Obama! Oh Bush! Oh, my.
If you begin to evaluate what the pres. is really up against, your cardboard cutout of America is just the tiresome stuff that you are handed by a MSM. There IS racism at work (and I have not seen you admit that in the last godawful number of postings).
Of course there is racism at work. I haven't seen anyone deny that. There was racism at work in the presidential election campaign, as well, remember? Maybe that's why the voters elected McCain and Palin - oh, wait! it seems they elected Obama after all!
And yet, even after getting elected with a majority vote, in the face of a racist minority opposition, Obama is powerless to do anything, because he's "up against" that same racist minority, according to you. Apparently, if Sarah Palin doesn't like it, it won't fly. The president of the United States is powerless in the face of racism, just as Margaret Thatcher was powerless in the face of sexism.
Kinda makes one wonder why the Democrats even bother to run, if they're going to let the Republicans have their way even when they lose at the polls!
Karl Marx could be elected president of the United States, and the results would be pretty much the same, if it was the case that Mr. Marx wanted to exit office in any other manner than in a casket.
So I guess Cueball agrees with George that There Is No Alternative to letting the racists have their way in the USA.
Through the present electoral system? No. Don't be naive.
[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/06/barack-obama-bush-tax-cuts]H...! Tax cuts for the wealthiest![/url]
Happy As A Hangman - by Chris Hedges
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Happy-as-a-Hangman-by-Chris-Hedges-1012...
'Those who do not act delude themselves into believing they are innocent. They are not."
Veterans For Peace (VFP) Sends Obama the Kind of Letter He Needs..
http://warisacrime.org/content/veterans-peace-sends-obama-kind-letter-he...
"As president of Veterans For Peace (VFP), a national organization of military veterans, I want to convey to you our serious opposition to your administration's policy of ongoing wars, proxy wars, occupations and drone strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and Yemen.."
Where the hell are Canada's veterans on our participation in this US terror war?
"Joe Bageant" - 1 new article
If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times. Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit
Bageant voted for Obama. Why should anybody listen to him until he apologizes?
Obama: The Republican’s Reliable Interlocutor
With the Democrat Party, particularly the First Black President, so thoroughly and deservedly identified with Wall Street, the Republicans were empowered to pull off what would have previously been thought impossible: the GOP’s brown-shirted wing, the white supremacist-based Tea Party, which purports to abhor government and, therefore, regulation, claimed with some success to be the anti-bailout, anti-Wall Street party. Meanwhile, Obama guided the Democrats to pass a fraudulent financial regulation bill that left the derivatives casino-economy intact, if not more strongly entrenched.
An Open Letter to the Left Establishment
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/12/an-open-letter-to-the-left-establishment/
"This letter is a call for active support of protest...Rather than an ally, the [Obama] administration has shown itself to be an implacable enemy of reform.."
What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama
For those skeptics who haven't been able to draw the connection between President Obama's manner and his colour.
And perhaps a Mod can tell me why the Joe Bageant linkage in post #7 no longer makes the connection?
The original still opens up for me on my inbox. Have I made an error? I'll try again in this po"Joe Bageant" - 1 new article
There, that one works. Me so dum.
[url=http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/in_latest_compromise_obama_agrees_he... Latest Compromise, Obama Agrees He Is a Muslim[/url]
WASHINGTON - In his latest effort to find common ground with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama said today that he was willing to agree that he is a Muslim.Differences over his religious orientation have been a sore point between the president and his Republican foes for the past two years, but in agreeing that he is a Muslim, Obama is sending a clear signal that he is trying to find consensus. "The American people do not want to see us fighting in Washington," Obama told reporters at the White House. "They want to see us working together to improve their lives, and Allah willing, we will."
But Obama's willingness to back down on his claim of being a Christian does not seem to have satisfied his Republican opposition, as GOP leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, today insisted that the president must also agree that he was born in Kenya. While Obama did not immediately agree to Boehner's demand, he hinted that yet another compromise might be in the offing: "My place of birth has been, and will always be, negotiable."
The modern counterpart of black-face humour in #13 aside, the reality is that the right wing of a litigious nation has found another means of denying medical care to millions of its citizens:
In the NYTimes today:
TOP NEWS
Judge Voids Key Element of Obama Health Care Law
By KEVIN SACK
A provision requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance starting in 2014, which has survived two prior court challenges, was found unconstitutional.
“This case is not about health insurance, it is not about health care,” Mr. Cuccinelli said at a news conference in Richmond. “It is about liberty.”
They are fighting for the right of every American to be sick and die in poverty in any corner of the country if they want to. And the insurance companies only want to skim the cream off the healthiest part of the working population. Millions are written off as having lives not worth living. Republicans want Nazi style health care in America, and Liberal Democrats are too weak and unwilling to do anything about it in or out of government.
The modern counterpart of black-face humour in #13 aside,
I have my doubts the George even knows what "black-face" means. And again we see him try and smear Obama critics as racist.
George would be more at home in the Obama fluffing world of Huffpo or Kos than here. Seriously, if you equate legitimate criticism of a far-right corporatist thug with Jim Crow racism, you really don't belong here. There are plenty of blindly partisan Democrat message boards you could inhabit.
The modern counterpart of black-face humour in #13 aside,I have my doubts the George even knows what "black-face" means. And again we see him try and smear Obama critics as racist.
George would be more at home in the Obama fluffing world of Huffpo or Kos than here. Seriously, if you equate legitimate criticism of a far-right corporatist thug with Jim Crow racism, you really don't belong here. There are plenty of blindly partisan Democrat message boards you could inhabit.
I first read of the origin of black-face humour in a work of historical non-fiction, I've Got a Home in Glory Land. If you google it , you'll find its beginning in Kentucky, with a stage performer who imitated an old African American's singing and dancing at the stable where he worked. It was the first expression of Jim Crow for mass audiences.
I think that that particular piece mocking Obama is indeed a modern replica of that putdown... perhaps by someone as ignorant of its origins as yourself, and unaware of its modern form among "progressives."
Adding this: "you really don't belong here. There are plenty of blindly partisan Democrat message boards you could inhabit." and coming from a fella who just shit-disturbs for the fun of it, is really rich. Try reading something besides your own prattle for some depth of understanding.
Calling those who raise legitimate criticisms of Obama racists in the way you do is akin to accusing critics of Israeli policies as being antisemites. And no, there isn't much depth of understanding accompanying such slurs.
Ah, alQ. I believe that concocting stories about Obama's "acceptance" of Tea Party tales about his origins IS an insensitive form of humour. It likely originated with a racist blogger. At this end, its use only reflects a lack of knowledge of the whites' need to laugh at African Americans in the 19th century. Folks should know that it ain't funny. Not one damned bit.
And no, there isn't much depth of understanding accompanying such slurs.
It's not for a lack of effort when it comes to the plumbing of new depths.
Calling those who raise legitimate criticisms of Obama racists in the way you do is akin to accusing critics of Israeli policies as being antisemites. And no, there isn't much depth of understanding accompanying such slurs.
That's some parallel you draw there, Mr. I'm sure you could explain the tortured and convoluted thinking by which you arrived at that conclusion.
And Jack (speaking of tortured and convoluted...) What took you so long to join the hanging party? Slowing down in your old age?
Try this one again :
And Jack (speaking of tortured and convoluted...) What took you so long to join the hanging party?
Why, did someone toss you a rope? You should really stop with that line of reasoning George, before you become a nuisance not only to yourself, but to others as well.
That's some parallel you draw there, Mr. I'm sure you could explain the tortured and convoluted thinking by which you arrived at that conclusion.
It seems rather direct to me. I'm just waiting for you to call the leftists from Black Agenda Report who I quoted upthread "self-hating African-Americans."
I think they rather fall into the anarchist camp...in terms of helpfulness to the egalitarian cause.
And no, there isn't much depth of understanding accompanying such slurs.It's not for a lack of effort when it comes to the plumbing of new depths.
Don't ever expect not to hear back when you drop crappola like this out of the blue, jack. You did the same yesterday. Becoming a habit, I guess.
We wouldn't want any good for nothing anarchists tossing their wrench into Obama's agenda of hope and helpfulness.
"We"
"We progressives?"
From that probably still-unread link:
"When these progressives refer to themselves as Mr. Obama's base, all they see is themselves. They ignore polls showing steadfast support for the president among blacks and Latinos. And now they are whispering about a primary challenge against the president. Brilliant! The kind of suicidal gesture that destroyed Jimmy Carter - and a way to lose the black vote forever.
Unlike white progressives, blacks and Latinos are not used to getting it all. They know how it feels to be unemployed and unable to buy your children Christmas presents. They know when not to shout. The president, the coolest man in the room, who worked among the unemployed in Chicago, knows too."
Don't ever expect not to hear back when you drop crappola like this out of the blue, jack. You did the same yesterday. Becoming a habit, I guess.
Well that's gratitude for you. I do what I can as my schedule will allow for, however I simply don't have the time to fully appreciate your insights regarding the great unwashed, the unread, the uncouth, what not.
Try harder. Read something besides you own philosophical musings.
And of course, it should be easy to turn around a militaristic nation that has spent more on the military ech year since Ike warned about this:
NYTimes
December 13, 2010
What Ike Got Right
By JAMES LEDBETTER
LAST week the National Archives released a trove of drafts and notes that shed new light on President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address, in which he warned America about the "military-industrial complex."
I hope babblers will pardon me for drawing so often on the NYTimes op-ed columnists, particularly Krugman, in discussion of the U.S. president. While prone to bend opinion for profit, it's the last liberal news sheet in America. I find there is always something to learn from native sources. It took an African-American writer's commentary to firm up my growing suspiciion that those folks don't/can't easily chastise/berate a mostly white community.
The innocence of "the public" in the face of concerted propaganda attacks remains the very biggest question. Because if they don't understand what they are being fed, all the rest is rather pointless. Sock puppets are solid, thinking citizenry by comparison.
Anyway, in making a lengthy defence of an individual (certainly not a patently corrupted political system functioning to maintain a military-industrial complex and market dominated economy) who is honestly trying to make a difference, and searching for evidence in his defence, I'm learnin'.
George, the problem is that many of us have is that we see no evidence of Obama having tried or succeeded in changing anything.
His party controlled (well still does until next Friday) both houses, so there are no excuses. Guantanamo? Still open...after he promised it would be closed January 2010.
Don't even bother brining up the atrocious healthcare bill. All it does is force people by law to buy health insurance...or pay a fine! What is progressive about that? It also risks affecting Medicare, Medicaid and employer-based plans. And it still won't ensure everyone is covered.
For me, the big huge problem with Obama is Afghanistan. Why has he not left? Why is the US still there. Americans are dying at a much larger rate there under him than under Bush. Why is he continuing drone attacks, rendition, etc, etc, etc??
Just what has he accomplished? I remember he gave a lot of money to big banks and big companies that had given him campaign donations....
He hasn't even been able to repeal DADT!! Which should be absolutely humiliating.
The problem with laying all of the blame on the president, without mentioning the bedlam of the political system, or any of the structural faults in a military-industrial complex, is that that is the most shallow, ahistorical form of political analysis. Firstly because America would not have elected an assertive black. The "progressives" do not understand that. And if you don't believe that, there's little point to this discussion.
And as for a two-party system where EVERYONE is dependent for the buck from the defense industry and its job-dependent workforce, and in a court-crippled nation where the Supreme Court has just ruled that those donations don't have to be revealed (nice timing, eh)...well.
No, they (and we) are in deeper dung than the well-meaning but politically naive, progressive community could ever believe because of structural failure, ignorance, and a greed that defies imagination...almost bringing the world to another Depression. And I know that this will only be dismissed as more elitist thinking, but until the (what was the acceptable term...oh yes) the "ordinary masses" can sort their asses from a hole in the ground, we're all looking at a catastrophe in the making.
Obama's not really to blame per se The fact that he lied his way through the entire election, accepting bribe money from the FIRE sector and appointing their CEO's and representatives to his board of directors at the White House, while promising the proles hope and change doesn't really mean he's the bad guy in all of this. He's merely the hired hand, the truck driver who was provided with a route and firm direction to stop for nothing, except to back up over everyone if need be, just to make sure.
And that, Ghislaine, is the level of "thinking" that dismisses history, social and political structure and race without even understanding what it has left out. It's all a plot.
Obama came to the White House swearing that he would not live in "a bubble" and that he would keep his promises, which explicitly included no further extensions of tax cuts for the rich and a $9.50 federal minimum wage (still lower in purchasing power than the federal minimum wage in 1968!) by 2011.So what do we see from the President? Well, he boasted about being a community organizer in Chicago years ago. Yet for months, knowing what was coming, he failed to arouse the citizenry against the Republican tax cuts for the wealthy which Obama swallowed last week. He is known to be an expert poker player, but he displayed none of that skill with the Republican corporacrats, Rep. John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell. Where are Obama's touted oratorical skills? How smart can he be-undercutting his own Democrats and presenting them with the results of a closed-door sweetheart deal with their Republican adversaries?
Obama has frittered away his comfortable majority in Congress on many accounts for two years. And millions of people and their children will be paying the bill for his failure to fight for them.
And along with Ralph Nader this week on Common Dreams. org (he had no chance of being elected in the America described)
Get the day's top -- progressive --news articles, views, and press releases
Most Popular This Week
By George, he's coming around. Don't stop there!
Most Viewed This Week
- Cables Reveal Background of Pro-Dictator U.S. Policy
- Georgia Prisoner Strike Continues a Second Day, Corporate Media Mostly Ignores Them, Corrections Officials Decline Comment
- Whose Side Is the White House On?
- Obama Lashes Out Amid Calls to Free Assange
- No Act of Rebellion Is Wasted
- Untellable Truths
- 'Hacktivists' Warn Over More Action
- Losing Our Moral Compass in Pursuit of Profit, Efficiency
And along with Ralph Nader this week on Common Dreams. org (he had no chance of being elected in the America described)
By that reasoning, one ought to support the local Tea Party candidate as she has a chance of electoral succes.
Your sources, like yourself, have created a fictitious America. No wonder you don't want to deal with reality.
I think the piece quoted by M. Spector in #13 is a pretty good commentary on the Obama presidency.
Also I agree with the chunk of the Ralph Nader article quoted by al-Q in #38.
Getting rid of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should've been a slam dunk. For whatever reason, Obama wasn't up to the job.
What reality, George; the Teaparty mob being manipulated by the political and corporate elite that runs the USA, an elite whose propaganda machine has been so successful in dumbing down and brainwashing 'Murricans since the Reagan presidency?
They're too easy a target, as they're so obviously the enemy. Proving they're dangerous and destructive is rather begging the question, isn't it?
Exactly. The "progressive" is talking about an America of the past,and is baffled by the new state of the political and economic institutions.
The very fact that the chief architects of the collapse are back in business, paying themselves greater bonuses than ever, and the vulnerability of the average masses to the populist Conservative message, should tell one that it's no longer up to the pres.
Which babble are you reading?
I don't recall many voices around here saying Obama is a solution to any of what I mentioned. Moreover, one would have to be delusional to think Obama represents even a semblance of a threat to the new order.
Moreover, one would have to be delusional to think Obama represents even a semblance of a threat to the new order.
Your standard for rhetoric seems low to me. Certainly you can do better than sarcsm and hyperbole.
Sarcasm?
Do you think Obama is going to change the rightward trend in the USA?
No I don't. I just felt that comment was beneath you. If you disagree, well, that's of course your prerogative.
Whatever brings up the level of discourse bud.
Like your opinion on the Obama presidency, for instance?
I'm afraid, WZ, that is his standard. Expect it.