Stay tuned

PUMAs were right Obama is corrupt, misogynist, homophobic, inexperienced, unqualified, conservative and totalitarian. He’s up to 175 alarming acts in the last 170 days. Here are the ten latest headlines:

Obama Considering Indefinite Detention Executive Order (175)

Obama Closes Doors on Openness

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding “secret energy meetings” with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama’s “clean coal” policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged “presidential communications.” (174)

Obama’s Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers and For-Profit Healthcare (173)

White House admits Obama “benefits” speech simply political ploy, plan still being created after it was already announced (172)

Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children. (171)

An Early Call for Obama’s Resignation: With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators?

The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left

Changing Obama’s Mindset: Obama has to be pulled in the right direction. (170)

House approves war bill with IMF funds

$106 Billion War Supplemental Passes in the House (169)

ObamaCare: A Non-Existent Health Plan That Begins with Cuts

Secretary Sebelius said that single payer is not only ‘off the table’ but that the President is considering measures to make sure it does not happen now or ever. (168)

Muslims not sure President Obama’s speech means real change

Obama Insults Muslims (167)

Congress abandoning Obama clean energy goals (166)

I was also right people should talk about sexism in communities of color. People are starting to talk about it even though 90% of rape occurred between people of the same race and economic class for the last 24 years or as long as I complained people do not talk about sexism in communities of color.

I am right about two more things. One is REALLY, REALLY big and one is REALLY big. The truth is starting to come out about both. The truth always comes out, doesn’t it? Misogyny is the reason people are so willfully ignorant about both and other peoples’ misogyny and ignorance are not my fault.

The last three are related. Actually all four are related if you read my blog for the last eighteen months.

Stay tuned.

The truth about the NOW election

AfroCity: Read The Lipstick You Dipsticks: Palin 2012

The Confluence: Black, white and Sarah

Betty Jean hosts Marcia Pappas (NY-NOW), Terry O’Neill, Bonnie Grabenhofer and Erin Matson of the new NOW slate on the ERA, grassroots organizing, women in politics, equal pay, gay marriage, cultural sexism, disability, single-payer health care, young feminists and Sandy Oestreich on the ERA

Alegre: A conversation with NOW’s new president, Terry O’Neill

NPR: New Leader Brings New Vision to NOW

The New Agenda: After a Coup d’Etat at NOW, the Future of “Feminism”

Reclusive Leftist: The truth about the NOW election

#7: Talk about not wanting to relinquish power: the NOW establishment (Kim Gandy and Ellie Smeal) was very intent on blocking any opposition to Latifa Lyles. Some of their tactics at the conference included:

* Refusing to seat delegations on made-up technicalities
* Refusing to credential members in good standing who supported O’Neill
* Confiscating materials from the opposition
* Refusing to recognize questioners
* Cutting the mike while members of the opposition were speaking
* Accusing the opposition of being “enemies” and “infiltrators”

#8: The NOW establishment (Kim Gandy and Ellie Smeal) flew in a bunch of non-voting attendees, attired in campaign colors, to run around shouting and cheerleading in an apparent attempt to give the impression of overwhelming advantage. Of the 575 attendees at the conference, only 406 were eligible to vote.

Just like Obama’s bullying, intimidation, thuggery and cheating in the caucuses. Dr. Lynette Long and Dr. Violet Socks wrote that 98-page report on caucus fraud last August. We bitter knitters know what’s going on. While you’re at it, watch the heartbreaking Texas caucus fraud videos. Alegre said there’s a DC meeting today to change the corrupt caucus system but it’s run by OFA the same criminals who ran the caucuses. More on the usual suspects, a liveblog of the meeting, mainstream commentary and a list of future meetings. The focus is on timing of primaries and getting rid of superdelegates and caucuses but they should get rid of early contests, caucuses and pledged delegates many of which are based on caucuses and regional representation. They should just go by popular vote and superdelegates which I’m for keeping as long as they do their job and vote according to their states’ popular vote and overrule unreasonable candidates. In other words, states should be winner-take-all like Republicans, the winner should be determined by adding up electoral votes and superdelegates can finally overrule an unreasonable candidate.

Reclusive Leftist: NOW conference infiltrated by NOW members

Lynette and Paulie Abeles are lifelong Democratic, pro-choice, feminist activists and NOW members like me. Paulie is an outstanding Democratic activist who worked on Democratic campaigns for decades. She started RealDemocrats. The Third Wave is basically young and ignorant.

Lynette:

We have to take back the women’s movement since it’s obvious these third wavers can’t get the job done. When it comes to sexism, sexual harrasment, and violence against women,my attitude is TAKE NO PRISONERS. Only when they are afraid of us, will they respect us.

I say wait until July 20th to open your checkbooks so we make sure the new team gets the money.

Reminds me of her December call to women, Guerilla fighters needed for women’s rights

I am starting a new group of women warriors, gorilla girls, female fighters…I want twenty-five women who are willing to fight beside me for women’s rights. Women who are willing to get arrested for women’s rights. Women who are not only willing to talk the talk but walk the walk. The group will make precision strikes at selected targets.

Lynette:

I know the young feminists think they are ready to take leadership,but I think their arrogance is born of ignorance. They don’t notice the insidious and pervasive sexism that surrounds them. They don’t notice that their favorite news channel, MSNBC is dominated by male broadcasters the likes of Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann. Or that their favorite political website, Huffington Post, today has posts from eighteen bloggers, of which only two are women. Or that some of the hottest television shows, Sex in the City or New Jersey Housewives, trivialize women.

I don’t get it. Third-wavers don’t seem to care that there is only one female Supreme Court Justice, only sixteen women in the United States Senate, and there has never been a female president or vice president. Well, here’s a newsflash. Government can’t legislate for women without women. Men will not give you a seat at the table unless you take it. I want gender parity, 50-50, nothing less. I’m willing to fight for it and guess what, this old white woman has a lot of fight left in her.

Violet:

Go, Lynette! Damn straight. You’re a great feminist and a great role model.

I think a lot of the ageism in the Third Wave is just symptomatic of how backlashy it really is. I’ve been heard to say that the Third Wave isn’t feminism so much as the patriarchal version of feminism. And disdain for older women is part and parcel of that.

Stray Yellar Dog: N.O.W. Has Been Infiltrated…. by… Grown-Ups.

Certain Third Wavers with a poor grasp of herstory, however, believe we are … get this…. ****infiltrators***** Gasp!

Woohoo! After eighteen months of “Lord of the Flies” the grown ups have returned! Third Wavers are about to be schooled BY THE BEST in the business.

They should thank their lucky stars for that!

Free Us Now: Will you join me NOW. Betty Jean was there too and her account corroborates with other PUMAs’:

Upon arriving, I saw the opposing team dressed in orange. It was clear we were outnumbered 2 to 1—but as it turns out, not by voters, just by agitators. Of the nearly 600 who attended, just over 400 voted. Sound familiar?

As for the opposing argument – it was the same old story. Supporters of the O’Neill slate were cast as bitter, old Hillary-turned- Palin-supporters come to infiltrate this organization and take away women’s abortion rights! We are now known all over the blogs as “Pro-life Palinists” or “Pro-life Feminists”.

But we know who we really are, We are “Free- Choice Feminists” according to Lynette Long and we are those who understand

“…different feminists may come to different conclusions when assessing the best way to advance feminist goals. Especially in a year when the two most prominent women in American politics were reduced, respectively, to a nutcracker and an inflatable doll.” –Violet Socks

We presented information, raised tough questions, marched around, stood our ground and said our piece. It was exhilarating to find so many other women who think, feel and act as we do. We are not alone!

These three days were indeed reminiscent of the Obama campaign- Young people dressed in orange from head to toe chanted, ran in packs, recited talking points, would not listen to reason, and shouted us down. Their slate promised change, but had presided over huge losses in membership and revenues, and were backed by the crowd that has made NOW seem irrelevant to so many women, a NOW that did not come out strongly for Hillary each time she was maligned by the media and then failed again to speak up for Palin. A NOW that ignored the way Obama and his allies in the DNC treated Hillary Clinton last year. A now that watched MS magazine rub salt in our wounds — Obama on the cover reading “This is what a feminist looks like”. A NOW clearly cowrowing to the Democratic Party and catering solely to far left democrat members who tow the party line.

Their platform was right out of an Obama speech, all talk of hope and change. Complete with a 33 year old woman of color of limited experience running for President and accusing the other team of racism and ageism for running an “old” white, highly experienced, highly competent attorney for President. Note the so-called “racist” slate contains a 29 year old attorney of color for VP. Obfuscation -sound Familiar?

I was tempted to give it all up and just check out. They had the power – the numbers – the clout- the leadership and they were blasting us from the microphone. They called us racists, Palinists, republicans, Puma’s, infiltrators, traitors, rude, crude and men haters but in the end, we had learned a lot from this last election. When it came time to vote, the orange neckerchiefs were shed, and the votes were cast for a new beginning. A new day is truly dawning. A real shift has has already occurred and with your help, we can build an unstoppable movement.

The Confluence: Tuesday: If votes are falsified but no one sees it, they still count

The truly liberal, feminist women of NOW have exerted their authority to take the organization back. Don’t blame it on the Palin supporters. They had nothing to do with it. You brought this on yourselves.

Someone should remove the sharp objects from the rooms you’re in before you hurt yourselves.

PUMAPac: Turning Worms Tuesday

MILLIONS of experienced, politically active Democratic FEMINISTS were toweringly OUTRAGED by the sexism and misogyny that went down last year in the Democratic primaries — perpetrated by DEMOCRATS, which only added fuel to our fire, and then dragged like a disgusting stink bomb into the general election to be used with even greater ferocity against Governor Cunt of Alaska.

We’re still here. We’re still voting members of NOW. We still know how to tell the difference between bold, historic leadership and a market tested, lavishly funded Product Launch. We haven’t forgotten Amanda. And we never will. Not because it’s comforting to nurse grudges, but because what happened last year was SO bad it will continue to motivate us for YEARS to make sure it never happens again, and that the organization which purports to represent and speak for us actually, you know, REPRESENTS US. So long as the national leadership of NOW was intent on compromising its CORE mission in order to cozy up to a candidate and administration which had and has zero intention of advancing the goals or enhancing the power of women, that leadership’s days were numbered.

Because the women who used to lead NOW may be political failures as feminists, but the members of NOW are certainly not.

PUMAPac: We Wuz Robbed

It’s hard to blame Third Wave feminists for voting for obama. They are pretty dumb.

Tragically, obama is politically outclassed in this enormous effort and, even IF his intentions were pure (which I am absolutely convinced they are not, given his hitherto utter lack of principled convictions on ANY issue), his inexperience and D.C. rookie status would predict a whiff performance. Add to that, the entrenched and bought-off Senators who collectively hold the keys to reform, and it’s clear to me that real health care reform is in fatal jeaopardy.

This really is a tragedy. Hillary Clinton most certainly would have done better. She’s been around the beltway block a thousand times and the Villagers just can’t touch her. True, Clinton dropped out and the Insider Politicians got their Obama Dream Wish Pony, but that was only accomplished by distasteful campaign operatives, and their attacks only started to work when obama pulled out the Race Card AND started hitting Clitnon with sexism and misogyny. And even THEN the DONC needed to use cheating and backroom dealing to win not technically win. Oh, and a fawning press helped too. Just a bit.

At a time in our political, economic, and social history when America really NEEDED an untouchably strong and incorruptibly confident leader; when we HAD one within our grasp, we got robbed and handed a fraudulent lightweight. How bad is he going to screw up health care reform? Will he ruin it so completely it will take another GENERATION before a true leader gets another crack at it?

Jackass.

The Confluence: Wednesday: Don’t step out of line

His words were a teensy bit stronger and I can understand why he doesn’t want the US to get involved, since that whole 1979 hostage crisis went over so well for Jimmy Carter. But if you look carefully at his words, injustice and human rights apply only to protest and dissent. He doesn’t say anything about the election being rigged and voters disenfranchised as being egregious and unsupportable.

Well, why would he? He doesn’t believe in self-determination any more than Ayatollah Khamenei. Sorry to tell you this, dear Iranian readers, but it’s true. You may have missed our infamous 2008 Democratic presidential primary but it was no less a stolen election than yours. The difference is we weren’t allowed to protest the way Iranians did last week. No massive protest would have been possible in Denver. I should know because I was there. The city was on lockdown. There were police in riot gear everywhere. Step over the line even once and they’d simply force you to the ground, cuff you and haul you off to some gitmo-esque, wire holding pen an hour away from Denver until they got around to letting you make a phone call.

The Confluence: Help Iranian PUMAs go viral! Spread the word

The New Agenda: The New Agenda Congratulates Terry O’Neill, incoming President of the National Organization for Women

Widdershins: Sarah Palin Supporters did NOT swing the NOW election….

The Confluence: Hell’s Grannies takeover NOW

Shannon Drury: Don’t mess with my little sister.

Shannon Drury: Now in the news…..NOW!

Crackdown in Tehran

Threats Watch:

Iran has executed its Tiananmen Square. Baharestan Square has become synonymous with barbarity, cruelty, massacre and inhumanity.

An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses by “black-clad police” and literally herded. When the massing was sufficient, as the barely controllably distraught Tehran caller to CNN described first hand, hundreds of the regime’s Basij thugs poured out of an adjoining mosque and commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns and gas.

From the live blogger’s eyewitness account:

More than 10.000 Bassij Milittias get position in Central Tehran, including Baharestan Sq.
Army Helycopters flying over Baharestan and Vali Asr Sq.
The streets, squares and around BAHARESTAN (Approx. South-eastern of Tehran) is swarming with military forces, civilian forces, the security motorists
The croud have moved to the south of baharestan, the situation is bad, the shooting has started
In Baharestan Sq. in the Police shooting, A girl is shot and the police is not allowing to let them help
In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping people like meat – blood everywhere – like butcher

This is the Iranian regime, wading into its own unarmed people and axing them to death, bludgeoning women (seen as the greatest threat to the regime) and throwing them to their deaths from pedestrian bridges. The same Iranian regime whose embassy officials are invited to American embassies around the world to celebrate on July 4th, of all things, a successful revolution.

This frantic phone call from a Tehran woman will break your heart as you consider our standard response has been “that there are sets of international norms and principles about violence” and that “the international community is watching.” Part of yesterday’s response by President Obama in a press conference included “that there is a peaceful path that will lead to stability and legitimacy (of the Iranian regime) and prosperity for the Iranian people. We hope they take it.” The Iranian theocratic regime clearly is not interested.

Washington Post: Women May Pose the Deepest Threat to Iran’s Regime. We must ask ourselves why this is this happening to prevent it from happening again. The answer is in Applebaum’s article.

Iranian PUMAs:

Who was really cheated in Iran’s vote? Women. The West shouldn’t cozy up to a regime that rigs elections against feminist candidates.

Who was really cheated in Iran’s vote? Women. The West shouldn’t cozy up to a regime that rigs elections against feminist candidates.

What is striking about the Iranians protesting fraud in the June 10 “election” is the number of women on the front lines. Among all those cheated at the polls, they may feel the most denied.

For the first time in one of the Islamic Republic’s controlled presidential campaigns, the women’s movement was able to raise its demands clearly and independently – even though the unelected, 12-member, all-male Guardian Council did not allow any female candidates to run.

The movement’s courage to confront the patriarchal theocracy (in which “morality police” still roam the streets looking for women with make-up) may have been a big reason why the regime rigged the vote count – and why supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was forced to make a show of ordering a probe of the fraud.

During the campaign, Iran’s feminists found a voice in the popular opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister. He promised to disband the morality police, reform the many laws that treat women unequally, and appoint women to high posts. He campaigned with his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a prominent academic and author of 15 books. The two appear to be a loving couple, displaying a modern equality to Iranian women. But he “lost” the vote – even in his hometown, which was yet another sign that the fix was in.

USAToday: Iranian women take key role in protests

Negar Mortazavi, who lives in Washington, D.C., stays in touch with Iranian friends who have been protesting in Tehran. On Saturday, a male student described on the phone violent clashes between protesters, police and plainclothes militia.

One scene stood out, and “he couldn’t believe his eyes,” said Mortazavi, 27, who came to the USA from Iran in 2002 and is helping to coordinate protests in the United States. “He decided it was time to start running when the police were coming. He turned back and saw some women still standing,” she says. “These women are not afraid.”

Iranian women have been on the front lines of anti-government protests challenging the official results of the June 12 election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor.

US News: Iranian Women’s Key Role in the Iran Election Protests

Ms. Mariam Memarsadeghi: Iranian women, and their long stifled demands for legal equality, greater individual rights and democratic development for the country, have been at the core of the “green movement” behind the candidacy of Mir Hossein Mousavi. A Campaign for One Million Signatures was launched by leading Iranian feminists under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Though the leaders behind this grassroots civic campaign were subject to intense surveillance, intimidation, imprisonment, exorbitant bail fines and restrictions on their right to travel abroad, they managed to make their struggle a broad based one that penetrated the intensely male dominated political sphere by calling on presidential candidates to engage with them and address their demands for reform of the constitution and laws affecting women’s rights. They also demanded that Iran sign on to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women as a means to force the Islamist regime to bring its laws and practices affecting women in line with international norms. Women themselves have never been permitted by the theocracy to run for president as their judgment is deemed inferior.

It is important to note that before the 1979 Revolution, Iranian women were making great strides toward equal opportunity in education and the world of work. Women could be seen in positions of leadership in various fields of work and at the highest levels of government. Islamist ideology and the totalitarian state changed that reality virtually overnight as Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers ushered in a constitution and new laws which reversed the gains women had made and virtually expelled them from the work force. Mandatory veiling and a fiercely repressive police state, not to mention the eight year war with Iraq and Iran’s international isolation, caused deep setbacks for women. Under Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, women managed to create some space for greater civic organizing and personal liberties, though at the legal level, little progress was tolerated by the ruling clerical establishment.

The current crisis in Iran profoundly affects women as the differences between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi are stark when it comes to women’s rights and women’s role in society. Mousavi’s outspoken wife, Zahra Rahnavard, has made the status of women a core theme of her president’s campaign, while Ahmadinejad, with his barely visible spouse and radical Islamist outlook, has ruled with a certain contempt for women’s leadership in the public sphere. If Ahmadinejad’s coup succeeds, Iranian women will suffer tremendously.

Slate: Woman Power: Regimes that repress the civil and human rights of half their population are inherently unstable.

I don’t know whether the girl in the photographs is destined to become this revolution’s symbolic martyr, as some are already predicting. I do know, however, that there is a connection between the violence in Iran over the last week and the women’s rights movement that has slowly gained strength over the last several years in Iran.

In the United States, the most Americo-centric commentators have somberly attributed the strength of recent demonstrations to the election of Barack Obama. Others want to give credit to the democracy rhetoric of the Bush administration. Still others want to call this a “Twitter revolution” or a “Facebook revolution,” as if zippy new technology alone had inspired the protests. But the truth is that the high turnout was the result of many years of organizational work carried out by small groups of civil rights activists and, above all, women’s groups, working largely unnoticed and without much outside help.

Not Obama, not Bush, and not Twitter, in other words, but years of work and effort lie behind the public display of defiance—and in particular the numbers of women on the streets. And their presence matters. For at the heart of the ideology of the Islamic republic is its claim to divine inspiration: The leadership is legitimate, and in particular its harsh repression of women is legitimate, because God has decreed that it is so. The outright rejection of this creed by tens of thousands of women, not just over the last weekend but over the last decade, has to weaken the Islamic republic’s claim to invincibility in Iran and across the Middle East. The regime’s political elite knows this well. It is no accident that the two main challengers to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Iranian election campaign promised to repeal some of the laws that discriminate against women—and no accident that the leading challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, used his wife, political scientist and former university chancellor Zahra Rahnavard, in his campaign appearances and posters.

The Iranian clerics know that women pose a profound threat to their authority: As activist Ladan Boroumand has written, the regime would not bother to use brutal forms of repression against dissidents unless it feared them deeply. Nobody would have murdered a young woman in blue jeans—a peaceful, unarmed demonstrator—unless her mere presence on the street presented a dire threat.

New York Times: Iran’s Second Sex . Beautiful article about Iranian women.

Christiane Amanpour (who’s Iranian) on the Iranian crisis and the dominant role of women

CNN: Women in Iran march against discrimination

CNN: Iranian women stand up in defiance, flout rules

CNN: Women in Iran march against discrimination

Women, regarded as second-class citizens under Iranian law, have been noticeably front and center of the massive demonstrations that have unfolded since the presidential election a week ago. Iranians are protesting what they consider a fraudulent vote count favoring hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but for many women like Parisa, the demonstrations are just as much about taking Iran one step closer to democracy.

“Women have become primary agents of change in Iran,” said Nayereh Tohidi, chairwoman of the Gender and Women’s Studies Department at California State University, Northridge.

The remarkable images show women with uncovered heads who are unafraid to speak their minds and crowds that are not segregated — both the opposite of the norm in Iran, Tohidi said.

She said a long-brewing women’s movement may finally be manifesting itself on the streets and empowering women like Parisa.

“This regime is against all humanity, more specifically against all women,” said Parisa, whom CNN is not fully identifying for security reasons.

“I see lots of girls and women in these demonstrations,” she said. “They are all angry, ready to explode, scream out and let the world hear their voice. I want the world to know that as a woman in this country, I have no freedom.”

Though 63 percent of all Iranian college students are women, the law of the land does not see men and women as equal. In cases of divorce, child custody, inheritance and crime, women do not have the same legal rights as men.

In the past four years, Ahmadinejad has made it easier for men to practice polygamy and harder for women to access public sector jobs, according to CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

Amanpour, who has reported extensively from Iran, describes Iranian women as “very strong.” In 1997, it was women who came out along with young people to put reformist candidate Mohammed Khatami into the presidency, Amanpour said.

Increasingly, women’s voices are gaining power as their numbers rise and their demands grow louder.

Even the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the Islamic republic, voiced frustration at the way women are treated.

“Women are just living things,” Zahra Eshraghi told Amanpour. “A woman is there to fill her husband’s stomach and raise children.”

For the first time, women were allowed to register for the presidential race, though none, including Eshraghi, were deemed fit to run by the religious body that vets candidates. But women’s issues surfaced in the campaign.

That was partly the result of a women’s movement comprised of educated, urban, middle-class women that has grown in recent years with the addition of more conservative and poorer women, said Tohidi, a longtime observer of women’s rights in Iran. Ironically, traditional women first gained voice under the clerics.

“Khomeini needed their votes, so he encouraged them to be publicly active,” Tohidi said.

The middle-class women who enjoyed certain freedoms in prerevolutionary days refused to turn back, while a new generation of conservatives were awakened to feminism.

In 2003, lawyer and women’s rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize, providing a “big boost” for Iranian women, Tohidi said.

At the same time, private organizations and charities that deal with women’s issues blossomed under the presidency of reformist Mohammed Khatami, growing by as much as 700 percent, Tohidi said.

Marriage age increased as more women opted to marry for love, instead of entering arranged marriages. The One Million Signatures Campaign officially launched in 2006 sprouted new discourse and attention with a petition that asks the parliament to reform gender discriminatory laws.

In this year’s presidential campaign, Iranian women pressured candidates to agree to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The 1979 treaty has been ratified by 186 nations, including several Islamic states.

Two opposition candidates, Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, vowed to look into parts of the Iranian constitution that defer women’s rights to what is regarded as an outdated version of sharia, or Islamic, law. Moussavi had even promised to appoint women as cabinet ministers for the first time.

Some women in Iran looked to Moussavi to carry their banner, perhaps because they were inspired by his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a much-admired academic who told CNN’s Amanpour that Iran’s 34 million women want civil laws and family laws revised.

Author and journalist Azadeh Moaveni, who spent several years working in Iran, said Ahmadinejad’s fundamentalism has pushed Iranian women to the edge.

“He has been a catastrophe for women,” said Moaveni, who wrote “Lipstick Jihad” and co-authored “Iran Awakening” with Nobel laureate Ebadi.

The weight of discrimination against women is felt most profoundly through Iran’s legal system, but Moaveni said Ahmadinejad added to the hardship by clamping down on women’s lifestyles. He mandated the way women dress and even censored Web sites that dealt with women’s health, Moaveni said. A woman would be hard-pressed to conduct a Google search for something as simple as breast cancer.

Moaveni was almost arrested because her coat sleeves were too short and exposed too much skin. In that setting, she said, it’s striking to see women protesting, especially without their hijabs, or head coverings.

“While it’s not at the top of women’s grievances, the hijab is symbolic. Taking it off is like waving a red flag,” Moaveni said. “Women are saying they are a force to be reckoned with.”

Azar Nafisi, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” said she has been watching the footage from Iran with “inordinate pride.”

She marched on the streets during the 1979 revolution because she believed in greater freedoms for her people, only to see her dreams shattered as hardline clerics took hold of Iran. “Reading Lolita” is largely a memoir of her harrowing days in Iran until 1997, when she immigrated to the United States.

“The way I walked down the street became a political statement,” Nafisi said.

She recalled her own mother being a devout Muslim who chose not to wear a veil. Her grandmother, like more traditional women in Iran, wore a veil but resented the government ordering her to do so. Covering up, Nafisi said, was a matter of faith, not politics.

Nafisi believes that women have become a symbolic statement of the power of the Islamic state. She called Iranian women canaries of the mind — barometers of how free society is.

It’s impossible to predict what will transpire in Iran in the coming days.

Nafisi believes a regime change will not be enough; that only a change in mindset can lead to greater freedoms for women.

Moaveni said the sheer scale of the demonstrations assures her that the political and social climate will never again be the same in Iran.

Tohidi is keeping her fingers crossed that the protests won’t prompt Iran’s hardliners to clamp down and rule by repression.

But all of them shared the hopes of the women — like Parisa — who are marching on the streets.

“Today, we were wearing black,” Parisa said, referring to the day of mourning to remember those who have died in post-election violence.

“We were holding signs. We said, ‘We are not sheep. We are human beings,’” she said.
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Parisa was thankful for all the images being transmitted out of Iran despite the government’s crackdown on international journalists. She was thankful, too, that the world cared.

“Today,” she said, “I had this feeling of hope that things will finally change.”

Salon: Clinton, Biden want Obama to take stronger stance on Iran

Obama’s also hearing from senior officials within his administration, including Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that he should rethink his current stance.

According to the Times, its sources within the administration say that Clinton and Biden, among others, “while supporting the president’s approach… would like to strike a stronger tone in support of the protesters.” There’s also some concern, the paper reports, that the president “run[s] the risk of coming across on the wrong side of history at a potentially transformative moment in Iran.”

Bonnie Erbe, US News: A Peaceful Conclusion to Iran Election Results Does Not Seem Possible

I would like to chime in on my colleague Peter Roff’s Tuesday blog, predicting the mullahs may yet be ousted in Iran. He wrote:

“The millions of Iranians who are the streets this week may bring down the regime. Toppling the mullahs would have a profound impact on U.S. security, potentially removing from the scene one of this country’s major enemies and what is perhaps the world’s principal terrorist-supporting state.”

Here, here! I am listening to a public radio report as I write this, about the importance of the Internet and social networking in organizing the Iranian protests. The government is aware of this and cracking down on internet usage as a result. This is fomenting more calls for outright rebellion.

President Obama made, as Peter Roff noted, wishy-washy remarks, but his former opponent, Sen. John McCain, came out stronger, calling on the President to call the Iranian election what it was: a sham.

Meanwhile, the protesters continue their anti-government work:

“Tens of thousands of supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi , the defeated main challenger in the disputed Iranian presidential election, rallied in central Tehran, video on Iranian state television showed, after the biggest protest in 30 years led to as many as 15 deaths.”

Let’s all hope this is resolved peacefully and no more blood is shed. But that does not seem possible from here.

“The candidates are the same.” A sham election. Where have we heard this before?

The protest is not just students and the highly educated. It’s spreading to everyone:

MSNBC: Women in chadors join Iran’s opposition: Protesters say they want their votes counted and their voices heard

It’s not just young, liberal rich kids anymore: Whole families, taxi drivers, even conservative women in black chadors are joining Iran’s opposition street protests.

They say they want something simple: their votes counted and their voices heard. What they will settle for — or push for — is a far bigger question.

Boorghani is typical of the young reformists who initially backed Mousavi — but that support is growing to include grandmothers, government employees and hotel clerks.

The last time Iran was engulfed in similar anti-government action was a decade ago when a deadly raid on a Tehran University dorm sparked six days of nationwide protests. At the time, they were considered the worst since the 1979 revolution that toppled the pro-U.S. shah and brought hard-line clerics to power. But the student-driven movement eventually fizzled, leaving many people more bitter but the system intact.

This time, though, the protesters are not just affluent students and youth. The middle class is also flooding the streets and even conservative religious Iranians are joining the Mousavi supporters.

Swathed in a long black chador, 21-year-old Saman Qahremani said she wanted to let the government know that many Iranians from all walks of life are angry.

“When I learned about the result I just felt hatred. They cheated us,” said Qajremani, who held a sign at Monday’s rally that read in English, “We just want our vote.”

“If they do not count the votes of people, Iran will not be a republic any more, it will be a monarchy,” she said.

Her friend, also dressed in a chador, nodded in agreement.

Municipal worker Reza Hosseini, 37, cheered for Mousavi as he passed through the rally in a convoy of cars.

“I voted for Mousavi in hope of a better life, more freedom, security and relief,” said Hosseini, who wore a button-down shirt with stripes in Mousavi’s signature color, green. “All the people I knew voted for Mousavi.”

Nearby, a taxi driver shouted out his window: “Everybody should join! Don’t just watch, join!”

“This (the Mousavi opposition) is completely different to 1999. That was between the students and the government. This is between the people and the government. This time it is all of Iran. This is a historic movement,” Boorghani said.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize-Winner Ebadi Calls For New Elections

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has told RFE/RL that the Iranian authorities should hold a new election and allow monitoring by international observers. She also called for the release of everyone the regime has arrested, which includes several human rights activists.

Shirin Ebadi: The Iranian people are expressing doubt and questioning the election [results]. Millions of people have come to the streets and expressed their demands in a very peaceful manner. Unfortunately, their peaceful demands have been met with violent reactions; we saw at least [seven people] killed in the streets and a number of dead at Tehran University [during an attack by security forces]. There are also many injured.

[The violent response by the authorities] has been so intense that it has caused anger and has been questioned among the members of the parliament. Some of the professors have protested against it and I hope the situation will move in a direction that the people’s demands will be taken into account.

First of all I have to say that of those who have been arrested [in recent days] must be released without any conditions. Why have the [authorities] arrested people? Just because they have been expressing their protests in a civic and peaceful manner — including [protesting] the arrest of human rights advocate Abdol Fatah Soltani, former vice president [Mohammad Ali Abtahi], and [senior reformist figure] Said Hajarian — who is in poor physical condition — and all the others who have been arrested. Citing the names of all of them would take too long.

Why there should be such a reaction? So all those arrested must be released and then the demand of the people and of the [defeated] presidential candidate should be met in way that the public is satisfied.

I believe that a recount of the votes under the current conditions won’t solve anything. A new election must be held and this time it should be under the monitoring of international organizations so that all participants would be contented that the votes that come out of the ballot boxes are the real votes of the people

Iranian Protest Photos

When PC is dishonest

Clarissa’s Box:

Castrating Our Language

Political correctness is a great thing. But only when its goal is to create a space where everybody feels respected and comfortable. Often, however, I observe that it becomes an end in itself that creates more discomfort than anything else. It turns into yet another self-congratulatory tool that allows people to police themselves and others with a passion that would be better engaged in some actual political causes.

Slavoj Žižek’s Violence, Part II

“What lurks at the horizon. . . is the nightmarish prospect of a society regulated by a perverse pact between religious fundamentalists and the politically correct preachers of tolerance and respect for the other’s beliefs: a society immobilised by the concern for not hurting the other, no matter how cruel and superstitious this other is.”

The only truth behind this “tolerance” is contempt, lack of respect, and the desire to infantilize the menacing Other. But when somebody we can easily identify as the Other does things that offend our sensibilities, we are supposed to avert our gaze in an utterly hypocritical show of our worldiness and sophistication.

I think that as long as we organize the discussion around “tolerance/intolerance”, there will never be a solution to these issues. I’m not proposing that it “should be ok to be intolerant”. Tolerating, in any case, does not mean accepting or understanding. It just means putting up with something reluctantly.

Instead of being or not intolerant, I am in favor of not being afraid of voicing my opinions. All kinds of fundamentalists are never afraid of voicing their opinions about me. I am, however, expected to shut up about everything that I find repugnant about them. And all this just in order to comply to some standard of tolerance and political correctness.

Quashing Dissent

It is, however, deeply saddening to see how many people there are that dedicate a significant amount of time and effort to quashing any kind of dissent. I follow a number of progressive blogs that keep me informed on important issues so much better than TV news and print media (DailyKos, BitchPhD, and Femenisting are my favorite at this point).

However, engaging in a discussion on these sites is often difficult. There is always a group of well-meaning fanatics, who strive to promote what they see as the “party line.” Anything they perceive as dissent is swiftly castigated. As I have recently discovered, they would even follow you to your own blog to scream insults at you. They wouldn’t even attempt to read what you are actually saying before they start accusing you of every abomination under the sun. The saddest part is that they hide their censorship itch underneath the mantle of tolerance, acceptance, and political correctness.

Burqa

According to an article in the Associated Press, the French government is considering banning the burqas in public. A parliamentary commission will be set to investigate whether such a measure would make sense.
I know that it’s considered very illiberal to support anything like this, but I can’t help but feel that I understand what this is about. I wouldn’t dream of going to Mianwali, for example, and run around in a mini-skirt and a deep cleavage. I would respect the sensibilities of the population that practices exclusive burqa-observance and so I would most definitely wear one myself.
In Montreal, I saw men who were leading women around on leashes. This offends my sensibilities. Why should my feelings not be respected? How is what a woman in Mianwali feels more respectable than what a woman from Montreal feels?

Summer must reads

There’s always great stuff to read in the PUMAsphere even though it’s summer. Check out my blogroll for the best reality-based news and commentary.

Nicholas Kristof thinks American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were set-up, ironically, by a trafficker or guide to be used as pawns in the US-NK nuclear standoff. This is really appalling and is probably what happened. Follow on Twitter @LiberateLaura and the blog Liberate Laura & Euna Now.

The details of the arrests remain unclear; they have “confessed,” but that is meaningless — who wouldn’t in such circumstances? There have been some suggestions that they wandered accidentally across the border, but that’s not easy to do. I’ve reported three times in that same area along the Tumen, interviewing North Koreans on the Chinese side of the border, and it’s always clear where the border is. That said, people often do cross over deliberately, just inside the border, and there are usually no consequences at all.

Another possibility, which I incline to, is that Ling and Lee may have been sold to North Korea by a local guide. If the guide said that it was safe to cross, or that they were still on Chinese territory, they would have believed him. Moreover, by some accounts they were working on a story about human trafficking — there’s a good deal of trafficking of North Korean women and girls into China, into prostitution and to be wives of peasants — and the traffickers could well have tricked them in exchange for a reward from North Korea. A couple of years ago, I set up an interview with a trafficker in that border area, but then backed out when he demanded money; the traffickers may realize that the people to demand money from aren’t the journalists but the North Korean officials. And at a time of crisis, when it is undergoing a leadership transition and a confrontation with the West, North Korea would probably pay well for a few extra bargaining chips in the form of American journalists.

The Confluence: Could “reform” possibly look worse than what we’ve got?

Party. Unity. My. Ass.

I plan on enjoying every single moment of this. I am not a mean person, a vindictive person, or even a person who needs to be right all the time. But this is just too good to not watch!

So will I. But gotta admit, I AM a vindictive person. I’m also looking forward 3.5 years of Obot-bashing.

alright, i might be a tad vindictive! LOL

New Hampster: “I don’t mind politicians being liars and hypocrites as much as I mind them thinking that we are too stupid to know they’re liars and hypocrites.”

Today, on NPR, Secretary Sebelius said that single payer is not only ‘off the table’ but that the President is considering measures to make sure it does not happen now or ever. Hope and change. He has the White House, House and Senate. There’s no excuse not to push through progressive legislation. It’s all Obama’s fault. Not Republicans, Blue Dogs, Congress, Bush or 11-dimensional chess.

Obama to Extend Benefits to Federal Workers’ Partners but this does not include health benefits. It would take an act of Congress to include health benefits. This guy is incredible. Last night, Bill Maher said if he doesn’t give us health care and other progressive policies, Democrats will lose the House in 2010. I read in Details that Plouffe is making OFA as massive as the election campaign website. He can’t afford health insurance, partners’ health benefits or DOMA because all that money goes towards his re-election. The people get nothing but O.

The Slate ladies have a number of opinions about Sandra Tsing Loh’s Atlantic article against marriage but it’s clear from the article she’s divorcing because she’s overworked, under appreciated by her husband and is essentially a single working mother five months out of the year (her musician husband is away five months out of the year). One cited her children as the problem, another cited books that glamorize marriage and domestic life as the problem. The double bind is the problem and feminism the solution. She shouldn’t diss marriage but look at structural causes and solutions. Tsing Loh tends to take the contrarian view in her writing and is oblivious to structural causes or she misappropriates them to make a contrarian point. The Slate ladies seem pretty annoyed too.

Rebellious Jezebel Blogging is hosting the third Asian Women Blog Carnival entitled, Intersections between Culture and Sexism, and asks a few interesting questions. Cf. this Confluence post.

Ted Rall, Common Dreams: An Early Call for Obama’s Resignation: With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators? Obama and Failbots’ misogyny and race-baiting lost the election. This is a repeat of the propaganda war against the Second Wave in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2008, women ran for President and VP and this threatened the status quo so the MSM and netroots used misogyny and race-baited these women and their supporters. Replace “black men” with Obama and Failbots and “black women” with PUMAs in the following three paragraphs written by Violet:

Feminism has always striven to be inclusive. You can read the minutes of the New York radicals in 1968, the conversations white women were having with black women. Black women were very drawn to feminism, but they were in the midst of a civil rights struggle, too, and they felt like they needed to stay with that. Which of course they did; the civil rights movement was a great uprising of a people. Unlike feminism, which is immensely more complicated because it requires us to interrogate the fundamental structures of our own families.

At any rate, while black women were in sympathy with feminism, black MEN were not. The civil rights movement was notoriously patriarchal and sexist. Some of the first feminists I knew were black women who were in essence refugees from that movement, having learned to their heartbreak that black men had no interest in elevating women. Black men considered feminism a threat — both to their own patriarchal hegemony, and to their civil rights mythos of The Struggle of the Black Man. They accused white feminists of being racists who were trying to brainwash black women into hating their men. They accused black feminists of being race traitors.

It was ugly and mean and wrong, but you know what? Those fuckers won the propaganda war. Those assholes wrote the history books. And now young people actually believe that the Civil Rights movement was all sweetness and light and equality for all, while Second Wave feminists were white racists.

More here, here, here and here. I recommend cutting, pasting and highlighting these three paragraphs and reading these five links so we can win the propaganda war against the Failbots. In the 1960s and 1970s, black patriarchs were threatened by feminism so they called white feminists racist and black feminists race traitors. Propaganda focused on white feminists’ racism not on the misogyny and race-baiting of black patriarchs. In 2008, the black and white patriarchy was threatened by women running for the Presidency and VP and also turned to misogyny and race-baiting. After the 2008 election, I believe Violet when she says Second Wavers were not racist (intersectionality came into play later in the 1980s) because I found no element of PUMA racist like Third Wave and netroots racism. PUMA is very similar to the Second Wave. The Second Wave was made up of leftist and conservative women reacting to sexist, white, male anti-war activists in the 1960s. PUMA is leftist and conservative women reacting to sexist, white, male so-called progressives in 2008. As we know, the Second Wave was the most successful feminist wave in terms of raising consciousness about sexism.

The most racist PEOPLE I ever encountered in my life let alone feminists were white Third Wave commenters on the LJ group, feminist, and the blogs Pandagon and Feministe before intersectionality became cool. There was one racist commenter named MsJane at Feministing where I hung out but it was better than the other two blogs. Netroots commenters were just as racist but I spent less time there. There was never anything in PUMA like the sheer contempt, hatred and racism behind the comments in the Third Wave and netroots. There was never anything like this in PUMA. This is not to be confused with the justified anger and reaction of PUMAs to the abuse from Obama, the DNC, the MSM and Failbots. Similar to how black women must have felt in the CRM. Yes, just a couple years ago, racism was cool in the Third Wave and netroots. This was when POC couldn’t get a word in edgewise about racism in comment sections. Of course, now the Third Wave and netroots overcompensated and gave us Bush III. So, really, the netroots is both extremely racist and sexist and PUMAs are 100% innocent. Just like black women in the CRM.

For a theoretical framework of the race trumps gender, “bros before hos,” misogynist, race-baiting mentality that lost the election, I recommend Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice as the problem and Michele Wallace’s Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, Elaine Brown’s A Taste of Power and Angela Davis’ autobiography, which combine feminism and anti-racism, as the solution. Cleaver was a prominent leader of the Black Panther Party. If you read Wallace and Brown’s accounts, you will see the black patriarchs were 100% at fault and black women were 100% innocent. Like the last paragraph of the quote says, propaganda made the CRM sweetness and light and white women racists. Similarly, Failbots are 100% guilty of misogyny and race-baiting and PUMAs are 100% innocent but their propaganda is the exact opposite. Obama and male and female Failbots of all colors morphed into Eldridge Cleavers and Daniel Patrick Moynihans who came up with the matriarchy myth to blame black women for black men and women’s problems. Male and female Failbots of all colors are Eldridge Cleavers and Daniel Patrick Moynihans who oppress women while calling them racists and traitors. Women Failbots who deny Obama was sexist or that there was sexism in 2008 and 2009 morphed into black and white patriarchs so call them black and white patriarchs, Eldridge Cleavers, Daniel Patrick Moynihans and oppressors whenever they do that and read those five links. I have little patience for sexist men but even less for women gender sellouts. I’m really tired of this Axelrovian propaganda straight out of the 1970s.

The double standard from Obama, the DNC, the MSM and Failbots in 2008 and 2009 is the main way in which Obama and the left were sexist. The double standard continues unabated today because Obama and Failbots would not treat PUMAs this way if we were mostly men instead of women. If we were mostly men, Obama, the DNC, the MSM and Failbots would have addressed our concerns from the beginning. PUMAs are the abused black women in the Black Panther Party. Makes sense. Pumas are panthers and vice versa. Spread this meme and we will win the propaganda war against the Failbots because if you say “black,” get the faux anti-racist guilt up and they recognize the accuracy of the parallel, they will apologize.

Howard Zinn, The Progressive: Obama has to be pulled in the right direction. The poor people’s historian knows what’s going on. Where have they been hiding him? This is transcribed from a February 2009 talk. Oh right, Zinn, with his extensive anti-racism background would have been a racist if they published it four months ago. Watch the Failbots try to throw the author of A People’s History of the United States and The Zinn Reader (there’s a must-read) under the bus. If they stop calling people racists, we might be able to save Social Security and single-payer.

Paul Street, ZMag: The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left

Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive: Behind Obama’s Beautiful Rhetoric

LA Times: Muslims not sure President Obama’s speech means real change

Noam Chomsky: Chomsky on Obama Speech

Keeping just to Israel-Palestine — there was nothing substantive about anything else — Obama called on Arabs and Israelis not to ‘point fingers’ at each other or to ’see this conflict only from one side or the other.’ There is, however, a third side, that of the United States, which has played a decisive role in sustaining the current conflict. Obama gave no indication that its role should change or even be considered.

Those familiar with the history will rationally conclude, then, that Obama will continue in the path of unilateral U.S. rejectionism.

Avedon:

The public option idea isn’t a way to move us to Medicare-for-All, it’s a way to keep the insurance leeches in business.

The 80-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and 41-member Congressional Black Caucus both favor single-payer. That’s why Obama opposes it. He’s not progressive, liberal or a Democrat.

Stanley Fish: Yes I Can

SUGAR is on Twitter. Watch out.

The Confluence: Not so fast with the primaries, Atrios

The Confluence: We Told You So!

Another day, another broken promise:

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a challenge to the Pentagon policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration. [...]

During last year’s campaign, President Barack Obama indicated he supported the eventual repeal of the policy, but he has made no specific move to do so since taking office in January. Meanwhile, the White House has said it won’t stop gays and lesbians from being dismissed from the military.

Well it’s good to know our red-blooded warriors won’t have to worry about catching teh gay from a toilet seat while they are keeping the world safe for democracy.

(Cue the Obots Failbots explaining that this is more “11-dimensional chess)

Here’s a tip from Arthur Silber:

Don’t try to keep a list of all of Obama’s broken “promises.” Instead, keep a list of the promises you think he made that he’s kept. In this manner, your work will be brief and undemanding.

At the moment, I can’t think of a single issue of importance that would appear on a list of promises Obama wanted us to believe he was making, and that he has kept. Not even one.

Nonetheless, he has kept one commitment, the overriding one that was obvious from the beginning but that he notably restrained himself from offering explicitly: that he would faithfully serve the interests of the ruling class, that he would increase their already massive power and wealth still more, and that he would entrench them and their particular interests so that they would become impervious to all serious challenge.

The Confluence: The Low Road 2008 and We Own Our Votes. myiq2xu is spot on.

Conflucians Say on the blogosphere.

The Confluence: Obama on “Women’s Rights” in His Speech in Cairo, Egypt. Really excellent.

The Confluence: Book Review: The Bloggers on the Bus. A great overview of the blogosphere in 2008.

Widdershins: We need some fun! Amazing tree-climbing Moroccan goats.

Widdershins: I Won’t Dance; Don’t Ask Me. A must-read.

PUMA United Radio on the day democracy officially died and building our movement. People on the left are starting to understand where we’re coming from.

The Left Coaster: Bloggers on the Bus: A Conversation with Eric Boehlert – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. You can tell from comment sections the left is no longer into Obama and merely repeats Obama’s inspiring 2012 slogan: “At least he’s not McCain.” They went from, “Yes, we can!” “Hope! Change! Progress!” and “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!” to “At least he’s not McCain” in four months.

The bottom line to me is simple. The progressive movement in the United States might be very effective in fighting Republicans and electing Democrats to office but it is nowhere near being able to drive a truly progressive agenda in some key areas. The main reason for this is that many of the key players in this movement are not really leaders. It remains to be seen how that changes in the coming years.

The real leaders are on my blogroll. We were right about everything regarding Obama, the election and the blogosphere but no one listened to us because we are mostly women.

The Left Coaster: The State of the Progressive Movement.

At the FDL book salon with Boehlert, Dakinikat and myiq2xu asked the best questions and got the best answers. The left is starting to understand where we’re coming from.

From a June 4 Feministing post called “What Are Civil Rights Leaders Saying About the Murder of Dr. Tiller?” emphasis mine.

While abortion is rarely seen as a civil rights issue, the dismantling of Roe v. Wade would have dire consequences for African-American women. [...]

While organizations such as Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI), Black Women for Reproductive Justice (BWRJ) and the Third Wave Foundation are in the foreground of the fight for reproductive justice as a social justice, racially progressive mainstream organizations, such as the NAACP, have yet to incorporate black women’s “right to choose” as a fundamental part of their civil rights agendas.

Go read the rest. This is a really powerful argument for why many black leaders should take a stance on reproductive rights because of the unique implications for black women. At a certain point we have to stop being scared and hold our community leaders accountable for the things they are saying and the impact that has on our communities. The agenda for women’s rights and the agenda for civil rights has to overlap at a certain point. That said, I don’t necessarily think of the NAACP as the center of progressive anti-racist activism, similar to how I don’t really see many mainstream feminist groups as having a truly intersectional approach. But this is one way they both could move towards the direction of justice, as opposed to a solely identity politics based approach, playing to the common denominator.

Like the Cairo speech, there is too much fear of offending men of color. Sexism is still acceptable, racism is not. Intolerance should not be tolerated. I wrote 93 posts about feminism in communities of color but because WOC are viewed as a monolith, an issue is only important when it affects black women.

Bill Moyers on Single-Payer

Drs. Sidney Wolfe and David Himmelstein make a compelling case for single-payer on Bill Moyers’ special.

[Single payer] is going to take on a character like the civil rights movement and the women’s movement. Women didn’t get the right to vote by voting on it. –Rose Ann DeMoro, California Nurses Association, AFL-CIO

Krugman: Keeping Them Honest

Health reform will fail unless we get serious cost control — and we won’t get that kind of control unless we fundamentally change the way the insurance industry, in particular, behaves. So let me offer Congress two pieces of advice:

1) Don’t trust the insurance industry.

2) Don’t trust the insurance industry.

Reuters: Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankrupts

It all comes down to leadership:

BILL MOYERS: I mean, what gives you the confidence that Congress would go along?

DR. SIDNEY WOLFE: If we had leadership. If Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama said, “Let’s be realistic. The only realistic way of taking care of this problem is to have a single-payer.” We would get it. There is absolutely no barrier other than the insurance industry.

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN: I guess the question is: do politicians actually want a legacy that’s more than we got elected and made a lot of money for our later lives. So, you know, Tommy Douglas, who started the Canadian national health insurance program, his grandson is Kiefer Sutherland, the well known actor, was recently, in a Canadian survey, voted the greatest leader in Canada’s history.

BILL MOYERS: The founder of the national insurance program?

DR. SIDNEY WOLFE: Yep.

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN: And that’s the kind of legacy that Barack Obama and the leaders of this Congress have an opportunity to create.

BILL MOYERS: So, what are you up against? Where is the balance of power in this fight in Washington right now?

DR. SIDNEY WOLFE: What we’re up against, essentially, is the health insurance industry. They pick who sits at the table. They pick who votes. And so forth. I mean, we have a real absence of leadership. John Conyers, to his credit, has introduced HR676, which is a single-payer bill. Bernie Sanders has introduced a single-payer bill in the Senate. But the people who are on top, who could have an enormous amount of influence are too afraid of the insurance industry, the health insurance industry. And in some serious ways, they are as in bed with them as Wall Street and the banks were in bed with the Congress and have gotten their way, with their kind of bailout.

BILL MOYERS:What do the politicians have to fear from the industry? Does it come down just to the power of to the power of money? To the fact that campaign contributions really determine how elections go in this country?

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN: Well, I think there are going to be campaign contributions. There are going to be massive TV advertising campaigns. There is going to be an avalanche of resources put into the field to try and protect the billions of dollars of profits they make each year. So, I think the politicians really are afraid that they’re going to lose their elections. And lose the pot of gold at the end of their political careers.

DR. SIDNEY WOLFE: Money buys Washington, as you know. So I think we need a whole new culture there, we need a culture of courage, as opposed to a culture of cowardice. We need people who feel the pain of families who lose 20 thousand, 18 thousand people a year. And those are probably conservative estimates, which are probably much higher right now. This is a serious thing. It is a war on the American public being conducted, orchestrated, and thus far won by the health insurance industry.

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN: I’ve been working on this for 30 years, and the encouragement is that the American people are much more mobilized than they were the last time we debated this issue. I’m old enough to remember that it looked like civil rights legislation was a lost cause, until we had Presidential leadership on it.

BILL MOYERS:Given that hope and these realities, what do you think will happen between now and August when Congress said it’s going to act on health care reform? What should happen between now and then?

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN: Well, I think the American people need to be very vociferous in standing up for what they need and what they want. And that means calling their Congressmen. It means demonstrations. It may mean civil disobedience. It means doctors in white coats coming down to Washington and letting them know that, in large numbers how we feel. And frankly, we need the President and we need the Speaker of the House and the Leader of the Senate to find their voice for the American people.

Krugman:

Back during the Democratic primary campaign, Mr. Obama argued that the Clintons had failed in their 1993 attempt to reform health care because they had been insufficiently inclusive. He promised instead to gather all the stakeholders, including the insurance companies, around a “big table.” And that May 11 event was, of course, intended precisely to show this big-table strategy in action.

But what if interest groups showed up at the big table, then blocked reform? Back then, Mr. Obama assured voters that he would get tough: “If those insurance companies and drug companies start trying to run ads with Harry and Louise, I’ll run my own ads as president. I’ll get on television and say ‘Harry and Louise are lying.’ ”

The question now is whether he really meant it.

The medical-industrial complex has called the president’s bluff. It polished its image by showing up at the big table and promising cooperation, then promptly went back to doing all it can to block real change. The insurers and the drug companies are, in effect, betting that Mr. Obama will be afraid to call them out on their duplicity.

It’s up to Mr. Obama to prove them wrong.

It’s sexism again

The attacks on Sotomayor are sexism again because a Latino man with the same qualifications, temperament and working class, Bronx background would get a free pass. Men of color at this level get a free pass as we saw with Obama. Especially over a woman.

Sam Sotomayor would instead be passionate, exciting and “fiery.” Men of color at this level get bonus points, are rewarded for reinforcing racist stereotypes as we saw with Obama and sexism.

Throw in the Ricci case and he would be a passionate civil rights leader. Lani Guinier was the “Quota Queen” and now we have Sotomayor. Why do they always reserve this title for women? There will be no “Quota King” because men of color are obviously “fighting the noble fight.”

Sam Sotomayor, the exact same person as Sonia Sotomayor, in the form of a male, would be treated like a god, a civil rights crusader, the Second Coming of Thurgood Marshall while there are insane attacks on Sonia Sotomayor. It’s the primary all over again.

What really bothers elite white men, Democrat or Republican, is powerful women who can take their jobs.

Again the media is obsessed with racism when the real problem is sexism. Again Obama will race-bait his way to confirmation, that is, call anyone who disagrees with him a racist. I want her to be confirmed but the sexism and racism from Republicans and race-baiting from Obama are out of control. He should call it what it is, elite white men’s fear of powerful women, cloaked in racist sexist attacks, and argue for her on her merits.

Guido Calabresi on sexism:

Judge Guido Calabresi, a former dean of Yale Law School who taught Ms. Sotomayor there and now sits with her on the Second Circuit, said complaints that she had been unduly caustic had no basis. For a time, Judge Calabresi said, he kept track of the questions posed by Judge Sotomayor and other members of the 12-member court. “Her behavior was identical,” he said.

“Some lawyers just don’t like to be questioned by a woman,” Judge Calabresi added. “It was sexist, plain and simple.”

He said Judge Sotomayor’s forceful and lucid arguments had persuaded him to reconsider his position in a number of instances. “And I’m a tough act,” he said.

Obama was sexist not just through his words but through daily reinforcement of women’s stereotypes such as that they are dishonest, untrustworthy, calculating, ruthless and evil and this could be found in places such as headlines put out by his campaign and articles about the campaign. He was mainly sexist in how he treated Hillary on a daily basis in the condescending, dismissive, belittling way he could not and did not treat McCain or Edwards and this could also be found mostly in headlines or in articles about the campaign. I randomly searched my blog for the sniper fire hysteria and found this post about sexist stereotyping, Obama Employs Republican Style Playbook. This is a tiny example of Obama’s sexism if you go through the last year on my blog. I recommend going through the first six months of 2008 of my blog.

Who said Hillary Clinton is “literally willing to do anything to win.”
Who said Hillary Clinton is attempting to “deceive the American people.”
Who claimed Hillary Clinton has a secret 20-year plan to become president.
Who said Hillary Clinton is “making the run for the best actress nomination”
Who called Hillary Clinton a calculating, poll-tested, divisive figure.
Who called Hillary Clinton “one of the most secretive politicians in America.”
Who said Hillary Clinton’s campaign is “playing politics with war.”
Who said John McCain is seen as more honest and trustworthy than Hillary Clinton.
Who called Hillary Clinton dishonest.
Who said Hillary Clinton is “overbearing and scary.”
Who referred to Hillary Clinton as “a monster.”
Who said Hillary Clinton is “not being straight with the American people.”
Who said of Hillary, “The American people are not going to elect a president that they do not trust.”
Who claimed Hillary Clinton “consistently” and “deliberately” misleads the American people.

ANSWER: The Obama Campaign

Finally: “We’ve been very measured in terms of how we talk about Senator Clinton.” –Barack Obama

You can tell something is sexism when you use a man as the control as I did with Sotomayor and a Latino man or Hillary compared to McCain and Edwards in my post, How you can tell when anti-Hillaryism is sexism. Also in that post is Kevin Drum who describes the insane race-baiting and hysteria that went on which again was a cover for sexism.

Race trumps gender 11 to 1

Remember last Memorial Day when the Obama campaign said Clinton lacked the moral authority to lay the wreath because of her exaggeration she escaped sniper fire in Bosnia? The Clinton campaign found nine Obama exaggerations:

Obama’s Other Nine Exaggerations

1. Obama claimed credit for nuclear leak legislation that never passed.
2. Obama misspoke about his being conceived because of Selma.
3. Sen. Obama took too much credit for his community organizing efforts.
4. Obama’s assertion that nobody had indications Rezko was engaging in wrongdoing ’strains credulity.’ “
5. Obama was forced to revise his assertion that lobbyists ‘won’t work in my White House.’
6. ‘Selective, embellished and out-of-context quotes from newspapers pump up Obama’s health plan.’
7. Sen. Obama said ‘I passed a law that put Illinois on a path to universal coverage,’ but Obama health care legislation merely set up a task force.
8. ‘Obama…seemed to exaggerate the legislative progress he made’ on ethics reform.
9. Obama drastically overstated Kansas tornado deaths during campaign appearance.

Lanny Davis came up with two more:

[I]n the last three days we had Barack Obama on the front page of “The Post” yesterday where he misrepresented his father coming over to America through the use of Kennedy money. We have him taking credit for an immigration bill which he actually according to Senator Dodd had very little to do with. We have him saying that he didn’t know that Rezko was involved in wrongdoing…

There was a long feeding frenzy about the sniper fire exaggeration to the point some said she was unfit to be President yet no one cared about Obama’s 11 exaggerations. Race trumps gender 11 to 1.

Obots admit to race-baiting

New York Times:

People close to Clinton said he has largely got over his resentment at Obama but not toward Ted Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy. As Clinton sees it, they say, he did so much for the Kennedys over the years that he felt they became almost family. Nor has he forgiven Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who endorsed Obama even though Clinton appointed him to two cabinet posts. And the man once called the “first black president” remains deeply wounded by allegations that he made racially insensitive remarks during the campaign, like dismissing Obama’s South Carolina win by comparing it with Jesse Jackson’s victories there in the 1980s.

“None of them ever really took seriously the race rap,” he told me. “They knew it was politics. I had one minister in Texas in the general election come up and put his arm around me.” This was an Obama supporter. “And he came up, threw his arm around me and said, ‘You’ve got to forgive us for that race deal.’ He said, ‘That was out of line.’ But he said, ‘You know, we wanted to win real bad.’ And I said, ‘I got no problem with that.’ I said it’s fine; it’s O.K. And we laughed about it and we went on.” The other side is moving on, too. Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, who once recalled an angry Clinton berating him on the phone for criticizing the former president’s campaign rhetoric, is letting bygones be bygones, at least publicly. “No fence-mending is needed,” Clyburn said through a spokeswoman.

h/t Disenfranchised Voter

Taggles

Obama: “Not Helpful to Equate ME with BUSH”

Wake UP Obots, Obama does not have some secret liberal plan. He is not playing masterful chess and he is not three moves ahead of the Republicans, about to ensnare them in some trap that exists only in your mind. He is using your political naivete (I’m being nice, I really mean political stupidity) to trudge on with his march to the right. Just face up to the fact that you have been had. It’s really not that hard. Just admit it. He snookered you. He bamboozled you. His words are read from a teleprompter and don’t come from the heart. He is not a “Democrat”. It’s one thing to get scammed, but to continue on with the charade only makes you complicit. There is no plausible deniability. Your President is a FRAUD and you voted for him believing in the Axelrod marketing campaign. Now it’s time to get your head out of your ass and force him to do what he said he would do. He’s a political calculator, who won’t do the right thing. He will only do the least politically risky thing. Even if that means hopping into bed with Right Wing Republicans. Stop enabling him. Damn FOOLS.

[READ THE WHOLE THING]

WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!!!!

What else was I right about? You will know in time.

Obama’s list of unprogressive actions is up to 155 in the last 132 days. Here are the ten latest headlines. Be sure to read the first 145. You will be shocked.

WE MUST DESTROY SOCIAL SECURITY TO SAVE IT (155)

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/we-must-destroy-social-security-to-save.html

Max Baucus wants to tax your health insurance benefits

http://www.correntewire.com/max_baucus_wants_tax_your_health_insurance_benefits

The peasants have too much health care. I kid you not:

In a document released yesterday, committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the panel’s top Republican, said taxing health benefits would address so-called “Cadillac plans” they said promote overuse of health-care services and boost the cost of care. The two senators also proposed scouring Medicare and other aspects of the U.S. health-care system for cost savings.

I’d sure like to meet somebody with one of those “Cadillac plans.” [Noting, in passing, the meme-ic echo to the lies Reagan [crosses self] used to tell about welfare Cadillacs] Somehow, I don’t think Baucus has in mind the Cadillac plans of CEOs — who can actually spend “several hours” talking to their doctors when they get a checkup under their “Executive Health Programs! (154)

Foxes Confirm Fellow Fox As Guardian of the American Henhouse (153)

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13441/foxes-confirm-fellow-fox-as-guardian-of-the-american-henhouse

Obama Issues Signing Statement, Can Withhold Information from Pecora Commission (152)

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/21/obama-issues-signing-statement-can-withhold-information-from-pecora-commission/

Pentagon: No Plans to End Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (151)

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2009/05/pentagon-no-plans-to-end-dont-ask-dont.html

The Climate Bill Will Continue To Be Watered Down (150)

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13382/the-climate-bill-will-continue-to-be-watered-down

The Bank “Stress Tests”: Neither Stressful Nor Tests (149)

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13274/the-bank-stress-tests-neither-stressful-nor-tests

The Left Rises Up Against Obama

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/white-house/the-left-rises-up-against-obam.html

Obama’s embrace of Bush terrorism policies is celebrated as “Centrism”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/19/obama/index.html

Independents Take Center Stage in Obama Era

http://people-press.org/report/517/political-values-and-core-attitudes

CNN Poll: Favorable opinion of Dick Cheney on the rise (148)

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/21/cnn-poll-favorable-opinion-of-dick-cheney-on-the-rise/

Credit Card Industry Aims to Profit From Sterling Payers (147)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19credit.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantánamo (146)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/us/politics/20detain.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Real Democrats and leftists

I love them. I really, really love them. More real Democratic conversation on leverage, the Edwards campaign, sexism and the economy. His Edwards campaign theory recalls this poignant, revealing article. Of course, she and I were exactly right. More on health care: Eight doctors and single-payer activists were arrested. Watch the videos. “Restore order?” “Bring in more police?” It’s May 31, 2008 all over again. Ed Schultz says the movement for single payer is growing and he interviews Mike Farrell. Dr. Margaret Flowers nails it on Ed Schultz. There’s a national day of action on May 30th. Send a fax to Congress. The Diane Rehm Show on Single-Payer. An Open Letter to the President from the Canadian Health Coalition. Middle Class Healthcare Reform? Bend Over…

Bill Moyers will have a special on single-payer Friday and Saturday. Check for your local time.

One of the Baucus Thirteen:

The most popular and efficient health care reform was not at the table. It was not mentioned even though it is the one favored by a majority of doctors, nurses, economists and the American people. Only those who paid to play were included.

May 12: Five more single-payer protesters were arrested. Watch the video.

Obama is against single payer “because a lot of people work for insurance companies and HMOs” but he plans to bankrupt the coal industry which provides hundred of thousands of jobs, livelihoods, most of our electricity and keeps our costs low. Apparently, Obama only cares about white collar workers in industries that kill 22,000 Americans a year.

Obama gave 12.8 trillion to the banks. There’s no excuse not to give us universal, single-payer health care now.

Naomi Klein: ‘The Wall Street Bailout Is the Greatest Heist in Monetary History’ This is what I’ve been saying. The juxtaposition of the 12.8 trillion taxpayer dollar transfer to banks and lack of universal health care is worse than anything that happened last year. I don’t think people realize the scope and magnitude of this theft.

Naomi Klein: Poorest, most vulnerable paying for bank bailouts

PUMAs main charge against Obama was that he was corrupt. No group in America was more right about Obama than the PUMAs.

The Confluence, Anglachel et al. are in Eric Boehlert’s new book, Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press!

Heard on the internet

Jesse Jackson, Jr., Obama’s campaign manager, comparing the Obama/Clinton race to OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson.

Obama talking about Clinton “periodically” feeling down and putting her “claws” out.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in Obama’s church, denigrating Clinton specifically as a white woman.

Rev. Michael Pfleger, in Rev. Wright’s and Obama’s church, denigrating Clinton specifically as a white woman.

DKos and other “progressive” blogs like Democratic Underground denigrating Clinton supporters as the “dry pussy” brigade, among other sexist and ageist epithets.

Obama’s campaign dismissing Clinton’s experience as “having tea”.

Michelle Obama publicly blaming Hillary Clinton for Bill Clinton’s infidelity and saying it made her unfit to be President and recieving applause from her audience of African American women.

Obama’s campaign consistently painting Clinton with anti-feminist tropes, like she’s too ambitious.

Obama’s campaign falsely characterizing Clinton’s remarks about LBJ and MLK as racist when they were no such thing.

The memo from the Obama campaign urging its spokespersons to push certain comments — like the LBJ and MLK comment and the “fairytale” — as racist when they were not.

Donna Brazile (the incompetent ass who utterly mis-managed Gore’s campaign) presenting herself as a “neutral” commentator on the race when she was anything but and using her media pulpit to lie about Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, including the lie that Bill Clinton called Obama’s campaign a “fairytale” and then ginning that up into a racial controversy.

The repeated accuations that Clinton voters were simply racists who would never vote for a Black man.

Harris-Lacewell accusing Clinton of having some “mammy” complex.

The very way Obama “won” the nomination by gaming the caucuses and with the DNC’s thumb on the scale through the whole process, culminating in the farce of the RBC meeting on May 31 where they ACTUALLY TOOK VOTES FROM CLINTON AND GAVE THEM TO OBAMA. People who had voted for Clinton had their votes taken away and given to Obama, for the sole purpose of gaming the delegate count for Obama.

Obama’s main speechwriter groping a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton.

All of this, and much more, with NO outcry from the “anti-racist” or “progressive” or “civil rights” movements. And, when anybody dared to bring any of it up, especially when white women brought it up, they were drowned out by accusations that they were racists who just didn’t want to vote for a Black man.

As for Steinem, there are different ways to reasonably read that piece — one of them being that she did not privilege sex over race. Moreover, after Obama was nominated, Steinem came out full-bore for him.

It was in that moment, that I realized Steinem sold out to the Democratic party. That’s when I knew for sure that Steinem style feminism was more about being an insider, than being on the margins.

This is not an over-diss of Steinem per se, just an observation of what happens when feminists gain “power” or anyone gains “power.”

I still say that Steinem supported Chisolm and Mosley-Braun– people accused Steinem of NOT supporting Mosley-Braun.

Since feminism doesn’t get its due in herstorical coverage, people don’t know the herstory, and haven’t done the reading. How many TV shows go into detail about the feminist movement? It’s why people didn’t know that Steinem DID support Chisolm and Mosley-Braun.

And what all these broad brush lies about the “bad white feminists” do is put the onus on white women to ignore the misogyny fomented against us in order to show our loyalty or sisterhood to Black women when they choose to ignore the misogyny used by a Black man against a white woman, and very often in race specific ways.

It’s also offensive to see Hillary Clinton being specifically denigrated as a white woman by Obama supporters such as Pflegler, Wright, and Lacewell-Harris as well as the incredible internet vitriol heaped on Clinton’s assumedly white supporters as racist. And so, yeah, that’s exactly about attacking white people because they’re white. After all, all white people are racist and the only reason they could be voting for Clinton is because their racists. Let’s not fucking pretend here: it was all over the news media and the internet for months. Fucking months.

And Scarlett O’Hara? Really? And who was the only candidate who went to Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union conference? Hillary Clinton, that’s who. But, again, attacking Hillary Clinton as a white woman with the stereotype of the racist white woman oblivious to her own privilege gets a lot of ground regardless of the actual facts. Scarlett O’Hara is just as much of a race stererotype as Mammy.

It’s YOUR attitude that white women “own” feminism, not mine. I DON’T own feminism so it’s not up to me to make feminism all comfy for you or make a place for you in feminism. It’s up to you. If you don’t want to do that, if you want to be all about womanism because you don’t want to be around white women and YOU think feminism is all about white women, then fine. But own it.

It’s not up to any white woman to give you an ownership stake in feminism exactly because white women don’t own feminism. If you don’t want an ownership interest in it, fine. Take your ball and go home. But that’s not up to me. It’s up to you.

The turning of the worm and the eating of the crow

Reprinted in full from Joseph Cannon. Be sure to read the comments too which seem to prefer restitution, revenge and understanding to apologies.

I see a lot of turning worms on the big prog sites — but when will they get around to placing crow (with a side order of hat) on the menu? In other words, when will “Obama is disappointing us” segue into “We were wrong about those PUMAs”?

For example, here’s Democratic Underground:

Sure the Primaries were brutal around here and I’m told I was lucky to have joined after the 2004 election. I know I’m still nursing bruises from this one.

Maybe it’s the “hippie at heart” in me but, peace, guys and gals. Can we put the flowers in the barrels of our rifles for awhile and agree to disagree on how our new President is doing without becoming generic internet assholes to each other?

I’m going to address the following to the person who wrote those words and to all progs everywhere. (Before proceeding, let me repeat my standard definition: I am a liberal who despises “progressives” — a word and a movement defined by Moulitsas, Huffington, Obama and other Libertarians-in-liberal clothing)

There ain’t gonna be any flowers in rifles until you Obots fucking APOLOGIZE.

APOLOGIZE, GODDAMMIT! APOLOGIZE!!

Apologize for the atrocious, disgusting behavior documented here and here and here and here.

Apologize for calling Hillary a “liar and a cunt.” Apologize for calling Bill Clinton “a cancer on liberalism.” Apologize for telling all non-Obama supporters to leave the party. Apologize for redefining the term “racist” to mean “any Democrat who won’t vote for Obama over Hillary.” Apologize for the death threats — and believe me, there were plenty.

Have we ever heard one apology for the “darkened video” smear? No, we have not.

Have we ever heard one apology for the NAFTA smear (click on the greenish ad at the top of the right-hand column for details)? No, we have not.

Have we ever heard one apology for the RFK smear (which the progs kept repeating even after RFK Jr. set the record straight)? No, we have not.

Have we heard any apologies for the incessant claims that Bill Clinton was and is a racist? No, we have not.

Have we had any apologies for the resurrection of every loopy right-wing conspiracy ever voiced against the Clintons during the 1990s (including “Vince Foster! Vince Foster! Vince Foster!”)? No, we have not.

Progs, don’t you dare attempt your usual weasel-worded rationalizations. What we underwent in 2008 were not “excesses” — they were political atrocities, and we demand that you use that exact word.

These atrocities were not committed by “some” Obama supporters. Refusal to denounce the evil committed by your compatriots equals participation in that evil. Thus, even if you personally did not try to race-bait the PUMAs into submission, you share guilt with those who did. (That is, if you did not attempt to restrain the perps — and don’t try, at this late date, to pretend that you did so unless you can cough up documentation).

The progressive hate barrage directed at half the Democratic party was not just a daily outrage. It was worse than hourly. Every minute of every day, we were assailed and insulted in the most scabrous terms imaginable.

Don’t you fucking dare try to say now that “some” Obama supporters “got out of hand.”

Don’t you fucking dare try to argue that there were “problems on both sides.”

Just click on the links above, and then click on the links within those links. See for yourself just how much “trouble” the Hillary supporters caused on D.U. and Kos. In fact, the Clinton wing was 100% innocent and the Obama wing was 100% guilty.

Yes, it really is that simple and clear-cut.

And unless you fucking progs admit that obvious fact — using those words, no excuses, no rationalizations, no bullshit — there will be no forgiveness.

We don’t want a dialog with you. Being unfairly called “racist” for an entire year does not incline me toward dialog. And I’m sure that the others who underwent that barrage feel as I do.

2008 was a life-changing event — a wound that still refuses to scab over. Alas, progs are so lacking in both humility and self-awareness that they don’t even realize the depth of the injury they inflicted. It is deep indeed.

So deep that we never will negotiate with you or hear your side of the story. Jews (rightly) don’t want to hear Hitler’s side of the story, the Chinese (rightly) don’t want to hear Tojo’s side of the story, black people (rightly) don’t want to hear Jefferson Davis’ side of the story, and the innocent victims in Lebanon (rightly) don’t want to hear Israel’s side of the story.

Victims don’t want to hear any shit from their oppressors.

We liberals who supported Hillary were and are victims. You progs were and are just plain evil bastards — all the more evil because you remain convinced of your rectitude.

We don’t want to hear one word — one phoneme — out of you that reeks of self-justification. We simply don’t want to hear it. We just want you voluntarily to undergo complete and absolute loss of face.

!!!!!APOLOGIZE!!!!!!

Until you do, the Democratic party is an earthworm — a bifurcated being.

No unity without apology. Don’t sit back and try to come up with reasons why you need not apologize. For example, don’t try to hit us with “Well, Hillary has moved on — she’s working for Obama now.” (I have already addressed that issue.) If your psyche has no “humble” setting, if you’re the sort of egomaniac who blames the stop sign for being there after you’ve drunkenly smashed into it, then at least have the decency to shut up.

Your obstinacy nearly brought about a McCain victory in 2008 — he was poised to win until the disastrous economic news of October, and even then Obama got a mere 52% in what should have been a blow-out year for the Dems. The party will lose seats in 2010, and a large measure of the responsibility will lie with the public’s growing revulsion at smug, arrogant, supremely stubborn Obot progs.

Guns and Roses

Reprinted in full from The Confluence. While you’re at it, read Cassandras and Luddites and Brainstorming Session: A Puma Mission Statement.

Riverdaughter:

A couple of days ago, Joseph Cannon responded to this “make nice” sentiment from someone at Democratic Underground who wanted to put the bloody primary battle behind him:

Sure the Primaries were brutal around here and I’m told I was lucky to have joined after the 2004 election. I know I’m still nursing bruises from this one.

Maybe it’s the “hippie at heart” in me but, peace, guys and gals. Can we put the flowers in the barrels of our rifles for awhile and agree to disagree on how our new President is doing without becoming generic internet assholes to each other?

Joseph Cannon wants an apology. With all due respect to Joe, an apology is pretty pointless if the offenders don’t know what to be sorry about.

So, to any of you DU lurkers who are out there, let me tell you what the problem is. The primary *IS* the problem. It isn’t merely that our gal lost, though from what we can tell, she really didn’t. No, the problem is you didn’t see what really happened. Now, that the glamour has rubbed off of Obama and he is revealed to be just another human being and shmoozer extraordinaire, you are upset that he isn’t listening to you and responding to your perfectly acceptable demands for ending the war and holding the finance industry accountable. Now, you are looking around for allies hoping that we can all get along to *do* something and hold Congress and Obama accountable.

But the end of the primary was conducted in such a way as to make your input unnecessary, even irrelevant. This is what you agreed to when you did not stand up at the RBC hearing and demand fairness. Your cheering of Obama or even silence in the matter gave the party permission to ignore you in the future. THEY knew that Hillary was the true winner and that Obama ran a lousy campaign. That’s why they gave him 59 unpledged delegates from Michigan plus 4 of his opponents. They did it so he could beat her. He couldn’t have done it otherwise. He didn’t have sufficient votes and FL and MI were going to have to count no matter how you do the math. So, they rigged the vote.

Now, you may say that we keep coming back to this like we are bitter deadenders and why don’t we get over it. To be honest, it wasn’t about Hillary after May 31. Oh, we still wanted her and we hadn’t finished exhausting our options. We had an obligation to see it through to the very end so we could give everyone time to come to their senses and realize what they were about to do. And we were faithful to her and ourselves as long as we could be.

But the question is not why we don’t get over it but why you guys still haven’t got a clue. The party, for whatever reason, wanted Obama in the worst way. The big money was lavishing him with scads and scads of cold hard cash. The party wanted to win at all costs. So, they chose the candidate and created “UNITY” by throwing out all of the votes that did not conform to that choice. All Hillary voters were gone; all other voters were unified. It was so easy to do because they flattered you and played on your emotional weaknesses. Once you let them get away with rigging things, there was no further reason for them to pay attention to you. You missed your accountability moment. You, the voter, are now superfluous. They can rig things anyway they like now, take as much lobbying money they want, break as many promises as they like and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it. You showed them that they would not be held accountable for cheating.

As far as I can tell, the roses in the guns aren’t going to help us. We who were scorned, called racists and Republicans and generally treated like stupid old trailer trash have been vindicated. He is everything we said he was. We stayed true to ourselves and our values. You guys have to examine your conscience and figure out if the Obamagasm frenzy was worth it. The party is now divided against itself. How conveeeeenient. Going forward, the elements of the left will try to come together in fits and starts but it will be a cold, hard slog. Some of us will never trust each other again. Others will only remain viable if they take money from Obama’s extended financial network and they’ll never raise their voices when they need to. The only way to reconstitute the left that remains scorched and burning after Obama’s triumphant march through it, is for those of you who zealously supported him to go back to that day in May and realize what that momentous day portended.

No apologies needed.

Here’s a little something to help you remember. This is Harold Ickes, advisor to Hillary Clinton. He is the son of Harold Ickes Sr., one of the engineers of FDR’s New Deal. Let that sink in for a moment while you contemplate the current financial crisis. May 31, 2008 was chock full of symbolism. Women vs African Americans, rich vs. poor, The New Deal vs everyone for themselves, Michigan, auto workers, unions, fair reflection. It’s all there. Forget Hillary for a moment and feel the shame.

The question we need to be exploring: Why?

Truthteller, November 24, 2008:

I had actual confidence in Hillary Clinton. I felt that the nomination was stolen from her. I felt ideologically she was to the left of Barack Obama. I had no idea where the man’s ideology lied and this is what concerned me because I felt that at this particular juncture in our history we needed someone who had clear policy proposals. He did not have them. He still has yet to present them. And this is why I opposed him simply because I knew the financial interests behind Barack Obama. I knew of the connections in Chicago. I knew the Republicans in Chicago who backed this man. I knew of the Republicans in Washington DC who backed this man. When you have someone like Andrew Sullivan who was a gay neo-conservative in the 1990s waxing poetic in his articles at The Atlantic about Barack Obama, I think we have to ask a few questions. When you have a gay man who is a neo-conservative backing Barack Obama and influencing a Democratic primary. Cynthia McKinney was voted out of office because you had white Republicans voting in the Democratic primary to oust her and so this is what happened in this Democratic primary. We had Republicans, Independents, people on the Right participating in our primary, installing a puppet that we did not want in order to ensure that they did not have a Clinton in the White House. This is why we are upset because Barack Obama allowed this to happen and he’s calls himself a Democrat. If they wanted her there, she’d be in the White House but apparently there was some problem with the Clintons and certain people in power who have money who determine who wins elections in this country did not want the Clintons in the White House. We had the polling data to prove she could win the election. Any Democrat would have beat McCain. That’s why this primary mattered. That’s why this primary was that more entertaining and important than the general election because everyone knew the Democrat would win. It was just a matter of which Democrat would clear the primary and those who wielded power, Arianna Huffington, all the conservative pundits, all the financial interests on Wall Street and in Chicago, they did not want Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.

That’s the question we need to be exploring: Why?

[LISTEN TO THE WHOLE THING]

Obama averages one alarming act a day [UPDATED DAILY]

UPDATE: Obama is more Republican than Democrat, more Reagan than FDR, more J.C. Watts than Jesse Jackson Sr. Look at the latest corrupt cash grab: “education reform” or charter schools and NCLB is streamlining costs to make cash for his friends. Charter school teachers are also not unionized. The best way to improve public schools is with more funding not less. I made this number 95. The only area I was happy with, environment and climate control, is becoming a mirage. See number 93.

Obama did something that should be alarming to progressives 177 times in 175 days. The articles below from January 15-June 27 are in reverse chronological order and the 177 acts are bolded and numbered. It’s easy to find one each day. Taken together, it’s staggering. He did something alarming at least twice a week since January 2008 but most Democrats were too drunk on the Koolaid to notice. Feel free to copy this list and make your own.

Barack Hoover Obama: The best and the brightest blow it again (177)

http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/0082562

Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama (176)

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50445

Obama Considering Indefinite Detention Executive Order (175)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/27/747513/-Obama-Considering-Indefinite-Detention-Executive-Order

Obama Closes Doors on Openness

http://www.newsweek.com/id/202875

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding “secret energy meetings” with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama’s “clean coal” policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged “presidential communications.” (174)

Obama’s Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers and For-Profit Healthcare (173)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama%E2%80%99s-emerging-legacy-wars-bankers-and-profit-healthcare

White House admits Obama “benefits” speech simply political ploy, plan still being created after it was already announced (172)

http://www.americablog.com/2009/06/white-house-admits-obama-benefits.html

Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children. (171)

http://www.americablog.com/2009/06/obama-justice-department-defends-doma.html

An Early Call for Obama’s Resignation: With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/28-3

The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21576

Changing Obama’s Mindset: Obama has to be pulled in the right direction. (170)

http://www.progressive.org/zinn0509.html

House approves war bill with IMF funds

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23825.html

$106 Billion War Supplemental Passes in the House (169)

http://www.partizane.com/node/1212

ObamaCare: A Non-Existent Health Plan That Begins with Cuts

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obamacare-non-existent-health-plan-begins-cuts

http://www.1payer.net/action-alerts/347-transparency.html

Secretary Sebelius said that single payer is not only ‘off the table’ but that the President is considering measures to make sure it does not happen now or ever. (168)

Muslims not sure President Obama’s speech means real change

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-analysis5-2009jun05,0,4132440.story

Obama Insults Muslims (167)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama-insults-muslims

Congress abandoning Obama clean energy goals (166)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jyC9rco-m-DiqpHtZwJTZVx0LvDQD98O0HA80

Obama Puts Head of Pro Life Group in Charge of Faith-Based Office at HHS (165)

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-puts-head-of-pro-life-group-in.html

National unemployment rate hits 25-year high of 9.4% (164)

http://alegrescorner.soapblox.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=3076

Gay groups grow impatient with Barack Obama (163)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23328.html

Obama’s support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/01/photos/index.html

It was one thing when President Obama reversed himself last month by announcing that he would appeal the Second Circuit’s ruling that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) compelled disclosure of various photographs of detainee abuse sought by the ACLU. Agree or disagree with Obama’s decision, at least the basic legal framework of transparency was being respected, since Obama’s actions amounted to nothing more than a request that the Supreme Court review whether the mandates of FOIA actually required disclosure in this case. But now — obviously anticipating that the Government is likely to lose in court again (.pdf) — Obama wants Congress to change FOIA by retroactively narrowing its disclosure requirements, prevent a legal ruling by the courts, and vest himself with brand new secrecy powers under the law which, just as a factual matter, not even George Bush sought for himself. (162)

Obama Ordering States to Close 5,000 ‘Failing’ Schools… Chicago Lies Go National (161)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama-ordering-states-close-5000-failing-schools-chicago-lies-go-national

R.I.P. Industrial USA. The Banksters Win, Even When They Fail (160)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/rip-industrial-usa-banksters-win-even-when-they-fail

http://truthisgold.blogspot.com/2009/06/guess-who-obama-thinks-should-have-911.html

The Obama administration has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Saudi Arabia and four of its princes from being held accountable for their alleged role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States that killed almost 3,000 Americans. (159)

Obama to Pursue Trade Deals, Avoid Turning ‘Inward’

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=arHMacTZnifQ&refer=home

Obama, who vowed during his campaign last year to rework the trade policies of President George W. Bush, is now embracing some of the deals endorsed by his predecessor. Kirk said he will try to move forward agreements with Colombia and Panama, and may pursue others. A majority of Democrats in Congress have voted against other recent trade pacts. (158)

The Greatest Swindle Ever Sold

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-kroll/the-greatest-swindle-ever_b_207631.html

How the Financial Bailout Scams Taxpayers, Subsidizes Wall Street, and Props Up Our Broken Financial System (157)

Worse, Obama repeatedly invoked the paradigm of The War on Terror to justify some extreme policies beginning with his rather startling declaration that he will work to create a system of “preventive detention” for accused Terrorists without a trial, in order to keep locked up indefinitely people who, in his words, “cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American people.” (156)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/21/obama/index.html

WE MUST DESTROY SOCIAL SECURITY TO SAVE IT (155)

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/we-must-destroy-social-security-to-save.html

Max Baucus wants to tax your health insurance benefits

http://www.correntewire.com/max_baucus_wants_tax_your_health_insurance_benefits

The peasants have too much health care. I kid you not:

In a document released yesterday, committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the panel’s top Republican, said taxing health benefits would address so-called “Cadillac plans” they said promote overuse of health-care services and boost the cost of care. The two senators also proposed scouring Medicare and other aspects of the U.S. health-care system for cost savings.

I’d sure like to meet somebody with one of those “Cadillac plans.” [Noting, in passing, the meme-ic echo to the lies Reagan [crosses self] used to tell about welfare Cadillacs] Somehow, I don’t think Baucus has in mind the Cadillac plans of CEOs — who can actually spend “several hours” talking to their doctors when they get a checkup under their “Executive Health Programs! (154)

Foxes Confirm Fellow Fox As Guardian of the American Henhouse (153)

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13441/foxes-confirm-fellow-fox-as-guardian-of-the-american-henhouse

Obama Issues Signing Statement, Can Withhold Information from Pecora Commission (152)

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/21/obama-issues-signing-statement-can-withhold-information-from-pecora-commission/

Pentagon: No Plans to End Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (151)

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2009/05/pentagon-no-plans-to-end-dont-ask-dont.html

The Climate Bill Will Continue To Be Watered Down (150)

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13382/the-climate-bill-will-continue-to-be-watered-down

The Bank “Stress Tests”: Neither Stressful Nor Tests (149)

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13274/the-bank-stress-tests-neither-stressful-nor-tests

The Left Rises Up Against Obama

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/white-house/the-left-rises-up-against-obam.html

Obama’s embrace of Bush terrorism policies is celebrated as “Centrism”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/19/obama/index.html

Country in midst of centrist era

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_us/us_centrist_america

Independents Take Center Stage in Obama Era

http://people-press.org/report/517/political-values-and-core-attitudes

CNN Poll: Favorable opinion of Dick Cheney on the rise (148)

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/21/cnn-poll-favorable-opinion-of-dick-cheney-on-the-rise/

Credit Card Industry Aims to Profit From Sterling Payers (147)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19credit.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantánamo (146)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/us/politics/20detain.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Sorry, Ladies, Bush’s “Conscience Rule” Will Not Be Overturned. (145)

http://www.partizane.com/node/1119

Economic Disaster for Black America (144)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-economic-disaster-black-america

Cuts in Social Security, Medicare to pay for bank bailouts (143)

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/ssmd-m14.shtml

But the vast payouts to Wall Street and the imperialist wars abroad require the plundering of Social Security and Medicare. After giving hundreds of billions to the banks and setting a new record for military spending, Obama has no other credible target for “fiscal discipline.” Yesterday the White House revised upwards its budget deficit estimate by 5 percent from February to $1.84 trillion.

First Black President Cuts Funds For Black Higher Education (142)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/first-black-president-cuts-funds-black-higher-education

Obama reverses course on alleged prison abuse photos

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/12/prisoner.photos/

In reversal, Obama seeks to block abuse photos (141)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30725189/

Obama Leaves Polar Bears Out in the Cold (140)

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090509_obama_leaves_polar_bears_out_in_the_cold/

Obama Set to Revive Military Commissions (139)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050804228.html

Obama wants Fed to be finance supercop (138)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090509/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_financial_meltdown_supercop

Stress tests show banks need $75B (137)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22245.html

Obama Preserves Entrenched Power, Sidesteps Racial Disparities (136)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama-preserves-entrenched-power-sidesteps-racial-disparities

More for Medicare?

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/44283037.html

While the Baucus plan doesn’t give premium estimates, a similar proposal analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that premiums would be $7,600 a year for those ages 62 to 64. (135)

Hoyer Says Social Security “Reform” Possible This Year

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13211/hoyer-says-social-security-reform-possible-this-year

The Unending War on Social Security (134)

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/06/the-unending-war-on-social-security/

AIG bonuses four times higher (133)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090505/pl_politico/22134

Obama’s First 100 Days — The Black Agenda Report Card

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obamas-first-100-days-black-agenda-report-card

A hundred days is far too early for anyone to score a hundred points on a list of concerns like these. 55 would have been passing, and 45 a sign of hopes being actually redeemed on some fronts. But at under 25 out of a possible 100 our First Black President is at best a chronic underacheiver, as far as the real needs of African Americans go. (132)

GDP Down 6.1%, Reflecting Continuing Economic Woes

http://www.cnbc.com/id/30472516

U.S. Economy in 2nd Straight Quarter of Steep Decline (131)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/business/economy/30econ.html

Obama’s Faith-Based Council: Male, Anti-Choice, Christian (130)

http://atheism.about.com/b/2009/04/29/obamas-faith-based-council-male-anti-choice-christian.htm

Despite Campaign Pledge, President Obama Refuses to Use Word ‘Genocide’ When Describing Slaughter of Armenians

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/despite-campaig.html

Despite a campaign promise that he would boldly use the word “genocide” as president when describing the Ottoman Empire’s slaughter of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the early part of the last century, President Obama deliberately avoided use of that word in his statement today on Armenian Remembrance Day.

“We’re profoundly disappointed,” Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told ABC News.

Hamparian says President Obama “finds himself doing exactly the thing he so sharply criticized the Bush administration for, which is being euphemistic and evasive. It’s a bitter thing for Armenian-Americans who really believed him and really worked hard.” (129)

We’re Being Robbed

http://www.openleft.com/diary/12977/were-being-robbed

Not that we didn’t know it already, but three separate stories this week tell us that taxpayers’ bank bailout money A) is being stolen B) is being handed over to lobbyists and C) hasn’t stopped banks from foreclosing on homeowners. Bailout critics who stood with the vast majority of Americans in opposing this bailout predicted exactly this outcome – and yet were nonetheless berated by Establishment pontificators as Not Serious Extremists Who Hate America. Now, the facts are in.(128)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=arHMacTZnifQ&refer=home

“People across the country will scratch their heads and wonder why” Obama is asking Congress to approve the Panama and Colombia deals that Bush negotiated, Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, told reporters yesterday. “Why should we have a fight over continuing the Bush trade policy?” (127)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hTyNjxLD4WoFQoyJoU3PMMblaJRQD97MN1100

As a senator, Barack Obama led the charge last year to pass a bill allowing black farmers to seek new discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. Now he is president, and his administration so far is acting like it wants the potentially budget-busting lawsuits to go away.

The change isn’t sitting well with black farmers who thought they’d get a friendlier reception from Obama after years of resistance from President George W. Bush.

“You can’t blame it on the Bush administration anymore,” said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association. (126)

A Lexicon of Disappointment (125)

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090504/klein

Gates budget eyes next gen. warfare (124)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090411/pl_politico/21123

Rahm Emanuel’s Think Tankers Enforce ‘Message Discipline’ Among ‘Liberals’ (123)

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/10-1

Obama Doesn’t Plan to Reopen Nafta Talks

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/business/21nafta.html?_r=2&hp

The administration has no present plans to reopen negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement to add labor and environmental protections, as President Obama vowed to do during his campaign (122)

Stiglitz Says Ties to Wall Street Doom Bank Rescue (121)

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahnPchOxZMh8&refer=home

Obama Administration to Boycott UN’s “Racism” Conference

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/obama-adminis-2.html

Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said the CBC was “deeply dismayed” by the President’s decision. (120)

How Obama Excused Torture (119)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-17/how-obama-excused-torture/

Cybersecurity Act would give president power to ’shut down’ Internet (118)

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cybersecurity_Act_seeks_broad_powers_0413.html

The current bank scandal dwarfs the 1980s savings-and-loan crisis and could destroy the Obama presidency (117)

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123940701204709985.html

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

An emerging progressive consensus on Obama’s executive power and secrecy abuses

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/13/obama/index.html

It’s Actually Possible… The Patriot Act Gets Worse (116)

http://my.auburnjournal.com/detail/111477.html

States Slashing Social Programs for Vulnerable (115)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/us/12deficit.html?_r=1&hp

Fed Said to Order Banks to Stay Mum on ‘Stress Test’ Results (114)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEX9sBcofMYY&refer=home

President Barack Obama plans to request new funding from Congress for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he risks a backlash from antiwar lawmakers

Mr. Obama is expected to seek congressional approval of $75.5 billion for the wars, perhaps as soon as Thursday. (113)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123923540395603311.html

Black Democrats Evolve Backward in the Age of Obama (112)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/black-democrats-evolve-backward-age-obama

Obama Has Been a Divider, Not a Uniter (111)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/the_polarizing_president.html

In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ’s New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush’s (110)

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush

New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/06/obama/index.html

Obama Mimics Bush on State Secrets (109)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/09/tpm/index.html

Obama’s “faith-based” FAIL

http://www.feministing.com/archives/014695.html

Obama has made his final appointments to his controversial council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

With his council appointments now complete, Obama has given far more seats on his council to religious leaders who are anti-choice than to ones who are openly pro-choice, even though the majority of Americans favor legal abortion. There are only two pro-choicers, and they’re both Jewish. Reproductive-health advocates suggested several pro-choice Christians to the White House as worthy additions to the council. By not giving them seats, though, the administration shows that it is too afraid to challenge anti-choice evangelicals by putting their pro-choice brothers and sisters at the same table.

Frances Kissling also points out that the appointments aren’t just predominantly anti-choice — they’re also mostly men.

Obama’s appointments to the council, much like his other partnerships with religious leaders, have been disturbingly Bush-like. By and large, the appointees are not people with a proven record of providing services without blurring the church/state boundary.

But the conservative-dominated council as it stands now is pretty damn annoying, to say the least. (108 )

Obama’s New Mercenary Company in Iraq Will Re-Hire Blackwater Operatives

http://rebelreports.com/post/92764197/obamas-new-mercenary-company-in-iraq-will-re-hire

President Obama’s new mercenary firm of choice, Triple Canopy, will be officially taking over the job of protecting US occupation officials in Iraq from President Bush’s favorite hired guns, Blackwater, on May 7. But, as has been clear for some time, Obama may be changing the name, but the bloody game and its players are bound to remain virtually the same.

The New York Times is now confirming that “many if not most of [Blackwater’s] private security guards will be back on the job in Iraq. The same individuals will just be wearing new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy.”(107)

Learning the hard way

Barack Obama may at last be getting a grip. But he still needs to show more leadership, at home and abroad

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13362895

Hillary Clinton’s most effective quip, in her long struggle with Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination last year, was that the Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training. It went to the heart of the nagging worry about the silver-tongued young senator from Illinois: that he lacked even the slightest executive experience, and that in his brief career he had never really stood up to powerful interests, whether in his home city of Chicago or in the wider world. Might Mrs Clinton have been right about her foe? (106)

It’s a Depression

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/04/its-depression.html

Joseph Stiglitz: “It’s going to be bad, very bad”

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/04/03/stiglitz/print.html

In an interview, the Nobel Prize-winner and former chief economist at the World Bank talks about the Great Depression, Obama’s stimulus package and today’s financial crisis.

The Geithner-Summers Plan is Even Worse Than We Thought

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/the-geithner-summers-plan_b_183499.html

Stiglitz: Obama/Geithner Plan Makes Fools Of Taxpayers

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/4/1/10222/56882

Didn’t Tom Brokaw Call This “The Fleecing Of America”?(105)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/didnt-tom-brokaw-call-this-fleecing-of.html

Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_follows_Bush_policy_on_wiretapping_0406.html

New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/06/obama/index.html

Keith Olbermann’s scathing criticism of Obama’s secrecy/immunity claims

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/08/criticism/

Keith Olbermann — who has undoubtedly been one of the most swooning and often-uncritical admirers of Barack Obama of anyone in the country — devoted the first two segments of his show to emphatically lambasting Obama and Eric Holder’s DOJ for the story I wrote about on Monday: namely, the Obama administration’s use of the radical Bush/Cheney state secrets doctrine and — worse still — a brand new claim of “sovereign immunity” to insist that courts lack the authority to decide whether the Bush administration broke the law in illegally spying on Americans.

The fact that Keith Olbermann, an intense Obama supporter, spent the first ten minutes of his show attacking Obama for replicating (and, in this instance, actually surpassing) some of the worst Bush/Cheney abuses of executive power and secrecy claims reflects just how extreme is the conduct of the Obama DOJ here. Just as revealingly, the top recommended Kos diary today is one devoted to attacking Obama for his embrace of Bush/Cheney secrecy and immunity doctrines. Also, a front page Daily Kos post yesterday by McJoan vehemently criticizing Obama sparked near universal condemnation of Obama in the hundreds of comments that followed. Additionally, my post on Monday spawned vehement objections to what Obama is doing in this area from the largest tech/privacy sites, such as Boing Boing and Slashdot. (104)

http://www.correntewire.com/11_dimensional_chess_101

The existence of this behavioral dream team — which also included best-selling authors Dan Ariely of MIT (Predictably Irrational) and Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago (Nudge) as well as Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman of Princeton — has never been publicly disclosed, even though its members gave Obama white papers on messaging, fundraising and rumor control as well as voter mobilization. All their proposals — among them the famous online fundraising lotteries that gave small donors a chance to win face time with Obama — came with footnotes to peer-reviewed academic research. “It was amazing to have these bullet points telling us what to do and the science behind it. These guys really know what makes people tick.”

President Obama is still relying on behavioral science. But now his Administration is using it to try to transform the country. Because when you know what makes people tick, it’s a lot easier to help them change. (103)

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

http://susiemadrak.com/2009/04/08/09/30/what-is-wrong-with-this-picture-3/

Bankers are getting back every damned penny they ever invested from our tax dollars, yet the men and women we sent to war get screwed out of medical care and disability benefits.

“I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD” (102)

http://www.salon.com/news/special/coming_home/2009/04/08/tape/index.html

The real unemployment rate? Try 15.6%

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/learn-how-to-invest/The-real-unemployment-rate.aspx?

An 8.5% unemployment rate is unmistakably bad. It’s the highest rate since 1983 — a year that saw double-digit unemployment, nearly 30 commercial bank failures and more than 15% of Americans living below the poverty line.

But the real national unemployment rate is far worse than the U.S. Department of Labor’s March figure, announced today, shows. That’s because the official rate doesn’t include the 3.7 million-plus people who are reluctantly working only part time because of the poor labor market. And it doesn’t include the workers who have given up scouring want ads for seemingly nonexistent jobs.

When those folks are added to the numbers, the unemployment rate rises to 15.6%. In March 2008, that number was 9.3%. (101)

Summers Earned Millions from Bailed-Out Banks

http://susiemadrak.com/2009/04/04/08/56/summers-earned-millions-from-bailed-out-banks/

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4iGjejJVRko&refer=home

Lawrence Summers, director of President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, earned millions working at a hedge fund and speaking to banks such as Citigroup Inc. that later received taxpayer bailout money.

Summers Feeds at Hedge Fund Trough (100)

http://firedoglake.com/2009/04/03/summers-feeds-at-hedge-fund-trough/

It’s the Criminality, Stupid! Bill Moyers/William Black On The Wall Street Meltdown

http://www.openleft.com/diary/12679/its-the-criminality-stupid-bill-moyerswilliam-black-on-the-wall-street-meltdown

Last night on Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers and his guest, William K. Black, took a look at the Wall Street meltdown through a forbidden lens: that of massive and systemic criminality. Black is the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry, and was in New York for a conference, as Bill Moyers put it, “to ask the question, ‘How do they get away with it?’”

This is the great truth that cannot be spoken: what we’re seeing here is massive elite criminality. But, of course, the Democrats are almost as deeply aligned with the criminals are the Republicans are–and Giethner, Summers and Rubin are the proof of the pudding. This is not a question of right vs. left. It’s a question of left vs. wrong.

Bill Moyers recent interview with William Black is devastating to the Bush And Obama Administrations

S&L scandal’s William Black on Bill Moyers: Tim Geithner “covering up” massive fraud by bailed out banksters

http://www.correntewire.com/sl_scandals_william_black_bill_moyers_tim_geithner_covering_massive_fraud_bailed_out_banksters

http://www.liberalrapture.com/2009/04/send-lawyers-guns-and-pitchforkschange.html

From Bill Moyers Journal:

Our system became a ponzi scheme.

The crisis we are going through is fraud…by top elites…and that’s what we have…

BILL MOYERS: To hear you say this is unusual because you supported Barack Obama, during the campaign. But you’re seeming disillusioned now.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, certainly in the financial sphere, I am. I think, first, the policies are substantively bad. Second, I think they completely lack integrity. Third, they violate the rule of law. This is being done just like Secretary Paulson did it. In violation of the law. We adopted a law after the Savings and Loan crisis, called the Prompt Corrective Action Law. And it requires them to close these institutions. And they’re refusing to obey the law.

The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.

http://firedoglake.com/2009/04/08/bill-black-on-young-turks-with-cenk-uyger/

Bill thinks we should be arresting some people:

Cenk Uygur: Would you suggest that some of these top bankers in the country be arrested for fraud?

William K. Black: You obviously have to make the … do the investigation, but yes, there would be plentiful numbers of the top executives that we would find committed these kinds of frauds. They certainly have institutions that follow a pattern that only makes sense if you’re engaged in accounting fraud.

In other news, the world economy is falling faster than 1929-1930. (99)

The Queen and Mrs. Obama: A Breach in Protocol

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1888962,00.html

Michelle Obama put her hand on the Queen only after the Queen had placed her own hand on the First Lady’s back as part of their conversation. So there is room for theological argument as to whether the American reciprocity of touch was allowable given the social dynamics of the situation. Still, the sight of anyone apparently touching the Queen with anything more than a limp handshake is enough to send the British twittering. (98 )

FDR’s Economist vs. Obama’s

http://www.openleft.com/diary/12692/fdrs-economist-vs-obamas

FDR Economist Says Obama Should Put Stimulus First

Top Economics Aide Discloses Income
Summers Earned Salary From Hedge Fund, Speaking Fees From Wall St. Firms

Any questions? (97)

Should Obama Control the Internet?

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/04/should-obama-control-internet

A new bill would give the President emergency authority to halt web traffic and access private data. (96)

Education reform is a defining issue

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20487.html

President Barack Obama’s recent speech on education reform demonstrates that he is willing to put the full weight of his office behind fixing our failing schools. He called for higher standards, more charter schools, merit pay and eliminating bad teachers.

Teachers unions and education groups have expressed opposition in the past to ideas like merit pay and charter schools. They are strongly opposed to a successful voucher program in Washington, D.C.

On behalf of the nation’s children, Obama is prepared to take on members of his own party and the special interests. Along with turning around the economy, education reform could become the defining issue of his presidency. (95)

Grab the Smelling Salts: Obama Gives Her Majesty an iPod! (94)

http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2009/04/grab-smelling-salts-obama-gives-her.html

3 Quick Obama Enviro Reversals

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12594

There’s little doubt that what’s going on in the economic sphere is far more momentous, but these environmental actions add a troubling dimension to the broader picture of the Obama Administration’s troubling pattern of far too much continuity with Bush Administration policy, particularly since support for broad environmental policies is far more unified among the American people at large than almost any other progressive issue are, the actions that have been backed off from are pretty much all “no-brainers” and there are no powerful political opponents pushing against these actions. (93)

Obama’s Gordon Gekko Targets Union Workers

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12584

Rattner’s strategy is to use the government’s leverage to try to specifically crush auto workers and force them to accept even more contract concessions than they’ve already agreed to.

President Barack Obama’s recovery plan for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC appears to take aim at union retirees, a usually reliable Democratic constituency. After studying the plight of the companies, the president’s auto task force concluded GM and Chrysler’s survival is dependent on greater concessions from the United Auto Workers union.

The most immoral part of this is the specific targeting of retirees. (92)

Coming For The Social Security Checks, Again

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/coming-for-social-security-checks-again.html

Looks like there’s another bullshit swing at the “Social Security’s in crisis” theme in today’s Washington Post. You know what? Good. We tried hard to stop Social Security from being cut when its head was on the chopping block last time, but I don’t think I’d do it again. If they want to cut Social Security benefits, let ‘em. As Glenn Greenwald says, there’s not enough anger out there — not by a long shot.

If they think they can get away with cutting Social Security benefits right now, let ‘em. Maybe it’s just what we need. (91)

http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/31/cramdown-is-dead-long-live-the-tea-baggers-and-why-we-wont-be-doing-anything-to-save-social-security/

Tough Love for Carmakers, Pillows for Wall St. (90)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033002442.html

DNC chair infuriates abortion backers

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20686.html

NARAL blasts DNC chief (89)

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/03/naral_blasts_dn.html

Obama to bankers: ‘Help me help you’ (88 )

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20608.html

Obama escalates war in Central Asia

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pers-m30.shtml

Obama’s plan was adopted without congressional authorization or public debate.

Its release was timed to avoid public attention and scrutiny. Just two days before, Obama held a prime time news conference where the issue of Afghanistan was not raised. He chose to announce a major escalation of the war at a 9:30 AM no-questions-asked press conference, when most of the population was at work and unable to watch. (87)

A Full Plate is No Excuse for Discrimination

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/03/a_full_plate_is_no_excuse_for_discrimination.php

Robert Gates’ statement that we shouldn’t expect the Obama administration to fulfill its pledge to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell anytime soon is highly disappointing. (86)

Obama’s Plan For Afghanistan And Pakistan

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/03/27/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4896758.shtml

President Obama today announced his new plans for Afghanistan and Pakistan. They include an increase of both U.S. military and civilian forces in Afghanistan and an increase of aid to Pakistan in return for help stopping militants in the border region.(85)

US backing for world currency stuns markets (84)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/5050407/US-backing-for-world-currency-stuns-markets.html

Bold claims of stimulus jobs can’t be measured (83)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_go_pr_wh/stimulus_jobs_numbers

Obama Won’t Legalize Pot, Wonders If Online Community is a Bunch of Stoners

http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2009/03/26/obama-wont-legalize-pot-wonders-if-online-community-is-bunch-of-stoners/

The President apparently snickered, along with his snickering staff, made a crack like “This is a very popular question to you online folks,” (did he mime taking a hit off a doobie at this point?) and then categorically said no, that it wouldn’t grow the economy, and moved on. Thus insulting the audience about their very popular question and giving it little respect. (82)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/punch-hippie-moment-2938-by-dday-so-i.html

Obama Broken Promises: DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Club (81)

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2009/03/obama-promises-dea-raids-medical.html

Comparing the U.S. to Russia and Argentina

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/26/comparisions/index.html

Desmond Lachman argues today that the most apt comparison for the U.S. now is not Japan’s “lost decade,” but rather, “that the United States is coming to resemble Argentina, Russia and other so-called emerging markets, both in what led us to the crisis, and in how we’re trying to fix it.”

He then describes the numerous similarities between the U.S. today and those corrupt, collapsing nations he studied in the past.

But there was actually a more pernicious aspect to his question. He was basically demanding of Obama: shouldn’t you be telling those dirty masses that they can’t have health care and education improvements and that they’re also going to have to give up their Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits (while Citibank and BoA use taxpayer money to buy up distressed assets that they will then sell at a huge profit, also to the taxpayer under the Geithner plan)?

So our political class cheers on treasury-draining wars, allows financial elites to rob and pillage, witnesses huge transfers of wealth to the richest, and then when the whole thing explodes, the “real fiscal answer” is for ordinary Americans to have their Medicare benefits “slashed” and Social Security benefits reduced. (80)

Rahm Emanuel Got Paid $320,000 For Helping Freddie Mac Scam The US Treasury (79)

http://www.puma08.com/2009/03/26/awesome-rahm-emanuel-got-paid-320000-for-helping-freddie-mac-scam-the-us-treasury/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-rahm-emanuel-profit-26-mar26,0,5682373.story

Iraq Pullout A ‘Massive,’ Costly Effort: Expenses May Rise From Wartime Levels

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR2009032402741.html?wprss=rss_world/mideast

The removal of about 140,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 will be a “massive and expensive effort” that is likely to increase rather than lower Iraq-related expenditures during the withdrawal and for several years after its completion, government investigators said in a report released yesterday. (78 )

http://www.counterpunch.org/green03202009.html

Barack Obama is dumber than a bag of hammers.

I never thought I’d say that about the guy. I thought he would probably disappoint me with many of his policies. I thought he would probably fail to be bold enough for his times. I thought he might miss opportunities to do great things because of his seeming desire to be Mr. Rogers, complete with cardigan. But I never expected him to be really dumb.

But if you’re willing to risk the entirety of a potentially great presidency on making sure that a handful of already wealthy sociopaths who got rich destroying the global economy are not denied massive taxpayer-funded bonuses to keep them in jobs they’ve already completely mishandled, despite the fact that many of them took the money and left the job anyhow – if that’s you, and you’re the new president of the United States with a load of challenges and lots of public good will solidly behind you – well, then, you’re dumber than a bag of hammers.

There is a growing public anger out there, anger that is long overdue. People are finally beginning to wake up, however foggily, to who is the real enemy of America’s interests and who is the real predator with its fingers rifling their pocketbooks. If this populist rage is properly directed, we could get some sort of healthy outcome, like a reprise of the New Deal social safety net and a badly needed robust regulatory apparatus.

Crawling into bed with Public Enemy Number One against the leading wedge of a populist revolt is about as stupid an idea as imaginable for the Obama administration. Why doesn’t he offer another monotone denunciation while he’s at it, this one of pedophiles?

Which makes Obama’s idiocy all the more astonishing. Probably no one on the planet could rescue the GOP right now, except for Barack Obama. So why on earth is he doing so? Why is he throwing a rope to a drowning disease? And then handing it a cudgel? Why is he breaking into the vault at the CDC in order to cut loose the smallpox virus once more? What could he be thinking? Or is the bag of hammers thinking at all? (77)

http://www.rall.com/2009/03/this-weeks-syndicated-column-change-you.html

Obama’s perfidy knows no limits. He’s already become more dangerous to democracy and basic human rights than George W. Bush. Unlike Bush, he has no political opposition. Cheney may nitpick, but most Republicans are happy to see Bush’s policies remain in place. Meanwhile, liberals remain loyal, silent, and tacitly pro-torture. (76)

Expanded Americorps has an authoritarian feel

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Expanded-Americorps-has-an-authoritarian-feel-41889742.html

The new program should “combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service,” while establishing “campuses” that serve as “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents” and “uniforms” for all participants. It allows for the elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life.

But that’s not all. The bill also calls for “youth engagement zones” in which “service learning” is “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.” This updated form of voluntary community service is also to be “integrated into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula” at all levels of schooling. Sounds like a government curriculum for government approved “service learning,” which is nothing less than indoctrination. (75)

Liberals Feeling Slighted

Progressive Caucus Still Waiting for Obama Meeting (74)

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_109/news/33543-1.html

Cities Deal With a Surge in Shantytowns

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html?ref=todayspaper

Like a dozen or so other cities across the nation, Fresno is dealing with an unhappy déjà vu: the arrival of modern-day Hoovervilles, illegal encampments of homeless people that are reminiscent, on a far smaller scale, of Depression-era shantytowns. (73)

Obama Stiffs the Arts

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-25/obama-stiffs-the-arts

The arts world is fuming over Obama’s underqualified “arts czar,” and a humanities appointee who lacks a college degree.

Memo to President Obama, from the arts world: This is not what we had in mind. (72)

NBC: White House “Happy” EFCA Killed

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12466

Did the legislative battle over the Employee Free Choice Act (a.k.a. “card check”) end before it truly began? GOP Sen. Arlen Specter’s decision yesterday to oppose the bill, even though he voted for cloture on the measure in ‘07, dealt a blow to organized labor, denying them the 60 votes they need to end debate — even if Al Franken ends up joining the Senate. We can tell you this: The White House appears to be happy (but very quietly so) to have this debate out of the way. No doubt they were for it. But it was always more of a Biden cause than a Barack cause. At this point in time, with everything else on their plate, sticking a finger in business’ eye wasn’t something the White House was looking forward to. (71)

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/03/25/1865075.aspx

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms (70)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032302830_pf.html

It’s official. Obama gave the country to the bankers

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/tuesday-its-official-obama-gave-the-country-to-the-bankers/

You can hear the gory details in yesterday’s podcast from Planet Money. No matter how you slice it the taxpayers get left holding the bag.

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers: Stiglitz

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29848741

Obama’s bank plan could rob the taxpayer (69)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b3e99880-1991-11de-9d34-0000779fd2ac.html

Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived? (68)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22rich.html?_r=1

What We Don’t Know Will Hurt Us

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22rich.html?_r=1

Nicole Gelinas, a financial analyst at the conservative Manhattan Institute, sees denial at play over a wide swath of America.

In states like Nevada, Florida and Arizona, Gelinas sees “huge neighborhoods that will become ghettos” as half their populations lose or abandon their homes, with an attendant collapse of public services and social order. “It will be like after Katrina,” she says, “but it’s no longer just the Lower Ninth Ward’s problem.” Writing in the current issue of The Atlantic, the urban theorist Richard Florida suggests we could be seeing “the end of a whole way of life.” The link between the American dream and home ownership, fostered by years of bipartisan public policy, may be irreparably broken. (67)

http://freemenow.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/alert-on-cover-updangerous-bill/

The House of Representatives sailed through HR1388 this Wednesday. If passed into law, it will fulfill Obama/Axelrod’s largest linchpin to take over our country and our society- by taking over our youth and even attempt to lure in our needy senior citizens by “paying” them to co-operate.

It allows for a national Commission of AmeriCorp to create MANDATORY SERVICE to be required all our children- to teach and disseminate Values of this adminstration’s design. (66)

Administration wants to buy up banks’ toxic assets

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090321/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bank_rescue

Despair over financial policy (65)

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/despair-over-financial-policy/

Obama budget could bring $9.3 trillion in deficits (64)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_budget

Outraged Americans Want AIG Bonus Money Recovered

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116941/Outraged-Americans-AIG-Bonus-Money-Recovered.aspx

Economic Credibility Gap: Obama Says People Are Angry About AIG, Axelrod Says No One Cares

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12331

Axelrod: AIG Furor Won’t Stop Obama From Giving Handouts To Financial Industry (63)

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/3/23/95819/6130

President Obama Jokes About Being a Bad Bowler: ‘It’s Like the Special Olympics’ (62)

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/president-ob-15.html

America Is Really Angry – Obama Aides Still Fretting About Elite Opinion (61)

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=954935A2C0D53A2965FF79440576871A?diaryId=12239

“Don’t expect too much from me,” says the POTUS (60)

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/dont-expect-too-much-from-me-says-the-potus/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama

Obama’s “enemy combatant” policy: following a familiar pattern

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/15/obama/index.html

Barack Obama has perfected a three-step maneuver that could never even be attempted by a politician lacking his rhetorical skill or cool cynicism.

First: Denounce your presidential predecessor for a given policy. Second: Pretend to have reversed that policy upon taking office with a symbolic act or high-profile statement. Third: Adopt a version of that same policy. (59 )

Administration Is Open to Taxing Health Benefits (58 )

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/politics/15health.html?_r=1&hp

Obama’s Signing Statement Disappears Whistleblowers

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/03/12/obamas-signing-statement-disappears-whistleblowers/

When I suggested the other day that Obama’s memo on signing statements was actually very troublesome a few people suggested I was being cynical.

Charlie Savage lays out the contents–mostly statements saying Obama refuses to spend money with the oversight from Congress they’ve demanded.

The provision I’m most worried about, however, is one on whistleblowers. You see, the President who has promised transparency, apparently doesn’t want transparency to Congress when an executive agency fucks up.

This strikes at the heart of efforts to fix some of our intelligence failures and abuses by making it possible for Congress to learn about them before it’s too late.

I guess all that transparency Obama talked about was only for the things he wanted us to learn about. (57)

Some women wanted more from W.H.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19936.html

Obama’s New Council on Women and Girls Is Another Hollow Gesture (56)

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/3/11/obamas-new-council-on-women-and-girls-is-another-hollow-gesture.html

Obama Out Of Touch On Education Concerns (55)

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12144

Obama Calls Petraeus “Success;” Disdains “Blogs;” Shrugs at “Jobs” Recovery

http://johnbatchelorshow.com/jb/2009/03/obama-calls-petraeus-a-success-disdains-blogs-shrugs-at-jobs-recovery/

Obama: ‘I rarely read blogs’ (54)

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0309/Obama_I_rarely_read_blogs.html

The casual, corrupting use of anonymity for political officials

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/06/anonymity/index.html

For an administration flamboyantly vowing new levels of transparency, the Obama White House continuously relies upon one of the most un-transparent political weapons: namely, disseminating to the public — typically through sympathetic journalists — purely pro-administration assertions while hiding behind a journalistically baseless grant of anonymity. There are numerous manipulative and distorting effects from having government officials make pronouncements while remaining anonymous, one of the most significant of which is that there is no accountability whatsoever when they make false or misleading statements. Today we have a perfect illustration of that lack of accountability. (53)

Guantanamo worse since Obama election: ex-detainee (52)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090308/pl_afp/usbritainethiopiaattacksguantanamo

Is Obama embracing the lawless, omnipotent executive?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/02/executive_power/index.html

Obama Channels Cheney: Obama adopts Bush view on the powers of the presidency. (51)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638765474658467.html

Obama’s safety net: the TelePrompter (50)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090305/pl_politico/19663

Is Europe Falling Out of Love with Obama? (49)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090305/wl_time/08599188328100

Obama DOJ Signals It Will Continue To Fight For Bush Invocation Of “State Secrets” Privilege (48 )

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/2/28/12755/2372

Yes, the Bailout Really Has No Strings Attached

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11941

Ken Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America (which you the taxpayer is the single biggest shareholder) effectively confirms to Businessweek that the $45 billion his company got came with absolutely no strings attached:

Read that again: We gave that bank $45 billion as its business practices helped destroy the economy. And yet, it’s CEO is telling us that money doesn’t mean any fundamental change to the way that company does business. (47)

Is Accountability Frivolous and Funny?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/language-you-li.html

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11734

The attitude Obama is expressing – that there’s something “fun” about saying one thing on the campaign and then doing another in office – is troubling. There’s nothing “fun” about that – nor is there anything frivolous about reporters and activists and movements calling officeholders on the carpet when they don’t do what they said they were going to do. (46)

Boucher Opts For Talks, Not Legislation, On Net Neutrality

http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cda_20090226_8361.php

In a major departure from previous Democratic strategy, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is scrapping the idea of pursuing legislation mandating an openly accessible Internet in favor of negotiations with stakeholders aimed at reaching a comprehensive accord.

The new approach, which House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., revealed during a Wednesday interview, is part of a broader telecom policy agenda he has worked out with Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman. (45)

Obama administration defends telecom immunity in new brief (44)

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_DOJ_backs_up_Bush_wiretapping_0226.html

Pelosi sees no ‘justification’ for leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq (43)

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pelosi_doesnt_see_justification_for_leaving_0226.html

Poll: 3 out of 4 Americans are scared about state of the country

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/23/poll-3-out-of-4-americans-are-scared-about-state-of-the-country/

Seventy-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say they’re very or somewhat scared about the way things are going in the United States. That’s six points higher than in an October poll.

Nearly eight in 10 say things are going badly in the country, with just 21 percent suggesting that things are going well. The survey also says that three out of four Americans are angry about the way things are going in the country. (42)

Obama hits swing states

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18934.html

As President Barack Obama began a Western travel swing Tuesday, he continued to make good on his vow to get out of the White House regularly and into the country.

The president seems to prefer certain parts of the country, however – states that are crucial to Democratic political victories past and future.

Obama has been making down payments on his political future since the moment he got elected – aligning Cabinet picks, political staffers and his nascent Organizing for America outreach effort to lay down a foundation for building support for his ambitious agenda and the campaigns to come in 2010 and 2012. (41)

Obama sides with Bush on Bagram detainees (40)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090221/wl_asia_afp/usafghanistanattacksguantanamoprisonjustice_20090221194310

Charlie Savage on Obama’s embrace of Bush/Cheney “terrorism policies” (39)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/18/savage/index.html

Obama’s Top Lawyer Says Obama Doesn’t Want To “Weaken” Presidency (38)

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/obamas-top-lawyer-says-obama-doesnt-want-to-weaken-presidency/

Obama: Economic Crisis May Delay NAFTA Negotiations

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/02/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4808338.shtml

President Obama made a U.S.-led renegotiation of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) labor and environmental standards a central promise of his campaign. But asked today if he plans to start negotiations during his Thursday visit to Canada, Mr. Obama suggested that economic duress may postpone the NAFTA plans.

“There are a lot of sensitivities right now because of the huge decline in world trade,” Mr. Obama told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (37)

Obama to Send 17,000 More Troops to Afghanistan (36)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/washington/18web-troops.html

Increasingly, Obama’s Justice Department standing by ‘George Bush secrecy’ (35)

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Increasingly_Obamas_Justice_Department_standing_by_0216.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama-anxiety16-2009feb16,0,5538445.story

“Buy American” rules remain in the stimulus bill that the president is scheduled to sign Tuesday, but labor advocates were alarmed by Obama’s willingness to insert himself in the debate as a champion of business concerns. They said his stance was far different than during the presidential election, when Obama was trying to win union votes and called for rebuilding America with union-made materials.

Obama’s new language was “a little disturbing,” said Jeff Faux, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, which has received funding from labor unions. (34)

Democrats Resisting Obama on Social Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/us/politics/23social.html?partner=msnbcpolitics&emc=rss

Obama Administration and Wall Street Predators Target “Entitlement Reform”

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1031&Itemid=40

The Economists Who Missed the Housing Bubble Are Coming After Your Social Security

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/the-economists-who-missed_b_166852.html

According to inside gossip, the task force will be led entirely by economists who were not able to see the $8 trillion housing bubble, the collapse of which is giving the country its sharpest downturn since the Great Depression.

In short, the vast majority of baby boomers will be approaching retirement with little other than their Social Security and Medicare to support them. And now President Obama is apparently prepared to appoint a commission that will attack these only remaining pillars of support.

Looting Social Security

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/greider/print?rel=nofollow

Democrats Set High Goal Of Sweeping Fiscal Reform

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/01/AR2009020101814.html?hpid=topnews

At the moment, discussions are focused on whether to name a special panel to make the difficult decisions that would be required to right the nation’s finances. Key senators in both parties are backing a plan put forward by Conrad and the Budget Committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), that would create a task force of lawmakers and administration officials. The task force would wrestle with the details of Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and the tax code, and deliver a reform plan to Congress for a vote later this year.

Under the proposal, the task force’s recommendations could not be amended; the House and Senate would be required to accept or reject them without changes or additions, similar to the process lawmakers use to close military bases.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123457407865686565.html

The president met with 44 fiscally conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats this week and gave a nod to legislation that would set up commissions to deal with long-term deficit strains. The commissions would then present plans to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

“We feel like we’ve found a partner in the White House,” said Rep. Charlie Melancon (D., La.), a Blue Dog co-chairman. (33)

Remember Rev. Wright? A colleague of his has just been added to the roster of the Obama administration. (32)

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/151zwvhg.asp

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/12/panetta.cia.director/

Obama has signed an executive order limiting interrogation techniques to the 19 outlined in the Army Field Manual, but Panetta conceded those might not be enough. He said he would not hesitate to go to the president and ask for additional authority if there was “a ticking-bomb situation.”

Panetta vowed not to send terrorism suspects to other countries where they could be tortured. But he insisted such renditions are an “appropriate tool” if the United States got assurances from the receiving country that the individuals would not be treated inhumanely.

Regarding Obama’s plan to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he said the task is a very difficult one. Although some prisoners will be tried and others transferred to other countries, he acknowledged there may be a group of prisoners who will have to be detained without trial for a long time. (31)

Solicitor general nominee says ‘enemy combatants’ can be held without trial (30)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-solicitor-general11-2009feb11,0,7158432.story

http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/02.04.09/news-0905.html

I’ve got some agreement from another one of our old friends, billionaire hedge fund manager and guru George Soros. Last week, I listened to Soros speak on a “squawk box call” from the World Economic Forum in Devos, Switzerland. Soros said not to make distinctions between good banks and bad banks. The marketplace will make the distinction. Good banks will survive. Bad banks will fail.

He said Obama’s talk about creating a Big Bad Bank, managed by the Feds, onto whose balance sheets can be shoveled all of Wall Street’s toxic debt, is crazy talk. (29)

General Zinni gets undiplomatic treatment from Obama team (28 )

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/02/04/zinni_unloads

Obama Expected to Appoint Chamber of Commerce Lobbyist As Gatekeeper to the Judiciary

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11488

An increasing number of cases that the judicial system deals with are focused on business. That’s why the Chamber of Commerce spends ungodly sums of corporate cash trying to make sure that the judicial system is owned and operated by Big Business – and that’s why this piece of news is incredibly troubling. (27)

Obama fails his first test on civil liberties and accountability — resoundingly and disgracefully

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/09/state_secrets/index.html

Yesterday, enthusiastic Obama supporter Andrew Sullivan wrote about this case: “Tomorrow in a federal court hearing in San Francisco, we’ll find out if the Obama administration intends to keep the evidence as secret as the Bush administration did.” As I wrote after interviewing Wizner two weeks ago: “This is the first real test of the authenticity of Obama’s commitment to reverse the abuses of executive power over the last eight years.” Today, the Obama administration failed that test — resoundingly and disgracefully. (26)

Obama’s Justice Department backs Bush secrecy on renditions suit

ACLU ’shocked and deeply disappointed’

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obamas_Justice_Department_backs_Bush_state_0209.html

The Obama administration promotes outsourcing

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DFOR1WWH1LFYGQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=213001145

On the very same day he was meeting with “CEOs [who] outsource American jobs”–a phrase he repeatedly and derisively used during his campaign, he named McKinsey’s & Co.’s Diana Farrell to his National Economic Council, the inner circle of economic advisors in the White House. Farrell has done more to promote outsourcing than nearly anyone else in America. (25)

Obama’s Faith Based Office an Insult to Women

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-burk/obamas-faith-based-office_b_164567.html

Obama to expand Bush faith program (24)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18433.html

Lead gay group blasts Obama over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (23)

http://www.americablog.com/2009/02/lead-gay-group-blasts-obama-over-dont.html

The Bad Bank Assets Proposal: Even Worse Than You Imagined (22)

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/02/bad-bank-assets-proposal-worse-than-you.html

Radical Free Trader to Head Government’s Trade Enforcement Apparatus (21)

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11326

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=cqmidday-000003022552

The Obama administration has given the Pentagon a $527 billion limit, excluding war costs, for its fiscal 2010 defense budget, an official with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said Monday.

If enacted, that would be an 8 percent increase from the $487.7 billion allocated for fiscal 2009, and it would match what the Bush administration estimated last year for the Pentagon in fiscal 2010. (20)

Don’t Go There, Mr. President

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/02/02/dont-go-there-mr-president/

OBAMA: Yeah, who’s losing in* a weight battle apparently. (LAUGHTER) Yeah. Oh, well.

• Alert Swampland commenter travellingatlanta notes that the transcript that NBC put out was wrong. “Who’s losing a weight battle” is actually “who’s in a weight battle.” I went back and listened to the video, and it sounds that way to me, too. Which makes it slightly better. I guess. But in the future, Mr. President, just don’t go there. (19)

Big Disappointment

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11257

Sometimes, though, I just have to say something publicly, and when I read in this morning’s paper and learned that the Obama economic team’s bank rescue plan will include no more restrictions on executive salaries and bonuses than are in the ineffectual TARP bill (18 ) because these banks might not take our billions of dollars if there were more restrictions, I knew that I had to protest.

This is exactly the kind of crap thinking that had Paulson give away $350 billion with no strings attached, and resulted in our tax dollars going not for an easing of credit, but for shareholder dividends, exec bonuses, corporate jets, and mergers- none of which has done bupkis to actually help the economy.

President Obama, I am so happy with most of what I’ve seen so far: the Lily Ledbetter act, S-CHIP expansion, great new executive orders, reaching out constructively on Middle East peace, and an economic recovery bill that is great in many ways. But don’t disappoint those of us who believe so strongly in you by giving into this Bush-like thinking about needing to coddle the big bank execs. If they don’t want our money, fine: give it to the sectors of the economy that really need our help.

Organizing for America Will, and Should, Fail

http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/33643/organizing_for_america_will_and_should_fail

I support Obama wholeheartedly, and have been thrilled every day of his Presidency. But I support self-government even more, and a successful organization sharing uncritical media with 13 million citizens sounds spooky to me. I’m glad its going to fail. (17)

Family planning cuts irk activists

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18149.html

President Barack Obama has been in office for just over a week, but already he has managed to upset some top leaders in a key constituency — women’s groups — after he personally intervened to get family planning funds stripped from the House stimulus package. (16)

Planned Parenthood led the charge, with President Cecile Richards sending an “urgent” e-mail to supporters on Wednesday decrying the deletion — calling it a “betrayal of millions of low-income women, and it will place an even greater burden on state budgets that are already strained to the breaking point.”

“I’m stunned,” she wrote, urging supporters to call the White House.

Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed that Obama personally called Rep. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and asked him to drop the provision, just a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended it on national television Sunday morning.

At first, women’s groups hailed Obama for overturning the policy. However, the same groups privately grumbled over Obama’s decision not to issue his new order on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. Obama waited a day, apparently out of deference to abortion opponents who rally in the capital on the anniversary.

In addition, he signed the order away from cameras, late in the afternoon on a Friday, traditionally the time when newsmakers try to keep news out of the headlines. (15)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012203826.html

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/bad/

http://www.partizane.com/node/693

In order to attract more Republican support than he needed to pass his economic stimulus legislation, Obama told the Democrats to jettison a provision that would have enabled judges in mortgage foreclosure cases to recast mortgages so the homeowners COULD afford to make the monthly payments and stay in their homes. (14)

Instead Obama will now, apparently, pay ABOVE market price to buy up those mortgages — thereby helping the banks (and bank officers) that should never have granted the mortgages in the first place — and harming the poor homeowners who can now go live in a tent in a park, where many of them will freeze to death.

Fineman: The honeymoon that ended before it began

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28865349/

I have been struck so far by the LACK of bipartisan goodwill on both sides. It’s only a week into the Obama presidency and things quickly seem to be degenerating into the same old, same old spats and thrusts. (13)

Rather than carefully watering each plant with care, Obama seems to be turning a fire hose on an entire desert. Even America doesn’t have enough money for that. (12)

The lack of focus allows critics on the right to pick off one or another line item, stoking outrage among the tax-cut, spending-cut crowd.

And it is clear that Obama is going to ask for even more than the $825 billion he is asking for in his recovery plan, and the $350 billion in bank-salvage money that Congress authorized two weeks ago.

Obama’s hypocrisy showing

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/28/campbell.brown.ethics/index.html

Unfortunately, we are again asking the president to explain why exactly he announced, with great fanfare, new ethics rules if he had no intention of abiding by them.

The Obama administration is yet again asking for a waiver to its very own rules about hiring lobbyists (11 ).

This time, it is the new treasury secretary, Tim Geithner. He wants a former lobbyist for Goldman Sachs to be his top aide at the Treasury Department.

No comprehensive health reform this year (10)

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/citing-1994-clyburn-embraces-incremental-health-reform-2009-01-25.html

President Obama ‘orders Pakistan drone attacks’

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5575883.ece

Missiles fired from suspected US drones killed at least 15 people inside Pakistan today, the first such strikes since Barack Obama became president and a clear sign that the controversial military policy begun by George W Bush has not changed. (9)

Obama Snubs The Gays Yet Again! (8 )

http://perezhilton.com/2009-01-19-obama-snubs-the-gays-yet-again

Dean ending 30-year political career

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28698099/

Outgoing DNC chairman is embarking on life in private sector (7)

Obama to call for ‘responsibility’ (6)

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Obama_s_speech_will_call_for_new_er_01182009.html

Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s selection as chief of staff, said the inaugural address of the first African-American president, would stress the need to create “an era of responsibility” in the place of what has too long “been a culture of anything goes.” “We need that culture of responsibility, not just to be asked of the American people, but its leaders must also lead by example,” Emanuel said on NBC’s’”Meet the Press” program. He said Obama would call on Americans to “once again restore a value system that respects and honors fiscal responsibility, and we all have something to give to our country and have an obligation to do that to return it to its greatness.”

Obama: I ‘always thought’ Bush was a ‘good guy’ (5)

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_I_always_thought_Bush_was_0117.html

Obama may not lift stem cell limits (4)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17540.html

The strength of Obama’s commitment to the Employee Free Choice Act is uncertain (3)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=973&Itemid=1

Obama’s Permanent Grass-Roots Campaign

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1871767,00.html

Obama’s army can make a lot of phone calls and send a lot of e-mails — and it has proved it knows how to act fast. Rallying support for legislation is one mission; so is making sure the army is intact — and still writing checks — in a few years, when Obama is likely to seek re-election. (2)

Barack Obama: it is no longer essential to kill Osama bin Laden (1)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5520116.ece

We will never forget

Joe Cannon:

I just received further evidence that the progs who created a dangerous cult of personality around Barack Obama are now starting to regret their Messianic mania. The following message comes from Bob Fertik of Democrats.com, one of the sites that originally inspired me to jump into these waters:

Treasury Secretary Geithner proposed a $1 trillion plan to help Wall Street make a killing buying “toxic assets” with our tax dollars and guarantees.

Returning to the banks and insurance companies that existed before the Reagan era would not hurt our economy. As Paul Krugman writes, “that boring, primitive financial system serviced an economy that doubled living standards over the course of a generation.”

NATIONALIZE: Insolvent banks that are too big to fail must incur a temporary FDIC intervention – no more blank check taxpayer handouts.

REORGANIZE: Current CEOs and board members must be removed and bonuses wiped out. The financial elite must share in the cost of what they have caused.

DECENTRALIZE: Banks must be broken up and sold back to the private market with new antitrust rules in place – new banks, managed by new people. Any bank that’s “too big to fail” means that it’s too big for a free market to function.

On Saturday April 11, A New Way Forward will lead protests all across the country to demand these changes.

If you’re in New York City on Friday April 3, join the National March on Wall Street:

http://www.bailoutpeople.org/april3-4.shtml

I think that when progs focus only on Geithner, they demonstrate that they cannot yet bring themselves to admit that we were right about Obama all along. Poor Timmy must function as the scapegoat. But that transference won’t last forever.

So I support what Fertik has written here. But he has yet to take one important step:

APOLOGIZE.

Apologize for printing crap like this during the primaries:

The Last Hillary DLC-Straw

I have been silent about the neocon, Republican-Lite, Democratic “Leadership” Council (DLC), and their poster girl, Hillary, during the Primary season — but enough is enough. Just like Joe LIEberman, Hillary is helping McCain to split the Democratic Party — just as the DLC has been doing for over a decade.

Most egregious of all were the continual lies about the Clintons told by David Lindorff, who has a regular berth on Democrats.com. (Example here — and hold your nose when you read it.)

Yet Democrats.com continues to publish Lindorff — to publish the lie.

APOLOGIZE, Bob Fertik.

Apologize and choose sides. You can join the Clinton wing of the Democratic party or you can be part of the anti-Clinton, pro-Obama wing. You cannot finesse your way between the two. You cannot have one from column A and one from column B. We will never allow that. You must choose.

Do not think for one second that you possess the words that will bring reconciliation. Even if you had the eloquence of a Shakespeare, your rhetoric still would not suffice. The wounds inflicted in 2008 were deep — far deeper than you realize. And the only salve for those wounds will come when the Obots lose face. Complete, total, merciless loss of face: Nothing else will do.

No, we will never “get over” the primaries of 2008, just I never “got over” the Florida vote theft of 2000. I will not forget being called a racist every single day. I will not forget the lies. I will not forget the death threats. I will not forget the astro-turf hate messages (many from the same ISP in Chicago) that flooded my blog every day. I will not forget the totalitarian imagery and the Mao-like cult created by the Obama camapign. I will not forget seeing my own (former) party embrace tactics that would have made Lee Atwater blush. I will not forget the election fraud in the caucus states. I will not forget the disgusting and unforgivable treatment of Hillary’s delegates at the convention.

Changed

Hey Paul Krugman: a song, a plea

Pure symbolism

Politico: A primary commission

The DNC this evening announced a commission to look at the primary calendar for 2012, to be led by South Carolina’s Jim Clyburn and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill. The most prominent Iowan is Attorney General Tom Miller, a very early Obama supporter.

Clyburn, McCaskill and a very early Iowa Obama supporter?

It also includes Clinton backers Randi Weingarten and Minyon Moore.

But the dominant figure will likely be Obama’s delegate guru, Jeff Berman, a largely unsung, key player of the primary season who is close to David Plouffe, also on the commission, and to Bill Carrick, another commissioner.

Obama’s delegate guru close to Plouffe who’s an unsung key player of the primary season? And Plouffe?

The key goals:

The Democratic Change Commission will address three issues: 1) changing the window of time during which primaries and caucuses may be held 2) reducing the number of superdelegates and 3) improving the caucus system. A copy of the convention resolution establishing the Commission is below. The Commission must issue its report and recommendations to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee no later than January 1, 2010.

The commission will be looking to set the stage for an incumbent’s reelection, in theory one during which the stakes will be lower.

Someone’s afraid he won’t be reelected.

LA Times: DNC’s Kaine picks panel to reform Democrats’ entire nominating process

Good news for Michigan and Florida Democrats. You might not get cut out of the party’s messy primary voting process again in 2012.

Of course, with an incumbent Barack Obama, the Democrats’ presidential-candidate-picking process may be moot:

Assuming the rookie Great Change Agent quickly fills five dozen empty slots at Treasury, fixes the nation’s economy, creates multiple millions of jobs, reforms the country’s entire education system, makes it affordable to every American, creates a thriving green economy, reduces dependence on foreign oil, solves the housing crisis, keeps interest rates low, prevents inflation, avoids an Afghan quagmire, cuts taxes for 95% of Americans, screws over the other 5% and halves the national debt.

Oh, and cleanses the culture of greed and entitlement on every U.S. street including the one named Wall.

Last year’s Democratic primaries were hardfought even bitter affairs, not helped by the initial banning of the results of those important twin states, which denied Hillary Clinton two crucial albeit sneaky victories.

Sneaky victories? You mean she stayed in the race?

And all presided over by another former unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate, Howard Dean.

Dean is gone now, unceremoniously dumped and denied a Cabinet job by the Obama camp, in favor of parttime chair, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia. He”ll take over fulltime next year to earn his D.C. chops and, come 2012, probably replace aging Joe Biden as Obama’s VP who, you may remember, was a senator way back when Obama was a sixth grader. (Although keep your eyes on Missouri’s most Twittering senator.)

But watch out. CNBC announced today that Dean has signed on there as a commentator. Now, all that cable channel needs is some viewers and Dean can be heard to get even on-air.

The 37-member Democratic Change Commission will be headed by Sen. Claire McCaskill (who likes to Twitter) and Rep. James Clyburn, both ardent Obama backers. And Obama’s ex-campaign manager David Plouffe is also on.

The goal, Kaine says, is “to put voters first and ensure that as many people as possible can participate.” A complete list of commission members is below; scroll down or click on the “Read more” line.

The commission, which grows from a convention resolution by Obama last August, will have three goals: chop the number of superdelegates, reform the caucus system and change “the window of time” for caucuses and primaries. Should Iowa and New Hampshire be worried?

The commission’s report is due by next New Years Day.

Pure symbolism just like the White House Council on Women and Girls which has no office, no budget, no full-time workers and is headed by a top bundler/supporter who chose Obama over Clinton:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Tchen was an early Obama supporter and ultimately became one of his most prolific fundraisers. After the campaign ended, Obama appointed Tchen to be White House Director of Public Liaison.

A longtime feminist, Tchen says she found that people she worked with on women’s rights issues were often surprised that she was not supporting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the 2008 Democratic primary. But Tchen was one of Obama’s top fundraisers during his 2004 Senate campaign as well as during his 2008 presidential campaign. For the presidential run, she bundled more than $200,000 for Obama.

It’s interesting how exactly right PUMAs were about Obama. Who said it on November 4?

There will be a lot of symbolism, a lot of small gestures, but I can’t think of any grand proposal, any sweeping Franklin Roosevelt proposals that Hillary would put forward. He’s the feel good candidate who has about as much promise as a Twinkie.

He is a Twinkie insofar as it’s at first alluring but the moment after you eat it, you realize it’s radioactive. It’s highly processed, it’s completely artificial, it’s packaged in plastic and a box with very bright colors, and it’s marketed in the most insidious manner to those who should know better.

Bud White and Truthteller

I recommend listening to November 2, 3 and 4 radio shows to see how right PUMAs were about Obama. Remember Lynette Long on THE BRAND vs. THE MAN and how it’s more than true now? People like Lynette, Old Grumpy Guy, Jeremiah Goddamn Amerikkka Wright, Bud White, Rabble Rouser Amy and Truthteller were spot on like all PUMA shows. Of course we’re right. We were just Democrats. Our party left us and the Democratic Party is as lost as ever. Obama looted us and gave all the money to the banks so nothing good will happen in the next eight years. Misogyny never pays. Do you treat your mother like that?