although the Bush and Clinton administration both wanted to maintain American prevailing power in the world, there was a fundamental difference between them. Clinton wanted to do it primarily by economic neoliberalism, and the Bushites intended to dominate by military means and threats.

Obama is pursuing the Bushite approach not the Clinton approach.  He is continuing the wars of the War on Terrorism which requires the maintenence of war policies.  Far from cutting the military budget, he is increasing it.  The NYTimes recently gloated that the military had no problem filling their quotas, youth with no other prospects now volenteering for the military.  If he can enact a draft, leading up with a National Service act, he can get these youth even cheaper.

The first victim of war is the simple truth.  In order to pass any progressive policies, it is necessary to develop a partisan attack on the status quo.  But Obama is a conservative pretending he is a progressive, and has been put in power by Zionist neoliberal imperialists to consolidate the Bushite counter revolution.  So he is continuing Bushite policies with a Progressive rhetoric.

Most people don’t like to fight so he is appealing to a Bipartisan appoach to Hope n Change.  Since the Bushites devastated the American economy and power system, this apprach will lead to WORSE policies than Bush, because the problems are worse.  Obama is a fake progressive, as he has already demonstrated, and incapable of producing progressive change.

Progressives must develop a movement against Zionist neoliberal imperialism when Obama triangulates the American political process.

Is it allowed to hope that nothing will change?

Bertil I agree. The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade this year. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest.  I decided we would have an election for a class president.

We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members.  We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have.  We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.

The class had done a great job in their selections.  Both candidates were good kids.  I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia’s mother.

The day arrived when they were to make their speeches, and Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place.  He ended by promising to do his very best.  Everyone applauded.

He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise.  She said, “If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream.”  She sat down.

The class went wild.  “Yes!  Yes!  We want ice cream.” She surely could say more. She did not have to.
A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream?  She wasn’t sure.

Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it?  She didn’t know.

The class really didn’t care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.

Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and fifty-two percent of the people reacted like nine year olds.  They want ice cream.

The other forty-eight percent of us know we’re going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess.

“The reason so many cried this week is because we can finally glimpse that change in the distance. And yet, those pangs of concern linger. They don’t undermine the euphoria or diminish Obama’s promise. But they do recognize that we worry about hope’s mirage—and pray there are no illusions this time.”

That’s it.  Americans are not stupid; they’re delusional.  I’m sick of all these Obamaroids who are flooding the media.  Obama’s not comparative to Jesus.  He doesn’t rate a 7 or 800 in the spritual scale where Jesus would get a 1000.
A Fran Gorton appeared on DemocracyNow!. She knew and worked with Obama’s mother for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia.  The Ford Foundation deals mainly in counterinsurgency.  Obama’s mother introduced debt to the very poor in the form of microloans—Capitailists scheme to enslave the peasants by introducing them to American capitalism’s debt.  In the words of a comedian like Redd Foxx, “It’s not what you got that counts.  It’s what you owe.”
Fran Gorton’s appearance reminded be of what a local news commentator said about tv.  It’s great, it reveals.  It’s is ddifficult to lie and get away withn it.  Gorton’s motherly, kindly Ford Foundation worker belied a deceptive, insidious predator.  An imperialist’s tool. 
All this points to Obama as being just another disillusioning waif in American history who everyone assigned their own hopes and dreams to of what this country could be like.
After these last eight years, where a lot of Americans lived with their hearts in their throats, I can only hope that the next four years go by fast, and the next Presidential campaign will offer a truly populist candidate.  One who has worked for a living before going in to politics.

It certainly appears that “the cat is out of the bag” concerning “what’s wrong in Washington (D.C.), that is, so…. concerning all these “unlikely” appointments, let’s muster a reality check.

So… we’re holding three Jacks, do they have a full-house….?  Are these cards marked?  By whom…?  And what is the endgame?

Should we “call”?  I say…., STAND UP AMERICA, our “Jacks” can call their BLUFF.  Simply because bluffing is basically lying with a straight face.  Isn’t this their “M.O.”?

Sure it is…. think about it…

They’re dead in the water, that they are… why else would they beg, borrow and steal to portray differently?  Do you really believe that if they were TRULY holding the “winning hand” they’d be groveling for TAX DOLLARS!

Think what they’ve done around the world when they actually had the “upper hand”.  Not pretty.  If they HAD it… they’d use it, but they don’t… so they’ve resorted to bluffing.

Yep…. their M.O. says, they’re kaput, outta here, full of it, etc.

Hang Tough. And don’t give up the ship.

Cyrena: Here’s a few less than inspired nominations: Clinton, Summer, Geither, Holbroke and Gates. Admittedly, not all Cabinet level, but pretty damn important, nonethless.

And if you have to ask why, maybe you should reconsider your qualifications to pontificate on this particular thread.

But this is pretty outrageous: “Obama’s ‘behavior’ since his election and specifically since his inauguration (required to actually give him any ‘presidential power’) has been overwhelmingly bold in response to those promises.”

“Bold”? This is the guy who hid while the Israelis were bombing the crap out of Gaza, and when it was over, called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, rather than the democratically elected president of Gaza’s Hamas, you know, the guy representing the people actually getting killed.

Give me a break. Obama is just another suit working for the Big Con.

•  “Cut through the meaningless platitudes describing our new president as a post-partisan, post-racial pragmatist, and you find an inspiring leader who organized us around optimism. Then consider that leader’s behavior since the election, and you run into that nagging speck of doubt. His less-than-inspiring Cabinet appointments, his support of Bush’s Wall Street bailout, his embrace of nonsensical corporate tax cuts—these moves raise questions about whether Obama is willing to differentiate between his two campaign themes: hope and change.”

This paragraph is ALL ‘meaningless platitudes’ when we actually consider the language of “behavior” since the election. For instance: WHICH ‘less-than-inspiring’ Cabinet appointments? I think Eric Holder is PERFECT for carrying out some of the major promises of the Obama campaign, in terms of what mattered so much to so many Americans…the return to the rule of law. Obama’s ‘behavior’ since his election and specifically since his inauguration (required to actually give him any ‘presidential power’) has been overwhelmingly bold in response to those promises.

What’s with the generalities of ‘less- than- inspiring’ Cabinet appointments? How the hell many Cabinet positions does Sirota think it takes to run a government? Or better yet, dig a nation the likes of the USA out of an abyss that didn’t just happen to develop overnight. Again, WHICH Cabinet appointments?  And then there’s the “Support” for the “Bush bailout”. I guess we can use that rhetoric, as if there was really an option at the time of Obama’s so-called ‘support’. Did Sirota or anybody else have any BETTER IDEAS AT THE TIME?
That’s what it always boils down to with the cynics and the critics. Same thing for Obama’s alleged “Embrace” of nonsensical corporate tax cuts. Maybe this is true? I don’t know. I must be behind on that part of the economy dilemma. I’ll have to investigate and see what Obama is saying about nonsensical corporate tax cuts. Sirota doesn’t provide a reference to this any more than he does for the ‘less-than-inspiring’ Cabinet appointments, or the so-called ‘support’ of the Paulsen Bailout plan.

Meantime, I ALWAYS have specks of doubts…sometimes more than specks. Most of us SHOULD. My own are prompted by different concerns that are far less ambiguous than what is being compared here; the difference between hope and change. The CHANGE is already happening. Some are missing it though, because of the perpetual “Forest Blindness” syndrome, which is prompted by an overall inclination to be distracted by favorite trees. (Some might call these ‘single issue’ folks).

So, more rhetoric and platitudes. We don’t really know how this will pan out until (as our friend Leefeller has often reminded us) the rubber hits the road, with Obama at the wheel. It’s been less than a week.

No tears here the media coverage of the coronation was right in step with the power structures wish to provide a great dramatic spectacle for the common good. The empire while damaged still survives and the new emperor will be benevolent as long as we submit peaceably with the new order being brought forth.

Glasses should be raised to the sacrifices we are going to be asked to make in the guise of historical necessity. Many post’s ago the question was raised “what would it be like after Berry was elected?” No crystal ball was needed for the answers. Hope is a wonderful emotion but the reality of an industrial society is that the lower class will be oppressed for empire, and there are no free rides. As to the expectations that the hand of government will bring relief to those in need, the empire will expect total submission in return and free will, diminished, the change will not be quite what was expected. This country is bankrupt, not just economically but ethically also, it will be very unlikely that the government, business and populace will be able to change from society of looters into a productive sustainable society of humans.

“Events will overtake Obama”-Shift

“Life is what happens while your busy making other plans.”-John Lennon

“Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man, neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.”-Thomas Paine

“We want everyone to control their own life and to care for one another…We cannot tolerate attitudes, institutions, and machines whose purpose is the destruction of life, the accumulation of profit.” -The New Yippie Book Collective (eds.), Blacklisted News: Secret Histories from Chicago to 1984, page 514. Bleecker Publishing, 1983.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; ...to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the RIGHT of the people to ALTER or to ABOLISH it.” -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence

Do something,
xoxe
WAWA
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Events will overtake Obama and the Democrats.  How can it be otherwise?  Once the working wage was decoupled from productivity consumption dropped.  Wall Street then decided to ease credit and Americans consumed not on wages but on debt.  Now that American wages have fallen so low and credit is unavailable, a temporary infusion of money into the economy will only slow down the decline, not fix it.  One thing we can be sure of is that Washington will employ realistic fixes only as a last resort, and then grudgingly.  Ugly may not be a strong enough word for what we are facing.

Like Sirota, I too am a closet crier when it comes to certain movies, tv shows, and books(If you don’t cry at the end of Edward Scissorhands you have no soul) but I slowly forgot about the tearjerking happeneings of the inauguration when Barry nominated a former lobbyist for Raytheon for a high position in the pentagon, and remains silent about the happenings in Gaza.

It’s enough to make us all cry.

Obama has gotten his feet wet in the blood of the world. The military, now under his commnnd, blew up some homes in Pakistna, killing 17 people.  A good start.

It was a grand day, an historic day…and a day like no other in the history of the world..

One that will live on, throughout the lives of all of us, as long as there is an America.

When President Obama was still running against Mr. McCain he repeatedly stated that he was going to send more troops to Afghanistan. At that time I wrote on this site: “What is the port of Afghanistan”?  Of course Afghanistan does not have a harbor because the country is landlocked. I pointed out then that the supply line through Pakistan was greatly vulnerable and not only at the Khyber Pass but everywhere.

I was right. Now the Obama administration plans to open a new supply line through Russia and several of the “Stans”. Kazakhstan will be inevitable. From there he has several choices, all bad.

This supply line is far longer than that of the Germans to Stalingrad in WW2 and vulnerable not only to “terrorists” but to plain robbers out for loot. Moreover, President Obama can forget putting pressure on Russia for anything. He will have to play nice with Mr. Putin. The supply of our troops in Afghanistan will continue to be an ever growing nightmare.

President Obama wants a “responsible retreat” from Iraq. Given the supply-nightmare that is even more needed for Afghanistan.

All too true and as usual, perfectly stated.

  Sometimes I wonder…worry maybe that his seeming cautiousness is based on the perception that too much bold action too soon may get him shot down.
I hope not literally, but considering some of the dregs of the earth clinging to power still (-just look at all the Rightwing hacks dominating the guest slots on cable news as authorities even though the Right has been completely discredited)and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
It wouldn’t be the first time.

Prayer and HOPE without Action is Hypocrisy!

My first email, FAX and snail mail letter-accompanied by a copy of my MEMOIRS in OPt to:

Dear President Obama and Vice President Biden,

  “HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it.”-St. Augustine

  As a person of Hope for Change I encourage you to focus on the ways to broker true security for Israel; through justice for Palestinians.

  Justice requires and End to the Occupation and equal human rights for all.

The way to achieve it is through a self-determined, democratic and contiguous Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza.

Jerusalem can indeed become a shining city on a hill when it is shared and also becomes the International Capital of the World.

  My hope for change is that security, peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land, and the entire Middle East will not lie in militarism and nuclear weapons, but in Justice and Mercy which equates to Equal Human Rights for all.

  As we begin the 9th year of The UN’s Decade of Creating a Culture of NONVIOLENCE for all the Children of the World, may the US become the change to make that real!

  My hope is that in 2009, The Wall will fall and that Change must begin when walls fall in hearts and minds.

Vanunu’s Message to Hillary Clinton re: The Wall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Omq-QG7isA&eurl=http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1168&Itemid=214

Just weeks after his FREEDOM OF SPEECH TRIAL began the whistle blower of Israel’s underground WMD Facility sent this message to Senator Clinton and USA Christians re: The Apartheid Wall and The Bombs. Excerpted from “30 Minutes with Vanunu” freely streaming @ WeAreWideAwake

  “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”-John 8:32

Eileen Fleming, Founder WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author “Keep Hope Alive”
“Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes With Vanunu”

v Gee, I hope you recover soon. So much hate. Be careful; it hurts you more than others.

“The reason so many cried this week is because” we saw the reports and pictures from Gaza. Moral scum like Obama and his cabinet didn’t shed any tears over the wholesale slaughter in Gaza however, or even break their self-imposed silence.  Since assuming office, AIPAC caddy Obama has officially reiterated that he will not negotiate with the democratically-elected government of Hamas. “Those pangs of concern” grow by leaps and bounds “because we can finally glimpse that change” is farther “in the distance” than ever. “They don’t undermine the euphoria” because that was always based on giddy emotionalism anyway; “or diminish Obama’s promise” because he never had any to begin with, that was a PR confection all along. “A confession: I occasionally cry during” garish displays of contrived melodrama like syrupy speechs at theatrically staged coronation carnivals or other such self-glorifying public spectacles - albeit rather more bitter tears. So - “like millions of other Americans” - I didn’t watch the hokie inauguration charade and avoided a “public case of [oratorical] Niagra Falls” from a fawning media and presidential publicists. “History undoubtedly spurred some of our national” disgust this week. A candidate who spent more money than anyone in history - more than both major-party candidates put together in the last election - “being sworn in to lead a country built on”  money, special interests and cronyism is a familiar landmark. By making him half-black though, it can be more easily glossed over. “There were also tears of prospective” gentrification. “Hearing a new president deliver a Rooseveltian ‘we’re all in this together’ speech instead of a Reagan-esque ‘every man for himself’”- after having, earlier in the campaign, expressed his glowing admiration for Bonzo “implied the [closet assent] of an entire political era.” “In that sense, the moment felt like the first day of the rest of America’s life” with Obama’s shiftiness. “Transcending our” future and continuing an old project—these are the class “undertakings whose complexity and uncertainty explain the apprehension many sensed rumbling beneath their inaugural” nausea.  “Though presidential festivities and media superlatives tried to numb any feeling other than happiness, it’s only natural to experience a twinge of anxiety while” being led to “the edge of an abyss.” “Cut through the meaningless platitudes” in the inaugural address and you find a corporate Uncle Tom and AIPAC step-‘n-fetch-it. “We worry about hope’s mirage—and pray there” is something to pray to besides the Obamessiah illusion.

Obama is President; America changed. I never thought I’d see that day. When that reality hit, I too teared up. Cynic that I am; I’ll remain critically supportive and see how this plays out.
http://www.iauthorbooks.com