Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy

This is a good video, just wanted to post it as a historical record of the times we are going through in America today. It outlines how capitalism corrupts politics in America. Video is almost 2 hours long:

Is The Democratic Party's Chickens Coming Home To Roost?

All the mainstream media's analyst and pundits are predicting a blood bath for the Democratic Party this coming election. The Democratic Party is now scrambling in the final hours to try to get their supporters to get to vote on November 2. They are reminding us how scary those nutty Tea Bagger candidates are and that we can't allow those extremist to take power. And yes I agree those Tea Baggers are fucking scary but if the Republicans and the Tea Baggers take over the House and Senate, it will be the fault of the spineless and corrupt Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party was put in power in 2006 to change the course that the counry was on. But as soon as the Democrats won control of congress in 2006, they immediately started making excuses that they couldn't bring about the changes they promised because they didn't have big enough majorities in congress and plus they needed to keep their powder dry and focus on winnig the White house in 2008 in order to bring about true change and reform. So in 2008 the supporters of the Democratic Party went to work and got out the vote and the Democratic Party won the White house and huge majorities in the house and senate. But what happen? As soon as the Democratic Party gained power they started to walk back the promises they had made to their base and basically continue business as usual.

So now as we fast forward to 2010, the Democratic Party's base has basically lost faith in the Democratic Party. They no longer trust the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party base do not like the Tea Baggers but they are no longer fired up to go out and vote for the Democrats either.

Democrats started breaking their promises to their base as soon as they gained control of congress in 2006 and it continued under President Obama. Here are a few examples of Democrat politicians turning their backs on their supporters in an attempt to appease the Washington insiders, big business interest and uphold the status quo:

Four years ago John Conyers was all talk about investigating the Bush Administration for lying the nation into a war in Iraq. Prior to the 2006 elections, he even signed on as co sponsor to one or more bills to impeach Bush and Cheney for waging illegal wars to torture. But as soon as John Conyers became chairman of the House Judiciary Committe, the coward did complete about face and Bush and Cheney got off scott free. And with Obama basically continuing most of the Bush foreign policies, the Democratic Party has essentially legalized the atrocities of Bush and Cheney.

In 2006, the party base was expecting the Democrats to end the illegal wars but instead in 2007 the Iraq war was escalated under a Democratic controlled congress, and in 2009 the Afghanistan war was escalated under a Democratic controlled congress and Whitehouse. So things remained business as usual on the war front.

The bank bailouts were passed under the Democratic controlled congress, candidate Obama even left the campaign trail to go to Washington to bring some reluctant Democrats on board.

Democrats never passed the Employee Free Choice Act. Despite a massive Latino vote in 2006 and 2008, that community has nothing to show for its efforts but higher fences, drones on the border, and more deportations.

I guess the final straw for the Democratic Party voters was the watered down Health Care bill with no Single Payer and no Public option. They sold out to the Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies.

If you throw in the weak bill the Democrats passed to regulate the Wall Street and the Financial industry and the way they have shunned the LGBT community, it's not hard to figure out why Democratic Party voters are not excited this November.

The Sell Out Of The Liberal Class

I ran across this article about how the liberal class has sold out to the corporate state. It's a very good article that describes how the liberal class including the Universities, Churches, Media, Unions and the Democratic Party stopped caring about poor people and started embracing capitalism just so they could maintain their access and privileges in the modern corporate state of America.

The article is by Chris Hedges and I advise every Liberal and Progressive out there to read the entire article you will come away with an understanding of why the Democratic Party has become so impotent and ineffective. I've posted a couple of paragraphs below but you should read the entire article:

The lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, which looks set to make sweeping gains in the midterm elections, is the direct result of a collapse of liberalism. It is the product of bankrupt liberal institutions, including the press, the church, universities, labor unions, the arts and the Democratic Party. The legitimate rage being expressed by disenfranchised workers toward the college-educated liberal elite, who abetted or did nothing to halt the corporate assault on the poor and the working class of the last 30 years, is not misplaced. The liberal class is guilty. The liberal class, which continues to speak in the prim and obsolete language of policies and issues, refused to act. It failed to defend traditional liberal values during the long night of corporate assault in exchange for its position of privilege and comfort in the corporate state. The virulent right-wing backlash we now experience is an expression of the liberal class’ flagrant betrayal of the citizenry.

The liberal class, which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible, functioned traditionally as a safety valve. During the Great Depression, with the collapse of capitalism, it made possible the New Deal. During the turmoil of the 1960s, it provided legitimate channels within the system to express the discontent of African-Americans and the anti-war movement. But the liberal class, in our age of neo-feudalism, is now powerless. It offers nothing but empty rhetoric. It refuses to concede that power has been wrested so efficiently from the hands of citizens by corporations that the Constitution and its guarantees of personal liberty are irrelevant. It does not act to mitigate the suffering of tens of millions of Americans who now make up a growing and desperate permanent underclass. And the disparity between the rhetoric of liberal values and the rapacious system of inverted totalitarianism the liberal class serves makes liberal elites, including Barack Obama, a legitimate source of public ridicule. The liberal class, whether in universities, the press or the Democratic Party, insists on clinging to its privileges and comforts even if this forces it to serve as an apologist for the expanding cruelty and exploitation carried out by the corporate state.

Read More

Republican Woman - New Video by Jasiri X

Jasiri X appears to be an intelligent young rapper. It's hard to find conscience rappers these days so whenever someone like Jasiri X come along, it's good to give em props and support them as much as possible. Jasiri's latest video is about those crazy ass Republican women running in the 2010 elections. Check it out:



LYRICS

Look what Sarah Palin done started
A bunch of candidates with the intellect of starlets
On the surface they seem like they’re harmless
But what if they win and end they up in congress
The result would be carnage I’m just being honest
How high’s your education if you can’t name your college
I guess your resume needed polish
I’m you you not me that’s y’all witch
Look what at what they’lll do to win a office
Pour 100 million dollars down a faucet
Now that’s flossin but you cut cost when
Them undocumented workers you was bossin
And whose crazier than Michele Bachmann
And the loonies in that tea party caucus
Plus her wild eye ranting causes
More shame for Minnesota than all the texting Favre did

Republican Woman stay away from me
Republican woman you are so crazy

Don’t come hanging ya signs on my door
I don’t wanna see ya debate no more
I got more important things to do
That waste my vote casting it on you

Now woman I said stay away
Republican woman listen what I say

Dear God I wonder could you save me
Cause these republican women are so crazy
Like that Governor out west in AZ
Saying we got headless bodies but still come my state please
And she must have never heard of debating
Really, how do you mess up on ya opening statement
plus ya hatin made ya state look racist
The fact that your even governor’s amazing
It’s like they candidates don’t even know the basics
but if you watch em they use the same playlist
every time they see the press they skating
unless it’s fox news where they can do fund raising
if they positions not popular they change em
hoping Rush, Hannity and Beck can save em
They faker than wrestling it’s something to see
they even drafted the chick from WWE

Obama Tortures Republicans

Well I must say hope is in the air again. For the last few months I was starting to suspect that President Obama was a coward or worse, a turn coat. But all of that changed after watching him courageously go to the Republican Retreat in Maryland to debate, and he destroyed the Republicans and their talking points. It was like watching a skilled professor lecture and at times chastise a classroom of dishonest and disobedient students.

President Obama didn't show anger, he didn't loose his cool, he remained presidential and he just beat the republicans down with the facts. He showed that he was knowledgeable on all the subjects and issues. Obama destroyed all of the republicans ideas and talking points with the facts.

The republicans fucked up by inviting Obama to their retreat to speak and debate, thinking they could embarrass the president and get him to say something that they could run campaign ads against for the 2010 congressional campaigns. They were 'feeling themselves', over confident I guess because of the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts and the recent gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia.

But what the republicans forget is that they don't have any new ideas, they don't have any plans for the 21st century. They only have old stale talking points. They are still running on Reaganomics that has proven to be a flawed and discredited economic plan.

If you haven't seen the debate you really need to watch it, it's over an hour long but it will be an hour well spent.

We are witnessing the corporate merger of the Democratic & Republican parties

Just look at all the signs:

The holdover of key cabinet and management positions. No radical rocking of policy, more continuance of same rather than change. Completely unnecessary "bi-partisan" appointments despite electoral wishes/mandates.

The hard-core remnants of both parties will be spun off as specialty shops - "Teabaggers" on one side "Old-fashioned Liberals" on the other. Makes for good theater. The stances of the candidates of the two parties will become increasingly difficult to differentiate. The bare minimum legislatively will be passed by either/both parties and they will blame the other for obstructionism. They will all grant each other plausible deniability for why we end up with the crap legislation we will get for time immemorial.

Notice how well this kabuki is working in the sham we have going on for what passes for "Healthcare Reform". We will get the barest, crappiest reform possible, in fact a great victory for profit healthcare, but it will be framed as a Herculean struggle to get the populace some crumbs - that we will celebrate and be grateful for.

Source

Thousands Line Up for Promise of Free Health Care

They came for new teeth mostly, but also for blood pressure checks, mammograms, immunizations and acupuncture for pain. Neighboring South Los Angeles is a place where health care is scarce, and so when it was offered nearby, word got around.

For the second day in a row, thousands of people lined up on Wednesday — starting after midnight and snaking into the early hours — for free dental, medical and vision services, courtesy of a nonprofit group that more typically provides mobile health care for the rural poor.

Like a giant MASH unit, the floor of the Forum, the arena where Madonna once played four sold-out shows, housed aisle upon aisle of dental chairs, where drilling, cleaning and extracting took place in the open. A few cushions were duct-taped to a folding table in a coat closet, an examining room where Dr. Eugene Taw, a volunteer, saw patients.

When Remote Area Medical, the Tennessee-based organization running the event, decided to try its hand at large urban medical services, its principals thought Los Angeles would be a good place to start. But they were far from prepared for the outpouring of need. Set up for eight days of care, the group was already overwhelmed on the first day after allowing 1,500 people through the door, nearly 500 of whom had still not been served by day’s end and had to return in the wee hours Wednesday morning.

The enormous response to the free care was a stark corollary to the hundreds of Americans who have filled town-hall-style meetings throughout the country, angrily expressing their fear of the Obama administration’s proposed changes to the nation’s health care system. The bleachers of patients also reflected the state’s high unemployment, recent reduction in its Medicaid services for the poor and high deductibles and co-payments that have come to define many employer-sponsored insurance programs.

Many of those here said they lacked insurance, but many others said they had coverage but not enough to meet all their needs — or that they could afford. Some said they were well aware of the larger national health care debate, and were eager for changes.

Source

Why wasn't the network news cameras at this free health care event instead of giving so much attention to those screaming right wing clowns at the the town hall event. -Fraze2K

Are Obama's Supporters On The Left Feeling Betrayed

I understand President Obama has a tough job and he has to make some tough decisions, I understand he will not be able to make everyone happy but there seem to be a pattern forming here. It seem the people that are constantly being taken for granted and are constantly getting the short end of the stick are his supporters from the left who was down with him from day one. A blogger from Daily Kos sums up these growing sentiments as follows:

You warned us from the beginning not to expect too much. You told us that you were a centrist.

OK, we said. You are intelligent, you understand constitutional law, you are inspiring, you speak of real change, you are saying all the right things about special interests. You are a natural leader. We want you to be the leader of all of us.

You were everything that George Bush was not.

You gave us hope.

We understood.

But today, Mr. President, we are devastated.

We were forgiving when you compromised on FISA.

We understood, you had to get elected, you didn't want to spook those who were still scared, and you didn't want to make this an issue.

We were puzzled when you appointed the guys from Goldman Sachs to run the economy.

OK, we knew these guys are smart and they have experience. They do understand how the system works. We gave you the benefit of the doubt on this.

We were patient when you asked us to be patient on Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Well, we still don't really understand why you can't end this now, but at least we know you're committed to fixing this. Most of us said we'd be patient.

We cheered when you vowed to shut down Guantánamo within twelve months.

Maybe a little longer than we'd hoped, but at least you've given a firm commitment.

We were concerned about what we were getting into with the increased mobilization in Afghanistan.

But you ran on this during your campaign, and nobody really knows the best answer for this. We again gave you the benefit of the doubt.

And we were thrilled at the real prospect of health system reform.

Maybe not what many had hoped for, but we were going to get real reform, real structural changes in the system, a real Public Option, a new paradigm.

But then, Mr. President, but then, things started going not so well.

First there were the second thoughts about indefinite detentions without charge or trial. And whether Guántanmo would really shut down within twelve months.

OK, the fools and cowards in Congress threw you a lead anchor on this. We know you'll do the best you can.

We heard you loudly and clearly about wanting to move forward, and not look backward.

But we remain increasingly alarmed, as more and more comes out about torture, rendition, the shredding of our Constitution, and now the alleged abuses of Blackwater, that we will never restore the precedent that the rule of law must come first, and can never be abrogated with impunity by an Executive branch that has claimed unaccountable power, beyond the rule of law.

And transparency, Mr. President. You promised transparency.

And you are more and more defending the idea that we can't afford transparency. That it's a luxury, not something we should expect of our government.

Then there was the DOJ brief not merely defending DOMA, but using language that would have made Sean Hannity proud.

What was that all about?? Was this a Bush mole run amok at DOJ?

We expected the pushback from the right on health system reform, albeit nobody quite expected the ferocity of the hatred and venom.

But at least we can understand where it's coming from. So, we'll be out there at all the town halls, we will mobilize, we will defend, we'll use calm logic where the other side uses slander and lies, we'll be there defending you and defending health system reform.

But despite all this, the talk of "bipartisanship" has continued, relentlessly, when it is clear as the New Mexico sky on a cold December morning that this would buy you nothing -- that maybe with one or two exceptions, the Republicans will oppose you every step of the way on this, and will extract concessions that would gut the bill.

And with this, Mr. President, we started to see the writing on the wall.

And at the same time, Mr. President, even the Senators like Bingaman and Durban who have supported real reform, who have spoken of the importance of a robust public option, have started to back down, using terms like "on the ropes", that maybe "co-ops are sorta the same thing".

We really, truly don't like this, Mr. President. This is not going well. The writing on the wall looks like it's written in blood now.

Amidst all of this, Mr. President, your Chief of Staff, Mr. Emanuel, decided that he'd had enough of interference from the people who were questioning how all this was going. He decided that it was the moment to exercise his superb powers of diplomacy to look in our direction -- in the direction of progressives, of the people who have given you our all, who sent in millions of donations during the campaign, who have worked for you tirelessly, endlessly, with faith that ultimately, finally, we would have a president who would lead us back from the abyss that we faced after eight long years wandering in the wilderness of ignorance, lies, greed and destruction, with faith that even when you felt you had to compromise, your heart was in the right place and you would do the best you possibly could -- your Chief of Staff looked in our direction, looked right into our eyes and smiled and extended his middle finger.

To this, Mr. President, I cannot begin to even offer a response.

And now, Mr. President, now we are dumbstruck. Over this weekend, we have learned of the deal with Big PhRMA. A deal that George Bush would be proud of -- the deal to buy their support, their advertising dollars, in return for their pledge to cut their profits by a defined margin, but not more than that, and that it would be promised that WE WOULD NEVER SEEK TO NEGOTIATE FOR THE BEST DRUG PRICES. I don't have to outline the details of why this leaves us speechless. Robert Reich spelled that out with great clarity today.

The Barack Obama we voted for in November of 2008, the guy who spoke eloquently of not allowing special interests to run the government, would understand. He wouldn't require Robert Reich or any of us to explain it to him.

This is not reform, Mr. President. It does not even remotely resemble "change". This is business as usual. It sends the message that true change is impossible, that there is no hope at all, that all we can do is capitulate.


With all due respect, Mr. President, those who love you are all sitting here tonight with tears in our eyes, saying: "WTF, Mr. President. WTF are you doing?"

Right Wing Mob Disrupts Town Hall In Tampa

TBO.com

Published: August 6, 2009

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, the focus of tumultuous reaction at a town hall meeting last night, said in an interview this morning that the event has strengthened her conviction to support health care reform.

"It has strengthened my resolve to stand up for families and seniors," Castor said. "Floridians are bearing a great burden in health care costs, more than almost any other state."

"A healthy debate is good, but the rude behavior is not helpful," she said. "I think it backfires. The response we're receiving today is pretty overwhelming to speak up for families and bring down the cost of health care."
:::
Personally I think those white right wingers are more Frightened of a black man being in the White House as most of them no doubt believe he is Muslim, a communist, and a terrorist. I think this is more about Obama being President than Healthcare.

Healthcare is just a front for them, a cover, for being racist and sore losers.

I beleive in free speech but those people aren't "speaking their mind," they're DISRUPTING. They're preventing anyone else from speaking. They're not saying anything; they're simply making noise. This is NOT a "freedom of speech" issue. If you were to ask even one of them to elaborate on their "views," you would discover they can't. They don't have any "views." They are knee-jerk reactionary assholes who can't think for themselves. They are sheep who are easily swayed by outlandish lies and propaganda. - Fraze2K

GOP Returns To The " White Voters Strategy"

I guess leaders of the Republican party has made a decision. They are no longer going to go after the minority vote, it's full steam ahead as the party of white voters. At one point they use to at least pretend to be concerned about attracting the non white vote but not any more. Thomas Edsall has a good article on this new reality:

With Republican party leaders so constrained by ideological blinders that none of their positions is likely to produce gains among non-white minorities, especially Hispanics, the GOP is finding it has no real alternative but to revert to a "white voter" strategy.

To some extent, it's working. The party's opposition to President Obama's agenda -- particularly his cap-and-trade energy proposal and health care reform plan -- is resonating strongly with disaffected white Democratic voters. Republican grievances about Obama, combined with race-baiting commentary from the far-right ideologues who have become some of the most dominant voices of the modern GOP, have led to a precipitous drop in the president's approval ratings among whites.

It's all very reminiscent of the party's notorious Southern Strategy, which carried the GOP for decades. But that strategy backfired spectacularly in the 2006 and 2008 elections, and there's no reason to think it will work any better in 2010 -- especially given the ever-growing importance of the minority electorate.

In this respect, even if the GOP picks up a few House and Senate seats in 2010, many of the party's top analysts believe that it will remain mired in minority status through 2012 and beyond. Other analysts say it may even decline to the level of a minor regional party, with its only real strength in the South.

:::

Republican pollster Bill McInturff notes that his party must make substantial gains among Hispanic voters or be relegated to minority status. But that just isn't likely.

With a solid majority of Republican senators opposed to the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominee to the Supreme Court, and a solid phalanx of adamant Republican opposition to any immigration reform which provides a path to permanent residency of illegal immigrants, the GOP has no real chance of increasing its share of the Hispanic vote.

In the short term, McInturff and others point out that virtually all the Democrats' vulnerabilities are among Anglo voters, especially white men. These trends are likely to produce some victories for Republican candidates in 2010, but the party continues to have long-term problems in building a sustainable election-day majority.

Where's Dave Chappelle When You Need Him?

By Stephen Marche:

With race relations back on the front burner and all eyes on a bunch of guys drinking beer in the White House, Stephen Marche wonders where all the angry black entertainers have gone. Here, an exclusive preview of his October column, A Thousand Words About Culture.

Nobody wants to hear it, but this fact is too important to ignore: So far, the first African-American presidency has been one of the worst ever for African-Americans. The economic crisis has predominantly hit non-white working class men; the collapse of the auto industry is threatening to destroy the basis of the Midwestern black middle class. Key matters for African-Americans languish — the overincarceration of young black men that makes a mockery of American justice being the number one example. Government aid? That goes to bankers in Connecticut. If the President were white, there would be riots. In this contradictory atmosphere — pregnant with the tension between symbolism and reality — the Henry Louis Gates Jr. scandal has landed with a force out of all proportion to what may or may not have happened in Cambridge. While the bizarre story of his arrest in his own home may seem like an anomaly, it has emerged from a deep national confusion evident everywhere in popular culture. Call it the Obama Discrepancy: Race is much less prominent as a subject while its effects are no less toxic.

Network television has somehow become even whiter since the inauguration, a nearly impossible feat. The Game is gone. Everybody Hates Chris is gone. In May, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to the networks wondering why the Sunday morning talk shows weren't asking any of them to the grand festival of pompous palaver. Fred Armisen does blackface nearly every weekend on SNL, and the main objection to his performance is that he's not objectionable enough; he has no bite, no edge. To make matters worse, the first post-election crop of new shows starring African-American characters coming out this fall is dreadful. Cleveland, the black spun-off character from Seth MacFarlane's The Family Guy, loses every molecule of his funniness the moment he leaves Quahog. "We have a black president," Cleveland's new friends say. "It's about time we had a black friend. We can talk to him about the President." Fox's second offering in the we-have-a-new-president line is Brothers. It's just another dumb sitcom, but I guess I hoped the political transformation of the recent past would leave some mark. Nuthin'. Obama offers America a new model of black male power: become a lawyer, be nice to everybody, marry a good woman, be loyal to her, fight hard, and eventually you will be in charge of whether to blow up the world with the push of a button. The model of black power in Brothers? Play football well and your brother might open a restaurant. The comedy in Brothers is terminally dated; the jokes deflate before your eyes like a soufflé when the oven's been turned off unexpectedly.

One could argue that since the creators behind both Brothers and Cleveland are white, the shows never really had a chance: white people have never known how to talk about race, hiding their shame and fear behind silence or awkwardness. But African-Americans are beginning to retreat from race as well. Chris Rock — half-comic genius, half-prophet — has been keeping busy, and quiet, with a documentary about the culture of African-American hair. Dave Chappelle remains in hiding. Tyler Perry's oeuvre is, essentially, one long-running, feel good "yo momma" joke. The kind of monumentally new, staggeringly fresh hip-hop album the Obama Event seems to cry out for has not emerged. The Wire proved that virtually all the best actors in America are African-American. Why is Idris Elba not doing Othello on Broadway right now?

grant that the situation is tricky. Now that an urban African-American male is the world's most powerful person, the cultural symbols of race and disenfranchisement have become much more complicated to negotiate. The social context has been pulled out from under even the most sophisticated iconography. Take the case of Kehinde Wiley, one of my favorite new painters from the past decade. His most famous portraits present hip-hop stars in scenes culled from the Old Masters: Grandmaster Flash holding a scepter, Ice-T as Napoleon. His contrasts between the European and the African-American modes of projecting power are slippery and fascinating. Or rather they were. Now that Obama wears a crown, Wiley's work has moved from art into the realm of the art-historical. And he's only thirty-two. The problem is that every day, just by his existence in power, Obama makes race seem less relevant. Take any of his major decisions, good or bad. Iran? Closing Guantánamo? How have any of them been shaped by his race? The quantity of melanin in his pigmentation has not meaningfully affected the world. All of the best African-American comics used to do bits about the First Black President. It was a hilariously preposterous concept even a few years ago. Eddie Murphy imagined him giving all his speeches on the run to stay a moving target, Chris Tucker thought he wouldn't bother with bodyguards and just pack his own gun and Rock did a regrettable feature length film on the premise (Tag line: "The only thing white is the house"). To me, Chappelle's Black Bush was the finest of them all and the funniest skit in the whole show. ("Stankonia has said they're willing to drop bombs over Baghdad.") But last November, the world called their bluff, and the color of Obama's skin doesn't make a damn bit of difference in the daily business of running the world.

Chappelle's Show
Black Bush
www.comedycentral.com
Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs Black Comedy True Hollywood Story

It's easy for Eric Holder to say that America is "a nation of cowards" for not talking about race. He's the first African-American Attorney General in history, a figure of transcendence from the nausea and awfulness and brutishness of quotidian experience. Imagine a New York City subway car if it weren't filled with "cowards" but instead with honest and frank discussion of what everyone is really thinking. No one would get to work. Everyone would be murdered by the end of the ride. So why are we forcing Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley to have a beer together at the White House? Surely, this small gesture isn't going to accomplish anything and has to be one of the more preposterous, awkward bits of political theatre to emerge from recent media cycles. A little chat is not going to deal with the reality that a short, grey-haired and somewhat fragile old man was led out of his own house in handcuffs for absolutely no good reason. No. We need artists and entertainers to confront the nastiness that the rest of us don't want to confront. The difficulty and confusion of the present moment are bursting with potential. Let's not waste it.

President Obama Needs To Grow A Pair

By Larry Flynt:

President Obama:

You have proven to be a great campaigner. You have yet to demonstrate your ability to govern. Who needs the Republicans? They don’t know what compromise is. They’re just out to derail your presidency. Bitch slap ’em at every opportunity and put them in their place. They lost; you didn’t.

As for disloyal Democrats, you need to yank the carpet out from under them. Remind them that their survival is dependent upon yours. Don’t pull punches, Mr. President. You need some gonads, and if you don’t have any, as Hillary would say, you’d better grow some.

You have failed to keep many campaign promises. You’ve ignored civil-liberty violations such as warrantless wiretapping. You passed a stimulus package that is obviously full of pork for Democrats. You handed over billions more in taxpayer dollars to crooked bankers. You listened to the very people who created our economic meltdown, the Mutt and Jeff team of Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. You’ve let the insurance lobbyists hijack health-care reform to the detriment of every man, woman, and child in America.

You must say what you mean and mean what you say. Closing Guantanamo means just that. You could do it right now, Mr. President. You don’t have to wait until January. You can place terrorist suspects in the federal correctional system without creating any risk to our citizens.

You’re a nice guy. Everybody likes nice guys. Sometimes they finish last. You don’t want that, and neither do those of us who voted you in.

The American people have placed their future in your hands. For heaven’s sake don’t let them down. Don’t let yourself down.

Obama to GOP: "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done"

From The New York Post:

President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

One White House official confirmed the comment but said he was simply trying to make a larger point about bipartisan efforts.

"There are big things that unify Republicans and Democrats," the official said. "We shouldn't let partisan politics derail what are very important things that need to get done."

That wasn't Obama's only jab at Republicans today.

In an exchange with Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) about the proposal, the president shot back: "I won," according to aides briefed on the meeting.

"I will trump you on that."

Not that Obama was gloating. He was just explaining that he aims to get his way on stimulus package and all other legislation, sources said, noting his unrivaled one-party control of both congressional chambers.

Congressional Black Caucus Ignores Black Opinion, Votes For War on Gaza

By Glen Ford:



It's hard to believe that a generation ago, the Congressional Black Caucus was known as "the conscience of the congress, a political and moral high ground long deserted by the current CBC, which has utterly collapsed under Israel-lobby pressure for the second time in three years.

All but two Black lawmakers voted either "Yes" or "Present" on a Resolution that absolved Israel for its crimes against humanity in Gaza - placing all blame on Hamas. In 2006, only two Black Caucus members opposed a Resolution supporting Israel's savage destruction if Lebanon's infrastructure and the killing of 1,000 people. Hypocritically turning their backs both on Black public opinion and on the work of Dr. King, whose name they invoke at every public opportunity, the CBC has put itself "out of the anti-war business," and well outside the mainstream of Black opinion on the Israel-Palestine question.

Only two members of the Congressional Black Caucus mustered the courage to oppose a House Resolution in support of Israel's savage assault on Gaza, last week. An additional seven CBC members sought cover by voting "present." The remaining 30 Black lawmakers (the delegates from Washington, DC and the Virgin Islands cannot vote on the House floor) gave their assent to a statement that could have been written by the Israeli government - and probably was.

The Resolution, similar to one passed by the Senate on a voice vote, is a blanket condemnation of Hamas, the political party that won Palestinian Authority elections three years ago, and which Israeli leaders vow to "destroy" before leaving Gaza. The destruction of a mass political party requires massive civilian deaths. Destroying Hamas in Gaza is like stamping out Democrats in The Bronx - with 1.4 million people, about the same size as the Palestinian enclave. The document blames Hamas for "the breaking of the ‘calm' and for subsequent civilian casualties in Gaza." In other words, Israel is absolved for all the men, women and children it has burned, eviscerated, blasted into dust, sliced in pieces or melted like wax.

In addition to the usual nonsense about the U.S. maintaining an "unwavering commitment to the...State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state (as if a settler state based on race-ethnicity can be democratic) with secure borders (Israel is the only state in the world that refuses to say where its borders are), the Resolution invokes the United Nations and its Charter (Israel is the unchallenged world champion violator of UN Resolutions, dating from shortly after its declaration of independence, in 1948).

Why Black Businesses Have A Hard Time Surviving In America

Why do Black businesses have a hard time surviving in America? Deric Muhammad did a good job trying to explain this problem and to offer some advice to black entrepreneurs. Deric Muhammad breaks it down like this:

Over 300 years of chattel slavery in America totally destroyed Black people’s natural desire to do-for-self. After Abraham Lincoln issued the executive order known as the Emancipation Proclamation, Black slaves were declared free, yet were given few opportunities to make a living to feed their families. Many slaves immediately returned to the plantations of their slave masters because they did not know what else to do.

For a long time, slaves were forbidden to read and write. However, the slave master made certain they knew how to count. How else were they to keep up with their daily cotton quotas on the plantation? Many slaves utilized the skills that they mastered as plantation workers and began doing business for themselves. As a matter of fact many slaves had already started businesses and became strong enough economically to purchase freedom for some of their family members. A price was paid before Black people were able to do business in the United States of America.

Yes slavery played a big part in shaping black people mind set to form somewhat of a dependency on white people. But later on, after slavery and during Reconstruction and Jim Crow, black people started businesses and over all a lot of the businesses were successful. One reason is, prior to integration blacks were not welcome in white establishments so they relied on black businesses for their services. So these black businesses strived. But when segregation ended black customer made a mad dash to the white businesses and left the black businesses to struggle. Deric Muhammad goes on to explain:

Our businesses thrived in this country when we understood the urgency of moments in time like “Reconstruction,” the Great Depression and Jim Crow. We knew that if we did not support one another we could not survive. Prior to integration, Whites refused to do business with us.

These days it is difficult to keep a Black business open. According to statistics, Black-owned businesses open and close faster than businesses owned by any other ethnic group in America.

He goes on to talk about some of the problems plaguing black businesses today. He also offers advice on how to correct this problem so black businesses can be competitive in todays market:

I regularly hear horror stories about how hard-working people pay Black contractors to do a job that never gets finished. You sometimes show up at a coffee shop or restaurant and they are closed when they are supposed to be open. Too often, we say that we will have a service completed by a certain date and fail to deliver. Many Black businesses close themselves down.

Now let’s flip the coin to the Black business patron. Too often good Black businesses cringe at doing business with our own people, because we are always looking for “the hook-up.” There are good Black contractors who finish jobs and then are paid with a rubber check! We show up at the Black coffee shop just to use the internet and then go buy a latte from Starbucks. Sometimes Black business owners just give up or move to the suburbs because doing business in the ‘hood, proves to be too challenging.

In all fairness, these business snafus are not only relegated to Black businesses. You can go anywhere in town and find poor customer service. However, if we are to survive during these economically challenging times, we must get back to the basics of nation building and self-development. We must support Black businesses that are serious about doing business and eliminate businesses that poison the water that we all must drink from.

In order to do business, we must show character. We must open and close when we say we will open and close. We must treat the Black customer with the same regard that we would treat a dignitary. It does not matter whether the brother or sister is spending $5 or $5,000. If you treat us like kings and queens, we will return to do business with you once again.

Are Progressives Starting To Feel Betrayed By Obama?

If you've been paying attention to Barack Obama cabinet appointments so far you will have noticed that there haven't been any true liberal or progressive politician offered a cabinet position. So far Obama has only tapped centrist or right leaning democrats to serve in his administration. Most of Obama's progressive supporters are still confident that Obama will live up to his campaign promises and they trust his decision. But you have some progressive that are starting to question Obama based on his cabinet appointments so far. For instance you have Chris Bowers making the following statement:

I know everyone is obsessed with the "team of rivals" idea right now, but I feel incredibly frustrated. Even after two landslide elections in a row, are our only governing options as a nation either all right-wing Republicans, or a centrist mixture of Democrats and Republicans? Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration? Also, why isn't there a single member of Obama's cabinet who will be advising him from the left? It seems to me as though there is a team of rivals, except for the left, which is left off the team entirely.


It is just so very frustrating. It seems like the only place progressives are making any gains is in the House. We are being entirely left out of Obama's major appointments so far. I guess everyone gets to play in Obama's administration, except progressives.

Then you have Christopher Hayes at the Nation expressing his frustration in what he see so far:

Not a single, solitary, actual dyed-in-the-wool progressive has, as far as I can tell, even been mentioned for a position in the new administration. Not one. Remember this is the movement that was right about Iraq, right about wage stagnation and inequality, right about financial deregulation, right about global warming and right about health care. And I don't just mean in that in a sectarian way. I mean to say that the emerging establishment consensus on all of these issues came from the left. There's tons of things the left is right about that aren't even close to mainstream (taking a hatchet to the national security state and ending the prison industrial complex to name just two), but hopefully we're moving there.

And yet, no one who comes from the part of American political and intellectual life that has given birth to all of these ideas is anywhere to be found within miles of the Obama cabinet thus far. WTF?

I'm hoping Barack Obama live up to his pledge to bring change to Washington but looking at his appointments so far, I'm starting to question it. The people he have offered jobs to so far, all supported the Iraq war. For Obama to claim the Iraq war was the biggest foreign policy mistake in the history of this country, why would he put these people, Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emmanuel, Joe Biden, etc into top cabinet and advisory positions. There's even rumors he's going to keep the George Bush appointee, Robert Gates on at Secretary of Defense. What kind of fucking change is that.

Weekly Wrap Up In Political News - Cartoons

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McCain Says He Will "Test" Our Enemy

It seem the old warmongering McCain is at it again, talking about starting more wars. According to Swamppolitics:

"I'm gonna test them,'' Republican John McCain said at a campaign rally in New Mexico this morning. "They're not gonna test me.''

The comment followed McCain's warning that Democratic rival Barack Obama's camaign has "guaranteed'' people that the nation will face a test from enemies within months of Obama's election as president -- something that running mate Joe Biden asserted last weekend, Biden following that line with a remark that Obama has a "spine of steel'' for that test.

The McCain campaign has taken Biden's words, and put them in an ominous campaign TV ad warning that the younger, relatively inexperienced candidate for president will be tested by the nation's adversaries if he is elected. It doesn't have to happen, the McCain ad says

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But today, McCain raised a new question that could escalate that sound-bite campaign war: Who is he "gonna test'' if elected president? And how?

"I have been tested,'' McCain said, with a certain gritted-teeth look at the state fairgrounds in New Mexico. "I'm gonna test them. They're not gonna test me.''.

A poster on Theygaveusarepublic describe this whole sorry McCain act perfectly:

I am not concerned about Obama's so-called lack of experience, and by the way, that is a stupid fucking argument, perpetuated by a desperate campaign and foisted on gullible morons. There is no training program for the presidency except the presidency. By that argument, the only person ever elected with experience was Grover Cleveland, and his second term isn't remembered as the halcyon days of American governance. Kennedy, on the other hand, who was similarly attacked, is fondly remembered for a steady hand and innate good governance, so STFU with the "experience" stalking horse already.

I am far more concerned about a warmongering old fool who sings "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," laughs that creepy laugh and makes blustering, chest-thumping comments about testing "them" than I am about a young and thoughtful man who has moved every piece perfectly in this electoral chess match.

Bluster like that is, quite frankly, terrifying when it comes from a congenital asshole like McCain who has a violent temper, untreated psychological issues, a Napoleon complex and no impulse control. Can't you see him banging his $500 Ferragamo loafer on a podium while threatening to annihilate opponents. And rejecting that sort of bellicosity is the kind of change we need.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Dennis Kucinich at the DNC: Wake Up America!

Dennis Kucinich at the Democratic National Convention. Man he had the best speech so far. For you that don't know Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the most principled and courageous politician in Washington. This speech should have been in prime time, Enjoy!

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton Phone Call Leaked

Funny shit check it out