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The crime is committed by the guilty, and the guiltless who can avenge it is not found. There is no fear from accuser or judge: the wicked obtain impunity, while modest men are silent; accomplices are afraid, and those who are to judge are for sale.

-St. Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise 5

re: The United States' foreign policy has been pretty consistent over the years: primarily concerned with maintenance of military supremacy...

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John Kennedy's story is our story, although a titanic effort has been made to keep it from us. That story, like the struggle it embodies, is as current today as it was in 1963 . The theology of redemptive violence still reigns. The Cold War has been followed by its twin, the War on Terror. We are engaged in another apocalyptic struggle against an enemy seen as absolute evil. Terrorism has replaced Communism as the enemy. We are told we can be safe only through the threat of escalating violence. Once again, anything goes in a fight against evil: preemptive attacks, torture, undermining governments, assassinations, whatever it takes to gain the end of victory over an enemy portrayed as irredeemably evil. Yet the redemptive means John Kennedy turned to, in a similar struggle, was dialogue with the enemy. When the enemy is seen as human, everything changes.

-James W. Douglass, author, JFK and the Unspeakable

http://tinyurl.com/3nlm3q

The death of JFK remains a critical turning point in our history. Those who caused his death were targeting not just a man but a vision -- a vision of peace. There is no calculating the consequences of his death for this country and for the world. Those consequences endure. To a large extent, the fate of our country and the future of the planet continue to be controlled by the shadowy forces of what Douglass calls "the Unspeakable." Only by unmasking these forces and confronting the truth about our history can we restore the promise of democracy and lay claim to Kennedy's vision of peace.

-Oliver Stone

http://tinyurl.com/ktzdd8

re: The right's rage is based on things they are imagining Obama is doing and will do.

What Obama has done is continue Bush's policies.

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“As Obama came into office, (former Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice predicted he would follow the policies of Bush’s second term, and that is pretty much what happened, apart from a different rhetorical style.”

-Noam Chomsky

http://tinyurl.com/yb2epbk

re: you can't really call Obama a failure unless you're prepared to call Bush a significantly more spectacular failure

I do and he was.

Next.

I'm grimly amused when I read these letters, all so shocked -- shocked! --about the venom spewed by opponents of Obama. As if we didn't lay it on Bush in spades when that puny idiot occupied the Oval Office.

I hate hypocrisy, whether it comes from the left or right. This whole thing is so hypocritical. If McPalin had won, you'd better believe we'd all have been on our knees praying that they'd drop dead, pronto. Hell, I'd get voodoo dolls to help 'em along to an early grave.

Google up "Bush Hitler":

http://tinyurl.com/yaundb4

9.9 MILLION hits (running a very close second to the current occupant of the White House). We hated the motherfucker, for good reason.

Or try "Cheney evil":

http://tinyurl.com/yehksln

3.9 MILLION hits (more than 2x his successor). We hated that motherfucker, too.

And it's time we face the fact that Obama is a lousy, wholly disappointing President. As I previously posted, the guy has gone back on virtually every promise he made during the campaign, e.g., we're still in Iraq, we're about to become even more heavily involved in Afghanistan, he appointed Wall Street insiders to run the Treasury, Gitmo is still open, we're still practicing "extraordinary renditions", he voted for the FISA bill, etc., etc., etc.

Insofar as the defense of Obama that basically says "He and Biden are geniuses compared to the folks they replaced", that's true. But it also reveals again what absolute low regard we had for Bush-Cheney. And my dog is a genius compared to either of those fuck stains, so that doesn't make Obama-Biden raving geniuses.

Re: "The economy is showing signs of recovery", only the most deluded would believe such a thing. I could (and in the past have) posted reams of data showing that we are as fucked as fucked can be by virtue of the actions and inactions of the Obama administration, so I won't repeat myself here. But as Dr. Marc Faber recently said, "The crisis has not solved anything. On the contrary there is less transparency today than there was before. The government's balance sheet is expanding, and the abuses that have led to the one cause of the crisis have continued".

http://tinyurl.com/ye66gbm

You're right, of course. Obama is a complete phony. He's just a more refined and articulate version of Bush.

In fact, I cannot recall a single pledge of his during the campaign that he has fulfilled. The guy has capitulated on everything from endless war to Gitmo to bailing out the banksters to... you name it.

As I posted on today's The New York Times:

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The only way forward for America is to throw off the shackles of the military-corporate owned politicians of the Republican and Democratic parties. Either we find a third way -- and quickly -- based upon the needs and hopes of the vast majority of us, or we will implode.

http://tinyurl.com/ybn9zak