided not to proceed with its prosecution. Mr. McGovern, age 71, was subjected to an outrageous and abusive arrest, which left him bruised and bleeding. He had been standing silently with his back turned to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she delivered her address on Feb. 15 at George Washington University, in which she insisted other governments around the world not stifle free expression.
McGovern was an Army officer and CIA analyst for almost 30 years. He was among the first to expose the corruption of intelligence to "justify" the ongoing wars. He was wearing a Veterans for Peace T-shirt at the time of his arrest.
"Is this Quantico or Abu Ghraib?" asked Rep. Dennis Kucinich in a press release. Good question, congressman. Like the men imprisoned in former President Bush's Iraqi torture chamber, Manning is being abused and humiliated despite having not so much as been tried in a military tribunal, much less convicted of an actual crime.
So much for the constitutional lawyer who ran as the candidate of hope and change.
Remember back when Obama campaigned against such Bush-league torture tactics? Recall when candidate Obama said "government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal"? It appears his opposition to torture and support for whistleblowers was only so much rhetoric. And then he took office.
Under Obama, Better to Commit a War Crime Than Expose Oneby Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis
The White House is aiding the naturally dumb Republicans in dumbing-down debate on rising expenses in medical care:
Dumbing Deficits Down By PAUL KRUGMANHaving a "what were they thinking?" moment recently.
Of huge assistance to the administration's efforts to lower carbon emissions are the committee Republicans who deny climate change, and the lobbies behind them, including agriculture and the fossil fuel fossils:
House Panel Votes to Strip E.P.A. of Power to Regulate Greenhouse Gases By JOHN M. BRODERThe sharply partisan vote, by a subcommittee, chips away at a central pillar of the Obama administration's evolving climate and energy strategy.
Obama approves Pentagon abuse of Manning:
By Glenn Greenwald
In case anyone is wondering what Amnesty is: it's the world's premiere human rights organization which Democrats once held up as authoritative on issues on detainee abuse circa 2001- January 20, 2009 -- remember that?
....
UPDATE V: At a Press Conference just now, ABC News' Jake Tapper asked President Obama about Crowley's comments and Obama replied:
"With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are. I can't go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning's safety as well."
Oh, that's very reassuring -- and such a very thorough and diligent effort by the President to ensure that detainees under his command aren't being abused. He asked the Pentagon and they said everything was great -- what more is there to know?...
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/03/10/amnesty/ind...
These are easy pickings anyway for the Republicans. The media has moved on from sugar coating the Gulf Oil Spill and dead kamikaze birds, so environment is entirely absent from the dim consciousness . The class war is recieving its application now however. The White House knows it's all about jobs out there, notwithstanding the fact that there's little they can do about the situation because they're quite out of control. But everybody knows that when you mention the word environment down there its easily depicted as unfriendly to jobs. The environment is wide open as a result because there's little pushback.
It's several hundred years later...
WTF has Obama done so far?
He's done plenty.
Continued rendition of alleged terrorists to countries where they could be tortured.
Opposed marriage equality by appealing challenges to DOMA, the so-called "Defence of Marriage Act".
Blocked the release of photos documenting the torture and abuse of detainees by the US military.
Continued the practice of indefinite detention for alleged terrorists.
Refused to sign a treaty banning the use of land mines.
Extended the Patriot Act without making any reforms.
Pushed for mandatory DNA testing of those arrested for crimes, regardless of whether they have been convicted.
Just click on the smart ass Oblama replies and find many, many more. Oh yeah.
These are easy pickings anyway for the Republicans. The media has moved on from sugar coating the Gulf Oil Spill and dead kamikaze birds, so environment is entirely absent from the dim consciousness . The class war is recieving its application now however. The White House knows it's all about jobs out there, notwithstanding the fact that there's little they can do about the situation because they're quite out of control. But everybody knows that when you mention the word environment down there its easily depicted as unfriendly to jobs. The environment is wide open as a result because there's little pushback.
In the "old days," the electorate were capable of keeping more than one issue in their mind at election time. Is it the neo-conservative atmosphere of hatred that reduces it to one idea/one person campaigning ? Does it come from the neo-conservative hatred of "liberalism" expressed by the late Irving Kristol in a 1993 essay, "My Cold War" : "So far from having ended, my cold war has increased in intensity as sector after sector of American life has been ruthlessly corrupted by the liberal ethos ...(with) political and social collectivism on the one hand, and moral anarchy on the other...We have, I do believe, reached a critical turning point in the history of the American democracy. Now that the other 'Cold War' is over, the real cold war has begun."
That's the attitude of the Republicans, stateside, and what Stephen Harper and the Calgary School have brought to political life here.
Kristol experinced politics of the left, beginning in the 1940s: "So left-wing politics has within it the seeds of its own frustration. And this frustration always takes the form of denouncing the party leadership for lacking sufficient devotion to the party's ideals and sufficient determination to realize them." And while the right unravels the progressive structures built over the post-war period -their troops motivated by hatred - the left whines in frustration. Seems to me there's no time like the present to come to some understanding of the enemy's motivation for its complete lack of respect for convention and Parliamentary rules...hatred for us.
a bit of realism before this thread is closed for length:
Obama will be re-elected in 2012.
When did "realism" become a relative term?
Here's how the Democrats should play the political game.
The NYTimes Gail Collins on
Eye of the Newt By GAIL COLLINSThanks to Newt Gingrich, we have learned of the link between patriotism and adultery.
The Obama Disaster, At Home and Abroad
Nellie Bailey, of Harlem Fightback Against Wars at Home and Abroad, challenged hundreds of protesters to "seize the moral high ground that has slipped away under the false illusion that Barack Obama represents the interests of working class people, much less working class Black people."
Professor of Africana Studies, Bill Sales, asked, "How can Obama represent us, when he compromises with people who are trying to beat our brains out." Obama, said Sales, "is a moderate Republicrat corporate lawyer. Don't drink the Kool-Aid."
Charles Barron, a New York City Councilman, said the "last straw" for him was when Obama called up the president of South Africa demanding that former Haitian President Aristide be prevented from returning to his homeland. In a debate three years ago, Councilman Barron told me that he supported Obama, despite misgivings, because he wanted "to give a brother a shot." Well, Obama has proven he ain't no brother. He has shot his wad, and Black America will be a healthier place when he is gone.
Heh. I misspelled the captcha on purpose and it allowed me to post the above.
Closed for length.