Tag: Obama

When General Dynamics put the money up to groom and run Obama, they knew that we’d be arguing about race. That our side would be divided.

And, as I said, another faction had Hillary put up for the same reasons.

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When I voted for Obama, my hope didn’t seem entirely naive- I thought that at the very worst, he’d turn out to be a slight improvement, and at best a fairly decent improvement.

I was wrong.

And, then at first I came to the conclusion that he was the same as Bush–but now it’s clear to me at least that he’s in fact been much worse.

Here’s my list.

Better than Bush:

1. Israel. Arguably, slightly better on Israel/Palestine.

2. Supreme Court. I don’t like Sotomayer at all, but she’s better than a Bush nominee would have been.  

Same as Bush:

1. Iraq

2. Torture, renditions, Gitmo–all ongoing.

3. Personal freedoms, Patriot Act, TSA, and Homeland (in)Security Dept–the apparatus of a fascist state in the making.

4. Handouts to corporate America–Goldman Sachs and other robber barons.

5. Honduras. We can’t really know for sure what Bush would have done here, but Hillary’s been yelling ‘get over it’ to countries that were against the coup, so I’ll assume no difference here.

6. Iran.

7. ‘Clean’ coal.

8. Endangered species. This one surprises me–that he’s been this bad.

9. Outsourcing.

10. Environment: he’s been putting industry lobbyists in charge, just like Bush.

Worse than Bush:

1. Afghanistan–Bush was pulling out, Obama has expanded this with no end in sight.  

2. Health Care ‘Reform’- Bush could never have pulled off this travesty, which is an attack on personal freedom, and the first salvo of the attack on SS/medicare.  (see 3)

3. The attack on Social Security and Medicare – Bush wanted to do this, but never could have politically. Ten years from now there will be no SS, and no or greatly reduced medicare –and Obama will be the culprit.

4. Militarism of the schools. This seems to be a pet Obama project from his Chicago days.

5. Pakistan. One of Obama’s first actions was drone strikes (some killing civilians) inside of Pakistan’s borders.

6. Nuclear power resurgence.  Bush couldn’t have gone there.  

A Rhode Island school board fired all the teachers in a school, in a dispute over working more hours without any more pay, and Obama says, that’s just great, while the right wing applauds.

To get a share of the $3.5 billion in what are known as School Improvement Grants, school officials can choose to transform the learning environments in failing schools by extending instructional hours and making other changes, converting them to charter schools, closing them entirely or replacing the principal and at least half the staff.

The Central Falls superintendent, Frances Gallo, initially chose the first option this year, but after a dispute arose with the union over extra pay for adding 25 minutes to the school day, she broke off negotiations. Backed by the local school board, she announced the firings on Feb. 23. Last Monday, Mr. Obama supported the board’s action in a speech to a dropout prevention group.

NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03…

Of course, it’s just fine to militarize the schools:

Disturbing as well is the prominence of Duncan’s belief in offering a key role in public education to the military. Chicago’s school system is currently the most militarized in the country, boasting five military academies, nearly three dozen smaller Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps programs within existing high schools, and numerous middle school Junior ROTC programs. More troubling yet, the military academies he’s started are nearly all located in low-income, minority neighborhoods. This merging of military training and education naturally raises concerns about whether such academies will be not just education centers, but recruitment centers as well….

read more at: http://www.greenchange.org/art…

The battle for America’s future is being played out in the schools, charter schools, and Texas-approved textbooks, and the left just doesn’t seem to care.  For 30 years, the right is pushing the schools ever further right, although they don’t plan to send their own kids their– many have pulled their own kids out- for those that can afford it to expensive private schools, and those that can’t, to homeschooling  (82% of home-schoolers are Christian right) .

President Obama has proposed a whopping $54 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear power plants.

What does that mean? If the costly new nuclear plants aren't finished, then taxpayers cover the huge financial loss.

If they are built, then we're stuck with power plants that generate overpriced electricity and create deadly radioactive waste that will remain toxic for thousands of years.

Either way, the nuclear industry wins, and we lose.

Tell President Obama to stop the nuclear power boondoggle.

Nuclear power creates deadly radioactive waste, from the mining process onwards.   It's got a scary history: think Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

Just recently, a nuclear plant in Vermont was ordered shut down after radioactive tritium, which is linked to cancer, leaked from the plant into local water supplies.

Nuclear power is so financially risky that even Wall Street won't bet on it.  It's a public health and financial disaster waiting to happen.

Instead, our government should promote energy efficiency and a decentralized power system based on safe, clean, renewable energy.

Tell President Obama today: don't risk our future with nuclear power subsidies!

A whole pile of people know that it is Obama and the Democrats that refuse to support medicare for all the public option, despite the fact that is what a most of the country wants.  If mandates, a middle class tax, fines, medicare cuts, and no public option is the best Obama and the Democrats can do with a mandate and a solid majority, they deserve to lose their jobs.  

They gave pharma and the insurance companies almost as good a deal as Wall Street got.  Free access to our money with no strings attached.  

From a commenter at reddit, on the subject of Associate Attorney General David Margolis, with Holder’s approval, reducing the conclusion of the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility report on Yoo and Bybee’s Torture Memos  to Bush to say that they showed only “poor judgment“:

If Obama’s ‘Justice Department’ had conducted the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, all of the Nazis would have gone free – ‘Merely Poor Judgement, the Holocaust was just a policy mistake’!

Instead of getting Sunday talk-show gigs, Dick Cheney should be put up against a wall and shot as the war criminal he is – no charges, no trial, just BLAM! If it’s good enough for the ‘terrorists’ it’s good enough for evil incarnate; Dick Cheney.

The fact Dick Cheney not only lives but is free to spread his evil is proof God is Dead.