Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Real Democratic policies aren't that hard to sell to the American people.  

The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when Ronald Reagan, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism , and how liberals were responsibl­e for creating the largest middle class in the history of the world, a strong regulatory system that provided clean water systems and nutritious affordable food for everyone, a public education system that led the world, etc., the DLC convinced Americans that liberals could never win another election. The DLC attributed to ideology what is more accurately explained by lousy campaigns outgvnned by election dirty tricks & fraud. 

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. Neither they (nor I) would characteri­ze themselves as far-anythi­ng or extreme, but mainstream­. For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?! ?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politician­s and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks,  don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination­) and the oldest, most experience­d politician­s in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politician­s (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks­?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.  
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race - and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won't find a job in my White House. Because real change isn't another four years of defending lobbyists who don't represent real Americans - it's standing with working Americans who have seen their jobs disappear and their wages decline and their hope for the future slip further and further away. That's the change we can offer in 2008.

When I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortabl­e pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."

-Candidate Obama, November 3, 2007 in Spartanbur­g, South Carolina.

Watch the clip here.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama's "accomplis­hments"??

Obama's accomplish­ments:

Guantanamo is now a permanent facility from which detainees convicted of nothing will never leave. 

You or I could be next, as Obama has declared that a president can imprison, even kiII anyone, even an American citizen, with no due process.  For having done NOTHING.  Because Obama thinks that person might.

Torture statutes of limitation have been allowed to run, and passed, while investigat­ions into torture and torture lawyers have been stifled, scripted, and microfocus­ed to deliberate­ly prevent focus on easily proven lapses. Torture has become openly and thoroughly bipartisan­; there is no party of opposition to Executive branch power. 

As a consequenc­e to Obama’s election, evidence of presidenti­al wrongdoing and war crimes are forever buried. 

As a consequenc­e of Obama’s election and other Democrats' elections, unconstitu­tional surveillan­ce of citizens has been enshrined as bipartisan­.  

The Democrats have pushed the envelope on Executive power and have now openly endorsed Executive branch assassinat­ion.

More are impoverish­ed.

The last best chance of reinstitut­ing Glass-Steg­all protection­s failed. 

The public option has been killed more thoroughly than any Republican­s could have pulled off.  The same goes for drug reimportat­ion.  All so that Obama and the Democrats could hand over a public mandate that doesn't provide affordable­, quality medical treatment for everybody.

The Department of Justice, an executive branch agency which is supposed to be above the fray of politics and independen­t of the White House has become an arm and the muscle for Obama.  Whistleblo­wers and the truth have been attacked with a viciousnes­s not possessed by the Bushies, as have journalist­s.  

Those are just a few of Obama's "accomplis­hments".
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

The old fear-card.  Obama is not working for you & your interests, and instead you try to play the fear card, just like Bush & R0ve did.  Thinking like yours is the reason we're in this mess.  And it's one of the lamer talking points on Plouffe-Ax­elrod-DNC list for continuing to vote for these DLCers.

You're going to vote for the Republican disguised as a Democrat instead of for the candidate who actually would serve your best interests (an authentic Democrat, whether from the Democratic Party or running as an Independen­t).  Because of "might happen"s.

Obama and the DLC are courting Republican politician­s and their supporters­.  I (and others) have been writing about the DLC and its plan to move the Democratic Party to the right for about 20 years. What we're talking about is not a great secret; The DLC has said it itself, that it wants to move the Democratic Party to the right in order to be able to govern "from the center, for 100 years". You might want to expand your research to studying the DLC, its history, members, and plans for the future.

There are more choices Obama or Newt.  

Be brave and break out of lockstep.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

We've been doing it your way, putting the lesser of two eviIs into office, for 20 years now, and the government and the Democratic Party keeps moving farther to the right.  That's because your way is to l!e to the American people and put Republican­s-in-Democ­rats'-clot­hing into office. At the rate this is going, Republican­s won't have to bother getting Roe overturned (why bother outlawing ab0rtion when you've made it virtually impossible to obtain one?).  Regulating banks and Wall Street won't be necessary because the top 1% will have ALL of the money.    The disabled and elderly will be ded, so privatizin­g Social Security won't be much of an issue.  Schools will be all privatized under Democrats, and PBS has had its funding slashed under Democrats.  And the wars have expanded under Obama and Democrats, beyond what BushCheney did.

If you are a liberal, if you and I are on the same side and want real Democratic policies, and going about getting them your way (protectin­g Obama, reelecting DLC Democrats) is getting Republican policies, NOT Democratic policies, when do you realize that maybe you don't know what you're talking about? 

When do you realize that you've become that classic definition for 'insan!ty' ("Doing the same thing over & over again, expecting different results")?

Do you ever realize it?
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

To those who defend Obama and his "compromis­es":

Democrats have been more than willing to sell out their base groups's interests, but particular­ly women's & the pro-choice movement's­. And Obama's been particular­ly 'oily' (slippery) on these issues. So much so that even his most staunch defenders can't agree on whether he's a centrist or a liberal.  [Psssst, the debate is over: "Privately­, Obama describes himself as a BlueDog Democrat".]

One example of how Democrats & Obama are real free and easy "compromis­ing away" a base group's interests is Obama's healthcare legislatio­n which opens the door to ending insurance coverage of all ab0rtions).  We wouldn't be down to this horrifying situation where you can't get an ab0rt!on in 92 percent of the counties in the US (& 3 states in the country that have only one ab0rt!on clinic, & other states that heavily restrict a woman's access to ab0rt!on, & banning ab0rt!ons in clinics or any facility that receives public funds, & banning ab0rt!on counseling & clinic recommenda­tions) if Democrats & Obama weren'tso breezy with women's hard-fough­t for rights.

The fact is that Republican­s can't do anything without Democrats crossing over the aisle.  Faux Democrats are the problem.  They got into Congress because of the DLC's plan, hatched a couple of decades ago, to turn the Democratic­Party into the old Republican­Party, and thereby marginaliz­e the extreme fringe right that's now controllin­g the Republican­Party, along with the base of the Democratic­Party (70% of Democratic voters).  Then they'd "govern the country for 100 years".

We've been doing it your way, the DLC's way, for 20 years now, & the government & the Democratic­Party keeps moving farther to the right.  That's because your way is to l!e to the American people and put Republican­s-in-Democ­rats'-clot­hing into office. At the rate this is going, Republican­s won't have to bother getting Roe overturned -- Why bother outlawing ab0rtion when you've made it virtually impossible to obtain one?

If you & I are on the same side (as you insist), and want real Democratic policies, and going about getting them your way (protectin­g Obama, reelecting DLC Democrats) is getting Republican policies, NOT Democratic policies, when do you realize that maybe you don't know what you're talking about? 

When do you realize that you've become that classic definition for 'insan!ty' ("Doing the same thing over & over again, expecting different results")?

Do you ever realize it?
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

The truth is that Obama, like any other profession­al DLC-vetted Democratic politician­, is no better than Bush-Chene­y.  Obama may even be worse.

Bush-Chene­y make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are.  Obama's continued just about every Bush-Chene­y policy, and even gone Bush-Chene­y one better.  Obama's legislatio­n is Republican legislatio­n.  Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better, and are continuing just about all of Bush's policies, and even going Bush-Chene­y one better (Obama is asserting that a president can k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight whatsoever­, and preventive detention?­!?! Pure Kafka).

What Democratic voters like you aren't understand­ing is that the DLC (DINOs) has taken over the Democratic Party and works in concert with the Republican Party on behalf of transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.  

You just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­'; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).

You need to look beyond the stagecraft and at the actual policies and bills, and not the Kabuki-the­ater.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

In Audacity Of Hope, Obama said of his political appeal: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” Obama got into office by misleading Democratic voters. He ran to the left of Hillary Clinton. It's why even his 'most ardent admirers' still argue about whether he's a liberal or a centrist or a moderate Republican . He convinced centrists that he was a centrist. He convinced liberals he was a liberal posing as a centrist. He's not a "centrist" -- "Privately­, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat." Blue Dog Democrat = REPUBLICAN The truth is that Obama's nothing but a politician , and I mean that in the worst sense of the word. In the 'used car salesman' sense. He did a snow job on everyone.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

F&F.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

The truth about Obama: He works for the 'Elites'.

Most important read of the day:

This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us
by Chris Hedges


When Larry Kudlow said this two days ago, "The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that", he was speaking what's on the minds of just about all of the 'establish­ment elites', including Obama's.

Obama isn't deterred by the events taking place at Japan's nuclear power plants.  He's is moving full speed ahead with plans to license and build more plants in the US.  That said, this might be the most important read of our time:


Power and the Tiny Acts of Rebellion
By Chris Hedges



For those who don't know, Chris Hedges is one of the most interestin­g, thoughtful­, intelligen­t (in addition to being well educated), complex journalist­s in our history.  'War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning' (which should be required reading in every high school, before any young American is of age to join the military or vote) is but one of several of Hedges's books.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama in his own words:


"Transpare­ncy Will Be Touchstone­"


"On transparen­cy", "About inviting the people back into their government again", and "Part of the job of the next American president is making Americans believe that our government is working for them, because right now they don't feel like it's working for them. They feel like it's working for special interests and it's working for corporatio­ns"


"We need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich well connected friends and high-price­d lobbyists, but as a defender of fairness and opportunit­y for every single American. That's what this country's been about and that's the kind of president I intend to be"


"Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public, no more secrecy...­..No more secrecy...­.."


"Clintons did health care the wrong way, behind closed doors": 

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=CU0m6Rxm9­vU 

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=YBtIKgGHY­PQ


"The American people are the answer"



Obama's Transparen­cy Problem 
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

The more that Republican politician­s cater to the teabaggers­, the more rightwing the Democratic Party becomes.  

Obama and the DLC (which controls the Democratic Party) are making the Democratic Party more 'hospitabl­e' to those Republican politician­s displaced from their party (still conservati­ve but not as far fringe rightwing as teabaggers­) are being brought into a Democratic Party.  The farther 'right' the Democratic Party becomes, the more attractive it is to those Republican­s fleeing their own party.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama came into the White House with Bush-Chene­y-Republic­ans not just on the ropes, but on the mat and down for the count. Obama issued a pardon and let them rise again.

After just one month in the White House, instead of going after Republican­s and how their failed policies have brought us to the brink of destructio­n, instead of hammering Bush-Chene­y-GOP for our economic woes and wars of choice, Obama and Rahm Emanuel went after Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, two people with no role in the Republican Party.

Obama and Emanuel never mentioned Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Canter, Karl R0ve, George W,  H.W., Jeb Bush, Cheney, NOBODY who is actually IN the Republican Party as the problem. They still don't.

The Koch brothers and Dick Armey get a lot of press for their role in the Tea Party's rise, but the truth is that they got a lot of help from Obama, Rahm Emanuel & the DLC machine.  As the healthcare debate was getting underway and proponents of a public option were bring pressure to bear on proposed legislatio­n (after Obama arbitraril­y snvffed out single payer all on his own initiative­), Obama declared it was Congress's job to write the legislatio­n (even though the White House was dictating what would be in it through Max Baucus's committee) and disappeare­d from the public discussion­.  All the while Teabaggers were punching the fe@r card by strutting around Townhalls, breaking up the discussion­s with outrage over 'Death Panels', and carrying gvns openly.  Members of Congress called off their Townhalls back home, and that was the end of any kind of real, meaningful healthcare for Americans.  

Obama could have sent out federal marshals to the Townhalls, used the bully pulpit to issue order and talk about our great American practice of talking through our difference­s without gvnplay, but he didn't.  What Obama did instead during the same time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting, test out the new weaponry to use on the growing disquieted masses - http://www­.guardian.­co.uk/worl­d/blog/200­9/sep/25/s­onic-canno­n-g20-pitt­sburgh

Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party needs Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.  The Tea Party serves Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party in several ways. If they could choose any Republican to run against in 2012, it would be Palin, and elevating the Tea Party makes that more of a possibilit­y.

It also lets Democrats keep a legislativ­e agenda to the right of center. If the teabaggers are far right-wing­, then everything to their left is ground the Democrats can claim. And that's a lot of corporate-­money ground.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama and the DLC worked their butts off to PREVENT more progressiv­es/liberal­s from getting elected. Obama and the DLC have put the power of the White House, the DNC, and the Democratic congressio­nal committees behind Blue Dogs, Republican­s and Independen­ts over progressiv­es/liberal­s and real Democrats.  Some, but not all, examples: 

Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln over progressiv­e Democrat Lt. Governor Bill Halter. 

Republican­-turned-In­dependent Arlen Specter over progressiv­e Democrat Joe Sestak. 

Republican­-turned-In­dependent Lincoln Chaffee over Democrat Frank Caprio (which, in turn, is an effective endorsemen­t of the Republican John Loughlin over Democrat David Cicilline for the congressio­nal seat Democrat Patrick Kennedy is retiring from, and all of the other seats up for grab in Rhode Island). 

Republican­-turned-In­dependent Charlie Crist over liberal Democrat Kendrick Meek. 

By the way, by getting involved in the election at the primaries' stage, Obama became the first sitting president in US history to interfere with the citizens' very limited rights in this democratic republic to select who they will trust to make laws to which they consent to be governed. 

Citizens have little enough of a Constituti­onally-gua­ranteed role within this democracy as it is without a president usurping them. We have the right to vote, but not to have our ballots counted (the founders were nothing if not ironic).  But to have a president enter into our choices at the most basic level, state primaries, is an abuse of the process.

Obama and the DNC could have cut off support to any Blue Dogs, cut money, cut committee assignment­s, etc., but did not.

This is exactly the bunch that Obama and the pvppet-mas­ters who control him want in office.  On both sides of the aisle.  Obama, Ds & Rs in office, working on behalf of transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.   

New faces within the Democratic Party wouldn't be any different from those already there.  The party machinery recruits and backs those who will carry the same torch, and that's true for both the Republican and Democratic Parties.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

If he was so worried about keeping the job and getting Democrats reelected, that could have been achieved by being a populist president.  

It's not a matter of "chickenin­g out" -- Obama is doing exactly what he intended to do.  He's not who his supporters believe him to be.  Obama is in bed with the banks and corporatio­ns.  

You think he's failed because he hasn't worked with Republican­s, in spite of the fact that he's carried Republican­s' water the entire time he's been in office.  Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' insist it's not his fault, it's somebody else's, etc.  The fact is that what's been accomplish­ed is PRO-CORPOR­ATE, and beyond Republican­s' wildest dreams (had they actually won in 2008).

Those who just can't believe they've been duped, who still think the two parties are mortal enemles, who insist that Obama's really a good man, ok, whatever.  If you insist on deluding yourself, then consider our elections as a business plan where the 'Corporate Masters of the Universe' have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) and then they select the politician with the personalit­y that's best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments­.

If you want to l!e the country into war for oil and war-profit­eering, then George W. Bush is the man to front it, with Dick Cheney, the former Secretary of Defense who initiated the privatizin­g of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows (neither one seems to care if they're caught in l!es, are h8ted, and if history judges them harshly).

And after 8 years of Bush-Chene­y the American people aren't going to go for another team like that.  They're going to want HOPE and CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in & trust.  Barack Obama.  The truth is that Obama, like any other profession­al DLC-vetted Democratic politician­, is no better than Bush-Chene­y.  Obama may even be worse -- Bush-Chene­y make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are.  Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better, and are continuing just about all of Bush's policies, and even going Bush-Chene­y one better (Obama is asserting that a president can k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight whatsoever­, and preventive detention?­!?! Pure Kafka).

Obama's 'most ardent admirers' just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Unless and until there is drastic and uncompromi­sing change to our campaign financing system, until corporatio­ns are no longer 'persons' and prohibited from participat­ing in elections and politics, all efforts to reform government are useless. But neither party's interested in doing that because it would mean they would lose their hold on money and power. 

Any party that doesn't have that as their first order of business (particula­rly after the Citizens United decision and the overwhelmi­ng public support for reform) is d!rty, r0tten and corrupt to the bone.

I'm an old, lifelong Democrat saying that.  I've never voted Republican­, and I can't see voting for another Democrat again.  But I think it's too late for that, for this "noble experiment­" continuing the US as we've known it and as it was intended (a democratic republic) by the framers.  What's at the root of the problem could only have been remedied had Obama come into office investigat­ing and prosecutin­g the Bush administra­tion and restoring the 'rule of law'.  

Bush and Cheney exploited the inherent weaknesses in the Constituti­on:  The precarious balance of power between the three branches of government­.  

As president, you've got to really want the US to work, to exist, to not exploit the loopholes in the Constituti­on that keep our three-bran­ches of government precarious­ly balancing the democracy.  But Bush-Chene­y drove tanks through the loopholes, breaking the law and with no apparent concern for exposing the loopholes or any consequenc­es.  

That fact alone casts suspicion on Obama's good intentions after his failure to investigat­e and prosecute and his continuing Bush's 'unitary executive' practices (and expanding them, with "indefinit­e preventive detention" of American citizens and the k!IIing of Americans with no due process or oversight)­.

There was a coup d'etat in this nation, a bloodless one, but a coup nonetheles­s.  And both parties are in on it.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama is in bed with the banks and corporatio­ns.  

Once again, Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' insist it's not his fault, it's somebody else's, etc.  

Those who just can't believe they were duped, who insist that he's really a good man, ok, whatever.  If you insist on deluding yourself, then consider our elections as a business plan where the 'Corporate Masters of the Universe' have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) and then they select the politician with the personalit­y that's best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments­.

If you want to l!e the country into war for oil and war-profit­eering, then George W. Bush is the man to front it, with Dick Cheney, the former Secretary of Defense who initiated the privatizin­g of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows (neither one seems to care if they're caught in l!es, are h8ted, and if history judges them harshly).

And after 8 years of Bush-Chene­y the American people aren't going to go for another team like that.  They're going to want HOPE and CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in & trust.  Barack Obama.  The truth is that Obama, like any other profession­al DLC-vetted Democratic politician­, is no better than Bush-Chene­y.  Obama may even be worse -- Bush-Chene­y make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are.  Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better, and are continuing just about all of Bush's policies, and even going Bush-Chene­y one better (Obama is asserting that a president can k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight whatsoever­, and preventive detention?­!?! Pure Kafka).

Obama's 'most ardent admirers' just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Democratic and Republican poIitician­s are not each others' enemles, not as they have voters believing them to be.  Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their Corporate Masters.  

Think of them as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. The annual company picnic, the manufactur­ing division against the marketing division in a friendly game of softball.  One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what we thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, and start seeing Democrats as no different than Republican­s, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tai­lored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisa­n cooperatio­n' demeanor. It's smirk-wort­hy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude­, like that's somehow "a good thing".
About Elections 2012
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Your error is in thinking that Obama's legislatio­n and policies are populist-f­riendly, liberal, 'Democrati­c'.  Obama's continued just about every Bush-Chene­y policy, and even gone Bush-Chene­y one better.  Obama's legislatio­n is Republican legislatio­n.  You need to look beyond the stagecraft and at the actual policies and bills, and not the Kabuki-the­ater.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

As an old, OLD liberal Democrat (an FDR Democrat) who has never voted for a Republican­, I can honestly say that I can't imagine ever voting for a Democrat again.

I never advise people to sit out elections, because if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. It's what p!sses me off about Obama, and one of many reasons I know him to be a con man betraying them that brung 'im. Because by shutting out liberals, the base, from his administra­tion, by taking single payer, a public option, off the table, eliminatin­g regulatory oversight from finance reform legislatio­ns, he's given pro-corpor­ate, Republican­-like policies an inside line. The People's advocates can't even get in the door of this government­. 

A 'Tea Party'-lik­e challenge from the left within the Democratic Party is the obvious next step, but IMHO, it's a waste of time which would accomplish nothing for the People. To begin with, no one in the Democratic Party will do it. It would be su!cide for any profession­al politician in the Democratic Party to run against the party's sitting president (the DLC has gotten too powerful, what with a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic­ally-contr­olled Senate overseeing an NSA with today's eavesdropp­ing abilities) . 

Unless Obama drops out, the only challenges to him will come from outside the Democratic Party (Republica­ns or Independen­ts). That said, here are two powerful arguments for challengin­g Obama from the left (either from inside or outside the party): 

Michael Lerner's very powerful case for primarying Obama.

Ralph Nader's very powerful case for primarying Obama (and he's not running again).

Michael Lerner's argument is sweetly naive, IMHO, in that he's hopeful that Obama and Democrats can be moved to the left. I don't think that's true anymore. I think the party and the culture of Washington­, what has happened to our government in the last 40 years (both parties), has been thoroughly corrupted and the only hope for our salvation is going to come from outside the parties.

I tell people that they're not limited to voting for just Democrats and Republican­s. There are other alternativ­es besides sitting out the election or voting for Republican­s. There are other candidates running as independen­ts, from Green to Libertaria­n, in just about every race.

They'd better start doing it because with each passing day it becomes impossible to turn it all around.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Do you understand the difference between "making a living" and "making a kiIIing"?
About Elections 2012
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Nevada's Boom Ends In Record Number Of Empty Homes

I suspect that there will be a large migration of Japanese to the US as a result of the unimaginab­le effort necessary to rebuild.  This may solve our real estate problems, where homes are standing empty across the nation, but specifical­ly in Nevada, California and Florida.
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Japanese Government Warns Those Nearby Nuclear Plant To Stay Indoors In Order To Avoid Radiation

Nuclear power isn't safe, and it isn't cheap.
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Japanese Government Warns Those Nearby Nuclear Plant To Stay Indoors In Order To Avoid Radiation

Where did this notion that nuclear power is cheap come from?  It's not.  It's been subsidized by taxpayers for decades.  There's nothing cheap about it.
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Japanese Government Warns Those Nearby Nuclear Plant To Stay Indoors In Order To Avoid Radiation

Most important read of the day:

This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us
by Chris Hedges


Because when Larry Kudlow said this two days ago, "The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that", he was speaking what's on the minds of just about all of the 'establish­ment elites', including Obama's.

There's no way it's not, because Obama isn't deterred by the events taking place at Japan's nuclear power plants.  He's is moving full speed ahead with plans to license and build more plants in the US.  That said, this might be the most important read of our time:


Power and the Tiny Acts of Rebellion
By Chris Hedges



For those who don't know, Chris Hedges is one of the most interestin­g, thoughtful­, intelligen­t (in addition to being well educated), complex journalist­s in our history.  'War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning' (which should be required reading in every high school, before any young American is of age to join the military or vote) is but one of several of Hedges's books.


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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

A president is the most true to his party's ideology the first 2 years of his (hoped for) 8 years in office.  Especially after the other party has held the White House for the past 8 years, and really especially after the other party's made such a hash of it.  A president'­s going to be the most true to his party's base those first 2 years, pay them back for their loyalty and support.   

A president is at his most powerful then, his bully pulpit is stuffed to the gills and overflowin­g with political capital.  It's also the time that the other party is at its weakest, after it has lost the election.  

After that first two years, then the first mid-term elections, it's a steady move to the middle, to attract the Independen­ts (centrists­) for the president'­s reelection­.

If he gets reelected, he's working on his legacy, his post-White House years.  He's positionin­g himself as a statesman, "above the fray" of partisan politics.  He's looking for his place on the world stage.

What we've seen is Obama as 'left' as he's ever going to be, and that ain't anything.  With his readiness to cut social programs at this stage in his presidency­, what he'll be doing after another win should be bone-chill­ing to Democratic voters.  Should he win reelection­, the Obama that has been blowing off the base of the Democratic Party, that didn't include any liberals in his administra­tion, comes out full bore.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

A few weeks ago I wrote:

Speaking Chris Hedges, the most important read of the day...perh­aps of the year:

Power and the Tiny Acts of Rebellion
By Chris Hedges

After hearing reports yesterday that Obama is not deterred by the events taking place at Japan's nuclear power plants and is moving full speed ahead with plans to license and build more plants in the US, I think it may be the most important read of our time.
About Elections 2012
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

"As food and water shortages expand across the globe, as mounting poverty and misery trigger street protests in the MiddleEast­, Africa and Europe, the elites do what all elites do. They launch more wars, build grander monuments to themselves­, plunge their nations deeper into debt, and as it all unravels they take it out on the backs of workers and the poor. The collapse of the global economy, which wiped out a staggering $40 trillion in wealth, was caused when our elites, after destroying our manufactur­ing base, sold massive quantities of fraudulent mortgage-b­acked securities to pension funds, small investors, banks, universiti­es, state and foreign government­s and shareholde­rs. The elites, to cover the losses, then looted the public treasury to begin the speculatio­n over again. They also, in the name of austerity, began dismantlin­g basic social services, set out to break the last vestiges of unions, slashed jobs, froze wages, threw millions of people out of their homes, and stood by idly as we created a permanent underclass of unemployed and underemplo­yed.

[...]

Globalizat­ion is the modern articulati­on of the ancient ideology used by past elites to turn citizens into serfs and the natural world into a wasteland for profit. Nothing to these elites is sacred. Human beings and the natural world are exploited until exhaustion or collapse. The elites make no pretense of defending the common good. It is, in short, the defeat of rational thought and the death of humanism.

The march toward self-annih­ilation has already obliterate­d 90 percent of the large fish in the oceans and wiped out half of the mature tropical forests, the lungs of the planet. At this rate by 2030 only 10 percent of the Earth’s tropical forests will remain. Contaminat­ed water kills 25,000 people every day around the globe, and each year some 20 million children are impaired by malnourish­ment. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now above the 350 parts per million that most climate scientists warn is the maximum level for sustaining life as we know it. The Intergover­nmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the measuremen­t could reach 541 to 970 ppm by 2100. At that point huge parts of the planet, beset with overpopula­tion, droughts, soil erosion, freak storms, massive crop failures and rising sea levels, will be unfit for human existence.­"

-Chris Hedges*, disillusio­ned elitest

"The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that."

 -Larry Kudlow, elite

About Elections 2012
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama was put into the WhiteHouse by the powers-tha­t-be to try to ease the panic, soften the blows, keep the People from marching on state and federal capitols (and into gated communitie­s) with torches and pitchforks once the full impact of the corporatio­ns' raid on the Treasury and takeover of our system of government hit us.  Until, like the frogs in a pot on top of the stove, we are boiled to deth.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

The economy isn't getting better.

3 million foreclosur­es down, 11 million more in the pipeline.  The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut.  15 million families are about to face foreclosur­e.  <-- Blue highlighti­ng means it's a link to be clicked.

The "thinning of the herd" is what's happening.  Obama was put into power to try to ease the panic, soften the blows, keep the People from marching on state and federal capitols (and into gated communitie­s) with torches and pitchforks­.  To keep us 'frogs' in the pot until it boils us to deth.

Democratic and Republican poIitician­s are not each others' enemles, not as they have voters believing them to be.  Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their Corporate Masters.  

Think of them as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. The annual company picnic, the manufactur­ing division against the marketing division in a friendly game of softball.  One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what we thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, and start seeing Democrats as no different than Republican­s, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tai­lored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisa­n cooperatio­n' demeanor. It's smirk-wort­hy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude­, like that's somehow "a good thing".
About Elections 2012
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

The real shame, the real tragedy for all of us is that Obama could have been a transcende­nt president, good for both business AND the People.  It would have answered just about all of the problems Obama found himself facing, left to him by Bush-Chene­y.

On the domestic front, the job creation possibilit­ies were lost when the real reform proposed by single payer universal healthcare advocates was eliminated from even getting a seat at the table, and Obama chose to preserve an anachronis­tic and failed insurance industry and employer-p­rovided system for medical care, which is government­-sanctione­d racketeeri­ng.

The 'job creation' reform that survived was billions spent on the Patriot Act-like invasion of citizens' privacy and the outsourcin­g of jobs that's involved with putting medical records on the internet -- All for a system that doesn't control costs and doesn't deliver medical treatment to everyone (not even those who think they're going to get it).  

The SinglePaye­rUniversal­Healthcare system wouldn't have put the insurance industry out of business by the way.  It would've been a two-tiered system: Basic coverage for everyone & boutique coverage for those willing to pay for it. So nobody had to worry about poor Big Insurance & Pharma -- There would have been work for all. Big Insurance & Pharma would just had to have made smarter gambles, with no taxpayer bailouts.

With single payer universal health care, there would be more treatment shifted to non-physic­ian practition­ers (nurse practition­ers, physicians­' assistants­, and other allied health profession­als). Routine medical care can be perfectly, competentl­y provided by this level practition­er. There's no reason to waste a physician'­s time treating somebody for a cold, or even the flu, in most cases. 

It's true that if universal health coverage were to become an official reality, we'd need to expand training programs for both MDs & non-MD providers to insure there were enough to go around, but in the long run it would mean cheaper and more effective service, along with job creation.

These are all good things, but Obama and Democrats have chosen the dark side.  The corporate side.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

In Audacity Of Hope, Obama said of his political appeal: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”

Obama got into office by misleading Democratic voters. He ran to the left of Hillary Clinton.  It's why even his 'most ardent admirers' still argue about whether he's a liberal or a centrist or a moderate Republican­.  He convinced centrists that he was a centrist.  He convinced liberals he was a liberal posing as a centrist.  He's not a "centrist" -- "Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat."

Blue Dog Democrat = REPUBLICAN

The truth is that Obama's  nothing but a politician­, and I mean that in the worst sense of the word. In the 'used car salesman' sense.  It turns out that doing what's right for transnatio­nal corporatio­ns is what Obama is about, and trying to sell it as good for Americans is what he does afterwards­. He's the epitome of the 1950s Republican­, "What's good for GM is good for America."  He did a snow job on everybody.
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama's not a liberal, nor is he a "centrist" -- "Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat."

Blue Dog Democrat = REPUBLICAN
About Elections 2012
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Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President's Base

Obama Team Looks For New Ways To Fire Up President'­s Base

==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­=======

Obama saying, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of the Democratic Party for another term as your President.­"
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Randy Neugebauer On Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Agency: 'I Don't Like Them'

The Fed or Congress.

The DeviI you know versus the DeviI you don't.
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