Obama: "I am a New Democrat"
March 16, 2009 - 4:52am
And that doesn't mean he has an ideological affinity with the NDP.
President Barack Obama firmly resists ideological labels, but at the end of a private meeting with a group of moderate Democrats on Tuesday afternoon, he offered a statement of solidarity.
“I am a New Democrat,” he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session.
The group is comprised of centrist Democratic members of the House, who support free trade and a muscular foreign policy but are more moderate than the conservative Blue Dog Coalition.
Obama made his comment in discussing his budget priorities and broader goals, also calling himself a “pro-growth Democrat” during the course of conversation.
The self-descriptions are striking given Obama’s usual caution in being identified with any wing of his often-fractious party. He largely avoided the Democratic Leadership Council — the centrist group that Bill Clinton once led — and, with an eye on his national political standing, has always shied away from the liberal label, too.
As recently as last week, he steadfastly refused to define his governing philosophy.
Asked in an interview with The New York Times to describe if he was a liberal, socialist or progressive, Obama demurred.
“No, I’m not going to engage in that,” he said, before calling back the reporters later in the day to question why they would even ask if he is a socialist.
Surrounded by 65 moderate Democrats on Tuesday in the State Dining Room, Obama was happy to portray himself as simpatico with a group of members who are largely socially liberal but fiscally more moderate to conservative.
He said he “supports free and fair trade,” according to one attendee, and noted that he was “very concerned about a return to protectionism."
“I am a New Democrat,” he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session.
The group is comprised of centrist Democratic members of the House, who support free trade and a muscular foreign policy but are more moderate than the conservative Blue Dog Coalition.
Obama made his comment in discussing his budget priorities and broader goals, also calling himself a “pro-growth Democrat” during the course of conversation.
The self-descriptions are striking given Obama’s usual caution in being identified with any wing of his often-fractious party. He largely avoided the Democratic Leadership Council — the centrist group that Bill Clinton once led — and, with an eye on his national political standing, has always shied away from the liberal label, too.
As recently as last week, he steadfastly refused to define his governing philosophy.
Asked in an interview with The New York Times to describe if he was a liberal, socialist or progressive, Obama demurred.
“No, I’m not going to engage in that,” he said, before calling back the reporters later in the day to question why they would even ask if he is a socialist.
Surrounded by 65 moderate Democrats on Tuesday in the State Dining Room, Obama was happy to portray himself as simpatico with a group of members who are largely socially liberal but fiscally more moderate to conservative.
He said he “supports free and fair trade,” according to one attendee, and noted that he was “very concerned about a return to protectionism."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19862.html
Well he is certainly no socialist:
If being a "new Democrat" means being "pro-growth", does that mean that being a "non-new Democrat" means favouring economic shrinkage?
Absolutely. Many tumours have benefited from it.
He's generating economic growth on the Danforth in Toronto.
http://torontoist.com/2009/03/an_obamanation_on_the_danforth.php
The so-called New Democrats with whom Barack Obama identifies are, next to the House Blue Dogs, the most rightwing of Democratic reps in Congress, with considerable overlap between the two groups. In fact, several House New Democrats are also Blue Dogs. New Democrats supported the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and continual increases in the military budget. They all supported the bailout, and uphold No Child Left Behind and favor the gradual dismantling and privatization of public education in the US which NCLB set in motion. New Democrats are tepid at best on the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers across the country the legal standing workers have in many other advanced industrial countries to fight for wage and benefit increases and respect and dignity on the job.
And despite the fact that single payer health care would create 2.6 million new jobs and cover all the uninsured while costing no more than the present and profoundly broken health care system, New Democrats prefer a healthy private insurance sector to a healthy population. They know that families who do not fear losing their precious medical benefits will be less afraid to organize and strike and fight for better wages and conditions. New Democrats favor throwing trillions at banks to "revive" the economy, but are willing to cut or gut Social Security. All these policy positions, and the New Democrat label itself are the heritage of the Democratic Leadership Council, with which Obama was briefly affiliated early in his career, but forced to disavow. Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a leading New Democrat in the Congress, has always been a stalwart of the Democratic Leadership Council. Emmanuel used corporate campaign cash to run pro-war Democrats against antiwar Democrats in 2006 and 2008.
As potent as the DLC-New Democrat brand is, it is also poisonous. As a candidate for the Democratic nomination to the US Senate in 2003, Obama urgently needed to lock down the progressive, black and antiwar vote in his home state of Illinois, and was compelled to renounce the Democratic Leadership Council. That was then. This is now. Perhaps the president feels himself untouchable and unaccountable now that he is safely in the White House. Maybe he was just relaxed. Whatever the case, the truth of where his political allegiance lies is no longer a matter of conjecture.
The Democratic Leadership Council has always been "Republicans-lite," a pack of corporate funded Trojan Horses inside the Democratic Party responsible to their funders, and not to the Democratic Party's base. Now President Obama has assumed his place, as the leader of that pack.
Bruce Dixon
Obamacare: A Health Care Rationing Scheme to Enrich Insurers, Drug Companies and Large Hospital Chains
http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1025463
"Behind the facade of reform, Obama and leading Dems ruled universal, single-payer coverage off the table before debate even began.."
Just so long as he doesnt start calling himself a social democrat.
People have referred to everyone from Marx to Stalin as communists. And it's about as accurate as saying that both Martin Luther King Jr. and Governor George Wallace were Christians.
Not What Obama Promised
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/44605
"The key lesson should be that change does not come from electing someone."
Not What Obama Promised
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/44605
"The key lesson should be that change does not come from electing someone."
Oh Americans know they were being lied to. Like Canadians have become used to it with Liberals and Tories in federal power since 1867, Americans, too, have bcome conditioned to expect no significant changes whichever the two old line parties win power. It's really a one party dictatorship in the US as it is here with the two wings of the same big business and banking party swapping power back and forth and sharing it decade after decade, century to century. Obama's presidential campaign donors on Wall Street to Silicon Valley filled his war chest to overflowing with money. And they expect political favours now that he's president. Too, even wealthy people in the States stopped trusting crazy George's Republicans with the economy. Obama was pre-selected by the superrich in America and shoved into the presidency. They needed a human face to carry through with the taxpayer-shouldered bailouts for Wall Street and friends and the warfiteering agenda.
But that's not going to happen in Canada for the NDP. Liberals or Tories (and now both) always form the pre-selected federal government here. We dont have presidential elections for one thing. And the NDP still has to do the small time fundraising, like raffling off pies and pastries, auctions, bake sales etc. A Canadian equivalent of Warren Buffet or Goldman Sachs will not be shovelling money the NDP's way anytime soon. And Jack wouldnt owe any favours to the big banks, big pharma, or military-industrial complex either. With Jack and the NDP, what you see is what you get.
Obama Lies on Two Continents, is Denounced in New York:
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama-lies-two-continents-de...
"Barack Obama may be the most effective prpagandist for US imperialism in a very long time. But his narrative to AFricans is built on blatant falsehoods, and his spiel to Black America is fundamentally dishonest and evasive. Demonstrators in Manhatten declared: "We will no longer tolerate a message from within our community, that the policies of Barack Obama cannot be criticized.."
Obama Escalates Assault on Public Education
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/educ-j25.shtml
"Now the Obama administration is promoting education 'reform' that will deepen a new system of segregation in education - along class rather than racial lines.."
The Biden and Clinton Mutinies
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07312009.html
"Time bombs tossed seemingly casually in the past month by his vice president and his secretary of state, disclose president Obama, in the dawn of his first term, already the target of carefully mediated onslaughts by senior members of his own cabinet.."
Obama Sends A Signal to the Few Remaining Suckers Who Believe in the Rule of Law:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3-articles/1809-oba...
"For anyone still harboring a few scraps of vestigal hope that a change of administration effected by the 2008 election would restore even a thin, weak, straggly, lineament thin of the rule of law in the United States, the recent opinion piece by Barack Obama's hand-picked CIA chief, the doleful Establishment water-toter Leon Panetta will tell you all you need to know..."
Obama Seeks to Institutionalize Indefinite Detention
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/pers-a05.shtml
"Press reports have revealed that the Obama administration is considering the creation of a prison and court administration on US soil to process and hold current and future terrorist suspects.."
US Military Base plan Fuels Latin American Tensions:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/laam-a05.shtml
"US Army, Airforce and Navy would be granted access to total of 7 installations scattered across Columbia for a period of at least 10 years.."
US Healthcare Lobby Pumps Millions into Obama's 'Reform' Effort
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/lobs-a05.shtml
"the health care industry is pumping in record amounts of cash to the politicians involved.."
White House Affirms Deal with Big Pharma
http://www.opednews.com/populum/link.php?id=95010
Video - John Pilger: Obama is a Corporate Marketing Creation
http://www.gawkk.com/john-pilger-obama-is-a-corporate-marketing-creation...
i heard he's a vampire too.
I think the USA is at much more of a threat from within, rather than from wiithout. A Secret Service job for this President must be a nitemare. Do these gun-toting folks realize what will happen to the USA if the President gets attacked. And don't think that Canada would necessarily escape the violence.
Man carrying assault weapon attends Obama protest
PHOENIX - About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday - the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.
Gun-rights advocates say they're exercising their constitutional right to bear arms and protest, while those who argue for more gun control say it could be a disaster waiting to happen.
Phoenix police said the gun-toters at Monday's event, including the man carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, didn't need permits. No crimes were committed, and no one was arrested.
The man with the rifle declined to be identified but told The Arizona Republic that he was carrying the assault weapon because he could. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms," he said.
Phoenix police Detective J. Oliver, who monitored the man at the downtown protest, said police also wanted to make sure no one decided to harm him.
"Just by his presence and people seeing the rifle and people knowing the president was in town, it sparked a lot of emotions," Oliver said. "We were keeping peace on both ends."
Last week, during Obama's health care town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., a man carrying a sign reading "It is time to water the tree of liberty" stood outside with a pistol strapped to his leg.
"It's a political statement," he told The Boston Globe. "If you don't use your rights, then you lose your rights."
Police asked the man to move away from school property, but he was not arrested.
Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University political scientist, said the incidents in New Hampshire and Arizona could signal the beginning of a disturbing trend.
"When you start to bring guns to political rallies, it does layer on another level of concern and significance," Solop said. "It actually becomes quite scary for many people. It creates a chilling effect in the ability of our society to carry on honest communication."
He said he's never heard of someone bringing an assault weapon near a presidential event. "The larger the gun, the more menacing the situation," he said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hctDBUKMR4V-lGBrEQcYNO...
Well, this ought to help the NDP brain trust in their attempt to borrow some of the shine off of Obama
If what the CBC news reported tonite is accurate, and Obama does drop the public aspect to his health care plan, our public Canadian health care willl be under additional pressure and we will feel the heat.
Perhaps - but chances are that a public-optionless health insurance reform will turn out to be a chronic pain for American politicians and not something that invites emulation. Coverage will be expanded but at a great and uncontrolled cost. Subsidizing private insurance for the uncovered won't be cheap. The insurers will have seen to that if there's no public competition to them and no public power to negotiate pricing. The angle our privatizers will work on is the question of whether the Canadian health care system should look more like the one in France but with their own special emphasis on contracting health care work now done in the public sector to the private sector. These are more complex and difficult arguments to counter.
There is no margin in failure for any Democratic politician in this country, including Blue Dogs. And that is why the progressives, the safest Democrats in Washington, should stand firm and say they will not vote for a plan without a public option. If the administration understands that they will have no plan otherwise, they will have to accommodate their base and twist the arms of enough Blue Dogs and Senate Corporate lackeys to pass it.
The "lesson" of doing otherwise is that all the right has to do is unleash the teabaggers with a pile of unadulterated bullshit and the administration will cave.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/lesson-by-digby-following-post-be...Insurance companies are delighted with the way "reform" is unfolding. Think of it: The government is planning to require most uninsured Americans to buy health coverage. Millions of young and healthy individuals will be herded into the industry's welcoming arms. This is the population the insurers drool over.
This additional business - a gold mine - will more than offset the cost of important new regulations that, among other things, will prevent insurers from denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing conditions or imposing lifetime limits on benefits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/opinion/18herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinio...Americans are waking up to the reality of buyers remourse. they did not get what they paid for. the great hope has become the great big bust.
Obama whose party is in power in teh house, senate and wh lost the media battle the moment they announced their health care policy. americans already have socialized medicine for vetrans yet no one would dare call it socialized medicine.
They target Canadian health care system which is far from perfect but still better than many americans will ever have.
Not just for veterans. For seniors and the poor as well.
Instead of playing it coy, Obama should have drawn lines from the beginning. Despite what the opposition says, there is no real Obama health care plan. He set goals, but introduced no formal plan. Leaving it to congress to come up with a specific one. He was trying to avoid what about to Clinton in 93-94. But, obviously not understanding the nature of his opposition, and refusing to call them out, he may end up with the same result.
Barack Obama: Front Man for 'The Man'
http://www.creative-i.info/?p=9944
"Surely it's obvious that Obama is a puppet on a string..?"
Obama's CIA past?
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2009/08/names-obama-barack-obama.html
"the eye-opener here concerns Obama's first job out of college. He was recruited by Business International Corporation, accused of functioning as a CIA front-company.."
Barack Obama: Front Man for 'The Man'
http://www.creative-i.info/?p=9944
"Surely it's obvious that Obama is a puppet on a string..?"
Not really. He seems less puppet-ish than George W. Bush was, in that he's more than just a smiling face in front of other people providing the agenda. But he is honestly and truly a centrist and that causes a problem because he seems to feel that if he's not getting at least partial buy-in on policy from Republicans and right-leaning Democrats, he's not doing his job properly.
Obama Administration Seeks "Emergency Control" of the Internet
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2009/08/obama-administration-see...
"You have to hand it to congressional Democrats. Mendacious grifters whose national security agenda is virtually indistinguishable from Bushist Republicans, when it comes to rearranging proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic, the party of "change" is second to none in the "all terrorism all the time" department.."
Every president since Jack Kennedy was murdered has been a handpicked stooge of the bankers and the secret police. How could it be otherwise? The lesson of Kennedy's murder is plain on the page: "fuck with us and you pay." Young John threated to run for president and reopen the investigation. Had a plane crash. They murdered his whole family so as not to make the same mistake again of having a young Kennedy grow up and oppose them. No one will ever be subjected to any justice because of those murders.
Bam seems like a smart kid. Why, why I ask you, would a smart fellow martyr himself for posterity? The Kennedy lesson is plain on the page: no one will ever pay for that crime (except for that CIA/FBI patsy that took the bullet in the Dallas copshop.) Therefore, in realpolitik terms, it's irrelevant. The Big Dog (Clinton) is rich. All he had to do is stay alive for two terms without pissing off the bankers, then retire and reap the benefits. A good servant of the Round Table-ists (the "Chatham House Mob"?)
The US is a crime family, like the Mafia but it is now an Uebermob. Who in that context would dare to stick his neck out? For what? For the penurious gratitude of a lot of little "nobodies" (ie., like us workers in the mass)? Jean Chretien told 'em we ain't sending troops to Iraq. What happened immediately afterward? SARS in Ontario.. mad cow in Alberta.. massive forest fires in BC.. all of which cost this country billions. Lesson learned. Gangster logic: "fuck with us and you pay."
Just my opinion though. Crazy old tin foil hat musician guy.
The 16th Term: Obama's New Betrayals are Old
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1831-...
"Bush's third term? You're living it.."
ps: which is why NDP missives by Brad Lavigne re "Change You Can Believe in" grow exceedingly tiresome. Would you really vote for a party that still doesn't get it with Obama or that offers deals to the Tories? Not I.
Insurance Stocks Rise After Obama Speech
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090910_insurance_stocks_ri...
"Remember President Obama's reference during his health care address to "Wall St's relentless profit expectations"? Well those expectations were apparently met by that same address.."
Obama cant be expected to change the world...
but as a person, if you read all his bios/ and speeches and past lifestyle
he is the typical guy that isnt a religious extremist or left wing extremist and cares for everyone and although he cant change the world, all that matters firstly is a good soul , great respectful person is a leader...
Obama has to contend with all those raving kooks who label him as a "socialist" (like it's a terrible thing), marxist, the same as hitler, 'house servant to the antichrist, he's bad because he's from Chicago, blablablablabla.....
For reasonable people this kind of talk is obviously ridiculous but the trouble is that it has legs in USA society. It seems that some people in the Republican party and other toxic ideologues get ahold of this and proclaim it like gospel truth. There are legions of really dumb people who eat this up. I suspect that Obama is being cautious not to give these people any ammunition to use against him. The gun-nut crowd doesn't like him either.
Cud and Complicity: Burying the Alternatives to Empire's Dominion
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1943-...
"Oh come on, Ralph! Democracy and the rule of law? Don't be so unserious? Don't be so unrealistic? Don't you like the taste of cud? Here try a little spoonful, just a taste..You'll soon get used to it..just like the rest of us.."
A friend by the name of Peter, retired advertising ideas guy, has this take on what the neo-con/southerner/teabagger element have done to Obama: "The Right is so relentless. They've effectively put GObama back on the plantation. "You lie. boy" during his first State of the Nation address. The "boy" part was my edit, but was so unstatedly subtextual."
The health bill vote takes place in the U.S.Congress today. Just in case it fails, and the cry goes up that Pres. Obama has failed again, it would seem that his colour is central to the outcome. As Joan Walsh describes the emerging scene, in Salon today:
"So I'm having a hard time tonight trying to believe almost uniformly white tea partiers are anything other than a racist, right-wing reaction to the election of an African American president who brings with him feminists and gays (even if he doesn't do as much for them as they would ideally like). I'm having a hard time seeing the tea partiers as anything other than the spawn of George Wallace racism - the movement Pat Buchanan bragged to me that Richard Nixon made his own. Of course, in that same "Hardball" segment, Buchanan denounced me for condescending to and "demonizing" the tea partiers. I still find that rich: I grew up in lower middle class Long Island, with a first-generation Irish father, going to public schools and universities, while the wealthy Buchanan grew up in Washington D.C. with professionals as parents and attended Georgetown University. How is he the supposed working class troubadour while I'm somehow emblematic of the pointy-headed liberal elite?
"Democrats are lame about fighting stupid class-based slurs like that, which is part of why this health care fight has dragged on and become so bitter. But I think a lot of Democrats were horrified by the ugliness they saw today, and I'm hoping that helps pass health care reform on Sunday."
may be very tight, but key Democrats think votes are there now,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100321/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul
including Babble favourites Dennis Kucinich and Socialist Bernie Sanders:
www.realclearpolitics.com/2010/03/20/fight_republicans039_hypocrisy_231233.html
the "closing arguments" for the Obama plan:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/closing-arguments
I have the bubbly ready, go team!
Memo to liberals: On the White House Death Warrants:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1953-...
"Let us hear no more excuses for Barack Obama...let us be done at last with all these wretched lies, these complicitous self-deceptions that are facilitating atrocity and tyranny on a monstrous scale..."
'learning from the best' - Brad Lavigne
Yep, NDP = dixiecrats
therefore: NDP = warmongering plutocrats
logicians take note
Let the silly ass carry on with development of his propaganda skills, Fidel. He might not have appreciated Obama's work in south Chicage, either, even if he knew anything about it.
Yep, NDP = dixiecrats
therefore: NDP = warmongering plutocrats
logicians take note
This, from the logician who equates believing that crashing aircraft were instrumental in the destruction of the World Trade Center with supporting George Bush.
OK, I get it. You've been joking all along. Ha ha, you're a funny guy.
I don't know if you saw this, George, so I'll bump it for NoDiff:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1953-...
"Let us hear no more excuses for Barack Obama...let us be done at last with all these wretched lies, these complicitous self-deceptions that are facilitating atrocity and tyranny on a monstrous scale..."
How does a Good Democrat loyalist square such horrific abuses with the "progressive" President?
Yep, NDP = dixiecrats
therefore: NDP = warmongering plutocrats
logicians take note
This, from the logician who equates believing that crashing aircraft were instrumental in the destruction of the World Trade Center with supporting George Bush.
OK, I get it. You've been joking all along. Ha ha, you're a funny guy.
So was the official 9/11 conspiracy theory the one time when crazy George and his criminal regime told you the truth? In one sentence or less, what makes you think thousands of independent professionals doubting the war criminals could be wrong? The various truther civil society groups are not hippies protesting a phony war in VietNam. Very many are serious people with serious credentials. And I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of people in general. I can only hope that your Let's accept what crazy George and his people had to say and ignore everyone else style of reasoning doesnt rub off on too many people around you.
Science in the Bush: When Politics Displaces Physics
Home Free: No Worries for Dr K as Complicity is Revealed
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1954-...
"Just think, it was once a 'scandal' that an American secretary of state gave the green light to a program of 'targeted killings'--assassinations--murders--that he knew as about to take place. Poor old Henry Kissinger...Why nowadays, we have US Presidents openly ordering the murder of American citizens and nobody bats an eye...American presidents murder people. What's the big deal?"
....whatever...
The point, once more, is that you're accusing people of being pro-Bush on the basis of their not going along with your particular theory.
You're either not paying any attention to what's being said to you or you're deliberately putting everyone on.
....whatever...
The point, once more, is that you're accusing people of being pro-Bush on the basis of their not going along with your particular theory.
You're either not paying any attention to what's being said to you or you're deliberately putting everyone on.
Well youre wrong again. None of these are my theories - they are points of view with which I tend to agree until more information is made available. And that's all. The truth movement is comprised of thousands of people who have come to a general consensus that there is an ongoing conspiracy to avoid a legitimate investigation into the events of 9/11. Your attempt to single me out or anyone else as the lone author of these slanderous claims made against the crazy George Bush era war criminals is invalid. And I think truther arguments are far more substantial and worthy of support than those of the Bush government whackos and those currently in the White House and covering up Bush era crimes ranging from false flag terrorism to mass murder of people in foreign countries they bombed and invaded illegally.
What I think could be true is that some conservatives in North America - but not all - grew weary of the Bush era lies and crimes. In some respects, some conservatives feel they must make a united stand with the former Bush government for the sake of pulling out at least one victory from an era that was wrought with lies and deception and crimes against humanity. No, I doubt very much we will convince them otherwise that those years were all bad. In their minds Bush and his Republican conservatives in government then must have had at least some redeeming qualities. The truth is that they are crooks and liars and war criminals who should be in prison right now.
Well youre wrong again. None of these are my theories - they are points of view with which I tend to agree until more information is made available.
Prevaricate all you want, but none of what you said justifies your accusing those who don't agree with the opinion you espouse as supporters of George Bush.
Well youre wrong again. None of these are my theories - they are points of view with which I tend to agree until more information is made available.
Prevaricate all you want, but none of what you said justifies your accusing those who don't agree with the opinion you espouse as supporters of George Bush.
Well I can say without a doubt that I DO NOT now support crazy George or his former government of war criminals and climate science denialists nor have I ever and neither do I plan to in future.
And I've never once said that babblers can not express favour for any of that recent US government of war criminals or any of their falsified reports on 9/11 full of lies and deception. Not once.
Obama's opponents have long described him as a socialist. But what do actual socialists think about Obama? Not much, says Wharton.
Now, now...he can pronounce "nuclear" properly and that has to be worth something.
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The Financial Power Elite - Foster et al
Good one. "Learning from the best"
Having noted the very close links between the financial oligarchy and the Obama regime, it should also be noted that the political right/religious fundamentalists/racists are praying for the death of the US President. Their numbers on Facebook are now 1,000,000.
Feel the hate
Obama Promoted To Senior Vice President Of American Affairs
Obama, whose work on health care reform reportedly caught the eye of the nation's higher-ups, has eagerly accepted the more prestigious new position and will join the 12 other members of the American Affairs division starting Monday. He replaces outgoing SVPAA Tom Coleman, who was promoted in February to Chief Administrative Officer of America's North Atlantic Branch.
Pending final approval from the National Board of Directors, Friday will be Obama's last day as President of the United States.
"Barack is clearly a go-getter and one of our brightest up-and-coming talents," Vice Chairman of America Bill Donaldson was quoted in the statement as saying. "His work in the financial and international sectors shows promise and a capacity for handling some of the more difficult issues this country faces. He is young and this will be a lot of responsibility for him, but we're excited to bring him to headquarters and watch him grow."
How very clever, in a non-engaged, left liberal, fashionable manner.
Oh, do cheer up George.
Obama's Betrayal of the Working Class
http://www.observer.com/2010/opinion/obamas-betrayal-working-class
"As voters ponder the curious failure of the ruling Democratic Party even to pursue meaningful economic relief for millions of desperate and jobless Americans, it might be useful to recall certain passages from President Obama's best selling campaign manifesto, The Audacity of Hope..."
How can anyone who has observed GOP obstruction to anything proposed by Obama be taken in by such clap-trap?
No concern for a display of ignorance of current affairs?
As Krugman points out in the Sept. 19 NYTimes:
"The rage of the rich has been building ever since Mr. Obama took office. At first, however, it was largely confined to Wall Street. Thus when New York magazine published an article titled "The Wail Of the 1%," it was talking about financial wheeler-dealers whose firms had been bailed out with taxpayer funds, but were furious at suggestions that the price of these bailouts should include temporary limits on bonuses. When the billionaire Stephen Schwarzman compared an Obama proposal to the Nazi invasion of Poland, the proposal in question would have closed a tax loophole that specifically benefits fund managers like him.
Now, however, as decision time looms for the fate of the Bush tax cuts - will top tax rates go back to Clinton-era levels? - the rage of the rich has broadened, and also in some ways changed its character.
For one thing, craziness has gone mainstream. It's one thing when a billionaire rants at a dinner event. It's another when Forbes magazine runs a cover story alleging that the president of the United States is deliberately trying to bring America down as part of his Kenyan, "anticolonialist" agenda, that "the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s." When it comes to defending the interests of the rich, it seems, the normal rules of civilized (and rational) discourse no longer apply."
The guy's up against not only privilege and mainstream racism, he also has to contend with impatience on the part of the self-styled progressive...who, of course, can't be bothered with reading anything mainstream.
How can anyone who has observed GOP obstruction to anything proposed by Obama be taken in by such clap-trap?
No concern for a display of ignorance of current affairs?
To paraphrase Chomsky there's really only one party in America, the big business party, with two right wings...As for Obama? Bushdark. The GOP don't seem to be 'obstructing' his massive Global War[CRIMES] of Terror GWOT, or blank -cheque bank bailouts, or guns and money for criminal regimes like Israel too much as near as I can tell...
Try reading:
"For one thing, craziness has gone mainstream. It's one thing when a billionaire rants at a dinner event. It's another when Forbes magazine runs a cover story alleging that the president of the United States is deliberately trying to bring America down as part of his Kenyan, "anticolonialist" agenda, that "the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s." When it comes to defending the interests of the rich, it seems, the normal rules of civilized (and rational) discourse no longer apply."
"As for Obama? Bushdark."
"Bushdark?" Wonder where in the south that was coined? But, obviously, now coinage of the racially unconcerned.
Do you suppose that if Obama decided to get out of the Middle East entirely and to cease supporting Israel, financially or politically, that the GOP would continue to stay out of his way?
I'm excluding the "blank cheque" bailouts because those did come with strings, though perhaps not sufficient strings to satisfy some.
"Do you suppose that if Obama decided to get out of the Middle East entirely and to cease supporting Israel, financially or politically, that the GOP would continue to stay out of his way?"
I'm trying to imagine in a land of nutbars and ignorance, a candidate for president successfully laying that out for them.
"As for Obama? Bushdark."
"Bushdark?" Wonder where in the south that was coined? But, obviously, now coinage of the racially unconcerned.
"dark. OE. deorc from P. Gmc 'derkaz, 'Absence of light', Evincing black or foul traits of character; vile; wicked, atrocious; as, a dark villain; a dark deed.."
George and NDPP, no ironic or "straight" racism, FFS. Stop it now.
Welcome to the Theatre of the Absurd
Obama's foray was particularly absurd and insidious. While he oversees a foreign policy involving mass murder and war crimes in several countries, Obama exhorts to the world to get serious about fighting poverty and human suffering. With his typical rhetoric of "deep concern" that sounds increasingly hollow, the US president said that we need to move beyond "managing poverty... to provide paths out of poverty". He deplored "dependence" on Western aid (sic) and called for greater accountability among poorer nations.
Absurd it is. It's socialism for fat-cat Wall Street bankers. $13 trillion dollars worth and counting.
But the guy is one up on our all Waiting for Godot.
VLADIMIR: We're waiting for Godot. ESTRAGON: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You're sure it was here? VLADIMIR: What? ESTRAGON: That we were to wait. ...
www.samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part1.html - Cached - Similar
Or did I hear that someday the critics will in fact present a plan of action? :)
Thousands Rally in Karachi For Aafia Siddiqui, Burn Obama Effigy
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/301774
"In a recent interview, Siddiqui's sister pleaded to the US President for her release. Siddiqui is being held in a prison facility in Carswell, Texas. It is believed that it's the most brutal prison in the US and the world...In September, Aafia Siddiqui, a neuroscientist and president of the Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching was found guilty with the intent of murdering her US interrogators in Afghanistan. The jury handed Siddiqui an 86-year prison sentence.."
Obama Free Aafia Siddiqui
http://www.freeaafia.org/
Obama Free Leonard Peltier
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/obama-free-leonard-peltier/
Obama - no difference president..
Nope, still no action proposed, just mindless repetition of a theme. The politics of personality. But re-activating a three-month-old thread, he's outdoing his earlier schoolboy efforts.
No Recovery Under Rule of Bankers - by Glen Ford
http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/no-recovery-under-rule-bankers
"When the history of the era is written, Barack Obama's term in office will be remembered as the period when Wall St. achieved its definitive conquest of the American state, thus depriving the society of the means to avoid economic and social disaster...
So what do you prefer - poverty or an uprising? Those are the only choices."
Obama's Afghanistan Review: A Whitewash of a Disastrous Occupation
http://www.alternet.org/world/149321/obama's_afghanistan_review%3A_a_whitewash_of_a disastrous_occupation/
"According to the Obama administration, nothing can happen in the US war in Afghanistan that doesn't mean good news..."
Obama Year Two: Continued Betrayal And Failure (Part 1)
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/12/obama-year-two-continued-betrayal-...
"Last December, a two-part article discussed Obama's year one betrayal and failure...In year two, the pattern continued, revealing domestic and foreign policies that; -- outdid George Bush by exceeding his harshness, lawlessness, belligerency and public trust supporting capital, not public welfare, including targeting middle class households for destruction - looted the nation's wealth, wrecked the economy and consigned growing millions to impoverishment without jobs, homes, savings, social services, or futures.."
Notice how George selectively quotes from the Marxist Stephen Lendman in a desperate attempt to make him sound "conservative"! The little "..." ellipsis in the middle represents the words "belligerency and public trust supporting capital, not public welfare, including".
And the ellipsis at the end of George's little quote represents "looted the nation's wealth, wrecked the economy and consigned growing millions to impoverishment without jobs, homes, savings, social services, or futures."
Yet George still has trouble distinguishing valid left criticism from the ravings of the tea party. Not even George Lakoff would be so confused.
Yet George still has trouble distinguishing valid left criticism from the ravings of the tea party. Not even George Lakoff would be so confused.
[humor]
Well a barking fruit bat is a barking fruit bat... dosn't really matter which cave it cames from.
[/humor]
If the (USA) left has all the answers to our problems here in the USA it seems they are having a hard time articulating it to the general population. One of the biggest problems I see with your leftist brothers and sisters in the USA is they snark down on everyone who isn't in your camp. To many of us here in the USA the tea party and you guys are opposites of not the same coin but maybe more like the opposite on a six sided dice; when it's rolled you or your opposite don't always show up but you're there none the less.
Someone here on another thread posted I deserved Obama and I'm quite sure they meant it as a snide insult. Well none taken, you damn right I deserve Obama; I voted for him. There are more political choices than the left or the tea party in the USA. The fact that YOU can't see the difference between Obama and Bush and the Democrats and the Republicans is on you, not me.
Thank Gaia you're still about, BDC!
They haven't read George Lakoff yet...not that Lakoff would draw them out of their ideological entrenchment, mind you.
How Obama Protected Bush
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/368-wikileaks/4...
"It was three months into Barack Obama's presidency, and the administration-under pressure to do something abut alleged abuses in Bush era interrogation policies - turned to a Florida senator to deliver a sensitive message to Spain: Don't indict former George W Bush's legal brains trust for alleged torture in the treatment of war on terror detainees.."
When Lawyers Against War approached our own 'New Democrat' leader, Jack Layton, for his assistance in advancing a war crimes action against George W Bush during his first visit here, LAW's Joyce Davidson was told by Layton's office that Layton would "entertain no further correspondence on this issue". Seems like it's not just the Spanish that are willing to protect US war criminals. Of course, as a result of our involvment in Afghanistan, we have some of our own as well.
We certainly seem to have our McCarthyites of the anarchist/nihilist mindset. Their use of innuendo sets them apart.
Who needs innuendo when you've got tons of actual facts?
We certainly seem to have our McCarthyites of the anarchist/nihilist mindset. Their use of innuendo sets them apart.
Your use misuse of political terms doesn't set you apart it is quite commonplace. Trying to prove you have no clue about political theories and their essential differences?
2010: The Best and the Worst - by Justin Raimondo
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/12/28/2010-the-best-and-the-wors...
"Speaking of the King and his Court, the Interventionist of the Year award can only go to Barack Obama, who has managed to keep the US involved in more major simultaneous military conflicts than any President in US history - and is already seeking to break his own record...
He is an ideological chameleon who managed to shut down the antiwar movement by adopting their colors and lulling much of the 'progressive' antiwar left to sleep. And what he didn't shut down by persuasion he's intent on shutting down by means of legal persecution as the arrests of antiwar activists in Minneapolis, Chicago and North Carolina, and the grand jury investigation into their activities makes all too clear.."
From the now closed Obama thread:
One of the reasons Obama "caved in" on the tax cut issue so fast was because the Republicans were holding the unemployment benefits extension hostage over the tax cuts for the rich issue. If Obama and the Dems would have fought them unemployed people right now, DEC 25th, would still be sitting at home not knowing if they were going to get that extension. If you ask me that's showing compassion for the unemployed at the expense of his image to you lefties and not caving in to the rich. Being a centrist and all that doesn't bother me as much as what the Republicans pulled off right in front of everyone. I won't forget it the rest of my life.
That is not true. The Republicans had relented on unemployment benefits in prior instances after holding them up. Especially with December 25 right around the corner, they would have relented once again. There was no connection between the tax cuts and unemployment benefits until Obama caved on taxes, and used it as a fig leaf to try to cover up his capitulation. It's total BS.
You are into wishful thinking there, Josh, and have taken to defending the Republicans in your blind and desperate need to come onside with the intellectual organ grinders.
You disagree with Krugman, of course:
"How naive we were. We should have realized that the modern Republican party is utterly dedicated to the Reaganite slogan that government is always the problem, never the solution. And, therefore, we should have realized that party loyalists, confronted with facts that don't fit the slogan, would adjust the facts...what we learned...is what happens when an ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient facts.
"And the answer is, the facts lose."
And hereabouts, there's no attempt to use facts, just linkage to like-minded dreamers.
You are into wishful thinking there, Josh, and have taken to defending the Republicans in your blind and desperate need to come onside with the intellectual organ grinders.
You disagree with Krugman, of course:
"How naive we were. We should have realized that the modern Republican party is utterly dedicated to the Reaganite slogan that government is always the problem, never the solution. And, therefore, we should have realized that party loyalists, confronted with facts that don't fit the slogan, would adjust the facts...what we learned...is what happens when an ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient facts.
"And the answer is, the facts lose."
And hereabouts, there's no attempt to use facts, just linkage to like-minded dreamers.
May it please the court, m'lud, I give you Exhibit "A".
I also call bullshit on the Ei benefits having to be tied to the deficit ballooning tax cuts for the richest. Look at what was accomplished on START and DADT in the last few hours as the procedural tricks were exhausted.
Notice that in all this fiscal conservatism the defense budget is sacrosanct even though it is the elephant in the room. I heard a commentator saying that when people talk about fighting wars on two fronts Iraq and Afghanistan they are short at least 5 or 6 wars. In fact Obama has troops fighting in Iraq (sure they left if you don't count the garrison that is still there under attack), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and the list can grow as new oil reserves become available.
During Obama's "Change" campaign I listened closely to what he said about American exceptionalism and its duty to the world. I kept telling people he should have run with Condelesa Rice as his VEEP since his foreign policy would be as bad as Bush's. A lot of people on this board were pissed that I could not accept he was a man of peace. War mongering imperialist is closer to what I would perceive him. But then I have never bought the absurd notion of fighting for peace. As they used to say during the Nam days "fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity." Peace is NO War.
Jon Stewart was able to shame Republicans in the senate from dropping their opposition to a bill aiding 9/11 responders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/business/media/27stewart.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Obama, either out of his usual conflict aversion or out of political obtuseness, didn't issue a peep about this. Can you imagine what Stewart would have done to the Republicans playing Ebeneezer Scrooge to the unemployed on the eve of Christmas? They would have similarly folded.
The whole business about unemployment benefits and tax cuts was an after-the-fact excuse dreamed up by Obama's spinmeisters, and turned into myth by his defenders.
Obama War Budget Breaks All Records - by Glen Ford
http://www.blackagendareport.com/
"Forget about Obama's phony rhetoric; the proof is in the numbers. On Capital Hill [and Parliament Hill!] resistance to US militarism has all but collapsed - and the Republican majority in the US House has not even arrived yet...The Military budget firmly cements Barak Obama's place as the biggest pro-war President in two generations."
Democracy Now - Allan Nairn "It's one clear comparative advantage is Killing and its using it"
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/29/allan_nairn_as_us_loses_its
"Obama has kept the machine set on 'Kill'...And he basically endorsed the Indonesian military occupation of Papua. And within days, a secret, covert, threatening message went out to activists across Papua, essentially telling them, 'abandon all hope. Obama is on our side now.'"
Thumbing through George Lakoff's "don't think of an elephant", I can't find a single reference about what to do for "progressives" -in this "The Essential Guide for Progressives" - who are determined to put down the party of Howard Dean and Robert Reich, people who confront the reality of U.S.politics.
Small wonder the Tea Party's success with the "average masses" who, like BDC, don't get off on theory that bends reality to fit.
The self-righteiousness demonstrated here was probably equalled at Plymouth Rock, and look at the state that begat. :)
What Progressives must do, George, is take a page from the right wing. By convincing their base that the path to salvation lies through voting against their own best interests. Thus, a person concerned about the economic depression, the endless expanding wars, the capture of the treasury by the bankers, and the likelyhood of permanent unemployment must first think "What can I, a single poor person, do to ensure the political fortunes of Barack Obama and the Democrat party, for their success is the most important thing, and indeed the only thing we can achieve."
If they complain, then surely the are just racists and haters who don't understand that their personal sacrifice for the Greater Good of President Obama is necessary and just.
Unfortunately, they won't read Krugman or anything at all that disagrees with Fox News, so the reaction of the average American tends to be just as ignorant as that. They, like you, haven't the foggiest idea of how to dig out from their situation.
Normally I'd ignore you George but your Obama apologism is getting just a little too thick here. Fox News and the Republican rightwing actually represents only a slice of the 'average' populace, even if most of us white guys aren't very eager to deal with our genocidal history. The majority of Americans actually support pulling out of their imperialistic wars and would have prefered him increasing minimum wage instead of bankrupting the nation bailing out corrupt bankers. And I doubt anyone outside of the Networks are asking to have their privacy and constitution violated, or be eligible for assassination on the whim of their chief executive officer.
The blank refusal of so-called liberals to deal with the uncomfortable fact that they actually had broad public support to enact some genuinely progressive counter-measures, when they had a full majority in congress, only speaks to the illiteracy of our elites. You really should try reading a bit more yourself.
A Nobel Peace Prize Winner Torturing Bradley Manning - by Chris Floyd
http://www.countercurrents.org/floyd311210.htm
"I am running out of words to describe the depths we are sinking into. I am running out of ways to try to shake people from their stupor and shock them into an awareness of the monstrous evil that is rising all around them."
ICH today: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects
what never was and never will be". -Thomas Jefferson"
We never knew an ignorant person yet but was prejudiced.
- Innocents Abroad
When you're attacked from both the left and the right, you know you must be doing everything wrong.
The situation facing the cannon fodder throughout history: "cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon to the front of them roared and thundered..."
Lacking meaning in their increasingly pointless fulminations. Joiners, caught up in the charge of the very, very light brigade, clothed only in their semantics.
Barack, Rahm and A Symphony of Corruption:(vid)
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1011.html
Wayne Madsen muckraking on the Chicago-DC merry-go-round
Ah! I see that country's got Liberal Democrats and Tories pretending to be two separate and distinct political parties, too. And some false majority of the suckers fall for it every four years just like here. I think Uncle Sam must have copied Canada's Bay Street model for plutocracy. Or something.
The health bill vote takes place in the U.S.Congress today. Just in case it fails, and the cry goes up that Pres. Obama has failed again, it would seem that his colour is central to the outcome. As Joan Walsh describes the emerging scene, in Salon today:
"So I'm having a hard time tonight trying to believe almost uniformly white tea partiers are anything other than a racist, right-wing reaction to the election of an African American president who brings with him feminists and gays (even if he doesn't do as much for them as they would ideally like). I'm having a hard time seeing the tea partiers as anything other than the spawn of George Wallace racism - the movement Pat Buchanan bragged to me that Richard Nixon made his own. Of course, in that same "Hardball" segment, Buchanan denounced me for condescending to and "demonizing" the tea partiers. I still find that rich: I grew up in lower middle class Long Island, with a first-generation Irish father, going to public schools and universities, while the wealthy Buchanan grew up in Washington D.C. with professionals as parents and attended Georgetown University. How is he the supposed working class troubadour while I'm somehow emblematic of the pointy-headed liberal elite?
"Democrats are lame about fighting stupid class-based slurs like that, which is part of why this health care fight has dragged on and become so bitter. But I think a lot of Democrats were horrified by the ugliness they saw today, and I'm hoping that helps pass health care reform on Sunday."
Like the lady said. And this type can be found on both sides of any border. You play to the average masses from your elite (economic) catbird perch.
I think they're all out of, "it's Ralph Nader's and his third party effective opposition's fault for screwing up the left's chances in America" excuses.
Goonstruck: The Mysterious Mind of Modern Progressives - by Chris Floyd
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2078-...
"There seems to be a widespread, deeply held supposition that politicians - POLITICIANS! -- will save us, if we can put the right ones in charge of the power structure. And behind this supposition there is an unspoken -- and in many cases unconscious -- belief in the inherent goodness of the power structure itself..
when did today's belief in the power structure's inherent worthiness -- if we can only get a few plucky guys and gals in there to work the gears -- come about? Somewhere along the line, the 'progressive left' became imbued with the same worship of power that we are constantly and rightly told is a hallmark of the right..
What do you do when Democrats ignore everything you want (on those rare occasions when they're not actively doing the exact opposite of what you want), and dismiss you as the sanctimonious purist fucking retards of the professional left for not applauding their betrayals loudly enough?
Declare that you'll support them unconditionally, of course..."
sound vaguely familiar..?
Yeah we've got 'Liberal Democrats' in Canada, too. The two-party stooge-offs are pretty much the same in the Northern Puerto Rico.
Goonstruck: The Mysterious Mind of Modern Progressives - by Chris Floyd
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2078-...
"There seems to be a widespread, deeply held supposition that politicians - POLITICIANS! -- will save us, if we can put the right ones in charge of the power structure. And behind this supposition there is an unspoken -- and in many cases unconscious -- belief in the inherent goodness of the power structure itself..
when did today's belief in the power structure's inherent worthiness -- if we can only get a few plucky guys and gals in there to work the gears -- come about? Somewhere along the line, the 'progressive left' became imbued with the same worship of power that we are constantly and rightly told is a hallmark of the right..
What do you do when Democrats ignore everything you want (on those rare occasions when they're not actively doing the exact opposite of what you want), and dismiss you as the sanctimonious purist fucking retards of the professional left for not applauding their betrayals loudly enough?
Declare that you'll support them unconditionally, of course..."
sound vaguely familiar..?
And the condition is bound to go on as long as those proposing change have SFA of interest to the "average masses," who are mainly interested in surviving. All that comes across here is "to make an omelette, a few eggs must be broken."
Sound vaguely familiar? Like a broken record.
Goonstruck: The Mysterious Mind of Modern Progressives - by Chris Floyd
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2078-goonstruck-the-mysterious-mind-of-modern-progressives.html
Good read, and evident as well. Thanks for the link.
Indeed! Thx NDPP
I too have been following politics closely since the late '60s. That would be Yippie not Hippie before fighting Corporate Bums.
The pictures from the stadium on September 11 and the openness of that "corporate" coup have informed my view of America ever since.