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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The Obama administration is being built on consensus and
a collection of bright brains - it is a wonderful show.
If one is allowed to mention it, in Europe as well the tendency for Presidents such as centre-conservativet Sarkozy in France is to compose a government in picking the best and the brighest also from the opposition party, the socialists.
This made the socialist party furious but those picked such as Foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has quickly become one of the most popular members of Sarkozy´s team while assuring that he is still a socialist at heart. In reality however he is a Sarkozy boy.
Some change and for the better.
Barack, you're no John F. Kennedy.
In the primary campaign, Barack Obama promised change. So where is it? Obama apologists at Salon have been doing double duty pointing out that he never promised "progressive" policies. OK, right. But he promised change, and now he is delivering the thud of sameness.
It turns out that the Democratic primary was just a beauty contest after all; that there really was no difference between Obama and Clinton. All that talk about change was a lie, and Obama is just another oily politician. That will disappoint not just "progressives" but independents and libertarian defectors who voted for Obama.
Obama has kept the Israel lobby in charge of our foreign policy, which means $ trillions more in proxy war expenses and homeland security scams. By his financial picks, he signals no change in the Wall Street bail-out strategy, which has so far tagged $700 billion just in the form of TARP, plus hundreds of billions more that will pop up in the Fed's greatly expanded and increasingly junky balance sheet, and in Fannie and Freddie (especially once sympathetic congressmen start handing out mortgage modifications like candy.) And they want to bail out the black hole that is Detroit, without any concessions from the UAW (which means permanent subsidy, in the manner of the pre-Thatcherite UK). And the Obama team wants to spend $700 billion on fiscal stimulus. But not raise taxes. All these trillions need to be borrowed from foreigners who already have that sickly feeling that they lent us way too much already. It's not going to work. Push will come to shove, and Obama's vision of sameness will implode.
There is a reason people voted for change. It's necessary. By failing to deliver it, Obama is not just disappointing people; he is writing his own political epitaph.
P.S. All this talk about Obama in charge is quite the laugh. Who thinks Billary Clinton will take orders from Obama? All that remains is for Obama to call himself the "decider."
Medical marijuana won every single county in Michigan including the counties McCain won.
So why is Obama picking all the most terrifying anti-science, anti-medical marijuana attack dogs from the Clinton administration for his drug policy team?
The center moved away from Don Vereen a long time ago. Now Don Vereen stands to the right of Bush, because Don Vereen wants to incarcerate patients, and that's a line even Bush refused to cross.
What Obama said before the election: I'm going to protect the patients from fear.
What Obama did after the election: Hire the one guy in Washington the patients have reason to fear the most.
Axelrod says that Obama, and only Obama, will be in charge of American Foreign and Economic Policies. So, I wonder where that leaves the American People. Where do the American People fit in?
There are many of us who share a vision of an America that is of, by and for the People. Many of us believe that it would be better to let the American People - educated about the truths of global economics - decide about what is in their true best interests. For example - about ending the war and ending a foreign policy of aggression and imperialism. And for example, holding corporations accountable and plugging loopholes that allow corporations to abuse workers and the tax system.
How about a return to the idea that public officials are elected not as oligarchs, but as representatives of the best and common interests of all people.
It is good that Bush will be out of office. Bush's actions (reign of horror) created a movement. First it was in backlash - against what the Bush Administration was doing. But now it is progressing onward and moving toward something; it is a genuine movement for a truly better world. It's not just against the wrongs of the Bush Administration. It's for what is right (i.e. in the sense of "correct"). It is for justice, for human rights, for environmental protection - for economic sanity in a time of overpopulation and overconsumption of limited resources...
The job now is to keep this movement awake. Keep it alive. Keep pushing and striving and struggling. Keep telling the truth and pursuing dialogue. Keep challenging the broken and harmful systems that endanger humanity and the health of the planet...
It will be critical to the health of the planet and future generations to maintain the momentum (created by Bush's actions in office) that now exists in the progressive, peace and social/economic/environmental justice movements.
There are at least 200,000 medical marijuana patients in the country right now. How many years would it take to schedule enough federal court time to put all those people in prison?
Vereen is a raging fanatic, not a cool pragmatist, and his leadership of the drug policy team is not a good sign for lies ahead.
His aim by the looks of it is to make sure Groupthink doesn't creep into his administration, and while he could do with a few more leftwing people on his cabinet his overall strategy appears to be one that will enhance the cautious approach he was talking about when running.
Hmmm...Salon and other blogs are simply trying to stir the pot, trump up controversy and rile the masses. Don't buy it! The left is not going to fix things, the right has proven they can't. So where do you go?...somewhere in the middle. Get over it SALON and whiners. Haven't you noticed there are far more pressing issues? .... Perhaps there is no intelligence available for such discussions.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
