Cross-posted at Firedoglake.com

I posted this on Grayson’s website:

http://congressmanwithguts.com/

Hello Alan-

I am a former supporter and donator to your first campaign, and have generally been very impressed with the positions you have taken.  I heard you on Sam Seder’s show of Wednesday the 21st, though, and must say that I am very disappointed to hear you denigrate the idea of a primary challenge to President Obama.

I have asked a number of high-profile progressives what they would think about a primary challenger, and of the ones who have taken the negative position, the reasoning seems to boil down to the old “lesser-of-two-evils” argument-that no matter how little difference there appears to be between Obama and Bush on matters of substance, we still must reelect Obama because he’s, I don’t know, not a Republican, or not as illiterate as Bush, or something.  The best argument I’ve heard is the Supreme Court one:  If we don’t put Obama back in, then when the critical 5th vote comes up, we’ll get another evil corporatist.  This fails on a number of levels: Change originates from an organized electorate, not from the top down, for one; and for another, Obama has never done anything to in any way hinder the oligarchy, so where does the idea come from that, at such a critical moment, he would suddenly change?  Not a good reason to support Obama, or to fear a Republican win.

Cross-posted at Firedoglake.com and Thom Hartmann.com

@ Thom:

As usual, I listed to the podcasts yesterday (Tuesday 9-6).  And as usual, you irrationally called for Obama’s reelection.  Incredible.

You said Obama had accomplished a lot in his 1st two years, which is a big surprise to almost anyone who has been awake.  And in support of this nonsense, you named 3 things:  The ACA; tax cuts for the middle class; and his efforts to get us out of the horrific recession we are still stuck in.

I call Bullsh*t on all 3:

CROSS-POSTED @ ThomHartmann.com

@ Tom:

First, a compliment:  I really love the way y’all have the “Community” page organized.  You have one of the most convenient and easily-read systems for comments that I’ve seen:  We can go back to a previous blog; comment on it; and it appears at the top of a topics page.  Really nice.  And I was just listening to the Hr. 2 podcast of 8-25; a caller complimented you on the sane and rational way you handle the crazies.  I totally agree.  –Speaking of lunatics:  What happened to Peter Ferrara? I really loved that guy; he was the paradigm of Rightist Crazy, going so batsh*t that I could imagine foam flying out of his mouth as he blarged out incoherencies.  Instead the “ACRU” is now sending on people who, while no less insane, are at least better medicated…

CROSS-POSTED @ ThomHartmann.com

@ Tom:

First, a compliment:  I really love the way y’all have the “Community” page organized.  You have one of the most convenient and easily-read systems for comments that I’ve seen:  We can go back to a previous blog; comment on it; and it appears at the top of a topics page.  Really nice.  And I was just listening to the Hr. 2 podcast of 8-25; a caller complimented you on the sane and rational way you handle the crazies.  I totally agree.  –Speaking of lunatics:  What happened to Peter Ferrara? I really loved that guy; he was the paradigm of Rightist Crazy, going so batsh*t that I could imagine foam flying out of his mouth as he blarged out incoherencies.  Instead the “ACRU” is now sending on people who, while no less insane, are at least better medicated…

Not trying to pick on you, but I have to revisit this topic: I simply cannot understand the treatment that Obama is getting on your show, in light of your evidence-based sanity and genuine caring for progressive values.

I just posted this on Thom Hartmann’s website, and thought I’d reproduce it here:

@Thom:

I am a longtime listener, a “podcaster” who listens to you every day, to the extent of saving any podcasts I missed for the weekend. I have the greatest respect for you as a commentator, author, broadcaster, and observer of the political scene and human condition; in fact, if you go to any major dictionary & look up “Renaissance Man”, the example picture is Thom Hartmann! I’ve followed you since the Air America days, and am a huge fan.

(I can hear you say about now: “BUT!…”)

I just posted this on Thom Hartmann’s website, and thought I’d reproduce it here:

@Thom:

I am a longtime listener, a “podcaster” who listens to you every day, to the extent of saving any podcasts I missed for the weekend. I have the greatest respect for you as a commentator, author, broadcaster, and observer of the political scene and human condition; in fact, if you go to any major dictionary & look up “Renaissance Man”, the example picture is Thom Hartmann! I’ve followed you since the Air America days, and am a huge fan.

(I can hear you say about now: “BUT!…”)

“But”:  I am really confused and perplexed by your unquestioning Obama worship.  Today (Thursday April 1) I was listening to Hour 1 about halfway through, and heard you say something to the effect of “Hey, I lived through an administration where the president was an insane murderous sociopath who gave the richest of the rich five trillion dollars, it is such a relief to hear a president–flawed though he may be–say Reaganomics is un-American.”  So what’s important is what he says, not what he does? And you just accept that, for once, he will do what he says (“not on my watch”), despite an overwhelming amount of evidence that he practically never follows up on his promises?

And then you follow it up with hippie-punching, telling “cynics” to “get a life” and “acknowledge reality”. (Yeah, if you’re not “cynical” about Obama you aren’t a hippie, what with Obama’s penchant for wars, fossil-fuel and nuke worshipping, GMOs, and such.)

But I’m with you on acknowledging reality. So let’s do it: Let’s set aside the golden oratory for a minute. Obama, despite the fact that he’s a Democrat, has done very little that’s different from Bush–particularly when it comes to the power of the corporatist banksters and war criminals who are sucking this decaying country dry.  In big ways he is worse: He has actively expanded the concept of the Unitary Executive; he has not restored Habeas Corpus; he has not resisted the fossil fools and nuclear maniacs; he has expanded the military state; and he has done something that Bush the Dimmer never did–he’s started a major war without even pretending that he “gives a rat’s patootie” about Congress’s exclusive Constitutional prerogative to do so.

And I don’t buy for a minute the excuse that pore li’l ole Obama just is so SO powerless against the big bad Washington system. So powerless, apparently, that he eagerly serves and advances the cause of the international corporatists, while slamming progressives at every opportunity.  The Presidency powerless? Tell that to FDR.  Or LBJ.  Or GWB, for that matter–he ran roughshod over Congress with nothing but chutzpah. And Obama can’t even fulfill his promise to at least push for a public option.

Let’s acknowledge the reality that Obama is a creature of the banksters. He was put into power by the banksters; he has surrounded himself with banksters; and he does their bidding at every opportunity. He has never done a single thing to interfere with their power, and in fact has expanded it at every opportunity–and we get bupkis or worse.  Let’s acknowledge the realities that war spending is at an all-time high; that BP and the criminal banksters got away with it, on Obama’s watch; and that civilian government spending, and taxes on the ultrarich, were CUT–at precisely the time when the economy needed the opposite. Every day brings a new insult, and new proof that Obama is Not On Our Side. You know this stuff.  How can you thus not follow the information to its logical conclusion?

Nor do I buy the idea that we should swallow hard and put Obama back in because of the Supreme Court.  Obama has done nothing yet that restrains the corporatists, or threatens their power. Why do you think, when it comes down to it, that he’d take the Supreme Court away from them? No, what will happen is that we’ll get another Anthony Kennedy instead of Antonin Scalia–but either suits the corporatists just fine.

I noticed a change in your show when you moved to Washington. You know, if I were superstitious, I’d believe that Washington is under a geas or evil spell that causes anyone who crosses over its foul boundaries to enter a netherworld where it’s the Good Guys v. the Baddies (pick your side); that the obvious must never be spoken on pain of being declared “unserious”; and where you must never say ill of anyone on “your team” lest that give aid and comfort to the Republicans (or whoever).  I worry that somehow you are falling under that curse.

So there it is. Love you & the show, and will always listen, but hey: Let’s acknowledge reality, shall we? Isn’t it time for you to start calling for a primary challenger to Obama?  Or is it too late by now anyway?

Peace ~alamac

I just posted this on Thom Hartmann’s website, and thought I’d reproduce it here:

@Thom:

I am a longtime listener, a “podcaster” who listens to you every day, to the extent of saving any podcasts I missed for the weekend. I have the greatest respect for you as a commentator, author, broadcaster, and observer of the political scene and human condition; in fact, if you go to any major dictionary & look up “Renaissance Man”, the example picture is Thom Hartmann! I’ve followed you since the Air America days, and am a huge fan.

(I can hear you say about now: “BUT!…”)

“But”:  I am really confused and perplexed by your unquestioning Obama worship.  Today (Thursday April 1) I was listening to Hour 1 about halfway through, and heard you say something to the effect of “Hey, I lived through an administration where the president was an insane murderous sociopath who gave the richest of the rich five trillion dollars, it is such a relief to hear a president–flawed though he may be–say Reaganomics is un-American.”  So what’s important is what he says, not what he does? And you just accept that, for once, he will do what he says (“not on my watch”), despite an overwhelming amount of evidence that he practically never follows up on his promises?

And then you follow it up with hippie-punching, telling “cynics” to “get a life” and “acknowledge reality”. (Yeah, if you’re not “cynical” about Obama you aren’t a hippie, what with Obama’s penchant for wars, fossil-fuel and nuke worshipping, GMOs, and such.)

But I’m with you on acknowledging reality. So let’s do it: Let’s set aside the golden oratory for a minute. Obama, despite the fact that he’s a Democrat, has done very little that’s different from Bush–particularly when it comes to the power of the corporatist banksters and war criminals who are sucking this decaying country dry.  In big ways he is worse: He has actively expanded the concept of the Unitary Executive; he has not restored Habeas Corpus; he has not resisted the fossil fools and nuclear maniacs; he has expanded the military state; and he has done something that Bush the Dimmer never did–he’s started a major war without even pretending that he “gives a rat’s patootie” about Congress’s exclusive Constitutional prerogative to do so.

And I don’t buy for a minute the excuse that pore li’l ole Obama just is so SO powerless against the big bad Washington system. So powerless, apparently, that he eagerly serves and advances the cause of the international corporatists, while slamming progressives at every opportunity.  The Presidency powerless? Tell that to FDR.  Or LBJ.  Or GWB, for that matter–he ran roughshod over Congress with nothing but chutzpah. And Obama can’t even fulfill his promise to at least push for a public option.

Let’s acknowledge the reality that Obama is a creature of the banksters. He was put into power by the banksters; he has surrounded himself with banksters; and he does their bidding at every opportunity. He has never done a single thing to interfere with their power, and in fact has expanded it at every opportunity–and we get bupkis or worse.  Let’s acknowledge the realities that war spending is at an all-time high; that BP and the criminal banksters got away with it, on Obama’s watch; and that civilian government spending, and taxes on the ultrarich, were CUT–at precisely the time when the economy needed the opposite. Every day brings a new insult, and new proof that Obama is Not On Our Side. You know this stuff.  How can you thus not follow the information to its logical conclusion?

Nor do I buy the idea that we should swallow hard and put Obama back in because of the Supreme Court.  Obama has done nothing yet that restrains the corporatists, or threatens their power. Why do you think, when it comes down to it, that he’d take the Supreme Court away from them? No, what will happen is that we’ll get another Anthony Kennedy instead of Antonin Scalia–but either suits the corporatists just fine.

I noticed a change in your show when you moved to Washington. You know, if I were superstitious, I’d believe that Washington is under a geas or evil spell that causes anyone who crosses over its foul boundaries to enter a netherworld where it’s the Good Guys v. the Baddies (pick your side); that the obvious must never be spoken on pain of being declared “unserious”; and where you must never say ill of anyone on “your team” lest that give aid and comfort to the Republicans (or whoever).  I worry that somehow you are falling under that curse.

So there it is. Love you & the show, and will always listen, but hey: Let’s acknowledge reality, shall we? Isn’t it time for you to start calling for a primary challenger to Obama?  Or is it too late by now anyway?

Peace ~alamac

One after another, people we thought were progressives–people we thought had the same values as we do–have shown themselves to be, at heart, cultural rightists who sympathize with the darkest forces of our society.  Chris Dodd–I gave you fifty bucks during the ’08 campaign because I liked your stance on FISA.  Now you’ve shown yourself to be a servant of the banksters.  Can I have my money back please?  Barack Obama: I gave you a LOT more than fifty bucks, in “hope” that I’d see real “change”.  Now you’ve shown yourself to be a corporatist who hires the likes of Gibbs, Summers, Geithner, and Rubin; and the positions you take, deck chair here and there notwithstanding, are practically indistinguishable from those of Bush the Dimmer. Can I have that money back too?

But the most shocking thing I’ve heard recently is that Howard Dean, whom I admired and supported in his historic election campaign, has shown himself to be a cultural xenophobe who buys into the nonsensical anti-Muslim (and anti-Constitutional) world view of the likes of Sarah Palin and David Duke.

Et tu, Howard Dean?