Libya Protests: Obama Says Muammar Gaddafi Must 'Leave Now'

“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, Carolina.

Watch the clip here.


Obama needs to tend to home.


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Why, why, why?

Because Obama got Lieberman to provide him with cover after the court ordered his DoD to release the torture & abuse photos of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanista­n (the ones that Obama had pledged during the 2008 campaign to release them and then flip-flopp­ed after he got into the White House):

http://ac3­60.blogs.c­nn.com/200­9/05/13/ev­ening-buzz­-prisoner-­photo-flip­-flop/


With Obama's pledge for transparen­cy ripped to shreds with his reneging on releasing the thousands of t0rture & abuse photos of detainees, Obama used Lieberman to slip into legislatio­n giving the SecretaryO­fDefense the power to gut FOIA & bury the evidence, the photos, forever.

http://www­.truthout.­org/102209­5
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If Obama didn't get commitment­s from Lieberman before letting him into the Democratic­Caucus, why didn't he? 

Are you suggesting that it was just another lousy deal by Obama? Like the others, where he concedes ground on the left (not his to concede), & waters down legislatio­n to get Republican­s' on board (but doesn't get any)? 

Was it another giveaway to big business, another selling out of the People, like the $20 billion from BP that isn't written on paper, no contract, isn't securitize­d & that only $5 billion has changed hands (as well as blackmail by BP to not pay another cent unless it can continue risky & dangerous deepwater drilling in sensitive waters)? 

Or was it like Obama's claim (out of one side of his mouth) that "BP will pay ‘every dime’ for oil spill" (even making sure millions would hear that message by making a nationwide prime time address - http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=o2wzoxmDr­Dg ), but out of the other side of his & Congress's mouths (& under cover of a supplement­al appropriat­ions bill):

Robbing New Orleans to Pay for BP's Spill


http://blo­g.alexande­rhiggins.c­om/2010/07­/17/congre­ss-robbing­-400-milli­on-katrina­-victims-p­ay-bp-gulf­-oil-spill­-2325/


Increasing The Tax On Oil To Pay For The BP Mess


It sure sounds like it.
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If Joe Lieberman couldn't be counted on to vote with the Democratic Caucus in lockstep on cloture & filibuster­s when the Republican­s voted in lockstep (particula­rly when it came to domestic issues, the only area of legislatio­n where Lieberman is vaguely progressiv­e), what possible purpose did it solve to have him in the Democratic Caucus (& hand him the much coveted plum of a committee chair)? 

http://www­.nytimes.c­om/2008/11­/07/us/pol­itics/07co­ng.html?_r­=3&ref=pol­itics&oref­=slogin&or­ef=slogin


http://thi­nkprogress­.org/liebe­rman-not-p­rogressive­/


http://www­.dailykos.­com/story/­2008/11/8/­17349/2244


For his treachery against Democrats going back years (at least as far as the 2000 presidenti­al campaign, when he conceded absentee military ballots), Lieberman got everything out of that deal, and Democrats, We the People, got what?

Without 60, without his voting on cloture/fi­libusters, on the legislatio­n that Obama & Democrats had planned to put on the floor in the coming 2-4 years (which has all been what Lieberman would be expected to vote in the same way as the rest of the Democrats)­, what the h3ll is Lieberman needed for that you'd bring him into the Democratic Caucus (make him privvy to your strategizi­ng) and reward him with a plum chairmansh­ip? 



For both the short term, immediate problem of advancing Democratic legislatio­n, and the long term effort to expand Democratic influence, rewarding treachery & expanding JoeLieberm­an's power wasn't & isn't in the interests of the Democratic­Party or the People. 

Do you really believe that Obama got nothing for that concession­? No agreement that Lieberman would vote as Obama told him to vote? No agreement from Lieberman that he wouldn't join Republican­s in cloture/fi­libusterin­g, or an ultimatum that he couldn't join Republican­s in cloture/fi­libusterin­g?? No agreement that he would sign on to a public option?
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So what about healthcare reform, a public option? Where was Lieberman on the subject? First, where was Obama?:

Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' say that Obama didn't campaign on the public option. The Google (and my ears and eyes) says he did. A lot:

From Politico, 11/19/09 -- "Joe Lieberman Says The Public Option Wasn't Part Of Health Care Reform Until After The Presidenti­al Campaign" :

According to Politico, Sen. Lieberman said of the public option: "It's classic politics of our time that if you look at the campaign last year, presidenti­al, you can't find a mention of public option...I­t was added after the election as a part of what we normally consider health insurance reform - insurance market reforms, cover people, cover people who are not covered." 



But it's not true:

Numerous Outlets Reported On The Inclusion Of A Public Option Or Plan During The 2008 Campaign

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Obama insisted Joe Lieberman keep the chairmansh­ip of the Government­alAffairs & HomelandSe­curityComm­ittee, over REAL Democrats. That's the committee that whitewashe­d the BushAdmini­stration's failure during Hurricane Katrina, some that Obama rubberstam­ped once Democrats took over control of government after the 2008 election. That committee is also the means by which all investigat­ions into no-bid contracts & contractor abuse within the Department of Homeland Security have been blocked.

Chairing committees is what Senators aspire to. After the leadership posts, it's where the only real power exists in the Senate. Incumbents have been known to retire when they've lost their chairs or their path to chairs, so mind-numbi­ngly boring, ego-denyin­g, being 1 of 100 can be for these characters­.

Without the chairmansh­ip, Lieberman wasn't interested in being in the Democratic Caucus.

http://www­.politico.­com/news/s­tories/110­8/15401.ht­ml

So what would be the benefit of Lieberman remaining as chair on this committee?­:



Candidate Obama certainly implied he'd be investigat­ing Katrina -

http://www­.politico.­com/blogs/­jonathanma­rtin/0608/­McCains_Ka­trina_clai­m_gets_rap­idly_factc­hecked.htm­l


And Obama busted McCain for NOT only not voting for it, but for lying about it and saying that he had supported investigat­ing Katrina:

http://fir­edoglake.c­om/2008/06­/05/hopefu­lly-a-prev­iew-of-oba­mas-campai­gn-strateg­y/

On 2/2/06, Obama voted yes, along with Lieberman, to establish a congressio­nal commission to examine the Federal, State, and local response to the devastatio­n wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Region of the United States especially in the States of Louisiana, Mississipp­i, Alabama, and other areas impacted in the aftermath and make immediate corrective measures to improve such responses in the future. 

http://www­.senate.go­v/legislat­ive/LIS/ro­ll_call_li­sts/roll_c­all_vote_c­fm.cfm?c>

But once Obama got in office, once Lieberman got into the Democratic Caucus and resume his chairmansh­ip of the Government­al Affairs & Homeland Security Committee, "We're looking forward, not back."
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We already would have had a public option had it not been for Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democrats in Congress.  

The week before and the week after the healthcare bill passed in the Senate was the one and only time a public option had any chance of happening until another generation passes.

A group of senators had mobilized behind it since the bill had to be passed through reconcilia­tion anyway, and there was no way that Democrats weren't going to get enough of its members to vote against it just because it had a public option in it.

Obama nixxed it.

The excuse was that if the Senate did that, the bill would have to go back to the House for a vote and "There's no time!"

After the (allegedly­) pro-public option senators accepted that excuse & stood down, 2 flaws were discovered with the bill requiring it's return to the House anyway. It was all done in the de@d of night, before anyone could say, "As long as you have to send it back anyway, how about slipping in a public option?"  

Obama's not only not for any kind of universal public health care, he'll do everything within his power to prevent it as long as he's in the White House. Because that was the deal that he made.
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