Fuck Obama

[Sweejak]

Biggest bait 'n' switch in history.

Global.

[chlamor]

Obama Caves in to Coal Pressure

Lexington-Herald Leader

The celebration was short for the Obama administration's expected crackdown on devastating coal-mining practices in Kentucky and West Virginia.

Back in March, the applause and good press rolled in.

A retooled Environmental Protection Agency, under administrator Lisa Jackson, announced that it was formally questioning a couple of mountaintop-removal permit applications and would scrutinize others for compliance with the Clean Water Act and other federal laws.

With considerably less fanfare, the EPA last month quietly informed a congressman from West Virginia that it had given the green light to 42 permit applications while raising concerns about six others in the Corps of Engineers' Huntington district.

There hasn't been time for a thorough review of 42 mining permits, so we can only assume that the administration caved to pressure from coal interests.

That assumption is confirmed by the Los Angeles Times which reports that there was a "series of White House meetings with coal companies and advocates," including U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-West Virginia, and West Virginia's Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin.

In the letter to Rahall, Michael H. Shapiro, the EPA's acting assistant administrator, wrote, "I understand the importance of coal mining in Appalachia for jobs, the economy and meeting the nation's energy needs."

Yes, we need jobs and electricity.

But coal can be gotten out of the ground without burying hundreds of miles of headwater streams under valley fills or flattening miles of mountainous landscape.

Such destructive practices are not necessary, as Appalachian historian Ron Eller recently told a group in Eastern Kentucky, they're just cheaper.

It's the height of false economy to destroy one of the world's oldest forests, poison the water and ruin a region's environment to save pennies on a ton of coal and line the pockets of coal-company investors.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/05-14

[Sweejak]

Will this become another great perversity by the Obama administration?

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.

The military law forbids death penalties based solely on guilty pleas for two good reasons:

the guilty plea could be coerced
the guilty plea could be way for people who are not guilty to commit a form of suicide.
Such has happened for example in the case of the Beatrice Six four of which had falsely confessed in a rape and murder case and were later exonerated through DNA analysis.

In the case of Guantanamo prisoners both points may very well apply.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2009/06/pe ... -plea.html

[justdrew]

I know, I know, but I think it may be he's doing the best that can be done under the circumstances. Has any government ever prosecuted it own previous "democratically elected" government officials for war crimes while much of the electorate still supports those war crimes? Never been done in history. It may well be we won't be able to do it either. Time will tell. Personally I'd be happy to move right into civil war if necessary to ensure an end to the mentality that ruled with the bush years and still threatens to come back with asshats like newt 'surounded-by-pagans' gingrich, but we all know that must not happen. so... ? pragmatism baby, pragmatism; and compromise and sucking it up and moving on.



not directed at anyone here

[Sweejak]

It's the stuff that is beyond pragmatism that really bugs me. Sure, that's open to context and interpretation, and everybody draws their lines, but how many promises has he given, given to get elected, and then reversed?

Part of the dynamic is that the W era was seen as so extreme that the demand for reversing course is that much more urgent.

Sure, governments or the people have gone after their predecessors, it's usually thru a revolution and usually pretty ugly, but so are civil wars. Besides Obama is just the visible manifestation of a dark system, I don't know how to take that down. There will be no general strike even though everyone is experiencing the consequences they would have had if they had tried, and even worse.

Our new authoritarian corporate state, our declining empire, was built on using force against anything in its path, whether it be directly, as with the red Indians or by Israeli proxy against the Palestinians. There is simply no way to "work within the system" and do that. The system IS the problem.

In addition, our civic religion of American exceptionalism and the capitalist commodification of our national consciousness through media has made revolution rather inconceivable, don't you think?

... Darkness in America cannot come quickly enough to suit much of the rest of the world, I can tell you from personal experience. But I don't kid myself about the significance of these slight national improvements, in the big picture. The same elites still have all the guns and money around this ailing planet.

... But the process sure as hell ain't gonna be pretty.

Interview by the blog New American Dream:

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2009/05/d ... erica.html

[lightningBugout]

I know, I know, but I think it may be he's doing the best that can be done under the circumstances. Has any government ever prosecuted it own previous "democratically elected" government officials for war crimes while much of the electorate still supports those war crimes? Never been done in history. It may well be we won't be able to do it either. Time will tell. Personally I'd be happy to move right into civil war if necessary to ensure an end to the mentality that ruled with the bush years and still threatens to come back with asshats like newt 'surounded-by-pagans' gingrich, but we all know that must not happen. so... ? pragmatism baby, pragmatism; and compromise and sucking it up and moving on.

Yes.

[ninakat]

I know, I know, but I think it may be he's doing the best that can be done under the circumstances.

And just what exactly are "the circumstances"? Oh, let me guess, all the terrible stuff he inherited from the Bush Administration.

BILL MOYERS: But many people will say of course, the truth, which is he inherited a quagmire from the Bush administration. What's he to do?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, there's no question that Obama inherited an absolute mess from President Bush. But the reality is that Obama is escalating the war in Afghanistan right now. And is maintaining the occupation of Iraq. If Obama was serious about fully ending the occupation of Iraq, he wouldn't allow the U.S. to have a colonial fortress that they're passing off as an embassy in Baghdad. Bill, this place is the size of 80 football fields. Who do you think is going to run the security operation for this 80 football field sized embassy? Well, it's mercenary contractors.

BILL MOYERS: So we're supposed to be withdrawing from Iraq. But you're suggesting, in all that you've written, that I've read lately, that we will be leaving a large mercenary force there.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Absolutely. In fact, you're going to have a sizable presence, not only of U.S. forces, certainly in the region, but also in Iraq. These residual forces... I mean, Bill, you remember, during Vietnam, the people who were classified as military advisors. Or analysts. And, in reality, the U.S. was fighting an undeclared war. So, in Iraq, I think that we've seen reports from Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News' Pentagon correspondent. He's quoting military sources saying that they expect to be in Iraq 15 to 20 years in sizable numbers. Afghanistan, though, really is going to become Obama's war. And, unfortunately, many Democrats are portraying it as the good war.

link

But hey, let's just suck it up and move on.

I think I'm going to be sick.

[justdrew]

I know, I know, but I think it may be he's doing the best that can be done under the circumstances.

And just what exactly are "the circumstances"? Oh, let me guess, all the terrible stuff he inherited from the Bush Administration.

BILL MOYERS: But many people will say of course, the truth, which is he inherited a quagmire from the Bush administration. What's he to do?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, there's no question that Obama inherited an absolute mess from President Bush. But the reality is that Obama is escalating the war in Afghanistan right now. And is maintaining the occupation of Iraq. If Obama was serious about fully ending the occupation of Iraq, he wouldn't allow the U.S. to have a colonial fortress that they're passing off as an embassy in Baghdad. Bill, this place is the size of 80 football fields. Who do you think is going to run the security operation for this 80 football field sized embassy? Well, it's mercenary contractors.

BILL MOYERS: So we're supposed to be withdrawing from Iraq. But you're suggesting, in all that you've written, that I've read lately, that we will be leaving a large mercenary force there.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Absolutely. In fact, you're going to have a sizable presence, not only of U.S. forces, certainly in the region, but also in Iraq. These residual forces... I mean, Bill, you remember, during Vietnam, the people who were classified as military advisors. Or analysts. And, in reality, the U.S. was fighting an undeclared war. So, in Iraq, I think that we've seen reports from Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News' Pentagon correspondent. He's quoting military sources saying that they expect to be in Iraq 15 to 20 years in sizable numbers. Afghanistan, though, really is going to become Obama's war. And, unfortunately, many Democrats are portraying it as the good war.

link

But hey, let's just suck it up and move on.

I think I'm going to be sick.

yes, it's disgusting and sickening, I despair for the sanity of America, and yet we must not let the bile rise so far it chokes us.

If he gave the order to "cut and run" (and that's how it would play 24x7 in the media, if the order even got to the media) I'm not sure the military would take that order. If they did they would drag their heels, congress would not fund withdrawal and then 'something' would happen forcing us to stay. I'm not sure he wouldn't die of a sudden massive heart attack right then and there.

If America were a party... the party has been crashed by some very nasty dudes who are not going to listen to "it's time to go" better to keep the party going and hope they get bored and leave than risk a hostile confrontation we're not yet ready to win. dump out your beers, fill the cans with water and get out the liqueur for the uninvited guests.

I think we will leave Iraq and sooner than 15-20 years, but I don't know when, maybe 5 years.

[Sweejak]

Antifa wrote this, and I'm with him/her on almost, almost, all of it.

http://tinyurl.com/amzsxu


That's some catch, that Catch 22.

The other relevant scene from the novel is when the old Italian man (108 years old) tells the 21-year old Lt. that the secret to a long and happy life is to surrender, not fight.

To bend.

To not get in uniform, not get in line, not march with the masses, not stand in the ranks, not espouse the public goal.

To live instead like a knife cutting through water, leaving no trace of yourself while simply being yourself. The young Lt. may not see the next sunset, while the old man has lived the one day given to him, day by day, for 108 years.

Most people can't do it. Human beings live in stories, in myths about nationhood, heritage, generational accomplishments, ethnicity, in sports teams if nothing else. Most of us are eager to stand up and be a part of history, to fight for truth, justice, and a sacred cause larger than our life, to make our mark in this world, to make a difference, to be somebody, to do some thing.

When the only thing you can ever possibly have any control over is yourself, inside your own skin.

Ozymandias in the end was just a man. Though he reportedly shook the heavens and the earth, no trace of it remains. What he took to eternity was who he was, not what he did. Not the slightest speck of any mountain he moved, not the smallest coin nor thread of cloth went along with him to wherever he went.

None of those things were taken. None of those things remain.

It's hard to leave off the story, the country, the cause that appeals to you, and to care nothing about all that.

In the eight years of daily heartbreak of the Bush years now past, I went from grieving for my lost America, to a white hot rage to rescue it, to a determination to change it, to a cold examination of its core deceits.

And there has been a divorce. I've no respect or regard remaining for America's story, for its birth or history, for its government, its leaders, its various wars, or for its aims around the world today. It is not my story or my country even though I live here.

Like the majority of Americans, much has been taken from me in these eight years, and as I watch the fledgling Obama Administration service the robber barons assiduously instead of the people I perceive that even more will be taken.

But I also perceive that these taken things are just things. Job, career, savings, property, pride, prospects, patriotism, optimism, health care, community, anger, shame, love of country. These things that I once thought moved heaven and Earth are gone now.

Like so many Americans, I am standing here in my skin, with no particular loyalty to the nation that robs me, that abuses me, that uses me and then sends along a bill for its services. I won't be paying that bill, and they cannot collect it without taking my very skin, which I aim to keep.

Like so many Americans, I am 'paddling to Sweden' as Orr did in the novel -- I am getting up every morning and doing what is sane and effective to escape a mad and maddening situation, to escape with my skin. My bank is a mattress, my income is barter and black market, my taxes are nought. My interest in the blogs, news, and headlines is to dodge what's coming next, not to fight it, espouse it, worry about it, or live in it.

The oligarchs atop our nation do not grasp how very many Americans don't live in America any longer even though we live right here. How very many of us see that the Dream was only ever possible for 10% of us, and that those 10% have got theirs but good, and have no further concern for the rest of us, or for other nations, or for the planet.

They've virtually left the country. So have we. Catch 22 -- no one lives in America any longer. Some live above it, while most live below it. The Dream is increasingly unoccupied.

The 10% of wealthy Villagers atop America will happily leave the rest of us shivering in our skins, if it keeps them living in their story. In their country. The country they won, that they stole fair and square so they can live happily ever after.

Or until we come for them.

Posted by: Antifa | Feb 19, 2009 9:20:56 AM | 2

[Penguin]

Obama Promises More than 600,000 Stimulus Jobs; “Including Hundreds of Maintenance Projects at Military Bases”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-pro ... et=&ccode=

President Barack Obama promised Monday to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his $787 billion stimulus plan this summer, with federal agencies pumping billions into public works projects, schools and summer youth programs.

Obama is ramping up his stimulus program this week even as his advisers are ramping down expectations about when the spending plan will affect a continuing rise in the nation’s unemployment.

Many of the stimulus plans that Obama announced Monday already were in the works, including hundreds of maintenance projects at military bases, about 1,600 state road and airport improvements, and federal money states budgeted for 135,000 teachers, principals and school support staff.

The administration had always viewed the summer as a peak for stimulus spending, as better weather permitted more public works construction and federal agencies had processed requests from states and others.

But Obama now promises an accelerated pace of federal spending over the next few months to boost the economy and produce jobs.

“We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way,” Obama said in a written statement prepared for his public announcement of the additional summer stimulus activity. “Our measure of progress is the progress the American people see in their own lives. And until that progress is steady and solid, we’re going to keep moving forward. We will not grow complacent or rest. Surely and steadily, we will turn this economy around,” the statement said.

Didnt they try this kind of stimulus before...
Say...

Third Reich
Main article: Nazi Germany

Having secured supreme political power, Hitler went on to gain public support by convincing most Germans he was their savior from the economic Depression, the Versailles treaty, communism, the "Judeo-Bolsheviks", and other "undesirable" minorities. The Nazis eliminated opposition through a process known as Gleichschaltung ("bringing into line").

Economy and culture

Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement Germany had ever seen, mostly based on debt flotation and expansion of the military. Nazi policies toward women strongly encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep house. In a September 1934 speech to the National Socialist Women's Organization, Adolf Hitler argued that for the German woman her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home." This policy was reinforced by bestowing the Cross of Honor of the German Mother on women bearing four or more babies. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms production and sending women home so that men could take their jobs. Given this, claims that the German economy achieved near full employment are at least partly artifacts of propaganda from the era. Much of the financing for Hitler's reconstruction and rearmament came from currency manipulation by Hjalmar Schacht, including the clouded credits through the Mefo bills.

1934 Nuremberg rally

Hitler also oversaw one of the largest infrastructure-improvement campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works. Hitler's policies emphasised the importance of family life: men were the "breadwinners", while women's priorities were to lie in bringing up children and in household work. This revitalising of industry and infrastructure came at the expense of the overall standard of living, at least for those not affected by the chronic unemployment of the later Weimar Republic, since wages were slightly reduced in pre-World War II years, despite a 25% increase in the cost of living.[57] Laborers and farmers, the traditional voters of the NSDAP, however, saw an increase in their standard of living.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#Third_Reich

Godwin be damned!

[Nordic]

I know, I know, but I think it may be he's doing the best that can be done under the circumstances. Has any government ever prosecuted it own previous "democratically elected" government officials for war crimes while much of the electorate still supports those war crimes? Never been done in history. It may well be we won't be able to do it either. Time will tell. Personally I'd be happy to move right into civil war if necessary to ensure an end to the mentality that ruled with the bush years and still threatens to come back with asshats like newt 'surounded-by-pagans' gingrich, but we all know that must not happen. so... ? pragmatism baby, pragmatism; and compromise and sucking it up and moving on.

With all due respect, bull fucking shit.

Especially with regard to things like mountaintop removal. That's not something that you cannot fight, like going up against the MIC and the CIA. You tell your EPA administrator to just say "NO". That's what you do. You tell the fuckers "no".

Unless you're a lying sack of shit who lied to get into power, and now you want to reveal your true self.

He did mention "clean coal" the night he won. I remember the red flag going up there. "Clean coal" is a goddamn lie.

He knows it's a lie. He's not stupid.

The man's just another corporatist, he's starting to make Clinton look like Paul Wellstone.

He's starting to make Ronald Reagan look liberal.

Fuck Obama.

[lightningBugout]

Just one thing -- Obama never hid his support for "clean coal."

[justdrew]

I know, I know, but I think it may be he's doing the best that can be done under the circumstances. Has any government ever prosecuted it own previous "democratically elected" government officials for war crimes while much of the electorate still supports those war crimes? Never been done in history. It may well be we won't be able to do it either. Time will tell. Personally I'd be happy to move right into civil war if necessary to ensure an end to the mentality that ruled with the bush years and still threatens to come back with asshats like newt 'surounded-by-pagans' gingrich, but we all know that must not happen. so... ? pragmatism baby, pragmatism; and compromise and sucking it up and moving on.

With all due respect, bull fucking shit.

Especially with regard to things like mountaintop removal. That's not something that you cannot fight, like going up against the MIC and the CIA. You tell your EPA administrator to just say "NO". That's what you do. You tell the fuckers "no".

Unless you're a lying sack of shit who lied to get into power, and now you want to reveal your true self.

He did mention "clean coal" the night he won. I remember the red flag going up there. "Clean coal" is a goddamn lie.

He knows it's a lie. He's not stupid.

The man's just another corporatist, he's starting to make Clinton look like Paul Wellstone.

He's starting to make Ronald Reagan look liberal.

Fuck Obama.

by pragmatism and move on, I mean exactly what you suggest, focus more on specific issues. Even under the friendliest presidents, non-rich-and-powerful advocates for policies have to fight hard to get their way. Wasn't it FDR who said something along the lines of, "I'd love to do as you suggest but you're going to have to make me do it," meaning develop broad support demanding the changes. With bush it was personal and it was effective to just attack the man, with obama it's got to be more issue advocacy, I will not make camp with the array of nutless-wonders attacking him personally from the "right" (the American Religio-Facist Party would be a better term).

Look at health care, for awhile it was being floated that there would be no 'public plan' - now that's in the running, and if done right, there's no way private insurers will be able to compete... It actually plays better if they come out with idiot plans like continuing to allow mountain-top removal mining and fracking, etc... then being forced to change direction. It builds power into the grass roots because everyone can see them having effect and forcing changes. If he just came out with the best policy, politically it would just look like command decisions and would be easier for the other side to fight and wouldn't empower the 'grass-roots'.

At least that's the theory. If in fact he turns out to simply be a complicit bought and paid for tool, well, that would be par for the course, but it's still early enough days to not need to go into full blown anti-obama mode. For me, personally. yet.

Still, some of the things he does makes me want to pull my hair out for a few moments. and this is a fine place to vent that right? I mean he's past the 10% done mark already for first term, and still hasn't really cleaned out the justice department.

[chlamor]

Obama's Obscene Speech in Cairo: Lies in the Service of Death


The world has always offered certain apparent pleasures that are best enjoyed under particular conditions: a mind that deliberately and systematically avoids every difficult question of fact, just as it rejects inquiry into all instances of divergence and contradiction between proclaimed intentions and continuing patterns of action; a willingness to succumb to the easy, sentimental allure of contentless phrases and slogans, provided one joins the pretense that pretty-sounding utterances carry nobility and significance; an approach to analysis that voluntarily restricts itself to the familiar, the conventional, and the comfortable. In a passage from The March of Folly excerpted here, Barbara Tuchman quotes George Orwell on the general nature of this refusal to engage in serious thought:

Refusal to draw inference from negative signs, which under the rubric "wooden-headedness" has played so large a part in these pages, was recognized in the most pessimistic work of modern times, George Orwell's 1984, as what the author called "Crimestop." "Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments ... and of being bored and repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity."

Most of Barack Obama's pronouncements require Crimestop as the indispensable analytic tool -- if, that is, one wishes to invest those pronouncements with importance, originality and courage.

This is never more true than on the occasion of a major policy address by Obama. It was certainly true of Obama's heralded speech on race in America. At the beginning of a detailed consideration of that speech, I quoted several especially dreadful examples of what ought to be regarded as embarrassingly Crimestopped "appreciations" of what we were told was Obama's soaring and inspiring rhetoric. Some commentators have perfected this approach to The Wonder of Obama; see the third example here. Our stupefyingly trivial and ignorant political culture is happy to provide plentiful rewards for one's willingness to emit such gurglings on a regular basis. If you enthusiastically associate your name with phrases such as "the triumph of word over flesh," you may be provided a major platform at the Washington Post. O glory unexcelled!

The task of analyzing one of Obama's major speeches is likely to deter many of those who would undertake the work of deconstruction. The reason is simple, and terrible: the lies are so numerous and comprehensive that one hardly knows where to begin. I suspect some might decide not to begin at all. In this manner, the strength of the lies increases, as the truth recedes always farther into the mists of distance. Toward the end of "Obama's Whitewash," after setting forth many of the reasons for my conclusion (although certainly not all of them), I wrote:

Almost every politician lies, and most politicians lie repeatedly. Yet in one sense, Obama's speech is exceptional, rare and unique -- but not for any of the reasons offered by Obama's uncritical, mindless adulators. It is exceptional for this reason: it is rare that a candidate will announce in such stark, comprehensive terms that he will lie about every fact of moment, about every aspect of our history that affects the crises of today and that has led to them, about everything that might challenge the mythological view of America. But that is what Obama achieved with this speech. It may be a remarkable achievement -- a remarkable and detestable one, and one that promises endless destruction in the future, both here and abroad.

All of this applies with equal force to Obama's speech in Cairo last week. Time and space prohibit a detailed examination of all the lies told by Obama. We will focus only on some of the more critical ones.

As a broad, preliminary matter, consider this statement from Obama last week, identifying the overall perspective that serves as the foundation for United States foreign policy:

Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.

For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.

This passage is nearly identical to one offered by Obama two years ago in another major foreign policy address; I discussed that earlier speech in detail, in "Songs of Death." I characterized the following as "the diseased heart of Obama's address"; note the similarity and continuity of Obama's views, which are also those of America's ruling class and the foreign policy establishment:

In today’s globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people. When narco-trafficking and corruption threaten democracy in Latin America, it’s America’s problem too. When poor villagers in Indonesia have no choice but to send chickens to market infected with avian flu, it cannot be seen as a distant concern. When religious schools in Pakistan teach hatred to young children, our children are threatened as well.

Whether it’s global terrorism or pandemic disease, dramatic climate change or the proliferation of weapons of mass annihilation, the threats we face at the dawn of the 21st century can no longer be contained by borders and boundaries.

The horrific attacks on that clear September day awakened us to this new reality. And after 9/11, millions around the world were ready to stand with us. They were willing to rally to our cause because it was their cause too – because they knew that if America led the world toward a new era of global cooperation, it would advance the security of people in our nation and all nations.

My remarks concerning Obama's speech in 2007 can also be applied to President Obama's latest proclamations:

While I do not minimize the (possibly) serious dangers of avian flu, it must be acknowledged that this is a novel justification of the notion that the U.S. must continue to maintain the greatest military in the history of the world, as Obama goes on to insist. It appears we must be able to invade, nuke or otherwise coerce every nation on earth into doing our bidding -- so that the world will be safe for healthy chickens. And here I had thought the Marx Brothers all were dead.

This is the Open Door world carried to impossible, entirely unrealizable and ridiculous extremes. The door is not only open: the door and the entire structure in which it had been installed have been obliterated. The United States must be the global hegemon so that every human being eats well, is properly educated, and has a good job, until every society and culture is thriving and properly "democratic" in the form we alone will dictate, and until there is a (healthy) chicken in every pot.

I also noted that this perspective seeks to "justify almost any intervention, anywhere, any time." Given the realities of our world at present, especially when coupled with the boundless, murderous determination of the U.S. ruling class, you can leave out "almost" from that phrase, and you will never need to apologize for the omission. For our governing class, the "right" of the United States to force everyone else to do our bidding, using whatever means they deem necessary regardless of how many people must die, is absolute -- for, as Obama and every other national politician who wields power regularly declare, "America is the last, best hope of Earth." And on Earth: "America is God. God's Will be done."

Too many people still fail to appreciate that Obama and the ruling class in general believe this as sincerely as they believe anything. Moreover, they mean it -- and they will do whatever it takes to achieve their aims. You disbelieve these basic truths at your great peril, as millions of people around the world have tragically come to understand.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54962&hd=&size=1&l=e

[Col. Quisp]

Rachel Maddow pointed out in tonight's show that Obama said he was the fiercest proponent of gay rights before he was sworn in. Yet, he has done nothing to change "don't ask don't tell," and hasn't changed the policy of ferreting out gays in the military and dismissing them.

Fierce!