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| Obama : Master or Slave ? [message #154] |
Thu, 02 April 2009 13:33  |
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 miker
Messages: 53
Registered: December 2008 |
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No time right now to compose anything of substance, but I would like to launch a discussion concerning the attacks of the left on Obama.
To me, references to Obama as a puppet of a perceived ruling class are not only ludicrous but damaging to the left and its progressive causes.
Those on the right, at least until very recently, have acted almost in unison - no matter how outrageous the allegation or transparent the deception, they stand united.
The left on the other hand thrives on fragmentation, seeming to value individual purity above the good of the whole. The merest flaw among one of their own often arouses great indignation, and these are faulted with lack of greenness, peaceableness, etc. etc., or simply lacking altogether in ethical worthiness.
Such "friendly fire" is nearly unknown among the Republicans. So in the meantime, the right attacks the left, the left attacks the left, and the middle is left to sort through the rubble and make some sense of it all.
Ain't it amazing that Obama was elected in the first place?
[Updated on: Thu, 02 April 2009 14:13]
Verily I say unto you, as ye have done unto the least of these my brethren, so ye have done unto me.
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| Re: Obama : Master or Slave ? [message #155 is a reply to message #154 ] |
Thu, 02 April 2009 20:33  |
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miker
Messages: 53
Registered: December 2008 |
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| Jude wrote on Thu, 02 April in an email |
[It] would [be] nice ...to come up with the Ideal President - with as much specificity as possible. This would include not only policy but also political strategy and, most importantly - tactics. It is really easy to pick at the actual President but much harder to Build the Perfect Beast.
As far as We the People outrage. I say (weerily, again) - that intransigent far-left harangues and actions have sunk liberal and/or progressive leanings again and again. Lets start with Chicago '68 where the "ole gang" managed to get Nixon elected!! Good job there Abbie, and Tom and, and Jerry and Dave. One of the shining moments in the far-left operetta. And where are they now? And did they ever take the full credit due them?
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Jude has made several points here that reflect a lot of my thinking, both recent and in the past.
Chicago '68 was a turning point for me. I sort of admired Abbie Hoffman, loathed Jerry Rubin, and knew little of the rest (Pigasus, Wavy Gravy ..., not sure of the accuracy of any of these recollections). I was in Boston, the Summer of Love, and caught the action on black and white TV. Angry, but somehow alarmed.
I moved to Northampton in '69 and fell in with publishers of a short-lived underground newspaper - the Carbuncle Review (an allusion to Karl Marx's carbuncles, for which, Karl promised, possibly with some prescience, the world would pay). Some of these undergrounders were immensely proud of having gone to a Humphrey appearance at UMass the previous year in order to heckle Hubert, and bragged of having driven him from the stage. Hmmm, I thought (WTF was not then current), now Nixon is president, and these guys are revelling in thoughts of the glorious expression of their outrage. Already drifting to the periphery, I now became estranged. And have been pretty much since.
Since, of course, Jerry Rubin jumped on the gravy train to Greed City, where he worked as a <gasp> stockbroker, Abbie went underground to avoid a cocaine rap, etc. etc. And the rest ... well we can google our hearts out here, it is not critically important.
But while their lives went on, Nixon was inflicting his psychopathy on the nation. I have not since been totally forgiving of the fellow leftists who helped create that reality.
How different would our lives be today had the champions of the left, the intellectual marines, these elite politicos selected the right target?
... too be continued ...
[Updated on: Thu, 02 April 2009 20:50]
Verily I say unto you, as ye have done unto the least of these my brethren, so ye have done unto me.
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| Re: Obama : Master or Slave ? [message #160 is a reply to message #154 ] |
Tue, 07 April 2009 12:08 |
justjoe
Messages: 39
Registered: January 2009
Location: frank'ln |
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Hi petergreen,
Concerning this thread here's a link to an opinion and a snippet.heh,heh..
url:>http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/ <:
Posted by Al Giordano - April 6, 2009 at 12:06 pm
"For decades we’ve heard the term “global village” to describe the ever-smaller community of men, women and nations in an age when communication from one end to the other has sped up and become instant. After watching his economic recovery and stimulus efforts at the G20 meeting in Britain, his seeking of a consensus regarding Afghanistan and other security matters at the NATO summit in France, a stop in Germany, the subsequent visit to the European Union summit in the Czech Republic, and various events in the secular yet 99-percent Muslim nation of Turkey, it's evident that President Obama has taken his Chicago-grown community organizing efforts to th e worldwide community.
The overriding message of President Obama’s days this week in Europe has been to confirm his campaign theme of last year: that “America’s back” and has corrected some of its excessive practices toward other peoples and lands. The projection of the United States to its own longtime allies in the region has turned 180 percent, from the bullying “with us or against us” approach of President Bush to an effort to seek input, even consensus, among European nations, and tangible resources from them, toward united action regarding the economic recovery, matters of war and peace, and “The West’s” relationship to the Islamic parts of the world.
In his words to the Turkish Parliament today, the President said:"
here:>http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/
thanks,Al
joe
[Updated on: Tue, 07 April 2009 12:09]
Bruce Cain
http://www.newagecitizen.com/
relegalize Cannabis
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| Re: Obama : Master or Slave ? [message #162 is a reply to message #160 ] |
Tue, 07 April 2009 20:40 |
petergreen
Messages: 4
Registered: April 2009 |
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Yes, the Democrats act nicer than the Republicans, and Obama is nice to listen to, but if you look at the actions of his Administration and the Democrat-ruled Congress, the corporate status quo is still benefitting much more than the people. Trillions of dollars for the rich, a few crumbs for the poor, and more war for corporate profits and empire (Obama bombs people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but he doesn't torture them, LOL). ALL war is terrorism, and now Obama has blood on his hands too!
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| Re: Obama : Master or Slave ? [message #163 is a reply to message #159 ] |
Wed, 08 April 2009 12:53 |
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miker
Messages: 53
Registered: December 2008 |
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| petergreen wrote on Sun, 05 April 2009 14:38 |
I was hoping that Obama would bring real change, but he's going along with the military-industrial complex, the big banks and insurance companies, and the other rich special interests that rule the Western World. Yes, he's done a few good things, but the corporate masters come first.
We need to replace the Republicrats through democratic social change i.e. mobilizing the silent majority from the local level, starting neighborhood associations and increasing town forums. Maybe through the Green Party we can give them a REAL choice!
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Peter ---
I couldn't agree more with the second part of your statement, with the emphasis being on on local mobilization. Bottom up, grassroots, acting locally, however we chose to label it, the Green Party definitely fills the bill. For that reason I will do everything I can (which , unfortunately, is likely very little) to support you in your race for selectperson in Mashpee. (To be taken up at a later date are the difficulties resulting with the Green and other third parties aiming to assert their influence by taking the top down approach and influencing the presidential election in a manner that ends in the aforementioned shooting of the left foot.)
But here, my disagreement stems from the first part of your statement, which, to my mind, is too willing to dismiss Obama as a sellout to the influences you have enumerated. For the moment, I'll start with a single contraindication to what you have written, that being Obama's restoration of Science to its proper place of being, well ... science.
The Nation magazine is hardly a place where we expect to find encomiums for any politician (with exceptions like Kucinich), but check out what Patricia Williams has to say in the March 30th issue:
| Patricia Williams writes in the March 30th issue of The Nation |
President Obama signed an order guaranteeing "scientific integrity" in federal policy-making, specifically repudiating the propriety of ideological influence. Under most post-Enlightenment circumstances, such a directive would have been deemed tautological. But during the past eight years of the Bush administration's Newspeak, scientific findings have been manipulated, corrupted and/or censored in service to commercial interests rather than reproducible results.
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In addition to stem cell research, the new protocols will have significant salutary influence on research into climate change, genetics, sex education, pollution and food safety. Under Bush, the budgets for the National Institutes of Health and for the Centers for Disease Control were all but frozen. The food pyramid was redesigned so as not to offend sugar manufacturers. Cattle ranchers were blocked from testing their own herds for mad cow disease, for fear of offending the beef lobby. Climatologist James Hansen of NASA was forbidden to speak to the media about his conviction that global warming was worsening. Despite lots of evidence about the public health rewards of education about condoms and safe sex, such information was muffled in deference to the disproved efficacy of "abstinence only" as the centerpiece of AIDS and STD prevention.
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We live in a geologic age so affected by the complexities of human activity that scientists have begun to call it the Anthropocene Era. President Obama's directives recognize that any hope of repair depends upon wise political choices informed by independent expertise and repeatedly tested outcomes.
The complete text: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090330/williams
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This is huge. In signing this "tautological" order, it is possible that Obama has saved more lives than if he were to immediately withdraw all troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan. That is not to say that he does not have "blood on his hands" as you suggest, and I am certain that I find this as outrageous as do you, but it certainly indicates that he is not in certain fat cat pockets. This order alone negates that assertion.
And there are other contraindications as well. A look at the dazed and doleful faces of the bankers after their recent meeting with the president is most illuminating. During the meeting these titans of finance were given a single glass of water - presumably tap water, no ice, no refills. Not the sort of treatment to which these creeps are accustomed. For that alone, Mr. Obama's is due a standing ovation.
But thanks for posting, it made me aware that I feel very differently, according to whether political initiatives are local or national.
Give 'em Hell in Mashpee!
Verily I say unto you, as ye have done unto the least of these my brethren, so ye have done unto me.
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Re: Obama : Master or Slave ?
