Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette
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Tag: Obama administration
Aug 10 2010
The Week in Editorial Cartoons, Part II – Climate Change Obstructionism
Jul 31 2010
The Seductions Of Clicking: How The Internet Can Make It Harder To Act
Without online technologies, Barack Obama would never have gotten past the primaries. Had Facebook, YouTube, texting, a 13-million name email list and a website developed by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes been absent from his campaign, he would never have raised enough money, been seen and heard by enough people, or enlisted enough volunteers. Yet progressive hopes are faltering, not only because of Obama’s compromises and mistakes and Republican intransigence, but also because far too many of his supporters have come to believe they can act exclusively through these online technologies, to the exclusion of face-to-face politics.
Jul 26 2010
A Message From DENNIS KUCINICH
An important message from the always great Dennis Kucinich:
Jun 26 2010
Rapidly Expanding Veterans Care Needs, Finally!
And many more related, long needed but ignored, other area’s as to Veterans Issues!
Jun 08 2010
For Sale: Blackwater
Reuters and other news outlets are reporting that the company formerly known as Blackwater is pursing a sale of the company.
Xe Services announced its decision in a brief statement that gave few details, the agency said.
Owner and founder Erik Prince said in a statement that selling the company is a difficult decision, but constant criticism of Xe helped him make up his mind, according to the agency.
I think it isn’t so much that Prince couldn’t stand the constant criticism, but rather after Blackwater mercenaries massacred 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisoor Square in Baghdad on the September 16, 2007, he couldn’t shake public attention to his once-fly-below-the-radar operation.
May 10 2010
Obama Nominates Bush-friendly Corporatist to Supreme Court
From the article: Obama Supreme Court Nominee Endorses Indefinite Detention:
Elena Kagan told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) last year she backed the Obama Administration’s policy of “indefinite detention.”
From the article: Shafting progressives:
For more than 15 months, evidence has mounted that President Obama routinely combines progressive rhetoric with contrary actions. As one bad decision after another has emanated from the Oval Office, some progressives have favored denial — even though, if the name “Bush” or “McCain” had been attached to the same presidential policies, the same progressives would have been screaming bloody murder.
But enabling bad policies, with silent acquiescence or anemic dissent, encourages more of them. At this point, progressive groups and individuals who pretend that Obama’s policies merely need a few tweaks, or just suffer from a few anomalous deficiencies, are whistling past a political graveyard.
If President Obama has his way, Elena Kagan will replace John Paul Stevens — and the Supreme Court will move rightward. The nomination is very disturbing, especially because it’s part of a pattern.
The White House is in the grip of conventional centrist “wisdom” [Neocon/Corporatist]. Grim results stretch from Afghanistan to the Gulf of Mexico to communities across the USA.
“It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills,” President Obama said in support of offshore oil drilling, less than three weeks before the April 20 blowout in the Gulf.
One can almost hear those exact same words of absurdity tumbling (or bumbling) out of the mouth of George W. Bush.
On numerous policy fronts, such conformity to a Neocon/Corporatist baseline has smothered hopes for moving this country in a progressive direction. Now, the president has taken a step that jeopardizes civil liberties and other basic constitutional principles.
“During the course of her Senate confirmation hearings as Solicitor General, Kagan explicitly endorsed the Bush administration’s bogus category of ‘enemy combatant,’ whose implementation has been a war crime in its own right,” University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle noted last month. “Now, in her current job as U.S. Solicitor General, Kagan is quarterbacking the continuation of the Bush administration’s illegal and unconstitutional positions in U.S. federal court litigation around the country, including in the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Boyle added: “Kagan has said ‘I love the Federalist Society.‘ This is a right-wing group; almost all of the Bush administration lawyers responsible for its war and torture memos are members of the Federalist Society.”
The departing Justice Stevens was a defender of civil liberties. Unless the Senate refuses to approve Kagan for the Supreme Court, the nation’s top court is very likely to become more hostile to civil liberties and less inclined to put limits on presidential power.
Here is yet another clear indication that progressives must mobilize to challenge the White House on matters of principle. Otherwise, history will judge us harshly — and it should.
From the article: Kagan Pro-Tribunal, Anti-Justice Record
Kagan opposed legislation designed to prevent terrorists convicted in military tribunals from using civilian courts to challenge their arbitrary convictions.
She even compared Congress’s effort, on a bipartisan basis, to clarify the laws governing the War on Terror to the “fundamentally lawless” actions of a “dictatorship.”
This is going to be a judge with a Cheney-esque, authoritarian, pro-detention, anti-Habeaus Corpus, pro-Torture(?), illegal Worldview.
May 04 2010
The Short-Term Fix or the Long-Term Solution
I feel a bit late to the party writing about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Had I chosen to focus on this subject a few days ago, I might have been inclined to draft a personal narrative about the summers I spent on Alabama’s Gulf Coast as a boy and young teenager. My post would have certainly have been in good company; it heartens me to recognize just how many people have an emotional and personal connection to the region. I myself didn’t realize how much the warm salt water and white sand meant to me until I began to contemplate what both might look like covered in oil. It is very unfortunate that tragedies like these have to happen before we ever seriously consider the long term consequences. Off-shore drilling was, until very recently, touted as some kind of snake-oil panacea or fix-all curative. One hopes that we now understand the complexities and potentially catastrophic drawbacks in tapping the reserves present in our coastline.
Mar 23 2010
Obama’s Disregard Of The U.S. Constitution
President’s Obama misuse of the role government continues to go beyond the breeches of Richard Nixon, and is equally as bad as George W. Bush/Dick Cheney.
We’ve already scene this abuse before with the indefinite detaining of people with no legal process, Military Tribunals, the denial of Habaeus Corpus, the perpetuation of horrific CIA Secret Renditions, escalating Predator Drone reckless Bombings of civilians throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, sheltering and providing legal protections for Human Torturers, the perpetuation of the Orwellian “U.S. Patriot Act“, new undeclared Paramilitary and Military provocations and hostilities in Iran and against Venezuela (via Columbia), and on and on and on.
If any Foreign leader on the planet ever did these things, the U.S. Media and our Government would universally regard him as a dangerous Tyrant on the World stage, and a War Criminal.
But Obama has obliterated the Constitution and the role of government now in an entirely new way. He has made it unlawful for an American citizen to exist without writing overpriced checks to a predatory Corporation, for an unguaranteed product.
Not only has he used the role of government to subsidize and advance the interests of a Corporate Monopoly, using the hard-earned money of American citizens (itself a robbery of the public), but he has also tasked the I.R.S. to deprive them of their own private money and assets, if they do not become the slaves of these predatory Insurance Monopolies.
Now, this is not free market capitalism.
It is not socialism (as “teabaggers” might incorrectly claim).
It is not communism or a “Soviet health care” system.
It is pure Fascism/Corporatism.
It is a 100% misuse of Government, and Violation of the Oath of Office: to protect and defend the Constitution.
Mar 19 2010
Why did Kucinich Cave? The answer really doesn’t matter.
FreeSociety has posed the question, Why Did Kucinich Cave In To Obama? Which is fine if you are reporting that Kucinich has capitulated to the Obama administration. But I think it’s more important that we should consider, “What does this mean and how should we go forward from here?”
I refuse to believe Dennis is a turncoat or an evil liar. Instead, what this news means to me is that they finally got to him. To me Dennis Kucinich symbolizes the last bastion of integrity left in congress. The one stalwart figure who had balls to bring an impeachment resolution to congress and read the resolution into the record. And what was the response like? There was a resounding echo of crickets from the news media and from most of the members of the House. Kucinich is just and good man. You can bet that whatever “deal” Obama offered him, he chose “the lesser of two evils”. The problem he faces is that of a crushing and corrupted system.
We will probably never know the full details of this shit sandwich. However, I do think is important that we recognize what this means: Dennis Kucinich, our firewall, our levy, our one true remaining voice in the House of Representatives, has been compromised.
Mar 17 2010
Why Did Kucinich Cave In To Obama?
I am totally shocked by what has happened.
It had appeared that Dennis Kucinich had Obama worried, rather than the other way around.
It appeared with Obama and Kucinich “discussing” Health Care on Air Force 1 no less, that the opportunity existed where Obama might possibly consider making a concession or two, just to secure Kucinich’s vote.
Suddenly, and sadly, Kucinich just gave in, and got absolutely nothing back in return.
While DKos, MoveOn.bored, and mainstream Democrats all publically threatened to oppose Kucinich and get their pay back and revenge on him, it is pretty well established that Kucinich is in a district which knows him well, and that re-elects him every two years — whether or not he faces a Primary challenge. I can’t see Kucinich caving just on something like empty “reelection” bluffs, hot air, and threats of this nature. Kucinich has been through all of that many times before and won the War.
Remember Dennis Kucinich is a guy who stared down the Bank Monopoly in Ohio before and won. He even faced an assassination attempt before and won. This is a man not easily shaken. So why would Kucinich suddenly be so easily intimidated now?
What threat did Obama issue? Black Ops? Did his unconstitutional wiretapping program create or fabricate some embarrassing family story or personal smear? Did Obama threaten Elizabeth Kucinich? Did Obama and Pelosi move to take away Kucinich’s SubCommittee Chair (something they’d never do to Joe Lieberman)? Was Dennis Kucinich’s life directly threatened?
Mar 15 2010
Obama forced to pay attention to Dennis Kucinich
Well..well.well. Guess who Barack Obama is finally paying attention to? Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Only not necessarily in a good way.
First, Obama chose the State of Ohio as his staged photo-op site for his last public Health Care Rally (apart from D.C. speeches), and guess who was onboard Air-Force 1? Dennis Kucinich. I’ll bet Kucinich hasn’t even been invited on Air Force 1 perhaps more than 2 or 3 times in his entire career.
But, then Obama put a plant in the audience to yell out “Vote Yes” right on cue, when Obama called out Congressman Kucinich’s name.
The goal was to make it appear that RahmobombaMonopolyCare is just so overwhelmingly popular with the little people that Kucinich would have no choice but to drop his principled objections to the Corporate bailout bill, or otherwise face mutiny by his own district, and by his own supporters.
Well done bit of stage craft by Obama (he’s slick), but the fact remains that progressives do not like this shabby excuse for “reform”, once they are told what is in it (IRS forced mandates and enslavement to the Insurance Monopoly), and what is not going to be in it (cost control, competition, medicare expansion, public choice).
Mar 12 2010
Lie Alert: Senate Blames House; House Blames Senate
We are now entering the final insult phase of Health Care by the Democratic Party.
Dick Durbin went on record to state that he would whip the Senate against any consideration for “public option” related amendments to be brought up in that chamber — even though over 40+ Senators are already formally on record in favor of supporting having it added during reconcilliation. His excuse? The House would never agree to it. The same House that had already passed it last year. Keep in mind that the original reason why the Senate dropped the public option, was because it did not have 60 votes — not 50. Simply getting 50 was never (originally) a problem.
Durbin has since said that he will strongly support the public option if (and only if) the House moves to add it back first (before the Senate acts) during the reconcillation process. So Durbin is trying to fool people into thinking that we would have a public option — but it is just the House that is the obstacle (the same House that had already passed it last year). In fact, Durbin could allow the public option amendment, and whip the Senate in favor of it..and then make the House vote on that.
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Meanwhile, over in the House, Nancy Pelosi is now saying that she will never take up the public option because the U.S. Senate could not ever pass the bill. But the Senate never had a problem with 50 people (it had been 60 that was the original problem), and already 40+ Senators have come out on their own and publically signed a statement pledging support for a Senate public option. Given Durbin’s artifical and phony requirement that the House must act first, Nancy Pelosi could add the public option, if she really wanted to, into the House version — as we know the House had already passed a bill last year with the public option included.
But now Nancy Pelosi (like Joe Lieberman) only supports a gutted House bill that is completely stripped of the public option. See: Pelosi Blocks Public Option. Of course, Pelosi wants to just blame it all on the Senate, where getting 60 votes had been the
problem — not getting 50.
“We’re talking about something that is not going to be part of the legislation.”—Nancy ‘Impeachment is off the table‘ Pelosi, March 12, 2010