The other day I was driving around listening to the Randi Rhodes talk show on the radio, she being to Barack Obama what the right wing “talkers” were to George W Bush – that is, no matter what he does, “fall in line.”  On her show she was playing tape of Obama giving a speech in San Francisco last week poking fun at “liberals” who Rhodes called “whiners.”  I didn’t hear Obama use that term, although he may have, I only heard a small portion of his speech, but the words of Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel calling “liberals” “f___ing retards” is as vivid in my mind as if he said it yesterday and Obama’s words reminded me of that comment.  And, I never doubted that Emanuel was just putting what Obama couldn’t say on the “public record.”  President Obama was sarcastically criticizing those on the left who were unhappy with his signature legislative “achievements” – the health care legislation, and the bills to “regulate” Wall Street. (of course, he continues to solicit money from those very same “liberals”)

Honestly, I just have to shake my head when I hear this stuff coming from our “progressive” president and his most ardent supporters.  I’m just guessing now, but those of us who REALLY were counting on the “change we can believe in” are simply idealists in the minds of the president and his closest allies.  I don’t question that Obama and his “contingent” are much smarter than I am, and I believe Rhodes is doing what she feels is best for the country – she always said, prior to Obama’s nomination that once the democrats made their choice the “rest of us” were obligated to “fall in line.”  Well, I was an ardent supporter of Obama, although I started noticing what I called the “red flags” well before he was elected, but I’m simply not “cut out” to “fall in line.”  I had minimal expectations and, to be honest, when I hear Obama sarcastically putting people like me “down” it makes me less inclined to care whether he gets reelected or not.

I say that knowing that I’m still likely to vote for him again, if for no other reason than I can’t imagine more republican nominations to the Supreme Court anytime soon.  John Roberts and Samuel Alito are going to be “thorns” in the side of those of us who are opposed to a corporatocracy for many years to come.  Listening to Obama for those few minutes the other day, I came away feeling that he still doesn’t “get” the urgency of what’s happening to this great nation.  He continues to surround himself with the “Wall Street crowd,” he seems as determined as ever to be some kind of “level head” in the face of all the partisan “bickering” – which would be a good thing if he wasn’t continually caving in to the republicans on virtually EVERY issue of significance.  I heard him just over a week ago, claim that Medicare and Medicaid (and by inference Social Security) wouldn’t be dismantled while he’s president.  The problem is that I just don’t believe him.  He keeps getting maneuvered into “corners” by the repubicans, and I don’t see anything that causes me to believe that’s going to change.  Remember, there was “no way” the “Bush Tax Cuts” would be extended.

President Obama has made some of the worst decisions I can remember in my lifetime since he took office.  I won’t dwell on the worst one, you can read all about it in the archives to this site, but when Obama pardoned Bush/Cheney he opened the “floodgates” to the partisan bullying we’ve seen from the republicans since that time.  He essentially said to them, if I (Obama) won’t stand up against TORTURE, lying the U.S. into war, illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens, lying to congress, refusing subpoenas from congress, and what was tantamount to treason – outing a CIA agent, you (republicans) can essentially get away with ANYTHING!  And, just to prove that point, the (at the time) minority whip in the House, Eric Cantor, violated the Logan Act – CLEARLY – by making promises that the “republicans would have the Israeli’s backs” if they chose to “disagree” with the Obama administration.  That is a FELONY!  Was there even ANY investigation?  As John Boehner so aptly described democrats – HELL NO there wasn’t!

I had just about come to the conclusion that I needed to quit my criticism of Obama until I heard him sarcastically “put down” all us idealists who actually believed he was going to attempt to CHANGE the atmosphere in Washington.  It reminded me of many of the reasons I’m disenchanted with him – including the one mentioned above.  It made me think, how many more “compromises” with republicans will myself and the rest of America be “saddled” with?  I mean, just agreeing to extend the afroementioned “Bush Tax Cuts” has made the suddenly important deficit (I don’t know if you remember, but Dick Cheney proclaimed “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” as he and the republicans were creating the foundation for all this deficit spending back in the early days of the Bush II administration) $400 BILLION more difficult to deal with – EACH YEAR!  And, this is far from the only place Obama is “siding” with the despicable republicans who “we the people” elected him to DEFEAT.

Some of this is my speculation, some of it is the result of all the reading I’ve done lately, but here’s a list of areas that I believe those (including me) WHINING liberals see as failures of Obama’s administration which he continues to defend:  Let’s start with the stimulus which was his initial “big accomplishment.”  Even I was able to understand that the stimulus was too small and that it was directed in the wrong direction – what was needed then, and, unfortunately is still needed was JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!  Yes, the stimulus saved many jobs, but it didn’t create anywhere near the amount of jobs the economy needed to move things back toward “full employment.”  I don’t even know what full employment would be, but I do know it’s WAY less than the 9% or so unemployment is at now which only represents a portion of those out of work – people who want to work and can’t find work.  Instead of FIGHTING for additional stimulus, Obama caved – I’m assuming he just figured the republicans would “filibuster” any program in the Senate – this seems to be the democratic “mantra” of late – if they’re not sure they can get legislation “through” they don’t even deal with it. (do you remember when “impeachment was ‘off the table’?”) 

The “compromise” over the tax cuts simply fueled the republicans into thinking they could not only get them made “permanent,” but they could get even LOWER taxes for their rich benefactors.  I guess my mind came up with this “frustration” now because of how recent it is – but, also as the “Ryan budget” was recently passed in the house, we were given ANOTHER glimpse from where these right wing fanatics are coming from and that made me feel even more insecure as to whether the democrats have the right man at the “top” to defend what’s left of the “New Deal” values I grew up believing in.  Ryan’s budget is clearly to me, setting up the future confrontation over making Bush’s tax cuts permanent by proposing even LOWER tax rates for those at the “top” of America’s earners.  By the time the next confrontation comes around, Obama will be bragging that he got the tax cuts made permanent as opposed to the lower rates Ryan was pushing for – making the tax cuts “permanent” will be declared a victory!

 I could have mentioned Iraq when it comes to disenchantment – nobody seems to be mentioning Iraq anymore, despite the FACT the U.S. is still spending BILLIONS there and there are STILL over 50,000 U.S. troops stationed there (non-combat troops, ha ha, wink wink).  I guess, if there are fewer casualities we can place however many soldiers we want anywhere in the world we want to put them – we ALWAYS can afford that!  And, I’m not convinced those troops are coming “home” from Iraq in July.  If you read Thomas Ricks’ book “The Gamble” you’ll see that generals like David Patreaus and others are pushing for American troops in Iraq for a “generation.” (20 years or so – do you remember John McCain comparing Iraq to Korea?)  We can’t afford domestic social programs in America, but we can damn well afford them in places like Iraq.  When people say to me there’s no difference between republicans and democrats – I want to argue with them – because there is a difference – but, crap like this makes them sound prophetic.

Obama has proved to be a poor match for America’s generals and the “military industrial complex” as we’ve witnessed him being “bullied” by the very people he’s supposed to be commander in chief of – all the while trying to look “strong.”  When the negotiations over the troop increase in Afganistan was happening, Obama should have FIRED all the generals involved – including Patreaus.  Now they’ve got us MIRED  in two disastrous occupations for the foreseeable future.  Hence, we recently had Vice President Biden being quoted (this was a month or two ago) saying our troops will still be in Afganistan in 2014!  And, America’s “liberal media” really noticed that, didn’t they?  Hardly a whimper. 

What about all the illegal wiretapping done by the Bush administration?  Do you honestly think it has ended?  If it had, I believe the Obama administration would have said something.  Do you think they’re being quiet on that “front” to make the “terrorists” think “big brother” is still “listening?”  Does President Obama really believe we need to be “data mining” the email and phone conversations of regular Americans to keep us “safe?”  Has he bought into the “fear card” used to prefection by the previous administration?  Does “extraordinary rendition” ring a bell with you?  That’s where America’s military turn over the so-called “enemy combatants” to other countries so that they can do the torturing for us.  That program is alive and well under Obama’s guidance.  Guantanamo is still open and will remain so, the “black hole” at the Bagram Air Base is still open and “doing business,” as is much more of the hated Bush activity that we voted Obama in to change.  President Obama is even defending some of the worst of Bush’s abuses in court – including the illegal wiretapping.

I’m a school teacher and I’m also close to retirement age, so the vilifying of teachers and teacher unions will have a minimal effect on me, but what it’s doing to America’s public school system could end up being tragic.  I knew from day one that George W Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” legislation was ultimately aimed at destroying public education.  Not only did it create an IMPOSSIBLE goal – remember, NO goal is reasonable if it’s unattainable – but, it FORCED virtually EVERY state in the Union to implement the so-called “high stakes testing” that is turning schools into testing factories.  It also has made Bush’s younger brother Neil rich as he’s managed to “cash in” on the testing craze created by his brother the former president.  I bring this up, because I don’t see much difference in Obama’s “Race to the Top.”  It still appears to me that President Obama is way to friendly with the “corporatists” – including the ones who would “kill” public education as it exists today in favor of charter schools which are non-union and are not saddled with the “unfunded mandates” that are making public education so frustratingly difficult.  I haven’t seen ANYONE who’s a national leader talking about backing off on all the federal requirements that are forcing schools to spend inordinate amounts of money in places that have minimal impact on the LARGE majority of students.  I’m actually not opposed to many of those programs, what I’m opposed to is passing legislation and then not paying for the outcome of the legislation – and then “blasting” the schools and the teachers (who work so hard for children) as being the problem.  And, I can tell you, it’s not just the schools and the teachers who expected more from Obama, it’s – in my view – a large percentage of the general public.

If you haven’t been following what’s going on in Wisconsin, you should be.  There is a great example of the pent up frustration spilling over from “we the people.”  I fully believe many of those walking in the protests in Wisconsin – where Scott Walker, the “tea party” governor – puppet of the Koch brothers – stripped teachers (and other public workers) of collective bargaining rights – after they had agreed to double digit cuts to their compensation to help solve the fiscal “crisis” in Wisconsin – many of the protestors are republicans and independents.  You don’t have to be a democrat to appreciate how hard teachers are working for the children in America.  President Obama had another “GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY” to show “progressives” whose side he’s on by joining in the protests in Wisconsin on the side of the everyday public workers.  Yet, he AGAIN, chose the “safe” side by staying completely out of it.  Instead of trying to mobilize a national response to the right wing ATTACK on working people and their rights to organize and collectively bargain – Obama chose to speak LOUDLY with his SILENCE.  I’ll leave that one at that, other than to say this was not surprising to me.

Recently it was reported that GE had profits of $14.2 BILLION last year and paid ZERO corporate taxes.  To make matters worse, GE received $3.2 BILLION in tax credits which amounted to the American taxpayers GIVING BILLIONS to one of America’s largest corporations in the midst of a budget crisis fueled by the huge deficits.  I didn’t hear a single word of meaningful outrage (that is, more than a publicity stunt – outrage that could ultimately amount to something happening to counteract America’s corporations from ripping off America’s taxpayers) coming from ANY member of congress or the administration – plus, it was then reported that the CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, is one of President Obama’s leading economic advisors, the head of his advisory board on “jobs and competitiveness.”  Seriously, I hope Immelt does a great job helping Obama figure out how to best get people back to work, and I would agree that there should be a long term approach to this problem as well as dealing with the “here and now.”  I just think associating with people who represent the problem, continually, is making it more and more difficult for us liberals (“f___ing retards”) to support the president.  Why would you choose the CEO of a company making HUGE profits while exporting hundreds of thousands of jobs to other countries and specializing in collecting CORPORATE WELFARE, to chair an advisory board on job creation?  It might work out, I hope it does – but it LOOKS BAD!

“Citizens United” was not Obama’s or the democrat’s fault, but they had two years to do something about it before the elections of 2010 – and, they acted as if it was nothing special.  Well, we’ve already seen the effect it’s having on money being funneled into elections with no accountability as to where it’s coming from, we’re seeing large corporations now attempting to “brainwash” their employees on how to vote (it should be no surprise to anyone that Koch Industries is in the forefront of that campaign – setting the new standard of intimidating workers in their workforce into voting republican), and the lobbying “industry” is STILL growing at an alarming rate.  It appears to me that the long term democrats in congress and this president have taken the “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach to the problem of lobbying and corporate money in congress.  If Obama and what’s left of his democratic congress don’t SOON “get” what’s happening, 2012 will look more like 1912 when it comes to America as a corporate behemoth – and 1929 can’t be too far behind!

I continue to believe that Obama and the democrats still don’t understand why “we the people” are so upset with them.  They had close to a supermajority in Congress for the first two years President Obama was in office – they didn’t change the “atmosphere” in Washington when they had the opportunity.  The democrats failed to act responsibly in the senate – allowing the arcane filibuster rule to allow republicans to control the debate and continuing with the “backroom dealing” that so many people are tired of.  Democrats didn’t lose the house in 2010 because they went too far, they lost the house because of the discontent at how they FAILED to use the MANDATE of the voters of 2008 to begin to reverse the abuses of the Bush/Cheney administration. 

I have no doubt that “we the people” will prevail in the long run – as I stated a few posts ago, “there’s more of us than there are of them.”  I’m just TOTALLY puzzled at how the democrats are seemingly incapable of fighting this corporate re-takover of America (yes, this is reminiscent of the early part of the 20th century).  It gained a “foothold” with the election of Reagan in 1980, and the corporatists have been “inching” along – dismantling the New Deal – piece by piece since.  They now, I’m sure, are feeling that their TOTAL success is “right around the corner.”  They can see “the light at the end of the tunnel” (And, for anyone not paying attention, “total success” to these corporatists includes the privatization of Social Security and Medicare and the elimination of Medicaid, the minimum wage, the 40 hour work week, and I could go on) 

In response to President Obama’s sarcastic putdown of the “liberals” who actually EXPECT him to be putting up an “FDR” type fight for the rights of the working class and poor in this nation, I have two questions.  First, I wonder: Have President Obama and the democrats heard the saying, “Those who ignore history are destined to repeat it?”  and, second – are “we the people” going to band together and actually put the control of this great nation back into the hands of leaders who believe in the principals of the New Deal?  I’ll finish by saying that I write these posts spontaneously, I could have pulled out some of the books I’ve read and brought up other issues of discontent with our president.  And, I “get” that I’m not going to agree with everything he does or every decision he makes.  Contrary to the republicans, I WANT the president to succeed!  (for the record, I wanted Bush to succeed as well) The most troubling aspect of ALL of this to me is not only the discontent, but Obama and his surrogates attacking the people who supported him while cozying up to the “ENEMY.”  To me, that’s the most disconcerting part of this “corporate assault on America’s workers” scenario which is unfolding right before our eyes.