The silver medal in the Addled Brained Olympics goes to the Shallow Economists Cabal that litter the airwaves and the web. (The gold medal remaining firmly in the clutches of the Obama Kool Aid Team.) All the blather about green shoots in the economy is already tiresome and should not be trusted. The "green shooters" come from the same frothy school that insisted housing prices would go up forever and who forgot to mention - or did not see - that we were already in a recession starting in December of 07. The majority of the economic chattering class kept insisting that we were not in a recession through most of 2008 - until the market went cliff diving last Fall. This was perfect timing for Barack Obama - and those of us who think major historical events don't always "just happen". My tinfoil hat is still beeping after last October's serendipitous collapse
Kunslter still holds out "hope" that BHO might grapple sincerely with the economic mess, though not much. I have no "hope" for the man at all. (A.D.D. interjection: Every time "hope" was used last year "control" was the intended meaning.)
How much clearer can it be? At what Disney dollar threshold will it finally be apparent to the Hope/Change holdouts that Obama is the problem. Or at least that he is working happily for those who caused it. 100 trillion in bailouts? The construction of a Tienanmen square replica next to St Louis's Gateway Arch? Putting New Mexico and Arizona up for sale on Ebay?
A Lexicon of Disappointment (by Naomi Klein, The Nation) All is not well in Obamafanland. It's not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury's latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama's silence during Israel's Gaza attack. Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard. This is a good thing. If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programs capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding. The first stage, however, is to understand fully the awkward in-between space in which many US progressive movements find themselves. To do that, we need a new language, one specific to the Obama moment. Here is a start. Click through for the definitions of Hopeover, Hoper coaster, Hopesick, Hope fiend, Hopebreak, Hopelash, and Hoperoots. "Sample sentence: 'It''s time to stop waiting for hope to be handed down, and start pushing it up, from the hoperoots.'' Need I say that The Nation was one of the hopium pushers during last year's primary? But at least they didn't trash Hillary the way some others did.-Caro
Wednesday: Foxhole Liberals (by riverdaughter at The Confluence) I suspect that there are a lot more people out there who in the next couple of years are going to discover their inner liberal. After all, it's one thing to rail about deadbeats on unemployment when times are good. It's quite another thing to be ON the unemployment line, realizing you haven't done anything wrong but that the wealthy shareholders of your company preferred a juicier dividend to your wage slavery...That social safety net doesn't look so bad now that we're all sitting in the same foxhole, does it?... And really, are the proscriptions against gay marriage that important when we're all struggling to keep our heads above water?
Keep it in mind as you watch the tea party phenomenon develop. There is an opportunity out there to turn this country on its head for the persons who seize it. And it won't be long before Americans all over the country demand more of their government to do something. Liberalism may become the next new religion for Republicans too. Right wingers are fond of saying that a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged-presumably by a dark-skinned person on welfare. But can we now say that a liberal may be a conservative who was mugged-by Republican policies?
The opportunity that Riverdaughter points to is being squandered, however. The party poobahs still don't understand that you can't create and sustain a long-term movement based on a person or by strategizing to win just the next election. The right wing is successfully diverting the resentment shown in last week's tea parties from the people responsible for our current predicament and to each other. Democrats, so-called progressives, and so-called liberals are looking down their noses instead of trying to educate, trying to help people understand what damage the Republicans have done.- Caro
Report Gives New Detail on Approval of Brutal Techniques (New York Times) A newly declassified Congressional report released Tuesday outlined the most detailed evidence yet that the military's use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects was approved at high levels of the Bush administration...The Senate report documented how some of the techniques used by the military at prisons in Afghanistan and at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Iraq - stripping detainees, placing them in "stress positions" or depriving them of sleep - originated in a military program known as Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape, or SERE, intended to train American troops to resist abusive enemy interrogations.
According to the Senate investigation, a military behavioral scientist and a colleague who had witnessed SERE training proposed its use at Guantánamo in October 2002, as pressure was rising 'to get 'tougher' with detainee interrogations." Officers there sought authorization, and Mr. Rumsfeld approved 15 interrogation techniques.. "The paper trail on abuse leads to top civilian leaders, and our report connects the dots," Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. "This report, in great detail, shows a paper trail going from that authorization" by Mr. Rumsfeld "to Guantanamo to Afghanistan and to Iraq," Mr. Levin said.
President Obama Discusses Possible Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News) "For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it's appropriate for them to be prosecuted," President Obama said (Tuesday). "With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that. I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there." The White House also suggested, for the first time, that any public investigation of interrogation policy should be like the 9/11 Commission. The 9/11 Commission. Great. It settled ALL the questions about 9/11.-Caro Click herefor more politics and media news headlines.
A new blog called ComeonPilgrims has two great youtube clips up. I would post them both but I want you to CLICK on the site. The 1st is North Korean kids singing to Dear Leader. The second is ...well...let's just say it is in a home in the "whole foods nation" and it is appalling.
Seriously, I never, EVER, remember the GOP being this sick. It's hard to imagine the mentality of people who use children as propaganda tools. The scariest part is the PODS think this is just FINE. As did the prosecutors who set up the "truth squad". I truly believe it did not cross their minds that is might seem...uh...UNAMERICAN...maybe...
The parents of this POD Children's Choir probably never had a whiff of doubt about their small children singing for a DEAR LEADER.
Watch them. Stay close to the toilet. Puke will be acoming...
Thanks to L.R. regular Scott for this youtube. Money Quote: Hillary: John McCain has a lifetime of experience...Senator Obama has a speech he made in 2002. With BHO's ascendancy the destruction of any remaining meritocracy in America is now complete. Screw merit and experience! WE want a SHOW! We want someone who will make us feel good!
Obama Pods- stop asking Hillary liberals and moderates to vote for your man and then not giving us any reasons why we should. We did not initially drink the kool-aid. We want reasons. We are not morons. Engage us with facts and background about Obama's accomplishments. Clinton is out of the race, and I am quite clear about the pros and cons of McCain- since he actually has a record.
No "johnny come lately" crap about "policy" either. You people never gave damn about policy before. Clinton was the one talking policy - Obama was talking change/hope blah blah blah... Obama was never sold to us based on policy. It was pure personality.
Tell us about your man's accomplishments. Talk about HIM. Not her. Not McCain. We get that you love him. Tell us what he's done to earn your love. I'll keep asking until November.
Fair warning: the Obama lies are now vetted - so please stick to what he's actually done to deserve the highest office in the land. His last year in the state senate is a no go, as it is now pretty much proven he attached his name to other people's bills and claimed them as his own.
But he was a state Senator for many years and a community organizer...
(insert snicker here I can't help smirking every time I type those 2 words in connection to BHO. At church I know at least 10 people who organize food drives, adult literacy tutors, buses so children of prisoners can go see their mothers in jail, mentoring for foster kids, teen groups that serve meals at the homeless shelter every month, etc etc - all are very inspiring and "organized" successfully - and I've never heard one of the organizers say doing these things is a qualification for being President.)
What has BHO accomplished? Please include simple footnotes. This shouldn't be hard. You love him ever so, surely you know what he's done.
There must be something.
I mean it. I want to know. Not made up stuff, not speeches, real accomplishments.
A reading from the Obama Scriptures for May 27, 2008.
From The Book of Michelle Chapter 66 Verse 6
The fish sticks of Change and the wonder loaves of Hope.
And so Obama went to the land of the Palmetto with Oprah the Baptist.
The large crowd gathered for to hear the free concert and eat the fish sticks of Change and the Wonder loaves of Hope.
Obama spoketh as they do in southern twangeth to help the gathered Southern speakers to understand.
The Lord sayeth: "You can choose to love and obey me or choose to be called a racist across the land in divers places, such as MSNBC and the Whole Foods Produce Section! These are your choices! I am the Lord! Obey me or there will be no Latte!"
Then the Lord danceth badly for a moment in order that the People of the Cracker in the audience felt the Lord knew them, too. For Lord Obama loveth all his sheep.
Thanks to Scott in Jupiter for this image. I suppose now some Obama Pod will tell me what a prick I am for picking on a candidate's spouse...cuz, ya know, THEY never attack a candidate's spouse.... or anything.
A slightly edited list of Obama's coalition from L.R. regular JMK.
Obama has the exciting ability to bring together a new coalition to bring about change in our country. check out:
Obama's Coalition of Change
Domestic terrorists
Middle east money launderers
Nation of Islam
The new Black Panther Party
Anyone who finally became proud of America a few weeks ago.
Movie stars
Star Fu*k#rs - (see Huffington below)
College Students
HAMAS
HEZBOLLAH
Corporate Media
Major Newspapers and their columnists - owned by corporate media
Wall Street.
The Chicago Mob.
Foreign lenders.
Black separatist theology ministers
Lobbyists.
Arugula Shoppers of America.
A. Huffington, but only when not getting a pedicure on David Geffen's yacht, and only as long as Obama remains "cool".
Daily Kos, (known as the Cheetos Blog around here) and other assorted hate groups and closet Stalinists.
TV drugged suburbanites.
Bribed Superdelegates.
Anyone looking for something for nothing
Anyone wanting to take control of others
Anyone unwilling to be responsible for their life
Anyone unable to think for themselves at all
Entitled overindulged eighteen year olds who like big "rallies" in which the crowds are inflated with free concerts by popular bands. (including bands who open shows with the Soviet National Anthem.)
Hate mongers in all varieties
Maoists and other communists.
Union bosses who ignore their members.
Kool Aid drinkers.
Anyone who resents having to pay back student loans.
Anyone who views them self as a victim of "the man"
Kunstler posted his weekly piece last night. I almost always enjoy his weekly tablespoon on cod liver oil. This week he starts with: I'd like to know what Barack Obama thinks he's doing with the fiasco we call the US economy...
