by Ted Rall
uExpress.com: Ted Rall , 05/28/2009
June 03, 2009 “Information Clearing House”
With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators?
MIAMI–We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama’s inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.
From healthcare to torture to the economy to war, Obama has reneged on pledges real and implied. So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey. Obama has officially reneged on his campaign promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. When a president doesn’t have the ‘nads to annoy the Turks, why does he bother to show up for work in the morning?
Obama is useless. Worse than that, he’s dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now–before he drags us further into the abyss.
I refer here to Obama’s plan for “preventive detentions.” If a cop or other government official thinks you might want to commit a crime someday, you could be held in “prolonged detention.” Reports in U.S. state-controlled media imply that Obama’s shocking new policy would only apply to Islamic terrorists (or, in this case, wannabe Islamic terrorists, and also kinda-sorta-maybe-thinking-about-terrorism dudes). As if that made it OK.
In practice, Obama wants to let government goons snatch you, me and anyone else they deem annoying off the street.
Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship. Because dictatorial regimes rely on fear rather than consensus, their priority is self-preservation rather than improving their people’s lives. They worry obsessively over the one thing they can’t control, what Orwell called “thoughtcrime”–contempt for rulers that might someday translate to direct action.
Locking up people who haven’t done anything wrong is worse than un-American and a violent attack on the most basic principles of Western jurisprudence. It is contrary to the most essential notion of human decency. That anyone has ever been subjected to “preventive detention” is an outrage. That the President of the United States, a man who won an election because he promised to elevate our moral and political discourse, would even entertain such a revolting idea offends the idea of civilization itself.
Obama is cute. He is charming. But there is something rotten inside him. Unlike the Republicans who backed Bush, I won’t follow a terrible leader just because I voted for him. Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.
“Prolonged detention,” reported The New York Times, would be inflicted upon “terrorism suspects who cannot be tried.”
“Cannot be tried.” Interesting choice of words.
Any “terrorism suspect” (can you be a suspect if you haven’t been charged with a crime?) can be tried. Anyone can be tried for anything. At this writing, a Somali child is sitting in a prison in New York, charged with piracy in the Indian Ocean, where the U.S. has no jurisdiction. Anyone can be tried.
Why is it, exactly, that some prisoners “cannot be tried”?
The Old Grey Lady explains why Obama wants this “entirely new chapter in American law” in a boring little sentence buried a couple past the jump and a couple of hundred words down page A16: “Yet another question is what to do with the most problematic group of Guantánamo detainees: those who pose a national security threat but cannot be prosecuted, either for lack of evidence or because evidence is tainted.”
In democracies with functioning legal systems, it is assumed that people against whom there is a “lack of evidence” are innocent. They walk free. In countries where the rule of law prevails, in places blessedly free of fearful leaders whose only concern is staying in power, “tainted evidence” is no evidence at all. If you can’t prove that a defendant committed a crime–an actual crime, not a thoughtcrime–in a fair trial, you release him and apologize to the judge and jury for wasting their time.
It is amazing and incredible, after eight years of Bush’s lawless behavior, to have to still have to explain these things. For that reason alone, Obama should resign.
see
The Obama Paradox: When Does Popular Reform President Challenge Status Quo? by Robert S. Becker
Obama’s support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law by Glenn Greenwald
Vince Warren: Obama’s “Preventive Detention” Plan Goes Beyond Bush
Jesse Jackson on the progressive movement
Dandelion Salad 
Wow, the comment section here is as good as the article.
Anarcho syndicalism is the same thing as socialism except for that one huge distinction: the presence of a state, a government or authority. Both “socialism” and “anarchism” are terms that have been dragged through the mud for 100 years, literally. So they both carry propaganda baggage. If you talk about social movements with the end goal being social standards, all anarchists are socialist, but not all socialists all anarchists.
To further confuse the issue, “capitalistic” anarchists have emerged, these are the Ayn Rand Objectivist-type people that only remove the state. They hold the same concept of property as capitalists but they remove the need for state. In their world view if 5% of the people owned 80% of the wealth, then its their right to own it despite the societies well being. They equate property rights as the higher value then society good. They too have adopted the term “anarchist” as their opposition to the state, but there has never once in the history of the world been a anarchist movement that has actually held this view, its just armchair couch anarchists repackaging laissez faire capitalism.
I am a democratic socialist, I even believe in mixed economies that is economic models that accept some aspects of capitalism. I don’t hold that position because I am against anarcho syndicalism, or that I want the monopolization of the use of violence or a corruptible system. I hold that position because its something we can attain right now, we have working models of Scandinavian countries that we can point to, there is no working model of anarcho syndicalism that exists beyond very localized collectives. So I agree with both of you, KDelphi and the big picture of moving our whole society in a general direction and NatureBoy in implementing a new standard from the ground up rather then top down. Both are admirable in my opinion.
I agree the terms of poli-sci dissertation lingo distracts from the point– I think of social democrats, and there’s Deutschland rearing, and I think of Anarchists with cookbooks for making c-4 brownies…
I find it all abstract– In the end, we seem to be often workers. All the talk is about ‘jobs’, ’employment’.
I propose it changes now, we all decide:
Workers+owner/manager/entrepreneur (at least in the small-production realm, my only area of experience) = EQUAL.
We need to work, so we work together.
Let’s work as family/cooperativve groups, eschew individual gain in our ‘shops’ and focus on the group collective.
The very first step is a steadfast rule: Equal stake, equal pay, we all get the same, and split what’s left.
There’s enough to be made in production for all to be perfectly comfortable– or getting there anyway, and as a group, we will all contribute our collective wills to the common enterprise, in which we, each of the participants, truly sweat to do our best anyway, especially in times of trial, and should therefore be sweat-equity.
Those who, even in times of trial, stick to the team, deserve to be an EQUAL part of that team.
This will inspire us to grow our personal achievement within a group effort.
Whatever ‘ism’ that is, I’m for it.
Yep, lets not make enemies of our allies, I admire you greatly Natureboy. We got some bigger fish to fry!
I’ll second that.
I third it!! erkd1–good explanation and I would, for the most part, agree. I also agree about the “new Anarchists” or Anarcho-Libertarians…
Lets not let them take the Fraternity out of Liberty and Egality…There are so many more of us, and, some would like to work on Labor, some on Politics, some on basic human services, some on Law…but some group has to bwe the “face” of leading us away from what we have now….thats what I think..
Thanks!
NatureBoy–A peace offering, since I honestly dont believe that we are on opposite sides:
Here is a rednecks’ view. NOt quite the same as yours, but, I think that we could work together…its Bageant
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2009/05/a-redneck-view-of-the-obamarama.html
I dont agree with everything he says, and, I am of a “younger” generation. But his book, “Deer Hunting With Jesus” is a hoot….BuelahMan, you might like him, too, if you havent read him yet.
Here is his essay from Belize, wish I was there:
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2009/05/dirt-and-family-sea-foam-and-fate.html#more
Peace, buddy. I got no quarrel with you.
L.O. Friggin’ L. (fer real):
“I’m gonna call ole Larry and we’re going out to get so damned stimulated we can’t walk home”.
And I ain’t read the second one yet–
(How do you know yer an enlightened redneck? You should see whuts piled behind my own barn!)
The second link is a beaut, unfortunately the last time I went whale-watching I got that ‘ol landlubbers upchuckedness problem (you could plant me in the hills and I’d grow leaves), but I’m just about DEFINITELY moving to Nova Scotia ASAP! (Schooners notwithstanding).
Thanks for the excellent links– you are a prime prize of a commentator– keep on truckin.
“What it is. Sing it children. Sing it pretty”.
I am glad you like him…if I can go back to work part time, I’m going to a boat in the Keys…a friend of mine had one. I’m gonna fix it up…but, we’ll see..love dolphins, whales (actually my name–Delphi)–I went swimming/diving with them when I was stuck in a wheelchair for a couple years–true story! Now I’m only happy by the sea, which is very expensive and I’m poor as dirt!
Cant sell my house or I lose my Medicaid…Obama’s “heatlh care reform” is going to be bad. Take it from an ex-Social Worker….we need care for everyone, but thats another story for another day…peace.
Can I add–I understand the rage.
You are just mistaking the enemy. Its not uncommon, especially as an Empire falls…
In my lyme funk of a few years back (watch out for those dear ticks!) I got an eBay bug, and got this awesome canoe, all bent wood and fiberglss, it’s a true antique, I forget what it’s called, but it was a collectors type of thing,
Used to paddle around th pond, unfortunately last winter a limb fell and broke thru, not a bad repair– You give me the word, or send Lo the address, and I’ll ship it down to you, you can work on it while you recover– I even got some antique hand-wrought old-growth ash paddles still with the marks from the draw-knife–
Since you’re the sea-faring sort, and I’m sorta downsizing, you let me know, I’ll get this thing down to you and you can work on that small hole and paddle around just like old times.
Natureboy–I will repeat that you dont know what you are talking about…you do not know me, Socialism or ,what most of this country is going through. Save me the “I feel your pain” crap–you sound like Clinton.
I came back from Denmark, because I didnt know that the US would end up like this—I wish I hadnt. I cannot afford to go back—my money is all gone from a catastrophic illness. I suppose that that is my fault. (?) Or maybe I can get a dr to barter with me for treatment…right. Maybe I can “make him some beautiful thing”…
I am not bitter–I am outraged, and your “artisan world” will never understand it ,which is why you will remain a fringe group. You are completely wrong about who you think I am. I would say what type of state I think that you are from, what kind of family, but THIS IS NOT PERSONAL FOR ME, the way it is for you.
I am not red state, I am redneck by class, which is something you in your artisan, small collective business world will never understand. You still do not understand that Capital is the problem. How many times have you been near death? How many times have you been arrested? Did you protest the Iraq invasion? Did you walk streets campaigning against both parties in 2004? Because I did. You have a huge chip on your shoulder that somehow prevents you from agreeing on the smallest thing, because you have this idea in your head of who you think I am—I laugh when I think what you would say if you could see me.
I am anti-gun and anti-war, although I worked with veterans for many years and there, you also dont know what you’re talking about. You need to grow some, Nature boy.
I’m willing to bet you’ll be a Democrat within 10 years. You’ll write a book about your Anarchic years and back the latest version of Obama.
You do not realize, that, for most USAns, “choice” is a illusion, unless you come from a certain kind of family.
I voted for a Socialist candidate here on the ballot. I mostly showed to vote on local issues. You do not know me, and you do not know what you are talking about. You do not know who I am and you certainly dont know what Intl Socialism is, except that you admire some college kids breaking a bank window and you say the f word alot…Whooo!! Anarchist that says F!@
If you make every conversation this personal, you are in big trouble. I was not commenting on your prose, but your acerbic manner. I have no idea what you are like in person, but, to “sell stuff”” you had better get a better attitude.
ME bitter?? Listen to yourself, which is something you seem to be totally incapable of doing….listen more, accuse less. That is how you win.
Indeed I am bitter, and I apologize for any offensive words.
I did demonstrate in the streets against this war, in fact have done so since early memories, fighting the US meddling in Latin America with family who were involved in that struggle, nearly was arrested a couple of times, did my darndest to get the former admin impeached–
If I mischarachterized you, I regret that– I do take america personally, I am livid with this nation of complicit people who refused to dissent, and am full of venom against the religious right and those in the heartland who supported this.
But alas, I am no activist, nor am I political, I would prefer to refrain from dabbling in either, and am working on retiring from both.
I am an artisan, this is what we do, we make things and sell or barter them (website and computer repairs all done on barter, etc). Commerce and capitalism are two different things, IMO.
Anyway, I hope you can forgive my personal outrage and anger at americans, it does nobody any good, so you are right, it is my issue to deal with, not yours to waste time combatting my thoughtless words.
Thanks Lo for the great posts.
Signing off.
Lastly, I am no anarchist, nor a democrat. ‘Anarcho syndicalism’ deals with labor, not politics.
Oh, ok, I see…yep , not a pretentious one in the bunch..
Look, I posted some opinion, you responded with a flame and I tried to respond without calling you names.
You arent a very good representative of whatever it is that you are trying to represent.
Look at how you write–no one is going to buy this stuff!
(Nature Boy)
“Stop blaming Obomba, blame yourself, your selfish neighborhood of ugly amerigoons, blame and indict each and every enlistee, each and every conservative war-criminal apologist–
YOU DID it people, not Barack. It was your stupid choice to back Botch at 73%, you are the criminals, ugly red-stated, limbaugh-loving, fox imbibing amerigoons.
Be ashamed, be afraid, and surrender your rights and your wealth in reparations to those whom you bombed, willingly, patrioticaly, and without cause”
You dont know what you are talking about.
Lookit K,
I’m sorry you’re paying healthcare on credit cards, truly, but you’re lucky you still have one, If you believe in socialized medicine, why did you move back from Denmark?
Health issues can make anyone bitter, speaking of which here’s a bit of mine about yours—you choose to live here, who Is the pretentious hypocrite?
Perhaps we can compare writing styles in some other forum, and you will lose, red-stater would-be revolutionary trailer-dwelling miscreant tho you seem to be (sorry lo)
But this is a representative democracy.
If you think the power structure is responsible for your redneck friends buying into gun-mongering warfare, then it is you who are wrong.
The body has a head, we have a choice, I DO know what I am talking ’bout there– you enlist to kill in violation of international law, you are a cult-killer, in need of indefinite incarceration and military tribunals.
The US populace stood behind this invasion by 73%even after it was known there were no wmd, Therefore it is YOU and your ilk who know nothing about the rule of international law. Cult killers all.
Are you a friggin’ TEXAN perchance? Wyoming six-killer cheneyite? Maybe from MO, because they give you a trailer if you move to Missouri…
We had good candidates, who did YOU vote for??
You can’t possibly be a socialist if you eschew the idea of the collective.
Anyway, my condolences for your health issues, you deserve better than credit-card debt. We have the wealth in this land to take care of healthcare (now don’t go calling me ‘pretentious’ for saying that, you bitter misanthrope!)
NATUREBOY!!! Chill out, buddy.
OK, I’m gonna try to chill out now ~
Does that mean I can stop reading the news, and can I also stop being an ‘american’?
(Hey do any of you like-minded folks also have a problem with this, this myth of ‘America good things’?
I dunno if Project Playlist links work on WordPress, but check out this joker John Wain doin’ the reagan era myth of america goin’ fishin’ in stolen streams, complete with harmonica backup:
http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/tracks#america%20good%20things)
Sorry for defemating on your, the best of blogs, but fer the record, you are at liberty to delete at will my absurd comments.
It took 8 solid years but indeed i managed to become a bitter, america-hating american (well, as I always say, America is the beauteous, it’s just the usa that sucks).
I simply categorically, cannot tolerate war no more. (Can I enlarge that period like to 50 points?). Why is this an issue for me and not for the rest of 99.9% of amerigoons who seem to love to kill??
Please stop the killing I will stop my ranting, I promise… Why is this still such a struggle???
I’m sorry glorious Lo, I’m going to now work one day at a time to extricate myself from the horror of americon politics. Maybe there’s a AAA for those abused by the news…
Well, I’d say it’s nowhere near 99.9%. My guess is that it’s about 40 maybe 45% of the population is pro-war/guns/violence, maybe even less than that. Of course, when asked the question if one is pro-war, most would say that they are not. But we know better. All one has to do is see how many are protesting the wars? Not many. Unfortunately, it’s worse now as so many anti-war (so they say) people voted for Obama and have been duped by him, imo.
Percentages of opinions aside, somehow I think if even 5%, or 2% for that matter, had put their feet where their heart was, or did anything, maybe the Iraq invasion wouldn’t hve caused so much horror, or maybe we would have brought the admin to justice and Obomba would not be so at ease bombing and threatening to execute, and so unashamed of that there obmoba death-watch counter on the left side of your page…
Something very strange happened– was it the I-Phone, where everyone was too busy texting? Was it as I suspect that one horrible show about the ‘cougars that lunch’, Sex in the City, that convinced everyone to go shopping? Or was it the evil banksters that lulled everyone to the mall while Baghdad burned–
Who knows, but somehow the conscience of amerigaah was lost.
By the hundreds of thousands people died horrific deaths, and they still do, and at our behest—and yet the people went shopping—
This is what shocks my system, almost as much as the deaths themselves– the complete lack of remorse of the tax-paying, enlistee populace who supported this thing– A subject for sociology books, not unlike, except perhaps in vast difference of degree, the complicity of the german civilian population while they knew people were being enslaved and incinerated.
I’m against a draft, but having a draft would have gotten people up off their butts protesting/writing their Congresspeople, etc. If it doesn’t effect you and your immediate family, most people are pretty lazy and/or apathetic.
I agree with that! When I hear people “supporting the war”, I usually say, “Oh, ok, so you signed up , right? Or your child? No? Then, talk to the hand…”
As long as the elites, not only DONT fight, but, actually MAKE money from war profiteering, we will have wars.
Obama is certainly NOT cutting back on private contractors…
Sorry–too holier than thou for me…
Ah but not for us, but too bad. Easy for idealogues to kvetch about the system, but the real work is done by real workers. We are the real workers. We build livelihoods and beauty. We are a species designed to work with tools in community, in that process is political wisdom. Not holy at all, very down to earth.
NatureBoy–Sounds like we dont disagree about all that much, but Anarchy often becomes a diffuse metaphor for believing in nothing.
It creates rage and burns fast…I’m in this long-term, if humans survive that long. But, I’ll check out the terms you suggest.
I believe in Socialism. I used to live in Denmark (wish I could afford to go back!) (I worked in a WorkCamp—got me free airfare and room and board) It works.
That is what I believe in, but, go along with many anti-govt groups.
I do not believe in “business”. I do not believe in the necessities of human life (or animal life, for that matter) being for-profit. I dont believe in Capital. I dont believe in ”
financial derivatives”,
But I also do not believe that you can change the world without changing the structure of the governments.
I dont know what kind of business you run, but, if I am with the Anarchic groups and we come to take back our money, will you give it to us without a fight? Or wil you anarch the Anarchists?
I’m partly teasing, of course.
In the end, we hustle hard to make beautiful things, if they don’t sell we have only ourselves to blame.
It’s a very simple, hand-made craft-based product, we are victims of consumerism and corportist globalists as much as anyone– if you choose to make things honestly, and not advertise and market the product to make people feel insecure without, then you are an honest artisan, and this is not a bad thing–
We work hard, we are not the enemy, in the end, we get up, we go to work, and we make something. If we succeed, it is because we all did our darndest to make the best we could with our hands– it’s a very non-corporate, non-industrial model–
Someday, what we, the very last of the artisans do, will be seen as having intrinsic value, if only for the skin-cells shed in the process.
We are the last of the true workers, celebrate and support us, as we try to recontact the path with heart.
You know, did you even read my posts?
You are “changing your business model” and I am talking about how I am paying medical bills with a credit card.
I watched someone’s take on
“The Take” (the commentary was NOT Klein!!) I belong to one of the groups that supported the G-20 ptotests in London–the Fourth Intl.
I have no idea where you got ideas for your “business model” from that video–I support the protests, but, not the silly commentary.
http://www.wsws.org/
http://www.socialistinternational.org/
I believe in collectivism–that is why i think that enterprise and “individual choice”, in a Capitalist culture (if it can be called one) is a scam. It is more “kitsch”
I know that there in a supposed Anarcho-Libertarian type of fad going around. It will not work as long as the Capitalists own the govt.
Your “choice” with a Capitalist Dictatorship is a myth. Unless maybe you can afford to live in Berkeley and open a “free store”.
That is my opinion. YOu are free to disagree.
You be sure and check out those Socialist sites, too, ok? Then you wont have to take on the govt , and Blackwater,on your own.
I’m all for socialism, ready to move to Sweden…
But unfortunately I detest politics. I’m only talking about the bite-sized realm of our working life.
These various ‘libertarians’ are too diffuse and disoriented to me, you can have the ultra-rightist ones like Paul, or the ultra Left ones like Chomsky, or somewhere in between like Bill Maher.
There is one wing of these myriad ‘anarcho’ idealogues that sorta describes what I’m getting at: check out “Anarcho-syndicalism”.
We have to fix our working lives first. That is closest to home.
(sans violence, of course…)
Blackwater makes me cringe and shiver, we are all veterans now of this horrible 8 years taken from our lives, the vast warcrime of the Botch era victimized us all. We are all now walking wounded.
Pingback: Pepe Escobar: Peace be upon Barack « Dandelion Salad
More on “choosing” your class in the USA!!
http://socialistworker.org/2009/06/05/how-the-superrich-live
How the other 0.00000003 percent lives
Adam Turl examines the lives of the 10 richest people in the U.S.–and uncovers a rogue’s gallery of serial polluters, budget-slashers, CIA contractors, union-busters and right-wing nuts.
And, hear him live in Chicago, June 18-21! (I am not going to be able to afford to go…AAUUGHH!)
Amy Goodman,. Laura Flanders, Jeremy Scahill…should be very good stuff!!
Thanks for the link to the story, KDelphi, and the info on Turl visiting Chicago.
BTW–I am a big fan of Naomi Klein, and, I am re-reading “The Shock Doctrine”–Nature Boy–where in the world would you get the idea that Klein would think that we had “bought into the slave wage class” or whatever?
She isnt much into blaming people for the class that they were born into. She sites collectivism, but doesnt seem to think that we wil get very far with it as long as we have such sold out politicians.
I havent read The Take yet—they switched me to an adjustable rate on my credit card (which I have 10’s of 1000s of $$ of medical bills on), when the Congress passed that lame credit card bill–they shouldve put Sanders amendment , limiting interest rates into it–so I cant use my card.
But, at least they sold out to the NRA so that we can go into public parks when we get our crdit card bills and blow out brains out.
Can someone explain to me what in the sam hell that was doing in there?? Its money, folks…
Please watch The Take, DS posts the link below. I found it very moving, and I’m changing my business model around this film.
I think we need to start locally, with the work we all do each day, to re-learn what it means to work together as a small group, each with our equal stake, toward our collective benefit.
Evolutionarily, we are born to bands of gatherers and gardeners, small tribes where we work together for mutual survival. We can translate this model to production as well, less natural though it is.
This idea of nations, vast global power structures and the various theories (conspiracies or otherwise) of who holds sway over us all, it’s always wrong, it’s unnatural.
Marx, Keynes, Rothbard, Friedman, and then all these conspiracy theories about the trilateral commission and the coconut grove and the Bilderbergers– these vast arguments about geopolitical economics, it seems to me the wrong end to start with. (‘You say you want a revolution, well you know we all want to change the world…’)
We should start locally, organize our working group, our small band of production into a family of equal sustenance and share. If you think a large corporation is gonna offer the worker safety and security, and that unions will provide collective bargaining and save the day for the wage-earner, well that myth just imploded with GM. This nation was built by slaves, indentured servants, and now industrial wage-earners. We do have the freedom here to say no to these models in this age.
With regard to the military industrial mania, it’s up to each of us individually to make the choice, to believe in the myth of the vast enemy, to make the choice to enlist in illegal wars of aggression, to make the choice, the personal choice to espouse guns and arms manufacturing, to be bloodthirsty bunker-dwelling militia-nuts, or to teach peace.
We have the choice, the ultimate decision what we personally do with our moments here living, what legacy we leave, and how we organize our only true asset, our lifetime.
If you choose to be a cog in a capitalist, militarist, mad-money amerigoon paranoid warmongering, slot-pulling, false-patriotic machine, that is a personal choice, not a government mandate. There are other ways.
I would suggest that we not see our lives as dictated by world-dominating overseers, but instead make the choice to find a different mode of production and sustenance, locally, with our small bands, our small tribes of cooperative compatriots. I believe there are many options available to the open and independently minded.
We can find the good in people again. We don’t need nationalistic ideologies like capitalism or communism to believe in the ancient traditions of commerce and cooperative production.
What all this has to do with Obomba, well, if you couldn’t get Botch to resign in shame, then asking as much from this guy is absurd. Fact is the people failed America, the people failed to dissent, the people are to blame for the international disaster brought about continually by their arrogance and international militaristic, racist meddling.
Obomba was the first one to recall our first coup against Mossadeq of iran, for this alone, he’s not half as bad as the prior warmongers the people loved so dearly, like Lincoln and Kennedy, and worst of all, Raygun and Botch.
Klein’s observations in the Shock Doctrine are a completely different revelation than what she and Avi documented about the worker takeovers of rust-belt factories left idle after a not-dissimilar vast heist by banksters and globalists in Argentina as we currently suffer with here.
As far as lying politicians, this is what they do. Here in NYC, Bloomberg is actively buying the election with expensive TV ads talking about how he’s helping small business, and how he wants to cover all the roofs of Manhattan with solar panels—lies, stinking lies, he is a corporatist finance capitalist zionist, and helping the small business-person or green energy is the very last thing on his mind. If the people are not willing to put their votes behind the good politicians, then the best they can hope is to retroactively force the liars to remember their campaign promises, but of course once the people have bought into and elected the liars, it’s too late, and a bogus president is free, because of our fabulous constitutional blunder, to fire at will, and bomb weddings without recrimination.
Finally, somehow I don’t buy any of this FEMA camp nonesense, I don’t live in fear of Obomba’s SS swooping down and detaining us. I think we should let the conspiracies rest, and get back to designing a new society locally.
I agree that the centralizatiom of power is a large part of the problem. And, I agree that, compared to Pot or Hussein, maybe we have had good presidents. I would have to say that that is a pretty low standard to set for ourselvess…I am not at all certain that they have all been “decent”.
If we hold ourselves to the standards of bloody dictarors, we will never do any better.
I have made the point many times, that the Democratic party rallying cry seems to be “better than Bush”–well, I guess so. I would be —better than Bush. That is not a triumph.
So, Rob, honeslty, how do we “reverse that” power , if we maintain the same type of government? I dont believe that we can “vote in” the type of change you are talking about.
The govt is too in bed with the banking and finance industry, for us to ever end up with a president like Kucinich. (who doesnt quite go far enough towards Socialism, for my tastes, but, would be a vast improvement). Almost all legislation is “passed” with a mind to financing the next campaign. As long as life and death issues, like heatlh care, contracting for “war”, etcx, remain for profit industries, we will remain in a situation where profit decides who lives and who dies.
Horatio Alger moved to France long ago….
I think we can “vote in” that kind of change. Organizations like DownsizeDC are exactly what’s needed. The current trend towards asserting 10th Amendment rights are exactly what’s needed. If you don’t like the two candidates running for office in your district during the primaries, find someone else to run.
In other words, get involved! (And, yes, I need to follow my own advice.)
Just a reminder, everyone, please leave the name calling out of the comment section. Make your point without putting others down.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. And of course, the Golden Rule:
Nature Boy–I am not certain what it is that you are talking about. I have never worked in a factory in my life, but, would be proud to do so if it meant not having to hang out with the Blue Bloods who have done such a horrible job of running everything.
I got an MS on a Fellowship, after dropping out of high school. I never “bought into the Capitalist myth”, but it sure seems that Obama did! He is as neo-liberal as Reagan! I have been a Socialist for years…not a “new Anarchist” which, to me, just seems to be a nihilist.
I am neither ashamed, nor afraid and I have no wealth to surrender. Neo-liberals have taken what would have been my future pension, to pay for medical care, which is seen as ahuman right, in civilized countries.
It is hard to tell if anything if Obama’s fault, he’s so lame and “pragmatic”. Does he stand for–what??
Rob–why is it “death by slow anal impalement” or “burn at the stake”???? Good luck stariting a “collective” in a Capitalist dictatorship!
I agree that people are to blame. But, so is Obama…so , who would y’all say was a GOOD president?
There hasnt been one in my lifetime.
I was merely commenting on the fallacy of complaining about this president’s policies or that president’s decisions. The problem isn’t any given president, most of whom are intelligent and decent men. One commenter complained that he couldn’t find a good president in his lifetime. I would argue that there hasn’t been a truly bad president in his lifetime, either, where bad would be Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, or Pol Pot.
The problem is the centralization of power in the federal government. Reverse that and you’ll see better presidents. If you have all the power, you don’t have to be nice to get more. If you don’t have power, you have to work to get it. If your power is truly derived from the consent of those you govern, you have to be better to them in order to achieve your goals.
The people are to blame, not the president.
The only problem with the presidency is the constitutional mistake of ‘commander in thief’.
Less innocents will have been slaughtered under this man than mcBomb, and that’s progress (I suppose).
But it’s the PEOPLE who enlist, the evil americons who had great candidates like Kucinich and Nader, but who fell asleep at the TV.
Stop blaming Obomba, blame yourself, your selfiish neighborhood of ugly amerigoons, blame and indict each and every enlistee, each and every conservative war-criminal apologist–
YOU DID it people, not Barack. It was your stupid choice to back Botch at 73%, you are the criminals, ugly red-stated, limbaugh-loving, fox imbibing amerigoons.
Be ashamed, be afraid, and surrender your rights and your wealth in reparations to those whom you bombed, willingly, patrioticaly, and without cause.
It’s YOU who suck, america, it’s your fault, not Obomba’s.
You are a heaping bunch of dumbass.
Pingback: Chomsky on Obama Speech + The 3rd Rail – Obama’s game-changing speech in Egypt « Dandelion Salad
We need to get this joker out of office.
Pingback: Barack Obama: A New Beginning (Cairo University 06.04.09) « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: If You Are Stressed Now, Just Wait By Paul Craig Roberts « Dandelion Salad
When the choices are death by slow anal impalement vs. death by burning at the stake … might as well roll the dice because it’s going to be painful either way.
The real problem isn’t who’s the president in any given election cycle. There have been some absolutely horrible presidents in US history. The problem is the extremely large power the Presidency (and federal government in general) wields. That power derives solely from the 16th Amendment. If the federal government takes 70%+ of the total taxes taken, it can then carrot/stick the several states into submission. It says something when members of Congress cannot even cite Constitutional justification for their proposed bills. I’ve even heard that, when asked, some were flummoxed by the question.
While Obama isn’t the best president in history, he isn’t the worst (and I’m not speaking about W, either). Remember that Lincoln pushed forward the first income tax (to pay for the War of Northern Aggression) and Taft proposed the 16th Amendment. The governor of New York, Charles Evans Hughes, who a few years later became a Supreme Court justice, opposed the income tax amendment because he believed “from whatever source derived” implied that passage would confer the federal government with the power to tax state and municipal bonds and thus excessively centralize government power.
Capital isn’t bad. Capital in the hands of government isn’t good.
Am I a long lost sister?? Who knows…my mom was drunk alot…lol
I always wanted a bro…
Then I’m adopted????
Even if we aren’t related, we think alike.
But, a more accurate suggestion may be that I am your Doppelganger. I’ll be the “dark force”.
🙂
Take Care!
I’m a dumb redneck, too. I tried SO hard (alienating friends and family members) to explain to people what it was that I saw in Obama…but, so many were charmed…I fought charges of racism, charges of Conservatism, charges of Socialism (they were right, but only on the last one!). The “big unmentionable” in the US is CLASS!
Now, the response I get is “better than Bush”. I have to ask—in what way? In what fundamental way?
The problem, is, Shaine, that we have to choose Obama/McCain/Biden at all. But as long as Capital runs the show, those will be about the best choices we are going to get….
I am so angry, I just have a seething rage. The bankruptcy of GM yesterday, along with my last long term neighbor leaving, was just too much.
And Obama had the nerve, the cajones, to ask the line workers to “make another sacrifice”…I’m so mad I cant speak…for “their children”–WHOSE children??!! NOT the line workers children..the bankers spoiled brats? When are the upper classes going to be asked to give something??
My class gives blood, my class subsidizes the McMansion lifestyle–WHEN can we stop “sacrificing”??!! And, the best you can offer the working class’ children is a lousy cap and trade system that GIVES AWAY the credits…the best you can offer them is more private student loans, and ”
charter” schools, the best you can offer is a privitized life and death (“health care”) industry–NO THANKS< DEMS!
WE DO NOT DESERVE THIS. WE DID NOT CAUSE IT
That was excellent!
Are you my long lost twin or something?
I disagree, you chose it.
You chose to buy into the wage-slave class. Did you really believe industrial capitalism was gonna come thru for you when push came to shove?
Unions, corruption and all, were the only piddling defense against the man, inevitable, but powerless in the end.
Pull your crew together, take over the factory, form a collective, if the USA won’t buy GM and use the expertise of its greatest asset, its talent, to create the efficient vehicles required, then you have to do it yourselves.
Lookit, your ‘jobs’ are part of the problem, the industrial global climate-change hell you contributed to for the sake of your ‘jobs’ harmed us all. Don’t mourn its demise, instead adapt, re-invent.
Choose the path with heart, form a collective, make the vehicles we need the way Ford himself did, one at a time, do it collectively, and a new worker paradigm will prevail.
You are a victim because you bought into an industrial capitalist myth. It was destined to fail.
See The Take. Take over a rust-belt factory, and start out right, as a collective, a ‘family farm’ within an industrial model, and I bet you blow them away with your collective success.
Here’s the link to The Take:
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/stimulator-spring-of-rage-the-take-2004-naomi-klein/
Why is it an old redneck like me saw this long before the man was elected?
Why is it that the rest of America did not?
Obeyme should never been elected, but neither should McCain. The problem with Obeyme resigning is that you are left with Biden which would probably be worse.
Don’t think we have to worry about this as it’s not going to happen.