Afghanistan: Now it's Obama's war

By Greg Burry

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. -- The Birmingham Bloomfield Democratic Club of Michigan hosted a presentation and discussion on Afghanistan: Now It’s 'Obama’s War' by Dr. Prasad Venugopal, professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, recently. It was a well-received presentation and a needed discussion at an important time when troop increases are ramping up to employ the president’s strategy.

Faced with a difficult topic, Venugopal did an outstanding job developing the historical and material conditions of Afghanistan that the United States confronts.

He told the audience that Afghanistan is large, mountainous and a land locked nation that is difficult to traverse. These geographic features lend to the cultural and ethnic diversity making national identity unlikely because ethnic and tribal affiliations are more important. Any attempt to promote nationalism is seen as suspicious and outside meddling.

Furthermore, Venugopal said historical trade routes coming from Iran, Pakistan and India through Afghanistan over the centuries had a “regional influence that dominates the Afghan ethnic communities,” and had a lasting effect on dividing Afghans ethnically and culturally.

Additionally, Venugopal said that conquest from the Greeks, Mongols, Islam, British, Soviets and the U.S. have heightened suspicion of outsiders in a largely poor and illiterate population spread out into isolated tribal and ethnic communities. Drug money from various factions has perpetuated the drug trafficking and strengthened the warlord’s domination.

The Taliban have been successful in taking advantage of these divisions. Faced with Taliban, insurgent, and Al-Qaeda attacks combined with NATO bombings of civilians, Venugopal said, “The situation in Afghanistan is very bad and is deteriorating rapidly. People in Afghanistan are becoming more divided and hostile to foreign occupiers.”

In the face of these historical and material conditions, will additional troops and the “Clear, Hold and Build” strategy introduced by the President bring about an end to the war? That strategy aims to clear southeast Afghanistan of militants. Then hold areas cleared and build factories and infrastructure. Venugopal asked, “What is the likelihood of success?”

His conclusion was that without adding jobs and providing a hope for a rising standard of living, the likelihood of success is doubtful.

It was thought that the recent elections could bring about some success and stability. But as Venugopal pointed out, the election corruption and drug trafficking has only added to the deteriorating conditions. “Elections are a mess right now and very fluid, it is hard to tell what is going to happen.” For the strategy to succeed, Venugopal stated, “You need a unified center in Afghanistan.” But as he pointed out, a unified center will be difficult if not impossible.

Due to these conditions, the NATO coalition of Britain, Germany, France and Canada is calling for a conference to discuss an exit strategy and timetable before they agree to any more troops.

He asked, “Is the president’s strategy so flawed and mistaken that he becomes the main enemy.” “I think this would be a mistake,” he stated. There are those in the peace movement that have been pushing this. “Attacking the President as the main enemy responsible for this mess in Afghanistan would be a mistake.” “Opposing anything he does would be a mistake. “On the other hand, keeping silent would be a mistake.”

“How do you support the President even though he is wrong?” Troop increases only radicalize the Afghanistan population and bolster the Taliban. Venugopal believes we need to get the troops out now, but he would support and push very hard for the McGovern bill that calls for an exit strategy and timetable. “If there is a movement against troop increases or in support for an international conference of the NATO coalition or international civilian aid,” he would also push for that. He concluded that the McGovern proposal is the bare minimum needed to move forward.

McClatchy investigation finds birthers are just plain nuts

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/72794.html

http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/19433

from McClatchy

WASHINGTON — The false allegation that President Barack Obama was born in another country is more than a fact-free hit job.

Marked by accusations and backstabbing, it's the story of how a small but intense movement called "birthers" rose from a handful of people prone to seeing conspiracies, aided by the Internet, magnified without evidence by eager radio and cable TV hosts, and eventually ratified by a small group of Republican politicians working to keep the story alive on the floors of Congress and the campaign trails of the Midwest.

It's a powerful story about what experts call political paranoia over a new face in a time of anxiety and rapid change — the sort of viral message that can take hold among a sliver of the populace that's ready to believe that the new president is a fraud, and just as ready to angrily dismiss anyone who disagrees as part of the conspiracy.

"He is NOT an American citizen," yelled a woman at a town hall meeting in Delaware, angrily confronting a congressman. "I don't want this flag to change. I want my country back."

When Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., responded that Obama is a citizen, she and others in the room jeered him.

"It's a fascinating phenomenon," said Jerrold Post, director of the political psychology program at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and author of a recent book entitled, "Political Paranoia."

"They are not searching for the truth. They are searching for anything that confirms their fixed idea, their malevolent idea . . . It doesn't soothe people to tell them it's not legitimate. That makes them angry."

THE TALE

Birthers charge that Obama hasn't proved that he was born a U.S. citizen, and therefore isn't eligible to be president under the constitutional requirement that the president be 35 years old, be a resident of the country for at least 14 years, and be a natural-born citizen.

They also say that a birth certificate posted on the Internet by Obama during his campaign isn't the original, and a forgery anyway.

THE FACTS

First, the 2007 document isn't a forgery. Independent experts from such groups as Factcheck.org at the University of Pennsylvania have examined it and said it's real.

Second, it's true that the 2007 document issued by the state of Hawaii, called a Certification of Live Birth, isn't a copy of the original 1961 document. Obama could ask for that from Hawaii but hasn't, without explanation. The longer, original form would show more details, including the name of the doctor, according to copies of other 1961 birth certificates.

White House aides say only that Obama has produced his birth certificate. That's true. It is A birth certificate, issued by the state Health Department and acceptable to prove citizenship to the federal government for purposes of obtaining a passport.

It's also true that it isn't THE original birth certificate.

Regardless, Hawaii state officials said again this week that they've examined the original and affirmed that it shows that Obama was born there.

Also, the two Honolulu newspapers report that they carried brief announcements of the birth of a boy to the Obamas in 1961. Said the Aug. 13 birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser: "Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy, son, Aug. 4."

The Hawaii state Health Department says it supplied the lists of births for those announcements. Announcements supplied by families were longer, more personal and normally included the child's name.

THE TAPE

Many birthers, such as Pennsylvania attorney Phil Berg, allege that Obama was born in Kenya and that his Kenyan grandmother is on tape saying that she was present at his birth there.

Yet the tape circulated on the Internet doesn't actually say that — and the full tape actually contradicts it.

On the tape, the woman thought to be Sarah Obama is prodded by a Berg ally who's a self-described bishop from the U.S. to affirm that Obama was born in Kenya.

"Was she present when he was born in Kenya?" Bishop Ron McRae asks in the taped phone call.

"She says yes she was. She was present when Obama was born," says the voice of translator.

The tape ends abruptly.

Despite Berg's assertions, the response didn't actually confirm a birth in Kenya. Moreover, a longer version of the tape shows the elder Obama decidedly denying a Kenyan birth immediately after the first tape was cut off.

"I would like to go by the place, the hospital where he was born. Can you tell me where he was born? Was he born in Mombasa?" McRae is heard asking.

"Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America," the translator says after talking to the woman.

"I thought he was born in Kenya," McRae asks again.

"He was born in America, not in Mombasa," says the response. Another response later says, "Obama in Hawaii. Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii."

Still, the charge has spread despite no evidence that Obama was born in Kenya and compelling evidence that he was born in Hawaii.

THE BIRTHERS

A handful of people started spreading the story. Among them:

ANTHONY MARTIN

Martin, a Chicagoan, is a legal gadfly who was among the first to file a lawsuit demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate in Hawaii, which was denied last year.

"I would like to claim the role of ringmaster in this birth certificate circus," Martin said this week on his Web site. "From the first day I began writing about Barack Obama's secret life five years ago, Obama has obstructed access to the truth about himself. Obama's sycophants in the media and government have tried to protect him from the truth and the facts of his life."

A frequent and always unsuccessful candidate for office — he's running this time for U.S. Senate in Illinois — Martin was the first to charge that Obama was a Muslim.

In an email, he distanced himself from other birthers who claim that Obama was born in Kenya. "I have continually expressed doubt about the Kenya theory," he wrote. "I openly state that there is a not a shred of credible evidence Obama was born in Kenya."

Martin has a history of inflammatory and often anti-Semitic comments. He once called a Chicago judge a "crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race." Preparing to run for office in Connecticut, one of his campaign documents said a purpose of the campaign was to "exterminate Jew power." A court filing in 1983 stated that, "I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did."

Asked about the anti-Semitic comments, Martin said they "took place over a quarter of a century in a very vicious lawsuit in which names were called on all sides."

ORLY TAITZ

Taitz, an attorney and dentist from Orange County, Calif., has filed lawsuits challenging Obama's citizenship and has traveled the country to marshal support for her drive to prove that Obama isn't a citizen and shouldn't be president. Her Web site asks people to contribute money via a Paypal account.

She filed one lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court; it was dismissed. She filed another in Georgia on behalf of a reserve army officer who wanted to take back his volunteer offer to serve in Afghanistan because Obama was a foreigner and not really his commander in chief. The Army excused the officer from going to Afghanistan, saying any volunteer could back out.

She once drove to a legal conference in Washington state to press Chief Justice John G. Roberts to consider Obama's citizenship; he declined to comment on any possible case as security officers prepared to escort her from the conference.

She's also met with Republican state lawmakers in Missouri. "She had a lot of documents there and has done a lot of traveling and spent a lot of money on the legitimacy of his citizenship," said Missouri state Rep. Ed Emery, a Republican.

Taitz boasts on her personal blog each time a prominent Republican, such as a member of Congress or Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, signs up as a "friend" on her Facebook account, although many public figures often sign off on such links routinely.

"I am in total disbelief and greatly honored," she said in one post on her blog. "It means that the leadership of the Republican Party understands the importance of the issues and legal cases I brought forward."

Not so fast, said RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho.

"Chairman Steele has thousands of Facebook friends. Obviously it doesn't mean he endorses the agendas of all of them," she said. "Chairman Steele believes this is an unnecessary distraction and that the president is a U.S. citizen. . . .Chairman Steele has other issues to take up with the president having to do with policy, not a birth certificate."

PHILIP BERG

Berg, an attorney from Pennsylvania, has been described by the Allentown Morning Call as a "legal gadfly" and also has filed lawsuits unsuccessfully challenging Obama's citizenship and presidency.

"This has been a real sham," Berg said at one point to radio talk show host Michael Savage.

Berg's seen other conspiracies as well. In 2004, he filed a lawsuit against then-President George W. Bush _not to mention every male Bush from two generations — charging that the government secretly allowed the 2001 terrorist attacks to happen.

In detail, Berg's suit alleged that the World Trade Center towers were destroyed from within and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency maintained "a black-op shadow government designed to replace the elected government of the United States." (FEMA at the time was run by Michael Brown, later infamous for his stewardship of the agency following Hurricane Katrina.)

Once allies with Orly Taitz — the two appeared together in December at the National Press Club — Berg has had a falling out with the Californian, who's won more media attention.

"Orly Taitz, esquire, must be disbarred," Berg said in June as he filed a lawsuit against her.

"Orly has been grabbing the headlines but doing disservice to the millions who want Obama to prove he is constitutionally eligible/qualified to be president. . . . Orly has only one case pending . . . I have three lawsuits pending."

JEROME CORSI

A writer at the Web site Worldnetdaily.com, Corsi has said repeatedly at such venues as the G. Gordon Liddy radio show that the birth certificate Obama's campaign posted on its Web site was fake. "It's a fake document," he said on Fox News. "I'm convinced it's a forgery," he said on Blogtalkradio.com.

Corsi was a co-author of "Unfit for Command," a book slamming 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, and the author of "Obama Nation," a book slamming Obama last year. His opening lines of the book credit the influence of Andy Martin.

Democrats weren't his only targets. He's said that Bush was secretly trying to surrender U.S. sovereignty to a new North American Union that would govern Canada, Mexico and the United States. "His secret agenda is to dissolve the United States of America into the North American Union," he wrote at one point.

Many mainstream conservatives recoiled at the North American Union conspiracy theory. Talk show host Michael Medved, for example, called it "paralyzing, puerile paranoia."

Corsi couldn't be reached to comment.

Martin, Taitz and Berg didn't respond to requests to comment.

SPREADING THE STORY

The Internet helped spread the story, through Web sites such as Worldnetdaily.com and dozens of other conservative sites, often repeating charges without evidence or attribution beyond other like-minded Websites.

"This is abetted by changes in the structure of communications," said Michael Barkun, an expert in conspiracy theories and a political science professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

"What once would have been fringe ideas are spread very quickly and much more widely than would have been the case even 10 years ago. . . . Ideas that originate in quite small subcultures can very quickly get mainstreamed."

Once the story spread on the Internet, several of the birthers have found a stage on talk radio and cable TV. Lou Dobbs of CNN, for example, has said he thinks the allegation is false, yet he continues airing them.

Radio talker Rush Limbaugh has joked about it, saying, "Barack Obama has one thing in common with God. You know what it is? God doesn't have a birth certificate either."

Sean Hannity prominently featured Andy Martin on his Fox News program during the 2008 presidential campaign. Hannity also heavily promoted Corsi when Corsi's anti-Obama book came out.

Talk show host Liddy has repeatedly featured stories charging that the president was born in Kenya.

Ultimately, the story's taken hold with some Republicans.

Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla. introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would require a presidential candidate to produce a birth certificate "together with such other documentation as may be necessary" to prove natural-born citizenship. It would take effect in 2012, in time to force Obama to produce more documentation.

Posey has nine co-sponsors so far, all Republicans.

In the Senate, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., told the Tulsa World he didn't think it was a priority, but that he understood the birthers' quest.

"I don't discourage them from going ahead and pursuing that," he said.

There are signs that Republicans see political risk in encouraging the birthers.

Steele distanced himself from them on Thursday. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, his party's leader in the House, said he has other priorities, and that he has no reason to believe the allegation.

New dynamics re Israel-Palestine

A note just received from J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami attests to the new dynamics in the American Jewish community on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the changing dynamics in Washington and new possibilities to really achieve the two-state solution:

(J Street is the progressive "pro-Israel pro-peace" lobbying group formed last year - see their website for more info.)

I just left an extraordinary meeting with President Barack Obama, which he called to meet with the leadership of the American Jewish community.

A dozen organizations - including J Street - were at the table.

It was made clear to the President and his team the strong support that exists among American Jews and the broader public for a strong push to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for a two-state solution, and for a regional and comprehensive approach to the peace process.

The President said such a resolution was in Israel's interests. In the interests of the Palestinian people. And clearly in the interests of the United States.

The President expressed his gratitude, as did many of his aides, afterward for our attendance.

You should feel great. After little more than a year - and through your online advocacy and donations - J Street has arrived. We are your political voice when it comes to Israel and the Middle East - representing you in Washington and in the national political debate.

In recent days, much has been made in Jewish media of supposed concerns and reservations in the Jewish community about President Obama and his approach to the Middle East.

And today I had the opportunity to take our message of support directly to the White House - that there's a big difference between the views expressed by a vocal minority on behalf of the Jewish community - and what that community really thinks and supports.

We'll be in touch,

Jeremy

Jeremy Ben-Ami
Executive Director
J Street
July 13, 2009

Tax the rich for health care!

FINALLY! I would say tax those families that make over a million a year would probably be enough. Ramp the tax rate up for capital gains to 90 percent to pay for health care! As one of the infamous "public enemies" said when asked why he robs banks "that's where the money is." Well that's where the money is -- with the super-wealthy and corporate elite. Let them for once pay their "fair share" for something that the super-majority needs. -- terrie


House Democrats Plan to Tax the Wealthy for Health Reform

To pay for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system,
House Democrats will propose a surtax on individuals earning
$280,000 and up and couples earning more than $350,000, the
chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee said on
Friday.

In all, the proposal is projected to generate roughly $550
billion over 10 years, which would cover about half of the
estimated cost of the $1-trillion-plus health care
legislation.

But it remains unclear if the Senate would approve such an
across-the-board income tax on the wealthy.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Jon Voight feels under attack...by little ol' me

J.M. Eddins Jr./ The Washington Times Actor and conservative commentator Jon Voight is interviewed on "America's Morning News with Melanie Morgan and John McCaslin" at The Washington Times, lashing back at critics who attacked his political views as hate speech.

Who'd have thunk it. A movie star who I used to LOVE (especially in Coming Home and The Champ)is upset about my comments about his speech to the GOP. Hmmm must have really touched a nerve with him. Read the Wash. Times article below:

Voight rebuts 'hate speech' tag
Dissent, he says, isn't 'hate'

Free speech got a loud boost from Hollywood on Wednesday. Jon Voight has responded to accusations from a critic sympathetic to the American Communist Party, who said the actor had used hate speech and threatened the well-being of President Obama during a recent appearance before Republicans in Washington.

Mr. Voight denied both charges, saying that those who speak out against the Obama administration are "demonized" and "attacked," often with hate speech.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/02/voight-counterpunches/?feat=home_headlines

Solange, Smokey & Obama by Tokumbo Bodunde

Wonderful blog by Tokumbo Bodunde http://tokspace.blogspot.com/

Solange, Smokey & Obama

One of my favorite songs of 2008 was "I've Decided" by Solange (the much underappreciated younger sister of Beyonce) Knowles.

Weeks ago, while driving around in freezing Chicago, my sisters and I had the song on repeat, LOUD. It took me a minute to figure out why I liked the song so much. The Neptunes-produced single takes the most delicious, feet stomping part of The Supremes' "Baby Love" and loops it throughout.

Solange's song--as is evidenced by the video-- is very much of this moment, my generation (not sure what we're being called these days), searching for some kind of identity. Colorful and pastichey, the piece pays homage to all that is in this generation's cultural image-ination about the political culture of the Motown & beyond era. Quick flashes of raised-fisted Olympians from '68, Malcolm X, people being water-hosed, Rubik's cubes spinning, and the Berlin Wall falling appear amid Solange crooning and the stomping beat. To make meaning of the video is work, a student of mine complained.

There's a clear difference between the display of events being shown in the video for the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' "Tears from a Clown."



Its three sequences reveal a clear narrative of the cultural turmoil and grief experienced by the moments/movements surrounding the JFK and MLK assasinations and the Vietnam War. "Smiling for the public eye," sings Smokey. "Don't let my glad expression give you the wrong impression." Very much a statement of the times--smiling outside but dying inside.

I was born in 1979, a decade plus after those assassinations and a few years post-Vietnam. Smack dab in the birth of hip-hop and advent of an extreme right-wing, fiercely developing global capitalist world (not unrelated phenomena in the least). The stylistic elements of Solange's song and video are telling, in that they represent how I and most of us under 30 understand the events of Smokey's song. The song's pulsating claps and the video's refusal to distinguish between cultural-poltical turmoil and social fads mute any sadness we might have even had.

It's all about that beat. Or not. At least, it shouldn't be. Not in this moment, the simultaneous 50th anniversary of Motown Records and the election of America's first black president. The final minute of Solange's video stands in abrupt contrast to the frenetic collage of iconic images of the past 40 years. Slower, more comtemplative and futuristic, its shades of blue-grays lets her imagine (at least in her love life), some other-world type sh*t. What will we do with the equally compelling and troubling elements of the world that we (and Obama) are inheriting?

What was most promising about Obama's candidacy, in fact, was the spark it produced in our populace, its positioning within the perfect storm of just enough right-wing ridiculousness, contradictions in capitalism, and technological savvy. What a unique political moment. The generation that will come of age in it ranges from being once or twice removed from Motown & Smokey, devoid of the grief of Smokey's "tears," yet with an existence and way of looking at the world that has been shaped, in part, by them.

It'll be critical that we, in our political activity, artistic endeavors, and social relationships, act in this world in a fashion that lets us appreciate the "best" parts of those old songs while keeping in mind the implications of the history and political moments that produced them.

And yeah, I'm gonna be bumping some Solange as we do so.

#inaug09 We Are One concert slideshow

#inaug09 People are nice and happy

Despite the desperate economic situation and being in two wars, people here are happy and nice. That's what hope and change does to you, I guess.

Like yesterday, we were lost in Baltimore, trying to get to the Beltway, and not once but twice ordinary Baltimoreans (one white, one black) came to help us. Noticing our out of state plates and map in hand, one man wearing a tan construction jacket and driving an SUV honked his horn and said he could tell we needed directions. And we got to where we needed to go. Thanks guys!

Even in the massive line-up for the Lincoln Memorial We Are One concert people were so nice and patient (except for the immature privileged-looking youngsters who tried to jump the line but they got their just desserts from the vigilant Obama volunteers).

Let's hope when there are a few million of us together on Tuesday the same happy and niceness will be there.

#inaug09 Along the Civil War trail

Second leg of Inauguration-palooza was long and intense. We drove through the Ohio Valley into Pennsylvania, West Virginia and then Western Maryland. It’s mountain-country – rugged and beautiful.

Stopped in southeastern Ohio, near Wheeling. We were looking for a mall to get long underwear and struck it rich. A Circuit City! We did our Great Depression duty and shopped at CC for a digital camera our family has been wanting to buy for years. Yep we still have a film camera. So we figured – let’s take advantage of the closing down the business sale.

Got a great camera – lots of folks in the store – and depressing. Talked to a couple of workers there. They just found out a day ago it was closing. No time to get other job prospects. Of course – other jobs??? Not too many around. The country is shedding them faster than my dog sheds his fur. This is such a deep crisis.

“Obama wants to extend unemployment insurance to part-timers who lose their job,” my husband tells one of the workers there. “Yeah. That would be good,” he says. He works part-time at Circuit City. All these part-time workers aren’t eligible now for unemployment. Pretty outrageous.

As we poked through the basket of $6.96 (plus 10 percent discount) iPod covers we start talking to a lady. Turns out her daughter is on her way with her school to the inauguration.

This part of Ohio is coal and steel country – majority white families. The governor – Ted Strickland – is from the area and along with the mine workers and steelworkers unions – the area went for Obama.

Crossing into Pennsylvania and W. Virginia the mountains start to get steeper. Then the snow came. Crazy things can happen in the mountains at night, I hear our comrade Joe Sims’ voice saying. Luckily, the snow wasn’t sticking and no ice.

We go across the Civil War trail in Maryland – near Fredericksburg – where the Confederate troops crossed the Mason-Dixon line into Pennsylvania. Big battles in Chambersburg and of course Gettysburg. Wow. This is a long journey in more ways then one.

Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg has been called one of the most profound and poetic political speech in American history. Here it is.

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

The Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Sen. Whitehouse: 'If Obama Won’t Investigate Bush’s Crimes, I will'

http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/sen-whitehouse-if-obama-wont-investigate-bush%E2%80%99s-crimes-i-will/

President-elect Obama this week said his team was in the midst of “evaluating” Bush administration policies to see whether a criminal investigation would be worthwhile.

NPR reports that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) says that he understands Obama’s reluctance to pursue investigations but that he may take matters into his own hands:

“I think that there’s a lot that remains to look at, and I appreciate that President Obama doesn’t want to make it his purpose as a new president, with America in real distress in many directions, to go back and look at all this, but I think we in Congress have an independent responsibility, and I fully intend to discharge that responsibility.”

In a 487-page report out today recapping Bush’s “imperial presidency,” House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) recommends that “the incoming Administration finally begin an independent criminal review of activities of the outgoing Administration.”

Al Sharpton's response to al-Qaeda

Recently, the second in charge of the notorious terror network al-Qaeda denounced Barack Obama as a "house slave." Here is what Rev. Al Sharpton had to say:

"The statements made by Al Qaeda regarding President-Elect Barack Obama are racist and denigrating to Americans, particularly African Americans. President-Elect Obama is doing the bidding of all people of good will around the world. . Terrorists who indiscriminately killed Americans of all colors and economic status on September 11th, can not try to exploit the racial divide in this country for their own destructive purposes. Americans must be united with our President to stamp out terrorism and racism of any stripe." [emphasis added]

Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network

When was the last time a president walked the picket line?

When was the last time a president walked the picket line? NEVER?!

This is why America should be so proud of having elected this man president.

http://www.presidentpicketscongress.org/

Reaction from South Korea

This is from the Hankyoreh, south Korea's largest liberal/progressive newspaper.

Barack Obama ushers in new progressive era

Eight years of neoconservative policies fade with historic election of the United States’ first African American president

The history of the United States is now divided between pre-Obama and post-Obama.

The seemingly insurmountable barrier of race and the impregnable fortress of neo-conservatism that has controlled U.S. society for the past 30 years have come tumbling down in the face of Barack Hussein Obama. The first African American president produced in 232 years of history and the American voters have ushered in a new age of “neo-progressivism.”

For 30 years, it has been neo-conservative hegemony that has controlled the United States and the world. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, sweeping 44 of the nation’s 50 states, was a signal flare for the neo-conservative age. While there was a hiatus in the form of the Clinton era, the two consecutive elections of George W. Bush, who presented a platform of economic policy for the rich and the arrogant foreign policy of a superpower, had many experts declaring the death of progressivism and the eternal triumph of conservatism. The U.S. Democratic Party was mocked as a sterile party unable to rise again. But on Tuesday, American voters lined up for hours in front of voting booths in the darkness of the early morning to make it clear that they want a new future.

Currently in San Francisco as a researcher at the Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University in the United States, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy policy planning committee chair Kim Ki-sik said in a phone interview Tuesday with The Hankyoreh that “the Obama wave has surged in California throughout year. In front of houses and on cars, Obama flags have been waving. There has been an abundance of enthusiasm for making changes through Obama, not mobilized, but voluntary.” Kim also said, “Even if you talk to students at Stanford, which is known as an upper-class school, they all support Obama.”

Neo-conservatism has been the twin of the “neo-liberalist” economy, which went bust in the Wall Street financial crisis. The conservative moment, which has joined with Christian fundamentalism since the late 1960s to seize power in U.S. society, has been the unshaking root supporting these two systems.

Paul Krugman wrote in his book “The Conscience of a Liberal” of how neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism have gotten rid of all government intervention to curb inequality and attempted to turn back time to the period before the New Deal. Grover Norquist, a major figure in neo-conservatism, also declared that he wanted to bring the United States back to the time “up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over. The income tax, the death tax, regulation, all that.” With the election of George W. Bush, the conservative movement seized power. Bush was elected president twice, conservatives controlled both houses of the U.S. Congress, and the fear from the 9/11 terrorist attacks was used to declare that the United States had the right to ignore the United Nations and international society and invade nations from Bush’s “axis of evil.”

It did not seem that a progressive age would ever come again. But neo-conservatism has imploded from incompetence, and neo-liberalism from greed. Under George W. Bush’s presidency, the U.S. national debt is approaching US$10 trillion. The surplus left by Bill Clinton has turned into a deficit of close to US$500 billion. In the eight years of the Bush administration, 5 million people have fallen into the poverty class, and the number of Americans without health insurance has increased by 7 million. The average income for CEOs has increased from 30 times the salary of ordinary workers in 1970 to over 300 times that salary today. The Bush administration has threatened the world by applying a Cold War doctrine with a dualistic structure of good and evil to 21st century society.

Just as Franklin D. Roosevelt opened up a “progressive age” in the 1930s after the Great Depression shattered the Gilded Age of the law of the jungle, Obama too has greeted the dawn of a “new progressive age” with the Wall Street financial crisis symbolizing the failure of neo-liberalism.

Obama, who campaigned for the poor in Chicago and opposed the Iraq War, made it clear in his election campaign that he would pursue a taxation policy with a distribution that lowers taxes for the poor and collects more from the rich. In his victory speech on Tuesday, he cited the New Deal and spoke of the progress of history. He also professed a new foreign policy of tolerance, saying that he would meet with enemies as well as friends to conduct dialogue. The world now has high hopes for a “less arrogant America.” An editorial in Great Britain’s Guardian newspaper declared, “Obama is America’s hope and our hope.”

It may not seem real yet, but today we witnessed a moment of history being rewritten.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Trumka’s Straight Talk on Race Helped Win Blue Collar Union Vote

Kudos from Daily Kos to AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka. Always good for labor to get recognition outside the labor movement.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/11/07/kudos-to-afl-cio-secretary-treasurer-trumka/

Obama landslide

Florida! This is a major development that will need and get much study. Virginia, likely North Carolina - the reactionary "Southern strategy" has crumbled. As Obama said in his acceptance speech: E Pluribus Unum - out of many, one - and with a new and important meaning: a kind of wonderful unity came to the fore today to defeat the forces of ignorance, racism and reaction, but not just that - to move ahead on a progressive agenda. Now comes the struggle to bring that agenda to life.

Ohio goes for Obama - with a huge assist from labor

When I saw Ohio called for Obama this evening, I called my friend Bruce Bostick, a longtime steelworker and union activist, and frequent contributer of great stories to the PWW, to congratulate him. This is a huge victory for Ohio's working class, and its union movement.

In our paper Bruce reported on Ohio AFL-CIO leader Joe Rugola's walk across his state last month, stopping at towns and cities ravaged by plant closings and corporate greed, to rally Ohio workers to vote for Obama.

At a stop in Barberton, IBEW leader and newly elected mayor Bob Genet said,

“There were 1,800 good manufacturing jobs here,” said Genet. “That’s 1,800 families that have lost jobs and a huge blow to our local tax base. But it’s more than that. That is where all of our fathers worked. They used to hire family members. It was a good union shop, part of our family here. Now it’s just an old rusty building, thanks to the policies of this administration.”

Writing from Cleveland, Rick Nagin reported on the challenge issued early on by Cleveland area labor leader Loree Suggs, who told union delegates they needed to unite behind Barack Obama. “Go back to your locals. Now is the time to unite. We cannot let any bias or racial thoughts get in the way,” Suggs declared.

Nagin reported:

In case there was any doubt, Soggs said, the building trades had learned that their longtime opponent, the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), had endorsed Republican John McCain, citing his opposition to every key issue protecting unions and working conditions including project labor agreements, the Employee Free Choice Act, the Davis-Bacon Act and occupational safety and health regulations.
“If your members have a problem with racial bias, tell them to get over it,” Soggs said. “Get over it for all time, but especially now for this election, get over it. We must put Barack Obama in the White House and, if we don’t, we are in deep trouble.”

It's clear that Ohio's far-sighted labor movement has made a huge contribution to moving our country forward.

Congratulations, Buckeye Staters.

People power on the march

What a beautiful sight it has been to see the hundreds of volunteers in my little city over the past few days, young and old, perched in corners on folding chairs, sitting on the floor, in any nook or cranny, using cell phones or landlines, calling voters across the nation to vote to TURN OUR COUNTRY AROUND - peace, unity, stop the hate and slime, put people before corporate greed. This morning I spent an hour phonecalling voters in the Old Dominion state - in fact in the former capital of the Confederacy, Richmond - reminding them to vote and where to vote. Around me were over a hundred folks doing the same. It's been a steady stream of volunteers of all ages, I'd say the majority women - a strong rejection of the repulsive Sarah Palin. Enthused, energized and ready to move ahead to build for progressive change in our country.

Here's a video for today - people power on the move:

In Working-Class Pennsylvania, Union Reps and Football Stars Make Strong Case for Obama -- and Against McCain

Originally posted on the AFL-CIO blog and the Huffington Post, and then reprinted on the Portside mailing list.

By Carl Davidson

Organized labor has set its sights on winning western Pennsylvania for Barack Obama.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney came to the Electrical Workers ([2] IBEW) Local 712 hall in Vanport on Oct. 25. He was joined by United Steelworkers ([3] USW) top officials, as well as members of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team who were scheduled to be at the afternoon rally. In between, the unions deployed more than 2,200 rank-and-file union members to knock on the doors of some 31,000 union family homes across the state in a single afternoon, an effort that will become even more earnest over the next several days.

I arrived in the morning’s gray drizzle, unlike the sunny fall days of the last month of Saturday “labor walks.” Media work was my task for the day, and I made sure a New York Times reporter quickly met all the local union officials and pro-union local candidates.

While I was getting wired on black coffee and a jelly donut, Bob Schmetzer, a local IBEW official, handed me one of his home-made fliers. “Here, whaddya think of this?” he said. “I got it off the Internet.” It was one of the now-classic pieces that expose the undercurrent of white supremacy in the campaign, using role reversal: “What if John McCain graduated at the top of his class at Harvard, and Obama came in at the bottom of his class with the record of a goof-off? What do you think Fox and the right-wing talk shows would be doing with that?” It gave a dozen more examples, using irony and good humor to make a very serious point.

“Terrific,” I told Bob, “We have to get people thinking about things like this. It arms them against the right.” He agreed, and worked the hall, pulling over one after another of his key guys, giving each of them the leaflet, going over it with them. He’s thinking ahead, educating his troops, knowing that this battle’s more than just dollars and cents.

Sweeney’s arrival was low key. Hovering nearby was a young union staff woman, Yael Foa, assigned by the AFL-CIO to work with us in Beaver County. She’s talented and tireless, but stood to the side, beaming as Sweeney greeted each union member as if he or she were family. Wearing his union jacket and cap, white hair and the trace Irish lilt in his voice, he’s soft-spoken and warm with everyone and gets the same in return. People like and respect him.

But on the platform he’s a firebrand.

You’re the reason Obama is out in front in Pennsylvania. Make no mistake; each of you here is very important. Of all the things that we do—mailings, advertisements, phone banking—there’s nothing more effective or more persuasive than what you’re doing today, a personal visit from one union brother or sister to another. Beaver County is the key to western Pennslvania, western Pennsylvania is the key to Pennsylvania—and without Pennsylvania, there’s no way McCain can win!

Sweeney closed by pushing the entire ticket, from Obama at the top to Vince Biancucci and Dennis Rousseau, both local guys with a union history, for state representatives at the base. He stressed the AFL-CIO’s core message: No more nonsense about privatizing Social Security and putting it into the stock market, he said. No more notions of taxing health care benefits—extend health care to everyone. No more nonsense about de-regulation of banking and Wall Street. They’ve made a huge mess, and we need a New Deal and a new leadership to turn things around. Obama is the most pro-labor candidate we’ve ever seen, so shift into high gear and let’s make him our president.

Now everyone was appropriately fired up as they donned “Steelworkers for Obama” T-shirts and hit the streets of nearby mill towns and the back roads in the semi-rural township hills and hollows for the next four hours.

While this is a key area, it’s only one small part of organized labor’s effort in this campaign. Aside from millions of dollars spent on print and other media pushing “Green Jobs,” health care and the right of unions to organize, both the AFL-CIO-affiliated unions and Change to Win-affiliated unions like SEIU are making a common front, working together on this election. This weekend alone, more than 250,000 union volunteers across the country are on the streets going door to door. Busloads from safe areas like New York City spend weekends in the rural Pennsylvania Poconos or working-class neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Car caravans from Chicago work the factory towns of Indiana, Kentucky and western Ohio. There’s nothing quite like seeing it in motion: “Awesome!” as Obama’s younger volunteers put it, although they’ve done some pretty awesome things themselves.

The mid-afternoon sun broke through the clouds. I returned to the union hall after joining the Beaver County Peace Links event—a weekly vigil at the court house for more than five years now, with our “Bring the Troops Home Now!” banner and “Honk for Peace!” signs.

The union parking lot was filling up for “Steel Blitz for Barack” time. Soon a bus would arrive carrying Dan Rooney, owner emeritus of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team; Edmond Nelson, former Steelers star defensive lineman; USW President Leo W. Gerard; and other union officials and players.

Outsiders might not get it, but in an area where “Steelerism” comes close to being a state religion, THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Dozens of young, mostly white kids, boys and girls, were bundled up against the wind, plastering each others’ coats, front and back, with “Union Voters for Obama” and “Steelers for Obama” stickers, clutching autograph books, waiting for their heroes.

Inside, Billy George, head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, warmed up the packed hall. George is from the tough McDonald Heights neighborhood of nearby Aliquippa, home of defunct Jones and Laughlin Steel, once the largest steel mill in the world. He was with USW Local 1211, a powerful and militant local in its day.

“What time is it?” he yelled into the mike. “UNION TIME!” the room yelled back, no prompting needed. George predicted that the Steelers will win their division, then the Super Bowl, and then he asked, “Who will be the president to greet and open the Super Bowl?” “BARACK OBAMA!” the crowd roared.

George got serious and turned to labor history. He spoke about the fierce battles by the Steelworkers Organizing Committee in the 1930s and the historical marker that sits at the old plant gate in downtown Aliquippa. The marker recalls the 1937 U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of Aliquippa’s workers in the case that finally broke the back of reaction and allowed nationwide union organization to spread and FDR’s New Deal to accelerate.

Explained George:

Social Security came out of this. Our right to organize came out of this. These are the most important things we’ve ever won, and now McCain and the Republicans want to “privatize” it or take it back. Can you imagine if they put your Social Security in the stock market? No way, no way we’ll let them. I know everyone here agrees with me, but I want four full shifts out of each and every one of you in the next 10 days. Get this message out to your neighbors, relatives and everyone else around here that knows better, or ought to.

Next up was Leo Gerard, the Canadian-born international president of the United Steelworkers. Even with his north-of-the-border accent, he knows the exact language of this group today.

We’ve been getting the shaft, but this is our time, we’re going to turn it completely around. We’ve never had a candidate like Barack Obama.

After the thank-you’s and standard lines, Gerard asks the workers here to follow a thought experiment with him: to imagine a candidate born to wealth and privilege of the high officer class. Follow him as he fritters away his studies. Recognize and respect his service, but when he gets back, he dumps his first wife and marries into brewery millions. He goes to Congress with the goal of letting the banks run wild and voting against the unions 85 percent of the time. He’s so wealthy, he doesn’t even know how many homes he has.

Now imagine, Gerard went on, a candidate with a single mother, who works hard, but leaves him mainly with Kansas grandparents to raise him. They sacrifice everything to get him an education. He gets to Harvard, top of his class. Wall Street is offering hundreds of thousands of dollars just for sign-up bonuses, but what does he do? He decides to give something back. He works for a church group on the South Side of Chicago, with the unemployed laid-off workers, many of them steelworkers, helping them get retrained, helping them find a future.

Gerard exclaimed:

The Republicans want to talk about character! What does this tell you about it? What does this tell you about the difference between these two men? I listened to right-wing radio yesterday, making fun of Obama for going to visit his dying grandmother, the woman who gave everything to see him succeed. He set aside the time to see her while she could still hear his voice, and they mock it.

McCain and the Republicans have been running around like “Robin Hood in Reverse,” then dump all this slime on Obama and us, and we’re supposed to shut up and like it? No, take the measure of these two men. Take the measure of which one stands with family as we know it, take the measure of which one can benefit the working class that we’re part of. Obama is going to be a great president, and we’re going to put him there.

By this time there was not a dry eye in the house. The Steeler’s Dan Rooney took the mike to add his admiration of Obama. But the most powerful applause comes for linebacker Edmond Nelson, a huge man who dwarfed everyone else on the platform.

He shouted out:

I’m for Barack Obama because I hate this war in Iraq. I hate this war because of the lies told us about “Weapons of Mass Destruction” to drag us into it. I’m for Obama because I hate what’s been done to our soldiers and the people of Iraq.

His words brought the strongest applause of the afternoon.

But Nelson, an African American, closed with “I’m for Barack Obama because I want to see people who look like me get a fair shake and a decent chance in this society.” Again, powerful applause from a group that’s more than 90 percent white but knows exactly what he means.

As the autograph lines started forming, one of the AFL-CIO chiefs brought the room back to order, saying: “One last speaker, one of the most important. She’s going to tell you what to do.”

Kyra Ricci, a petite twenty-something with a terrific smile but also a “listen up now” sense of command, laid out the tasks of the final days. She had her young people with their sign-up clipboards stationed around the hall so they wouldn’t be gotten by without a commitment.

It was the perfect counterpoint to end the day. Three powerful movements are coming together here—organized labor, the African American fight for justice and a new anti-war youth insurgency. Given the sense of class-conscious solidarity and unity in the hall, it’s hard to see how McCain and the GOP can stop them. But it’s also clear that an Obama White House, in calling for partners for “change from below,” also will face forces that will not be easily deflected or denied.

9,000 maniacs - braving rain, wind and mud to be part of something bigger

The flavor of what it's all about, from Philadelphia Daily News reporter/blogger Will Bunch:

You would have thought for a minute that Bud Selig -- on some bizarre whim -- had announced that he wanted to wrap up the World Series right into the very worst of Mother Nature's Octoberfest here in the Philadelphia area, and to prove his arbitrary nature had also decided to do so not at Citizens Bank Park but on a mud-soaked college quad 20 minutes away. It would be hard to imagine what else -- besides a Phillies world championship -- could draw so many people on a day when rain poured down in chilly sheets, as wind whipped off the Delaware River and the thermometer struggled to stay above 40.

Nobody had to be there on an ungodly day -- but here they were, 9,000 maniacs, lined up around the entire south side of the Widener University campus in Chester, rounding a corner with no end in site, all awaiting admission to a mud-soaked field with no shelter from the elements, all to hear a 25-minute speech by the Democrat who wants to be the next president of the United States. As the growing, mostly young throng sunk into mud that was more than ankle deep in spots, it was a little like Woodstock without the three days of music or the brown acid.

Barackstock.

and

For a political junkie. the color of such an unusual event outweighed the words -- the eerie glow of the TV lights and the swirl of tiny leaves in their hot glow, as Obama spoke in a black windbreaker and jeans. occasionally competing with howling wind and what sounded like far-off thunder. Unintentionally, perhaps, the energy of the event was a powerful contrast with the news that John McCain and Sarah Palin had canceled an event just an hour away in Quakertown because of bad weather.

The real stars were the people, and their determination of these 9,000 to be there on such a raw and miserable day, to be a part of something bigger than themselves. ...

Some writers have called the enthusiasm for Obama a cult (like ABC's Jake Tapper, who was covering the rally) -- and the 9,000 fanatics may well find come next winter that the subject of their enthusiasm is just another politician who can't deliver all the change he has promised, especially in the face of an economic downturn that is more soaking than the rains over Delaware County.

Maybe so, but in an unforgettable October here in Philadelphia, the fact that thousands of people want so desperately to be a part of something that they think might change this country, regardless of how Obama the man turns out, is, in and of itself, something to be hopeful about, especially on a such a gray and bitter morning.

Read it all here.

McCain must think Adam Smith is socialistic!

reviewing the patriotic pedigree of a progressive income tax. -Cord

Overtaxed
//////////
by Steve Coll
The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/10/27/081027taco_talk_coll
October 27, 2008 edition
The rise and fall of Joe the Plumber as a symbol of the American self-made man’s resistance to progressive taxation began on October 12th, outside Toledo, Ohio.