In the 1970’s I considered myself a conservative independent.  I was opposed to Roe v Wade and to the deficit spending promoted by Richard Nixon.  Almost 40 years has passed and, while I still have my personal views on abortion, I keep them as my personal views.  I’ve watched the deficit over these years spiral out of control until this past week I watched President Obama sign a “tax cutting” law which puts nearly another TRILLION onto the already massive debt – with the as usual “we’ll get to this later” approach (I’m not certain even he knows what that means).  Today I read a column in the New York Times by Charles M Blow essentially calling those on the “far left” who are unhappy that Obama “caved” on tax cuts whiners” while then calling republicans “winners.”  This was further evidence to me that my conservative values are now considered the “far left” and too many in this nation have accepted the so-called “conservative” approach of these republicans (i.e. Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, Reagan, Bush, Cheney, etc.) as OK – apparently, including Mr. Blow.

He was referencing the disenchantment on the “left” with President Obama for his “compromise” over the “Bush tax cuts” (now the Obama tax cuts) in a manner suggesting that the country is only 20% “liberal.”  I get such a rush of angry thoughts in my mind when I read stuff from people who have access to the “multi-media” and claim to be spewing “facts” that it’s hard for me to keep my thoughts straight .  All of these labels people like Blow base their commentary on simply demonstrate to me how powerful the conservative media has become when even those who should see past it are sucked in.  Not only does Blow believe the disenchantment with President Obama’s decisionmaking comes from “liberals” but, I believe, so does President Obama himself. 

Here’s the question Blow poses which really got me going, “Is there a future for moderation, and especially conservatism, in the Democratic Party or is the party experiencing the beginnings of a purging akin to that seen on the right?”  Well, before I get to the next point of contention, I have to wonder what Blow means here by “conservatism.”  If we’re making a connection with the term conservative and republicans, I can’t help feel a bit of confusion over his implied connection with that term and democrats – I mean, how far to the right do these people think democrats need to move in order to make the republicans happy?  (and, why would that matter?)  Honestly, I don’t think I’m the only American who’s SICK and TIRED of a two party system which is indistinguishable!  I’m getting the distinct impression here that many, including Blow and Obama, TOTALLY misread the mandate of 2008.

But, he goes on to say, “I attribute much of this to the across-the-board, over-the-top scoffing by the ultraliberal, self-professed brains of the party. According to them, Obama must pay for abandoning his ‘progressive base.’ That’s funny because progressives, many of whom really wanted John Edwards to be the nominee in 2008, only constitute 20 percent of Democrats.”  (at least he didn’t use the republican term, “elitist” here)  Just as I felt Rahm Emanuel was talking to me when he referred to those on the “left” as “f___ing retards” I get the sense that my conservative views have evolved into “ultraliberal” from the perspective of people like Blow and he, presumably as with Obama, is lamenting the FACT that “liberals” don’t fall into lockstep with the “leader” like good republicans.

Before I go on with this let me clarify one thing.  While Blow claims the “ultraliberals” claim Obama “must pay” for abandoning his liberal base, I for one have never said that.  What I’ve been saying since the first day I recognized Obama’s actions were not nearly going to meet his rhetoric is that there will be a steep price for him to pay for abandoning his “base” in the form of rejection at the polls.  “Progressives” like myself are really tired of voting for the democratic version of a corporatist republican.  And, for Blow to suggest his “base” is only 20% of the American electorate, I believe he’s “lying with statistics” as many in positions such as his do.  However, even if he’s correct, President Obama can’t lose 20% of his “base” and expect to be reelected.  And, I have to tell you (and Mr. Blow – who, by the way, I respect for all the columns of his I’ve read in the past – and here’s a link to the one I’ve referenced here) I believe the disenchantment with “our” president goes far past any lines you might draw between “liberal” and “conservative.”

I recently finished a book titled “The Family” by Jeff Sharlet which clarified some confusion in my mind as I’ve been struggling to understand the “why” of some of the decisions made by the government of “we the people.”  And, now I’m mostly through with a book on the first 100 days of FDR’s presidency and things are getting even more clear.  Before, I go on, I believe Mr. Blow and every other “leader” in Washington and the press should read “The Family” (there’s many other books out which expose the true motivations of our “leaders” – but, that’s a good one in my view) and then consider what FDR did for the middle class of this great nation before they start jumping on the republican “bandwagon.”  The republicans have been in a continual struggle to repeal the “New Deal” since the 1930’s despite the FACT it was instrumental in creating the greatest middle class in the history of the world.  The “corporatists” have gotten richer over the years, but apparently when the people at the bottom are better off they just don’t feel right.  As I’m reading more about what is the “real” American history, I’m discovering that GREED is certainly not a new phenomenom.  But, is should be no surprise to Blow or Obama when there is a backlash against our elected officials succumbing to GREED!

I’ve said this on many occasions, but I’ll say it again in the hopes that Mr. Blow might somehow miraculously happen upon this site (I’ll continue to wish for Obama to show up as well) – President Obama would never have been elected if the public suspected he was going to be what is now being referred to as “republican-lite.”  He wasn’t elected to pardon the illegal activity of George W Bush and Dick Cheney which he summarily, apparently without conscience, did.  Not only am I certain that the U.S. WILL torture again, I’m not certain that we’re not doing so now – evidently in ways not called “waterboarding.”  Obama wasn’t elected to pander to republicans for a few scraps, he was elected to CHANGE the culture of Washington – to make a STAND against the corruption that permeates the capital of the United States of America!  You don’t have to be “ultraliberal” to have expected that!

Not only has Obama failed to address the issue of warrantless wiretapping, I believe it’s still an issue.  Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”  Well, Osama bin Laden has seemingly proved Roosevelt profetic on that one.  And, the fearmongering continues – and, I for one am sick of it.  No one in Washington seems to want to understand why the United States has become the new Soviet Union.  We just seem to keep marching along as if the present course will last forever.  That is the exact same thinking that led to the bursting of the housing bubble with the economy.  It was the “ultraliberals” (I guess, although I really do hesitate to put myself into that category) who were warning about the inevitability of the crash of 2008.  It was the “ultraliberals” who warned about the pure folly of invading Iraq and abandoning the search for bin Laden.  It’s been the “ultraliberals” leading the fight to get our troops removed from the two intractable occupations of Iraq and Afganistan which the republicans (and, apparently Obama himself) seem willing to support indefinitely.  It has been the “ultraliberals” who have been warning about the deficit spending of republicans since the days of Ronald Reagan (I started during the days of Nixon).  And, it’s been the “ultraliberals” who’ve been at the forefront of the consternation over the “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision which is apparently going to be allowed to guide this nation’s elections for the foreseeable future.

I guess what I would ask Mr. Blow if I had the chance to do so in person would be “why are you continuing to marginalize the term liberal?”  When the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and lightweights like Lars Larsen have been busy doing this for the past 30 years.  There is an underlying conspiracy attempting to “mold” this nation into something that has rejected the philosophy of the “New Deal” – which, in reality, was the driving force behind all of the MAJOR advancements benefitting the vast majority of America’s workforce in the 2oth century.  We now have roughly the same number of unemployed Americans as there were during the Great Depression – the percentage is less due to the increased population.  Plus, we have the same arguments coming from the “right” or conservative “base” as to why government should be benefitting the “rich” at the expense of the poor and why a social “safety net” is a bad idea.  Why, then, would you be surprised at a sizeable backlash to decisions favoring republicans and those who oppose a “new” New Deal?  Are we in America going to allow our “leaders” to just continually REFUSE to learn from history? (I believe those Americans who are paying close attention to what’s “going on” are NOT stupid – they’re disgusted)

I can tell you Mr. Blow – the republicans have learned from history, and learned it well.  They’ve conspired to turn the word “liberal” into a “dirty word.”  And, people like you and our president are helping to perpetuate this scheme.  There is a well financed PUSH to turn America to the radical “right” and now people like me who were considered moderate or conservative 40 years ago are being referred to as “ultraliberals.”  I can’t even believe we’ve allowed this to happen, but reality is reality.  The other day at my work I was talking about the disappointment with Obama’s “caving” on the Bush tax cuts with a fellow worker and she asked me “what can we do?”  To those of us who are apparently “ultraliberals” it doesn’t appear that we can do much.  I will continue writing – I have children and two beautiful grandchildren who all deserve more than we apparently, as a society, want to leave them – and, I will continue working with others to push a “progressive” agenda with our government which focuses on the needs of the many over the needs of a few.  Additionally, I’ll continue to challenge those who’ve been elected to be my “leaders” to suck up the courage to FIGHT against this conservative onslaught which is best understood by reading books like “The Family.”  This conservative conspiracy has been ongoing for 70+ years and when people like Barack Obama and Charles Blow buy into it, the problem becomes magnified.

As I’m reading more about the Great Depression and thinking about my coworker’s question, I’m bracing myself for a difficult next few years.  With leaders who appear timid to challenge the corporatists – who now have the Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision which will fund their propaganda – I believe there is “rough sledding” ahead.  I’m constantly reminded, as I observe the actions of my government leaders, of the saying, “Those who choose to ignore history, are destined to repeat it.”  We’ve seen that in both Afganistan and Iraq, circa Viet Nam – and, I believe we’re seeing it with the economy.  Keep in mind, the “crash” precipitating the “Great Depression” happened in 1929 and the Hoover administration spent four years doing virtually nothing to combat the devastation felt mostly by the blue collar workforce – all the while claiming that the “free market” would “fix” the problem.  Sound familiar?  My fear is that it will take an economic crash of similar proportions to wake people up to the same kind of double talk the people of America were hearing in the 1920’s which they’re hearing again in 2010.  I’ve read book after book – written by both “liberal” and “conservative” economists which parallel what happened then with what’s happening now.  My answer to my friend was that I’m afraid nothing much will change until we have a total collapse of the economy.

The TARP bailout put a “finger in the dike” to temporarily prevent a total economic meltdown.  However, the banks are right back at the same “gambling” that created the crisis in the first place, they continue to find creative ways to funnel the wealth of this great nation into their own hands, and congress continues to be controlled by republicans – even when they’re in the minority.  Citizen’s United is designed to change that (ie republicans in the minority) and if democrats can’t even muster the courage to make a stand on tax cuts for the wealthy while in the majority – or the need to reduce the national budget deficit – then, from my vantage point, the future looks dim (how are they going to do this from a minority position?).  I believe President Obama was (and continues to be) manipulated by the military regarding Afganistan and Iraq – with not one courageous decision designed to change the course set by Bush/Cheney – and, now he’s being manipulated by the republicans in congress regarding the economy (I heard him spewing the “trickle down” line today that these tax cuts will create millions of new jobs)  which will soon be controlled by republicans in the House.  I’m just wondering how bad does it have to get before President Obama begins listening to the “base” that brought him into office?  He seems more than willing to listen to the people who continue to villify him – which is a curious matter in its own right – but, what is he going to do when republicans go after Social Security and Medicare next year as they balk at raising the “debt ceiling?”  I don’t see any sign that either President Obama or the congress has ANY will to begin slashing the military budget which has continued its steady increase in Obama’s first two years- so where are the “tea party” influenced republicans going to cut? (remember, ALL spending bills originate in the House) – is the next place Obama “caves” going to be Social Security?  The worse part of all of this is that I started recklessly predicting our next republican presidential nominee would be Jeb Bush 18 months ago – based on Obama’s actions.  With every weak-kneed decision by “my” president, I feel that is more and more likely.  Another Bush, ughhhh! (Who else do they have? – you don’t seriously think they’re stupid enough to put Palin out there, do you?  The thought simply causes me to shudder!)

My final thought:  President Obama clearly believes he can remain president by pandering to republicans in an attempt to draw independent voters to his “camp.”  I’ve said this many times, I really do hope President Obama succeeds.  I simply don’t believe he can succeed by ignoring the “liberals” who were so intently involved in his election.  He’s correct, I believe, that they will not vote for republicans under any circumstance.  I believe the miscalculation is that they will vote for him under any circumstance.  I’ve voted in every major and minor election since 1968.  At this point, there’s no way I’ll vote for President Obama again.  And, if he continues on this present course and then throws “liberals” a “bone” toward the next election – I think that will be even more offensive.  Should we ever get a strong investagative media again, I believe Obama is vulnerable on several fronts.  I’m not convinced the TORTURING is continuing – although I’ve read reports which make we wonder – but, I’m pretty sure the NSA is still, to this day, “data mining” virtually every phone call and email that goes through the high tech centers created during the Bush administration – all in the name of “keeping us safe.”  Is America going to spend the rest of my lifetime pushing an imperialistic, militaristic foreign policy and then slowly violate constitutional guarantees to free speech and privacy – again – in the name of “keeping us safe?”  To me, this feels like fascism creeping in on a slow train to Washington DC!

 I found it really interesting to be reading the Op-Ed of the New York Times and seeing Paul Krugman pointing out the folly of President Obama’s “tax deal” with Mitch McConnell and the republicans while the title of the next column by David Brooks (conservative columnist) appeared to be applauding it (I write “appeared” because I just can’t bring myself to read much of David Brooks anymore).  My first thought:  The republicans don’t have much to choose from for a presidential candidate in 2012 – maybe they could get Obama to switch parties.  Of course, I’m saying that in jest, but I’m honestly feeling that the way things are playing out, Obama will be a long shot to represent the democrats.  The disappointment with him, from the left, is reaching new heights seemingly each day.  I’ve been trying to point out the “error of his ways” for almost two years now – prefacing almost every rant with “I’m hope I’m wrong” – and, almost every prediction is proving true.  The most devastating one was that “liberals” would not vote in the previous election.  They (we) are simply tired of the “same old same old” and, that is precisely what Obama is offering – apparently unaware of this himself.

As I drive around I listen to “progressive” talk radio as much as I can tolerate it.  This past week I’ve been listening to Obama’s de facto “cheerleader” Randi Rhodes rationalizing each and every decision he’s made in an attempt to help us “liberals” “get it.”  “We have to do this or the sky will fall” – well, that’s not the exact words, but that’s the same kind of logic which has forced one bad decision out of Washington DC after another.  Personally, I’ve had enough of that kind of logic – and, in fact, coming from the people I supported in 2008 makes it all the worse.  The truth is, NO, President Obama did not need to negotiate with the “hostage takers” – ie the republicans – over extending the “Bush tax cuts for the rich.”  The line had been drawn in the sand LONG AGO over that one – and, it didn’t take more than stupidity on the democratic congress by not bringing this to a vote prior to the election and a president willing to do anything to make it look as if something’s getting done in our government – to cave in to another disastrous republican “demand.”

This nation is hemorrhaging debt at a rate that is making everyone’s head swim, yet this latest “deal” – from the republicans who based their recent retaking of the House on lowering the debt and the president who’s “debt commission” just finished their work – will add close to another TRILLION in just the next two years.  Additionally, if there’s anyone out there who think’s this “deal” doesn’t fit EXACTLY into the long range plans of the republicans, well, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell to you.  I’ve taken only a superficial look at the published details of the “compromise” and I can see numerous “holes” from the democratic perspective and a HUGE “light at the end of the tunnel” from the perspective of the republicans.  To put it mildly, I’m not that impressed with President Obama’s long range thinking on this “deal.”

I’m a sixth grade school teacher (in my “day job”) and have learned over the years that you don’t negotiate with bullies.  And, the republican party is dominated by political bullies.  This is nothing new and the Obama administration for some reason decided that by “reaching out” to these bullies “bipartisanship” would be the order of the day in our government.  Pishaw!  Even I could figure that one out.  You don’t get bullies to “relent” through negotiation.  The American people didn’t put Barack Obama in office to negotiate with these republicans and their contemporaries, he was elected to CHANGE the entire culture of Washington.  I “get” that Obama sees that as an atmosphere of cooperation, but you don’t just get to that point by wishing for it.  You DO have to draw some lines in the sand – and President Obama has failed to do that on occasion after occasion (starting with the no investigations of Bush/Cheney which I won’t get into this time more than to say that was the first MAJOR blunder!)

I realize President Obama, along with his supporters like Rhodes, believe he’s accomplishing much in his term in office.  They will point out the stimulus bill, the health care “overhaul,” the regulations of Wall Street to name a few of the legislative accomplishments.  What they don’t understand is that the general “climate” has changed hardly at all and the republicans are still essentially running the government – despite their minority position in congress.  (all of the Obama “accomplishments were far less than they could have been had Obama chosen to fight the republicans instead of placate them – I still don’t think he understands how much support he’s lost by pandering to the GOP) 

Rhodes will tell you that the republicans can’t “govern” (and, I wouldn’t disagree with that) and that they’re simply all about “power.” (I also TOTALLY agree with that)  However, with that as a given, why are we (“liberals”) constantly standing on the “sidelines” – our support apparently being taken for granted – while “our” president is constantly kissing up to and negotiating with the “enemy.”  And, if you don’t believe the republicans are the “enemy” then you’re probably either wealthy or you’ve been listening to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Lars Larsen, and the other propagandists from the “right.”  If President Obama can’t make a stand on the issue of tax cuts for the “rich” at this point in America’s history, when is he going to make a stand?  Additionally, I find it stupid for a president to put himself in a position where his own party is forced to vote his “compromise” down.  Why would you negotiate with the other side without consulting your own side?  He’s been assuming those who voted him in will support him since day one of this administration.  I, personally, pointed out right from the start that I’m not going to be blindly loyal.

A couple posts ago I wrote that if President Obama “caves” on the tax cuts “I’m done.”  At this point in time I certainly feel “done.”  But, at the same time I still have that hope that the president will somehow understand what is happening to him and us as he continues what I’m sure he sees as an earnest effort to move our government forward.  In the process he seems to be almost oblivious to the FACT that the publicly stated number one goal of the republicans is that President Obama be a one term president.  EVERYTHING they do is calculated to destroy his presidency – and, it appears, they are quite good at what they’re trying to accomplish.  It’s almost to me as if it’s a “men against boys” scenario developing.  I really hate to put the republicans in the “men” category there, but they will obviously do anything they can to undermine this president.  Let’s take a look at a few of the “holes,” as I see them, with Obama’s latest foopah.

Let’s take scenario number one – suppose the economy gets a bit better in the next two years.  The republicans will continue their ridiculous claim that the ONLY thing that stimulates the economy is tax cuts (I’m sure that if they take back the White House in 2012, deficits will no longer matter – AGAIN – either).  Additionally, the proposed extension of the tax cuts is for 24 months, but the unemployment extension is for 13 months and it doesn’t include the so-called 99ers – people who’ve been out of work for over two years.  So, in essence, we’re just putting off the inevitable for the more recent unemployed and our president has  accepted the demise of the 2 MILLION 99ers as of today which will grow to something approaching 4 MILLION by the end of next year.  Is the next step for the Obama administration to go along with the likes of Sharron Angle or Jim DeMint and claim that the unemployed are “lazy?”  The reality that I see is the tax cuts will ultimately be made “permanent” which is a key component of the republican long term strategy to undermine Social Security and Medicare.  I believe when it comes to these items, Obama and the democrats are always one step behind the republicans – and the republicans are DROOLING at the thought of getting their hands on the social security trust fund and TOTALLY privatizing Medicare.  I’m convinced their plan is to succeed in this before the American public figure out what they’re up to, and by then it will be too late to stop them.

Scenario number two – suppose the economy doens’t get any better or gets worse.  We’ll be listening to the republicans blasting Obama for the raging debt for the entirity of the next election cycle and the democrats won’t be able to fight back because they will have been the party in power when these tax cuts were extended – which, if you haven’t heard – will raise the debt 900 BILLION over the NEXT two years.  Once they vote in this compromise, they are no longer be the “Bush tax cuts” they become the Obama tax cuts.  And, if I understand the proposal correctly it includes a cut in payroll taxes for social security and a nice tax exemption for inheritance taxes.  Maybe in the next election we’ll have ALL the candidates arguing for more tax cuts.  Pretty soon the republican position will be no taxes at all – just have the government print whatever money it needs to function and the rest of us will fight over the scraps.

There’s more scenarios – how about this one?  Say the economy is stimulated by the extension of unemployment insurance for the next 13 months and things pick up a bit.  That will get us to the election year.  Do you really think the republicans will extend these benefits  again next year when they have the tax cuts locked in for another year after that and they can make them permanent by winning in 2012?  If the unemployment insurance is as “stimulative” as the democrats and Obama claim, then the republicans will simply allow it to expire prior to the next election year assuming that the economy will then head downward and increasing the likelihood their MAIN OBJECTIVE, Obama being a one term president, will be achieved (the republicans are counting on the “low information voters” to come through for them again on this scenario – along with the “liberal media” and Fox).  It’s as if President Obama is helping them with this scenario.

Here’s my favorite scenario.  Suppose the democrats in congress FINALLY make a principled stand on something and vote the entire mess down.  Force all the tax cuts to expire including MINE!  Force the next congress to address the needs of then MILLIONS of American middle class families who will be paying for some of the services they’re receiving now free gratus.  For example, there’s been a tiny percentage of our population fighting in Afganistan and Iraq for nearly 10 years now.  I keep driving around seeing cars with “right wing” bumper stickers all over them along with “support our troops” signs.  Do they really believe “supporting our troops” means sending them endless times into the quagmires of Iraq and Afganistan?  I honestly find myself flipping some of these people off.  “We the people” have been asked to make nary a minute of sacrifice since these “war” efforts began.  We’ve borrowed every cent spent on the “wars” and we’ve turned our backs on the wounded soldiers as they return home deja vu Viet Nam all over again.  End the tax cuts for EVERYONE – that will eliminate the argument for giving tax relief to the “rich” who don’t need it and pay for at least part of our war machine.

Maybe if we were paying for the occupations of Iraq and Afganistan the American public would  actually “support our troops” by bringing them home.  Seriously, we’re absolutely going broke as a nation, our economy is in a shambles, and yet we’re still continuing our attempt at policing the entire world.  Find me one republican who will argue for decreasing the defense budget of the United States (OK, Ron Paul is a republican :o).  Find me a republican (or democrat for that matter) who would be in favor of a miniscule tax on Wall Street transactions (like .25 cents/transaction) and I’ll show you a politician who has a rare sense of accountability when talking about acutally balancing our budget and holding those responsible for our present downturn to face up to their actions.  I suggested a gas tax once Obama took the oath of office – with the money going to repair the infrastructure of this nation which is falling apart.  It is a provable FACT that China is going to pass us by – and soon – at the rate we’re going as far as investing in and improving their nation’s infrastructure.  A gas tax would encourage people to use less gass – therefore encouraging alternative means of transportation – and no one can argue that we don’t have a pressing need to repair our bridges and roads – or build new alternative forms of transportation.  We’re even buying our sources of green energy (windmills and solar panels) from foreign nations instead of producing them ourselves.  If the government wants to provide tax incentives to business, it should be in those areas to give us a fighting chance at avoiding slippage into second class status.

There’s plenty of areas that people on the “left” can agree with the “tea party” movement – but, the “tea partiers” have chosen to align themselves with the republican party.  It will be interesting to see the clash they will have once the new congress is in session.  President Obama would be far better off letting these “Bush tax cuts,” ALL OF THEM, expire as they were originally intended and “call” the republicans on their obstructive behavior.  Get the battle underway RIGHT NOW!  Force the next congress to “show their true colors” and lets, as a nation, get on with the “pain” that is inevitable.  I feel like our president is trying to prevent us from having to experience a more severe economic downturn – but, it’s just a matter of time the way we’re going.  And, just like many of us were predicting disaster in Iraq, we were predicting disaster in the housing market (for several years once the sub-prime mortgages hit full swing), we’re predicting disaster with Social Security and Medicare if the democrats don’t wise up.  Yes, Social Security is solvent for the next 30+ years, but it could be solvent forever with a few “tweaks.” (simply raising the income level where people pay the “tax” would do the trick) Plus, Medicare should be adequately funded and available to all Americans – the sooner we get to that situation the better off we’ll all be.

If President Obama sets these republicans up to get ahold of the Social Security trust fund through this continued “caving” to their ridiculous plundering of our economy he will be remembered as a failed president – no matter what he accomplishes.  The republicans are up to NO GOOD and the sooner Obama realizes that the better off we all are.  When they talk about getting their “country back” it’s an issue of color – no doubt in my mind.  President Obama has a large contingent of “liberals” literally chomping at the bit to support him once he realizes the real war for this nation is the one “within.”  I don’t know if it’s too late for him, but I certainly hope not.  He’s allowed himself to be manipulated by the Generals (Afganistan and Iraq) and the republicans who consider him a pushover.  It grieves me to write that, but it’s time for Obama to become the leader we thought we were voting for.  And, if he decides the task is too daunting (I can see that as a possibility) then I believe he’ll be proceeding (as he has been) with a lot of “liberals” remaining on the sidelines.

I want to conclude with a final thought – In 2006 democrats were voted in to stop the Iraq war – it’s still going on, they couldn’t muster the courage.  Nancy Pelosi took “impeachment off the table” and then after the 2008 election Barack Obama chose to “look forward instead of back” ignoring the crimes Bush and Cheney should have been impeached for.  Additionally, Obama who was elected to change the “culture” of Washington DC surrounded himself by the very types of people the voters were tired of and he’s been negotiating with the “enemy” (GOP) ever since.  How can it be a surprise to anyone – let alone Obama himself and his supporters – that he’s lost the support of his “base.”  When Rahm Emanuel called me (and other liberals) “f___ing retards” I knew what lay ahead.  Now, it’s Obama himself expressing his displeasure with “liberals” as idealistic – as he negotiates away the “store” with little to NO “fight.”  None of that is what I personally voted for!  I look forward to the day when America has a leader capable of challenging her people to pull themselves together – and make the sacrifices necessary – to restore the fabric of this nation.  We can’t do that without dealing with the misdeeds of the past and we can’t do that by continuing to allow Washington to be the most corrupt national capital in the world.  Congress can’t be expected to “fix” itself without strong leadership from the White House – and, at the present time, I don’t see that happening soon.  Just the fact that people like David Brooks are showing support for Obama should help to put this all into perspective.  (you can read his article by clicking here) Brooks would have us believe the republicans are innocent and Obama’s building consensus with people who want to destroy him is mindful.  I’m sure Brooks understands the best way to ensure Obama is a one term president is to encourage him to continue on this present republican-lite path!

I remain hopeful, although my hope is “teetering” as I write, that the Obama administration will realign itself with the actual positions taken – or at least something more representative of them – during the campaign of 2008.  I believe I’m far from the only person who’s feeling a bit betrayed by the “centrist” to “right” leaning actions of Barack Obama since taking office.  Some of his actions, and the actions of his surrogates – that can only be explained from the perspective that Obama’s providing the direction – are VERY disconcerting.  I concluded my last posting by posing the question as to whether or not I’m the only one out there wondering why Eric Holder – and, by extension, Barack Obama – chose to ignore the transgressions of Bush/Cheney and other prominent republicans while then “going after” agressively Julian Assange of “Wiki Leaks.com” for disclosing information that is TRUTHFUL about the diplomatic history of the United States.

It appears that America and her allies are going after Assange with “both barrels.”  Now, I’m not suggesting that the man didn’t commit a crime in Sweden or Switzerland or wherever it’s alleged, but the coincidence of the charges and then the unified effort of the U.S. and her allies to block Assange’s site is curious at best from my perspective.  (Anybody else out in cyberspace remember Daniel Ellsburg?) I’ve only seen parts of what was published, but everything so far only confirmed information I had found elsewhere.  Before I get to my main point tonight, I believe it’s time for the American public to stop deluding themselves about their government.  And, this episode simply confirms the INTENSITY of the United States government to prevent its citizens from knowing the TRUTH about what they’ve been up to.  This is not just for the years of Bush/Cheney – this is for the past 40 – 50 years.  Again, this information is “out there” – you just have to look a bit harder to find it – the Wiki Leaks website is apparently attempting to make things easier for anyone who has come to the conclusion they want to educate themselves about the American government – and it’s relations with other nations around the world.

As I’ve been sharing the past few posts, I just finished “The Family” by Jeff Sharlet and I’m almost finished with “Washington Rules” by Andrew Bacevich plus I’ve read “Blackwater” by Jeremy Skahill and “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein – just to name of few of the books which are available for anyone who wants to get a better idea of what America’s leaders have been doing since WW II.  It is sobering to say the least.  Somehow, I had convinced myself (still pretty naive at 63+ years old) that then Senator Obama would be someone willing to take on the “Washington Rules” – my definition, not Bacevich’s – and, I’ve continually been “brought down to earth” almost since the day Obama was sworn into office.  Yes, Obama has pushed for some progressive legislation, but he has continually failed to make the changes to the political “climate” and “structure” in Washington that I had expected and which he could have done despite all the republican filibusters.  He is now on the verge of becoming a president who is considered a major failure – despite people like Randi Rhodes continually attempting to convince people of ALL the “wonderful” things he’s done.  I’m more concerned with what he’s NOT done along with his actual support of the “Washington Rules” in too many instances which will come back to haunt democrats (and the American public) potentially in the years to come.

I feel like I’ve been witnessing politicians seeking short term gain at the expense of long term stability for as long as I can remember.  Jimmy Carter made proposals which had a vision to the future and he’s still being ridiculed for that – so, maybe that is why we don’t see forward thinking from our “leaders.”  But, it seems to me that all they would have to do is take a good hard look at America’s circumstances to see that virtually ALL phases of our government are “out of whack.”  So, why then would we continue to depend on the same group of people for solutions when they’ve proven incapable of anything more than protecting their own self interests?  I use the “Wiki Leaks” example because I believe it gives a clear view of how skewed our government has become. 

One of the “promises” Obama made which resonated with me was the “promise” of transparency.  I’m not even sure if the president himself understands at this point how “betrayed” the public feels about that one.  (This is the kind of issue that people like Rhodes – and presumably the president’s supporters inside the White House – just don’t “get”)  The secret negotiations and “backroom deals” during the health care debate really undercut the president’s position on transparency – not to mention his weak negotiating skills which led to the premature abandonment of the “public option.”   We’re hearing the same kind of paranoia about “leaks” we heard during the Bush years and now this “panic” over exposed documents which do nothing more than tell the truth about diplomatic relations among nations the US is affiliated with.  And, don’t get me wrong here – because, I don’t know even close to the full extent of these disclosures – but when I read the other day how the administration is worried about people who could be put in danger or how the United States’ “prestige” in the world was being damaged and how bad that is – I couldn’t help but think about the issues where Obama and Holder chose to ignore issues that, in my view, suprecede the Wiki Leaks exponentially.  This it true American Hypocrisy at its best.

I’ve been over this many times on this site, but “here we go again.”  If America’s prestige around the world and the safety of those representing our interests is so important, then why was there NO INVESTIGATIONS and PROSECUTIONS where warranted regarding Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Gonzales/Rove/Addington/Yoo/Bybee/Feith and the others involved in the criminal activity during the eight long years of the George W Bush administration?  More recently, why was Eric Cantor allowed to VIOLATE the Logan Act – committing what to me was an act of TREASON – by undercutting Obama’s adminstration in any future negotiations with Israel – a CLEAR FELONY?  I couldn’t understand any of that at the time – and I do feel BETRAYED by Barack Obama in all of this and I feel “we the people” have been terribly WEAKENED by Obama’s apparently thoughtless (or gutless?) decision on these matters – but, then to take such an interest in Assange.  Again, how hypocritical will we get?  I’m not saying Assange shouldn’t be prosecuted, I’m just wondering what this does to our system of justice to set an example that prosecuting criminal behavior through subjective decisionmaking as to who commits the crime is done at the whim of the White House.  Think about that.  To me, the LONG TERM effect of that kind of precedent will far outweigh the effect of many of the BLUNDEROUS decisions of George W Bush and Dick Cheney.  And Barack Obama’s timid response to the alleged crimes of the Bush/Cheney regime is what re-energized the republicans in the first place.  How bad was that response?  I started predicting over two years ago that the republicans will be, thanks to GW’s pardon, considering the nomination of another Bush (Jeb) in 2012 – and, the way Obama’s going about his job, the public may be willing to accept that – UGHHH!

What should have happened?  Well, let’s for the sake of brevity accept that stopping Assange is appropriate (although, I’m in favor of the American people knowing what their government is doing and I’m in no way taking a position on that) – there is no doubt in my mind that Obama and Holder essentially PARDONING George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and all the others who participated in criminal behavior – ARROGANTLY – while Bush/Cheney “reigned” did all the damage and then some that Obama, Holder, Clinton, and the others in Obama’s adminstration seem to want to “pin” on the “Wiki Leaks” people.  I don’t see how anyone could claim that WikiLeaks has damaged the prestige of the United States more than Bush/Cheney circa 2001-2008.  It’s not just that our president and vice president at the time ADMITTED on national TV that they authorized TORTURE (and, they’ve since repeated their “confessions” several times and BOTH of them said they’d do it again!  Therefore, do you really think that if a republican wins the White House in 2012 that America will not torture – simply because Barack Obama said we won’t TORTURE anymore?  PLLLEEEAAAASE!) it’s that there’s a WHOLE BUNCH more!!!

I’ll get off the TORTURE part of my rant after reminding you that (don’t believe me, read “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib”) so-called “enemy combatants” – not convicted of anything – were MURDERED at Abu Ghraib and at GITMO.  There is documented evidence to support murders at each facility and that’s not to mention what went on at all the “rendition” “outlets” the U.S. had around the world – where the TORTURING could be done by our “allies.”  Then there’s the multiple reports of “enemy combatants” herded into enclosed vans in Afganistan – with the U.S. paying a “ransom” for the “intelligence” used to justify the capture – and carting the prisoners to various “rendition” sites in vehicles with no air vents while the temperature outside was in the triple digits – leaving scores of these “enemy combatants” DEAD ON ARRIVAL from suffocation.  None of this deplorable stuff managed to find the front pages of our “liberal media” because, evidently the American government is still trying to brainwash her public into believing we have high moral standards when it comes to human rights!

Of course, the two “occupations” which are still raging on after almost 10 years for Afganistan and 8 years for Iraq have managed to work their way to the back pages of our “liberal media” because evidently two DISASTROUS military blunders which are bankrupting our nation and STILL leading to death and severe mental and physical damage to our troops – while OBVIOUSLY putting our nation at risk with an OVER BURDENED military – don’t seem to be of much interest to Obama/Holder either.  That is – there’s no interest in the DISHONEST manner in which BOTH military adventures were prosecuted and the fraud committed by the “contractors” and their “no bid” contracts.  President Obama doesn’t like anyone to compare either occupation to Viet Nam – I say you can make a strong case that BOTH of them are similar to Viet Nam – maybe even worse.  Has this not damaged our prestige FAR greater than anything WikiLeaks might do?  Are Obama and Holder trying to ensure the American public don’t find out the TRUTH about these two FIASCOS?  It seems to me that the actions of Obama and Holder in this matter are hurting American prestige more than WikiLeaks ever could as well.

Then the suggestion was made that the information divulged by WikiLeaks created danger for certain Americans (and associates) doing foreign duty.  Well, let me remind you that Dick Cheney (more than likely with the full knowledge – and possibly consent of GW) outed a covert CIA agent who was, ironically, charged (in her job) with gaining secret information on the capability of the Iranians to build a nuclear weapon.  Her husband had written an Op-Ed for the New York Times exposing the Bush/Cheney LIE that Saddam Hussein had obtained 500 tons of yellow cake uranium from Niger in Africa – the claim which led to the famous statement by GW Bush in the State of the Union address, “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” followed by Condoleeza Rice saying, “The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly Saddam can acquire nuclear weapons.  But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud” – leading the American public to infer that Iraq was a nuclear threat to the United States.  Valerie Plame Wilson’s husband Joe, a former ambassador to Niger (and former republican), traveled to Niger and proved the document Bush/Cheney used to support their claim was a forgery.  In response to Wilson’s “outing” their LIE Cheney and company decided to “out” Plame (Wilson) – who had a network of associates set up around the world for the purpose of gathering information about Iran’s nuclear program.  We have no idea how many CIA operatives were put in danger from Plame (Wilson) becoming a public figure but, I think you can see that Obama/Holder chose to “look the other way” for this transgression and are NOW agressively pursuing Assange.  I really do find that curious.

There’s more!  The Bush administration routinely REFUSED to answer subpoenas issued by Congress, they blocked court proceedings through abuse of the “States Secrets privilege,” they TOTALLY politicized the Justice Department – going so far as to require a loyalty oath to the republican party for new hires (that’s clearly illegal – not to mention the long term damage to the nation having partisan U.S. attorneys), and they targeted political “foes” with fabricated prosecutions.  Karl Rove even managed to prevent a political opponent in Alabama, Don Siegelman, from running for re-election as governor by having political cronies prosecute him on trumped up charges where he actually was jailed (that is a whole story on its own merits – google seigelman if you’re interested).  This country will not stand if the Justice Department loses credibility with the public (which is why I’m so disappointed in Holder).  There should have been investigations of Rove, Alberto Gonzales (do you remember him LYING profusely before Congress with nary a whimper once Holder took over the department – despite Gonzales committing unquestioned PERJURY)

How about all the illegal warrantless wiretapping?  Now we’re talking about felonius violations of Americans’ constitutional rights.  The FISA law was put into place after the actions of the last OVERTLY criminal republican administration of Richard Nixon.  It took a lot of work to get that law in place and it was a comforting thought that my government couldn’t “eavesdrop” on the conversations of her citizens without “probable cause” and a warrant.  George W Bush/Dick Cheney very ARROGANTLY changed all that – and, by their INACTIONS once in office Barack Obama and Eric Holder essentially endorsed the lawbreaking.  In fact, my first “red flag” with Obama was when he voted for the Telecoms in the FISA legislation during the campaign – after he had already defeated Hillary Clinton, so it was too late for people like me to change our votes – despite his speeches which I felt were contrary to that vote.  I actually wrote an extended letter to him at the time and got a reponse that “guaranteed” he would “fix” the legislation once in office.  I’m honestly not convinced to this day that Obama’s NSA is not doing the same “data mining” Bush’s was – knowingly and condoning it.

We have private armies in various places around the world randomly killing civilians while on America’s payroll, 29 miners in West Virginia and 11 Oil Rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico are dead due to lax oversight from federal agencies during the Bush/Cheney reign – and, we’re going after Assange for exposing our government for what it apparently is.  If you put all of this together, I hope you can agree that the Obama administration needs to get its head on straight.  This continual lack of gumption in regard to leadership and the chasm between republicans and democrats is leading America into an abiss.  Whether those of us on the left like it or not, we are depending on Barack Obama to lead the fight against the corporate takeover of our government backed by the republican party.  In my mind, Obama and Holder should be prosecuting Bush/Cheney et al instead of Julian Assange.  It was the Bush administration which damaged the prestige of America and put many lives at risk.  Isn’t it about time we, as Americans, stopped allowing our government to find scapegoats for the TRUTH about their actions?

As I shared in my previous post I recently finished reading “The Family” by Jeff Sharlet which was an “eye opening” book, to say the least.  Now, I’m well into “Washington Rules” by Andrew J. Bacevich which is popping my eyes even open WIDER!  Much of what has been bothering me since I started reading everything I could get my hands on regarding the “wars” in Iraq and Afganistan along with the other “doings” perpetrated by the government of the country I love is becoming a bit less foggy.  I’ve been railing against some “invisible force” which apparently lies behind the republican “talking heads,” the “tea party,” and – unfortunately, too many of the opposing democrats.  I noticed almost from the beginning of the Obama administration that the fundamentals of our government were changing very little if at all after his election.  I didn’t understand how “the change we can believe in” could be orchestrated by the very same individuals (or their compatriots) who had created what appeared to me to be the worst set of circumstances this country faced since the Great Depression (and considering the “occupations” of Iraq and Afganistan which have become out of favor with the public dialogue – maybe worse than the 1930’s – the jury is still out on that one).

This is not to say that I don’t believe President Obama means well – for me, the jury’s still out on that one.  I want to be totally naive and just assume he meant everything he said during the campaign, but the is obviously ………well, naive.  I mean, there have already been many HUGE issues which would tend to imply that our president was just very eloquently telling us on the “left” what we wanted to hear.  OK, I can live with that – that’s been American politics since before I started voting (my awareness of politics that is) and probably for a LOT longer.  However, the cynicism is continuing to rise among those I feel aligned with and it’s not as if we feel a sense of relief at this piont having Obama as president.  When George W Bush and Dick Cheney were president we knew pretty much what we were getting.  I watched (and listened) in disbelief as Bush/Cheney gutted America’s treasury for starters, then stretched America’s military to the breaking point (all on borrowed money – all the while asking the rest of us to “keep shopping”), and let our economy into an abiss that may take decades to recover from.  Both Bush and Cheney admitted on national TV to authorizing TORTURE, their underlings refused to honor congressional subpoenas, Cheney outed a CIA agent in retrobution for her husband telling the truth about Iraq, Bush/Cheney/Rove undermined the integrity of the Justice Department, and the Bush/Cheney regime authorized multiple (we don’t know how many because of the lack of investigation) violations of the FISA laws against warrantless wiretapping of American citizens.  Bush and Cheney used presidential signing statements and the “States Secret Privilege” to get around accountability for their arrogant disregard for the will of the congress and the American people.  All of it was astonishing, but none of it was surprising!

That all being said, I’ve gone off endlessly about how I fail to understand why the Obama administration took NO ACTION against Bush and company – not even from a “truth commission” standpoint to uncover all the wrongs committed during the eight years they controlled the White House.  Unfortunately, after reading these two books the “picture” is getting a bit clearer – by inference – because NOBODY even wants to talk about all this – and, in this case I’m talking about the Obama administration.  Remember, Rahm Emanuel’s response to people like me was to call us “f___ing retards.”  I remember at the time pointing out the day will come when people will realize who the “retard” really was.  I don’t think there’s any doubt that Emanuel left Washington DC with “his tail between his legs.”  So, then I’m hoping that President Obama realized he had “hitched his wagon” to a Washington insider who could be considered a “thug” almost as much as the republicans.  But, watching what has happened since the mid-term elections has me on “pause” again.  Is this president going to endlessly make a fool of himself kissing up to republicans?  When will he realize that the only way to deal with these people is through confrontation.  All of the “distractions” Obama was trying to avoid by pardoning Bush/Cheney are INEVITABLE!  Either our president puts up the “fight” virtually EVERYONE on the left is waiting for, or we all (those of us calling ourselves liberals, progressives, or whatever) lose.  (and, by lose, I mean we’ll have to regroup and plan for THE “fight” at another day with another leader – BECAUSE  unfortunately, you MUST have a leader to carry out the necessary “fight”)

So, then the question becomes; why is our president and the democratic party so reluctant to take on the republicans?  Have they all been bought and sold?  After reading “The Family” I’m inclined to believe that enough of them have been “bought and sold” that the answer to that last question is a resoundingly DISGUSTING yes!  You really need to read the book, but essentially an (originally) small group of fundamentalist Christians who were philosophically aligned with people like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, and other authoritarian figures began infiltrating the anti New Deal factions of our government and business community since the first days of Roosevelt’s era.  These people – although remaining in “secret” for most of the time since then – have a discoverable history of racism (some of their original foreign “connections” were refugees of Hitler’s Third Reich), anti union ism (big time), anti anything that propelled the American Middle Class to be the envy of the entire world.  They work behind the scenes and in small “cells” which are scattered all over America and the rest of the world.  In fact, as I shared in my previous post, one of there “recruits” was Suharno of Indonesia – with NO REGARD for the FACT he was a MASS MURDERER in his own country – with the blood of at least HALF A MILLION people on his hands.  They admired his authoritarian skill – to the point of actually inviting him to Washington to “hob nob” with their political connections.

There is also a discoverable association with the “Family” and the American CIA and the CIA’s involvement in the overthrow of democratically elected governments in South America and elsewhere.  Salvadore Allende was overthrown in Chile by a CIA backed coup resulting in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet who was a murdering thug – killing untold thousands of his own people to retain power with the support of the United States and the “Family” which, by that time was thoroughly entrenched in encouraging America’s exploitation of one country after another in the name of “fighting communism.”  These people were undoubtedly involved in the overthrow of the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran for the dreaded Shah of Iran who was ultimately thrown out during Jimmy Carter’s presidency leading up to the hostage crisis leading to Carter’s undoing (and, unfortunately Reagan’s doings!).  They orchestrated a coup in Guatemala which, true to form, ousted a democratically elected government in favor of giving control of the government to a military junta which was more in “favor” with the US.  This crap has been going on since the inception of the CIA in the early fifties and the “Family” has been, secretly, right in the thick of it all along the way.

Why (and how) is all this happening (has it been happening)?  Well, the simple explanation to me is that the multi-national corporations which were overtly “controlled” with regulations after the first Great Depression (do you think I’m anticipating something?) were able to virtually ignore the regulations imposed after the 1929 “Crash” or “work around them” in their global search for MORE AND MORE profits!  It was oil in Iran, copper in Chile, and who knows what in all the other places where America’s secret “enforcers” were manipulating events in order to allow her corporate interests to rob  country after country of its national treasures.  Why else would we care who the Guatemalan’s or the Chilean’s would elect as governments?  Why were we unhappy with the FACT they were ELECTING governments?  Was there some unwritten code somewhere that they had to elect governments that we approved?  Well, unfortunately, I believe the answer to that question is another resounding YES! 

Prior to the “Great Depression” corporate greed and profit motives were out of control – very similarly to what is happening today.  I keep thinking about how, according to most accounts, Hank Paulsen “headed off” another Great Depression with the TARP bailout – how, people said we had learned from the last depression how to avoid the next one – which may or may not prove to be true.  But, the ironic part of that “theory” to me is that I believe the corporations learned how to head off the retaliatory regulating when their greed got so out of control that it “melted” the entire economy so that – instead of taking 50 years to reverse the effects of the next “New Deal” their plan, all along, was to undermine EVERYTHING Obama, or whoever was elected in 2008, attempted to do and therefore face only a four year struggle in which to regain power and continue their pillaging of the American Treasury.  This time (2008 as opposed to 1929), they have control of the media and the Supreme Court – a very nicely thought out plan – and, based on the midterm elections – it looks to me as if their plan may work (that, of course, is an admission that the American public is willingly uninformed).  Members of the “Family” have been calculating on a “Nazi-like” electorate voting in a democratically elected dictatorship for years(Rove’s “permanent republican majority”) – and, I believe that now they feel they can see the “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Back to our democrats who, for those of us who are seeing this disaster on the horizon, we are forced to depend on to change the direction of the “ship,” I ask myself again (and often each day) why are they allowing this to happen?  Well, the truth is that there are democrats living in the “C” street house (home of the “Family” members of congress – Ben Nelson of Nebraska is one I know about), there are an unknown (to me) number of democrats participating in the “Family’s” “prayer cells,” and it seems as if every politician who wishes the national stage MUST participate in the “national prayer breakfast” (whether innocently or not – they are then in “cahoots” with the “Family”).  The “Family” is connected to MANY MAJOR corporate heads who are funneling money to the politicians and their agenda is very republican like.  I’m just saying that the lack of will to “fight” the republican agenda on the part of democrats is UNBELIEVABLE to me.

As I’m writing this, there is a looming “showdown” on capital hill.  The republicans are willing to stop EVERYTHING – including an extension of unemployment benefits for the so-called “99ers” who’ve been out of work for over two years unless the democrats “cave” on their “Bush tax cuts for the rich.”  Meaning, the republicans don’t want the tax cuts for those making over $250,000 to revert to the same levels they were at under Bill Clinton (39% as opposed to 35%) – which means another $700 BILLION of debt over the next decade.  The republicans are balking on spending $18 BILLION for unemployed workers who are simply hanging on by their fingertips to their homes and what dignity they have left.  This is so UN AMERICAN to me that I can’t even believe it’s happening.  But, you have to keep in mind, the republicans are secretly supported and “pushed” by members of the “Family,” and these people opposed unemployment benefits in the 30’s when they were first proposed.  They opposed the formation of labor unions and have been trying to eliminate them ever since.  They are opposed to Social Security (in fact, they’re trying to get their grimy hands on the Social Security trust fund as I’m typing this – have been for years) and Medicare – their (the republicans with “Family” support) Medicare bill during the Bush/Cheney era was designed to ultimately “break” Medicare – they HATE all government run programs.  Hense, we have private contractors almost fighting our wars at this point – think about that one carefully!  Here’s my fear – Obama and the democrats are going to cave on the tax cuts – Obama thinking he will finally have bipartisanship will be writing his own political obituary should he do so.  We will be in for two years that will be worse than the last two years of Bush/Cheney.

I’m going to end this tirade by questioning, AGAIN, how I’m struggling to understand why President Obama is having such a difficult time processing all of this.  Every which way he turns he’s being undercut by republicans – yet, he continues “reaching out.”  I read “Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward and it’s very clear that even the top Generals in America’s Military are playing politics with out president.  They backed him into a corner on both Iraq and Afganistan – and, considering the weakness of the economy and the battle over health care reform, I believe Obama took the easy way out on these wars.  No American president has been willing to “take on” the “military industrial complex” in my lifetime, and I guess President Obama won’t be the first.  It’s like we are military JUNKIES and, as a nation, we’re willing to spend whatever it takes to make us feel as if we have enough fire power to incinerate the world many times over to express our “manhood.”  I honestly thought that, at the very least, when Obama took office the military decisions would be “out of the box” – but, as it turned out, the generals prevailed.  It would take a lot of courage to say no to someone like David Patreaus because he’s been cannonized by the likes of Fox “news” and other right wing media types – but, in reading Woodward’s book you can see him for the manipulating and ambitious person that he is (it wouldn’t surprise me to see him running for the republican nomination in 2012).  Endless wars benefit in a HUGE financial way the very people the “Family” are affiliated with, and those people send hundreds of MILLIONS to our congressional “leaders” in order to maintain the “status qu0.”  It will take “leaders” free of this financial indebtedness to the CEO’s and other wealthy business people and world leaders who fund the “Family” to reverse this right wing onslaught of our govenrment.  Two years ago I thought then President Elect Obama was the man for the job, but as we approach 2011 I have my serious doubts.  I can’t help but wonder whether or not the “Family” has infiltrated Obama’s White House and that’s why he’s constantly kissing up to republicans.  The “Family” has been “eating away” at the fundamental core of America since the days of the New Deal and, why democrats can’t see that is beyond me.  The right wing of the republican party (which includes “The Family”) is trying to create an “Us and them” society!  (And, for those of you over 65 out there who voted for “tea partiers” and republicans in the last election – just wait until these people get ahold of your Social Security trust fund! – that’s looming on the horizon)

 Word of the Week: “uncertainty”  – A classic example of the republicans Nazi – like propaganda machine.  I’ve heard at least half a dozen republican pundits spewing the EXACT same line regarding the “uncertainty” which is causing business to hold onto their TRILLIONS of profits instead of hiring new workers.  What is this “uncertainty” in regards to?  EXTENDING THE “BUSH TAX CUTS”

One More Thing:  Am I the only one who finds it interesting that Eric Holder, America’s Attorney General who reminds me of the lion in the Wizard of Oz, couldn’t manage the guts to investigate George W Bush and Dick Cheney (et al) – BOTH admittedly authorizing TORTURE – or Eric Cantor who PUBLICLY violated the Logan Act (an act of treason and a felony) when he assured the Prime Minister of Israel that “the republicans have his back” in any dispute with the Obama administration – yet, he’s publicly and openly “investigating” the “WIKI LEAKS” which simply tell the truth about what our government has been up to lately?

I’ve been writing about some mysterious group of “invisible” people pushing the republican agenda for several years now.  Recently I started reading a book by Jeff Sharlet called “The Family” which I’m feeling should be required reading for all American adults.  I remember Sharlet being interviewed on MSNBC right after the book came out, but he’s been notoriously silent since then.  I’m beginning to wonder if the very topic he’s writing about has an influence on why his findings are not more “in the news” (as the news exists these days).  Let me preface everything I write this evening with the FACT that I’m a Christian who feels a personal connection to God through Jesus Christ.  That said, it has bothered me more, I believe, because I am a Christian as I see one person after another justifying HORRIBLE actions of our government on their belief in Jesus.  And, when you read this book, you get an even scarier picture of how serious is the “clamp” a group of radical fundamentalist Christians have on the doings of America’s government.

I’ve read two of Frank Shaffer’s books which expose the hypocrisy of many on the so-called “Christian right.”  Shaffer was at the forefront of the time when the Evangelical Christian movement was suckered into joining forces with the republican party thinking this would be the end of “Roe v Wade.”  There’s been this “bond” between republicans and Christians (which I’ve struggled to understand) ever since.  Here’s another of the scary parts to this scenario.  John Dean wrote in his book “Conservatives without Conscience” (writing about republicans in the Bush/Cheney administration who were more abusive to America’s laws and traditions than Nixon – essentially committing unconscionable acts) that many of the people “following” them were “blindly” loyal.  That is, they were believing all the lies without the slightest thought regarding questioning information being broadcast in ways similar to some of the worst regimes in the World’s history.  That would be painfully obvious to someone like me who is watching in wonder as the “tea party” complains about government abuse, corporate abuse, and essentially an abuse of the constitution that has brought this great nation through well over 200 years of struggle as of this writing – then they join forces with the republican party – the main source of the abuses – in the previous election as a revolt against the “system” with a demand for “change.”  (Of course, from my perspective, why would you join forces with the people who are the catalyst for the very things you’re complaining about and think you would bring about change?)  America itself is looking STUPID right now!

Things are really messed up and it’s difficult to figure out why.  However, as I’m reading Sharlet’s book the picture is becoming much more clear.  The “Family” is a group of – as mentioned above – radical fundamentalist Christians who run a house occupied by conservative members of Congress called “C” street in Washington DC.  They also have other “outposts” around our nation’s capital to promote their BRAINWASHING of prospective “Family members,”  plus, they have “cells” all around the world which are occupied by some of the most powerful people in some of the less desirable locations – including some of the most powerful Americans.  I could give you the list, but it’s long, it’s sobering (almost depressing), and it includes people you wouldn’t imagine being part of this group (including Hillary Clinton – I’m guessing Clinton is a “fringe” participant and is unaware of some of the basics of this group – at least I’m hoping that’s the case).

Publicly, these people are all about prayer.  In fact, their main OVERT activity is the national day of prayer which seems to be a regular part of every American politician who wants to be seen on a national level.  Sharlet’s book is a couple years old, but it would not surprise me if Barack Obama wasn’t participating in their prayer breakfast during the national day of prayer.  This all sounds great to us Christians, until you start to look under the surface.  Then it gets REALLY ugly!  The group’s leader, Doug Coe, has been traveling worldwide making alliances with persons in power for something like 40 years now (he’s the second person to head this group which began prior to the Great Depression).  These people (the “Family”) have, on many occasions, expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and other authoritarian personalities throughout history as examples to base their philosophy on.  They are not working toward “saving” the “little people,” (like me) they’re focused on the power brokers.  They claim they’re not in it for the money, but when you take a close look at their property and their travel schedules, you realize this is a BIG MONEY operation.  And, it’s all done in secret, and I’m guessing it’s all done without any connection to the IRS – the “Family” is – I’m assuming – considered a “CHURCH” – and, those in Washington DC have to know what is going on there, and they seem to think it’s OK. (which is a scary thought in it’s own right – it’s almost as if the “Family” members are daring our government to try to stop them)

These people not only admire the Nazi’s, they have a direct connection to those members of the Nazi party who were “left behind” in Germany after World War II.  In fact, in one part of the book Sharlet points out how Coe’s mentor, the original “Family” member (referred to as “Abram”) was involved with helping Nazi’s avoid prosecution after the War – then bringing them into the “Family.”  Coe made a connection to Indonesia’s dictator Suharno in the 1970’s and despite Suharno committing HUNDRED’S OF THOUSHANDS of murders, Coe welcomed him into the group – evidently admiring his philosophy on “power.”  The “Family” has a history of being involved in several of the South American tragedies where American forces facilitated coups to overthrow democratically elected governments because they were too “leftist.”  They seem to look upon the MILLIONS murdered by right wing dictators they’ve welcomed into their midst as simply “collateral damage” – claiming many were “communists” so they deserved to be killed.  What are their plans for those of us on the left in America?  As I’m reading this book I can see the “Family” is an integral part of the “invisible” force which has been dragging America to the right for the past 30+ years. 

Actually, the “Family” has been “at it” since the days of FDR.  (I’ve just been paying attention since Ronald Reagan was elected – you can bet he was part of this conspiracy)  They are among the most avid “haters” of the New Deal.  If you’ve been wondering why so many republicans are dead set on reversing the New Deal, a big reason is because the “Family” has a tight grip on the republican party.  One of the main members of “C” Street is Jim DeMint, the unabashedly racist Senator from South Carolina.  Last year I saw him at a “tea party” rally, standing right in front of a person carrying a sign depicting President Obama as a monkey with a bone through his nose and another sign which read “Kenya has an African Lion, the White House has a lying African” – and DeMint called the people patriots!  (there were plenty more racists signs within clear eyesight of DeMint – his message was just as clear)  These people could care less what’s best for the average American, they are all about power.  DeMint will always be famous for “admitting” the republicans wanted to cause Obama’s “Waterloo” right on the Senate floor.  People like DeMint are supposed to be governing, not doing everything they can to cause government to “FAIL” – and, in this case, for obviously racial motives.

53% of the American people voted for President Obama and you would have thought that he would get an opportunity to put in place the issues he ran on.  However, he came under attack from the day he was elected by the same people who relentlessly were “on” President Bill Clinton for the eight years of his administration.  Personally, I thought Obama would understand what was coming but it appears he didn’t – I’ve posted about that many times prior to tonight and you can check the archives if you’re interested.  Obama is essentially doing everything the republicans (and the “Family”) anticipated when he was elected, making their job all the easier.  The truth is that the republican party – with the “blessing” of the “Family” (meant as a pun) – have their eyes set on creating an authoritarian regime – the permanent republican majority that Bush/Cheney screwed up – that is elected by the unsuspecting public.  As mentioned above, they have a voting block of “conservative Christians” who vote for them blindly – not even thinking of all the un-Christian things they’re doing – the republicans can count on about 35% of the public voting for them NO MATTER WHAT THEY STAND FOR.  (as Shaffer so eloquently points out, these Christians still believe the republicans are opposed to abortion)  I personally have aquaintences I can’t even talk to anymore because they have been so completely taken in by the propaganda – spread by the likes of Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Hannity, O’Reilly and the many others who are part of this conspiracy to repeal the New Deal.

Again, these people don’t believe in democracy, they believe in authoritarian power.  It’s ironic how they accuse Obama and other democrats of being “fascists” or “communists” or “socialists” or others that they actually secretly admire for the manner in which they obtained and maintained power.  You might be wondering how pervasive is this group?  Well, that’s a hard one for me to quantify at this point in time.  However, I can say after reading most of Sharlet’s book and putting “two plus two” together, the conclusion is a bit alarming.  Sharlet talks about how the evidence he uncovered – and, I guess at this point I need to say that Sharlet was a “brother” at a place called “Ivanworld” which is one of the “Family’s” properties in Washington DC and he managed to get a good look into their archives – so his information comes right out of the written archives of the group itself – the evidence shows there are “cells” of prayer groups all over the world and they include corporate CEO’s, heads of state, governors, senators, congressmen/women, and other rich and famous people – the “Family” targets  successful people (and, not just Americans for those of you wondering if “foreigners” are participating in our electoral process via “Citizens United,” read this book and you’ll no longer have a single doubt) – kind of the “trickle down theory” without the trickle down.

What could all this mean?  (in particular, if the “left” figures this out and fights back)  Well, let me refresh your memory (and mine) about a few of my concerns over the previous 3 – 4 years of writing on this blog.  Do you remember Blackwater?  Well, there is no doubt in my mind that Eric Prince, the founder and (former, I think – I believe he’s moved his family to Abu Dhabi to “get a break from America” – maybe avoid investigations?) CEO of Blackwater is part of this group.  He’s not mentioned in the book to the point I’ve read, but I believe it’s true.  Prince, as I stated well over a year ago was involved in a “cell” with the likes of James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and a few others of the “conservative Christian” movement who were contemplating a “coup” in America during the Clinton presidency.  Probably unrealistic then, but less unrealistic now considering that Prince’s company – now called Xe services (to avoid the bad name Blackwater gained from murdering scores of Iraqi’s – and others) – is like a MAJOR private army.  They’ve got their own air force and navy.  They’ve managed to infiltrate the intelligence structure in America and – as I’ve been saying for some time – they are VERY dangerous!  Their mercenaries consist of some of the baddest soldiers for hire in the world – many coming from different countries in South America where they’ve been fighting guerilla warfare for generations.  I have no doubt that Blackwater and the “Family” are “connected at the hip.”

Then there’s people like Chuck Norris of “Walker Texas Ranger” fame – who was following Mike Huckabee around during the last election like a puppy dog.  If you don’t remember, Huckabee was the darling of the religious “right” until he made some comments that were so “off the wall” that his candidacy fell into the also ran category.  Huckabee seemed like an OK guy to me, but certainly not qualified to “right the ship” in America under the circumstances which existed during the last year of the Bush/Cheney nightmare.  Well, the reason I bring up Norris is because his racist nature came out full force once we had an African American in the “White House” and I will never forget listening to him claim that “if things get any worse” (he was apparently talking about the FACT America had elected a Black President) “there are thousands of armed cells around the country ready for a second American Revolution.”  He went on to suggest that Texas should suceed from the union and he was thinking of running for “president of Texas.”  OK, Norris proved himself to be just another of the thoughtless nutjobs out there fueling things like the “tea party” and other right wing fanatical organizations but he was promoting sedition and, like with many others in this “movement,” almost daring the government to stop them.  All of this being funded by the would be corporatocracy which leads us back to the Nazi references made in the Sharlet book toward the fundamental beliefs of those at the “helm” of the “Family.”

This is all very unnerving to me.  I keep hoping that I’m becoming just as much a “nutjob” as the people I’m concerned about.  However, the more I read about what’s going on under the surface in Washington DC, the more I’m reminded of the saying “Be afraid, be very afraid.”  Who am I afraid for?  As I’ve stated many times on this site, I’m afraid for my children and grandchildren.  I really don’t want to leave them a country that is a global poriah, a country that is under the control of a fascist corporatocracy, a country that is militaristically overextended beyond belief and seeking MORE, and a country that has abandoned the very beliefs which made it a great nation in the first place.  America is the target of the rich and powerful because of it’s great wealth and history.  The sad reality here is that America’s voting public is appearing to be amongst the most uninformed in the “free world.”  The “Family” and those they are associated with have been working on their scheme to overturn the New Deal since the 1930’s.  Their plan is gaining momentum, largely because of democrats who are either part of the problem or don’t “get it.”  I’m still trying to figure out which part of that puzzle President Obama fits into.  Certainly, I hope it’s the latter.  I hope he’s genuine in his desire for “bipartisanship” despite the sad reality that it is allowing the republicans to walk all over him.  If that’s the case, then there’s still time for a real “change we can believe in.”  And, that would be to lead the FIGHT against this force.  If it’s the former, then we are all in trouble.

Someone is going to have to be the “leader” here.  And, the fight is going to be difficult and it’s going to take several years.  The first step will be to work on changing the public’s perception of these right wing thugs who are stealing our treasury blind and threatening the very fabric of what made America great.  The New Deal was the driving force which created the greatest middle class in the history of the world.  It is under unbelievable assault – and, remember, FDR was fighting the SAME FIGHT and the same GREEDY corporatists we need to be FIGHTING today – except that this time those on the other side have gained control of the “mainstream” media and the Supreme Court.  They are controlling the message and the democrats are BADLY losing that battle.  I believe the American people ( a significant majority) are longing for someone to lead the charge to ACTUALLY change the climate in Washington.  Obviously, President Obama is not “getting” that.  A big part of the challenge will be people who have access to the public airwaves exposing groups like the “Family” and reporters “digging” into the “Family’s” past and present to let the American people know what they’re really up against.  I applaud Sharlet for his book, I suggest you read it if any of this post rings a “bell” with you.  How can the American voters support people who profess to be Christians but look up to Hitler and the Nazi’s when deciding how to guide their “Family?”  The “invisible” force behind the right wing extremism in the republican party could well be Doug Coe and the “Family.”  It’s time the “fourth estate” exposes them for what they really are.

I continue to wait for that LEADER to emerge from the “left” who has the guts to take on the establishment which is becoming even more entrenched as I write this piece.  Not only am I seeing more signs of democrats “caving” into republican whims, but I’m also seeing almost frightening signs of the democrats anxiety about holding republicans accountable for their misdeeds – which are probably felonies, but I guess we’ll never know because our policy since the election of Barack Obama is to “look forward instead of back.”  That policy led to Obama essentially pardoning the Bush/Cheney administrtation for illegal wiretapping, outing a CIA agent, politicizing the Justice Department, refusing to answer subpoenas to congress, initiating an illegal and unwarranted WAR, and authorizing TORTURE – just to mention the most noticeable transgressions.  So, I guess it will be no surprise when Eric Cantor is allowed to BLATANTLY violate the Logan Act by ASSURING the Prime Minister of Israel that he will make sure the republican congress sides with Israel AGAINST a sitting US President in American foreign policy.  His exact words were that the republcan congress would act as a “check” on the policies of the Obama administration.  Translated, that means Cantor is assuring Israel that the republicans will continue to do everything they can to undermine Obama and he’s assuring Netanyahu (Israel’s PM) they’ll support Israel in any dispute because ” the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.” (which is total Bull S#@% on it’s face – we would be just fine without Israel!)

Are these republicans going to continue DARING Obama to “man up” until he actually takes bold, firm action?  Are they indirectly trying to help him gather the courage necessary to do this job?  I’m not sure, but it’s WAY PAST the time to DRAW THE LINE!  Let me quote the website “Media with a Conscience” – “What Eric Cantor did on November 10th was illegal. He broke the law. The Law he boasted about violating is known as the Logan Act. This act makes it a felony for an American citizen ‘without authority of the United States’ to interact ‘with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof’ with the intent to influence that government’s behavior on any disputes with the United States.”  This is the same Eric Cantor who claimed Nancy Pelosi should be subject to the Logan Act in 2007 when she met with President Assad of Syria (with the full knowledge of and approval of the US State Department).  She made no offers to Assad regarding disputes with America – therefore OK – and Cantor’s visit with Netanyahu was without any official sanction whatsoever – therefore a felony!  Simply put, he was simply blowing off his mouth and making an already EXTREMELY difficult situation (which was made unbelievably difficult by the actions of the previous republican administration) even MORE difficult (which hardly seems possible).  I believe you could go so far as to call Cantor’s actions TREASONOUS!

Hillary Clinton and President Obama have been gallantly trying to rejuvenate the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.  What might the damage done by Cantor be – who knows?  But, just the idea that these republican leaders continue to brazenly try to undermine a sitting U.S. President is getting a bit too much for me.  Personally, I care too much for the future of my children and grandchildren to think that destroying this nation so we can be assured we won’t have another Black President anytime soon is an acceptable political strategy ….. obviously, those affiliated with Cantor, Beck, Limbaugh, etc. would disagree!  Come on now, I’m not at all that happy with a lot of what Obama is doing, but I still believe in the process and I believe we are “a nation of laws and not men.”  My deepest disappointment in Obama was his pardoning of Bush/Cheney.  Because of that we’ll never know much of the mischief they were up to.  We’ve already had a major mine disaster and major oil spill that trace right back to the lax regulatory policies of Bush/Cheney, our former president is selling his book by BRAGGING that he authorized WATERBOARDING and that it was legal because some hand picked lawyer told him so, and now we have Cantor assuring Israel that the republicans have their “backs” in any dispute with the president – the man they are going to make sure FAILS!  Is this all a bad dream?  Can this be happening in America?

Here’s what is likely to be continued frustration for the rest of the year.  Remember, until January the democrats STILL have a significant majority in congress.  There is a lot they could get done which would make up for some of the timid behavior of the past 4 years.  However, I honestly don’t think they have it in them.  I’m beginning to think that the demcrats in congress need to be replaced – and, as I stated in my previous post – if Obama “caves” on the “Bush Tax Cuts” which is seeming more and more possible each passing day – the democrats need to find another nominee in 2012.  What could they do you ask?  Well, for starters, they could MAKE SURE that the 99ers are taken care of.  The unemployment benefits for those unable to find work for the past two years is running out.  And, despite Sharron Angle’s claims to the contrary, most of these people aren’t NOT working because they’re lazy – the truth is they can’t find work.  They need support which would include extended benefits and retraining in many instances.

Then there’s the so-called “Bush Tax Cuts.”  As I’ve been stating since Obama took office, I believe they should have been repealed – ALL OF THEM!  I “get” why they don’t want to repeal the tax cuts which affect people like me – I spend the money, it puts money into the economy and due to our economy being consumer driven, it’s important that consumers have money to spend.  However, I’m really tired of the “right wingers” clamoring for more tax cuts and at the same time complaining about the deficit.  The Bush Tax Cuts were instrumental in creating the HUGE deficits of the past 10 years.  If you’re reading this I don’t have to remind you that Bush’s tax cuts took a 250 BILLION dollar surplus and almost instantaneously turned it into the largest annual budget deficits in the history of this nation!  To top it off, Bush/Cheney BORROWED every cent for the Iraq and Afganistan occupations and kept almost $200 BILLION off the books each year by using supplemental budget requests.  The reality was that Bush/Cheney STUCK Barack Obama with a $1.2 TRILLION annual deficit when he took office and an economy making deficit reduction nearly impossible without exacerbating the “Great Recession” Obama inherited.  The Bush Tax Cuts and the Wars in Iraq and Afganistan account for more than 50% of the record deficits and I, for one, would welcome the president eliminating all three albatrosses – although it is apparent he’s not going to do any of the “above” any time soon.  Therefore, the “progressive” hope has to be that he holds firm on eliminating the tax cuts “for the rich.”  (that is, those making in excess of $250,000 individually or $500,000 as a couple)  I’ve heard estimates as high as 80% of Americans favoring allowing the top tax rate to return to where they were under the Clinton administration, but, then, over 70% of America favored a PUBLIC OPTION in the healthcare reform debate, and Obama caved on that one.  The reality is that the republicans are going to FIGHT for those “tax cuts for the rich” even at the expense of eliminating the middle class Bush tax cuts – we’re fast approaching the moment of truth for Obama.  (The republicans have been proving for the past two years they can control Washington’s agenda whether in “power” or not)

Of course, the republicans will attempt to switch the debate to Obama RAISING TAXES on the middle class if he doesn’t cave – and they do have control of America’s “liberal media” – which is what I believe Obama and the democrats fear (that’s a topic for another post) – but, don’t you think it’s time the democrats start putting their collective heads together and figure out how to outsmart the repuclicans and all their shills?  I believe there’s a pent up anticipation for the day when the democrats FINALLY throw down the gauntlett and shout out “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take this any more!”  The question then becomes, “what can they do?” to combat what will clearly be more republican obstructionism.  I say there’s a simple solution.  All funding issues begin in the House of Representatives which still has a significant democratic majority (until January) and ALL THEY HAVE TO DO is originate and pass a middle class tax cut in the House – which mirrors the so-called Bush tax cuts for those earning less than the above mentioned standard of $250,000 and send it to the senate.  Should the senate republicans choose to FILIBUSTER the bill, the democrats would have two options. 

First, (and the preferable one to me) would be to get out the cots and the TV cameras and force the republicans to do an old fashioned filibuster where they are forced to keep talking until they’re blue in the face – all the while in front of the American public which would be adversely affected if they would prevail (although, failure would considerably reduce the deficit) in stopping the “tax cuts for the middle class.”  And, the democrats would need to do a great job of framing the debate in exactly those words – the republicans blocking a tax cut for 98% of working Americans.  The second, and less favorable (to me) – but, probably more practical – option would be to pass the bill in the senate using reconciliation – EXACTLY how the republicans passed the initial Bush Tax Cuts in the first place.  Don’t even give them the option to vote on extending the tax cuts for those in the upper 2% of America’s workforce.  By taking this stand and forcing their will on this issue as a “parting shot” democrats could accomplish the most important success they need at this point in time.  They would be sending a message to their “base” that they are ready to do battle with the republicans and they “get” that the message from November 2nd isn’t for them to move even FARTHER to the “right” but, to begin the process of bringing America back toward the left where you’ll find her best years.  We need to strengthen America’s middle class before it’s too late.  For anyone who’s a baby boomer or older reading this – we’re fighting for our children’s and grandchildren’s futures.  We can’t allow this republican corporatocracy to return America to the days of the 1920’s when corporations and their elite feasted on the labor of America’s workers who were left with nothing but the scraps.  That situation is in NO ONE’S best interests – ultimately, even for the interests of the greedy corporate heads behind the repubican shills.

And this gets us back to republicans like Cantor who will do or say anything to gain “power” in their “cause.”  (whatever it might really be) These people have no scruples as to what comes out of their mouths – listen to a BUNCH of them on any particular day and you will hear the same CODE WORDS, designed to “catapult the propaganda” using the words of George W Bush, spewing from mulitiple mouths.  As if ten of them had the same crazy thought all at once.  They will push their agenda as far as the American public will allow, and listening to some of the “exit poll” data from November 2nd, they are effectively brainwashing America’s public.  It’s time for the battle to be “waged.”  The democrats really are looking like a bunch of whimps – and, as I’ve stated on this website many times – the one unforgivable trait for an American politician is showing “weakness.”  Bush/Cheney BLATANTLY violated one American law after another – confident the democrats didn’t have the guts to call them on it.  I thought Obama would surprise them – but, he surprised me and “looked forward.”  (in my mind, he looked the other way!)  Now, you’ve got a republican congressman committing what could arguably be called TREASON.  Here’s the reality as I see it, If Obama and the democrats allow Eric Cantor to BLATANTY violate the Logan Act without consequence we might as well look elsewhere for our leadership!  Nancy Pelosi took “impeachment off the table” when she took over as the Speaker of the House.  Do you really think the republicans will return the favor in kind?  The democrats “blinked” when investigations were warranted, now we’re about to get investigations on steroids in the republican controlled House exclusively aimed at undermining Obama’s Presidency.  Cantor’s actions, to me, are just one more example of republicans daring democrats to act like adults knowing ahead of time they don’t have what it takes to do so!

A few days ago I forced myself to watch a bit of Glenn Beck.  This was really hard for me.  It has become clear to me that he’s marching toward the head of the “pack” of the paid shills for whoever is behind this right wing corporate takeover that is continuing to gain steam in America.  I’ve long been writing about how it’s my belief it started (at least noticeably to me) during the days of Ronald Reagan.  I’m beginning to believe it started well before that, it’s just that Reagan was the perfect “actor” to take center stage in the White House to further “their” message – whoever “they” are.  Well, as irony would have it, there was Beck spewing out a theory – using puppets – that the “left wing conspiracy” was/is funded by George Soros (the main target of these projectionist nutjobs) – Soros supposedly acting behind the scenes and using different politicians and political commentators to further HIS message.  Soros, in the background, “pulling the strings” of these people on the front lines who are leading this country into some form of fascism (I couldn’t keep watching long enough to get all the details at this point – it was creepy)  This is CLASSIC on the part of Beck and his benefactors.  Accuse the opposition of EXACTLY what they, themselves, are doing in order to divert attention from their REAL goal – which is appearing more and more to be a fascist corporate takeover of our government.

Then, after thinking about what he was doing for a bit, it dawned on me that this is just another part of the right wing propaganda scheme that I’ve been railing about for years.  Essentially, Beck is saying the same thing I’ve been claiming – only he names the conspirator “behind the scenes.”  I have been unable to put a face to what is happening “behind the scenes” of the republican/right wing “conspiracy” – but, talk about your projection!  I keep wondering if Beck is just playing this devious game and he’s giving hints to the “left” as to what is REALLY happening to them – with some kind of huge bet somewhere as to if or when they are going to “get it.”  Beck has an arrogant confidence that by the time the “left” figures this out it will be too late.

The person I’ve heard with the best perspective on all of this is an auto mechanic, of all people, named Tom Dwyer in Portland, Oregon – who advertises on the local “progressive” radio station.  As I listen to him, I continually wonder – where are our leaders?  If auto mechanics and 6th grade teachers can figure out what’s going on, why can’t the democrats who are in leadership positions do the same?  I believe the answer to that question would be clear if we could simply “follow the money.”  Let me elaborate.  (I honestly believe there is a pent up desire in America to get behind whoever decides to stand tall against this “invisible” enemy – people, from “both sides of the isle,” feel “it” – it’s just hard to figure out what “it” is)

I will begin by reiterating what I’ve been saying for several years now.  We, in America, are at war.  And, the war which has the most profound influence on the future of this nation is not in Iraq or Afganistan, it’s right here at home.  It’s the WAR for the heart and soul of this nation.  I’ve gotten to the point where I’m almost obsessively consuming non-fiction books on how our government is functioning – I began reading about Iraq in 2004, then Afganistan, then the economy, and along the way several books opening my eyes to different inside aspects of how America is being governed.  I can tell you, the more I read, the more “chilling” it gets.  In fact, I’ve got to take a deep breath in an attempt to lay out a small portion of these thoughts in some kind of sequential order so that they make sense.  Let’s start with Barack Obama.

I got excited about a presidential candidate for the first time since RFK in the 2008 election.  I made a lot of assumptions as I supported Obama and, looking back, the “red flags” began prior to his election.  The first one was when he voted for immunity for the telecoms who were illegally wiretapping American citizens.  I was so upset about that one that I wrote a three page letter to Obama’s campaign staff.  I don’t remember if I got a direct response, but I do remember Obama promising to “fix” the “FISA” bill once in office.  One of many promises BROKEN!  To many on the “left” this didn’t appear to be too big a deal, but to me it was one of the first “hints” that Obama was more “republican-lite” than truly “progressive.” (can I use the word liberal here?)  later, as soon as I found out that President Obama was defending the Bush wiretapping in court, I knew this one was a lost cause – and, frankly, I was very surprised he didn’t get much “blowback” from the “left” for this.  Additionally, Obama was right in the thick of the TARP bailout – although, thankfully, that MUST be put on Bush and Paulsen.  I was OK with the government loaning GM and Chrysler money to save millions of blue collar jobs and an auto industry which was in danger, but allowing the Wall Street Banks to “get away” with risking this economy, and plundering TRILLIONS from America’s pension funds and taxpayers – with virtually NO accountability – was unthinkable to me.  Of course, we sent a message that not only are these Wall Street thugs “too big to fail” – but, they’re “too important to fail” and therefore the HUGE bonuses for ruining MILLIONS of Americans’ lives.  Remember, the CEO of GM was “canned” and the government took ownership subject to TARP money being paid back – not ONE Wall Street executive was fired from any of the “too big to fail” banks and the Obama administration clearly backed off “nationalizing” any of the banks.

I took Obama to be incredibly intelligent during the election (and, I still believe he is) but I had to wonder what he was thinking when he surrounded himself with Wall Street and Goldman Sachs alumni in his new administration.  I shuddered when it was announced Rahm Emanuel was to be his chief of staff and Obama kept in tact Bush’s “war machine” in the pentagon.  While I certainly prefer Secretary Gates over Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense – NEW BLOOD was needed.  How do you change a policy with the same people who created it?  This is the course President Obama chose for both the economy and the two UNWINNABLE wars he inherited.  Now, he – and the REST OF US – are paying a price for these (and some other curious) decisions.  The “tea party” has been energized and the – OK, I’m going to say it – liberals are TOTALLY turned of by our democratic president.  It was much easier for me to be disappointed with Bush/Cheney, because I didn’t expect any different.  However, the “change I could believe in” wasn’t republican-lite.

Obama and his supporters will point out all their “accomplishments” – which there are some notable examples – but, none of them have come without a significant “cost.”  Our president started by negotiating the “stimulus” package down to an amount that was sure to leave too many Americans unemployed in a futile attempt to get “bipartisanship.”  This created a lot of criticism from Obama’s own “base” because WE (I say “we” because I was pointing out the folly of a too small package before it was voted on myself) understood that the need was for more money aimed at creating jobs through rebuilding our infrastructure.  I honestly don’t understand how that couldn’t have been obvious to Obama and his advisors.  The president then gave away the ability to negotiate with “Big Pharma” before the health care legislation was even written – apparently, to avoid a fight – which didn’t end up being avoided.  It’s been one example of pandering to the “right” after another in his tenure in the White House – over and over to the dismay of LIBERALS (there, I said it) like me.  In fact, Emanuel – as I’ve pointed out here several times – referred to Obama’s liberal base as “f___ing retards.”

So, in an attempt to gain support among a bunch of republicans and racists who really do want someone “white” in the White House, President Obama has alienated much of his base.  And, now it’s being reported that Obama is willing to CAVE on the so-called “Bush taxcuts” because of this apparent republican “landslide” in the midterm election.  He still hasn’t figured out that there’s more of us than them – UNLESS we stay home on election day.  I’ve voted every election since 1968, but I’m really tiring of voting for the less of two “evils.”  President Obama is not convincing me – nor are a large protion of the democratic party – that if we truly “follow the money” from the corporate heads who want control of our government – that  much of the money won’t lead right back to the democratic party.  People are tired of what I call “half – legislation.”  That is, stuff that’s supposed to look good, but really is just more “business as usual.”

Before I lay back into the republicans, let me take the “health care reform” for example.  I’m trusting what I hear that there’s some good in the bill.  But, at this point, there’s NO CHANCE the “public option” will be part of the “reform” by the time everything “kicks in” (if it does kick in) – and, without that the problem is FAR FROM SOLVED!  It seems as if the people who recognize this reality the most are the potential supporters of the president.  Abandoning the public option, abandoning a sufficient stimulus package, abandoning strict Wall Street reform, refusing to hold anyone accountable for wrongdoing in the name of our government – all of this is DEFLATING Obama’s base.  And, he’d better figure this out before he does one more stupid thing.  The most recent rumor is that he’s going to cave on the “Bush tax cuts” and I’m predicting that if Obama signs a bill extending the tax cuts for the rich, he will be a one term president FOR SURE.  I will work to make sure he’s not nominated again if he does that.  My personal preference was for him to repeal all of the tax cuts (including those intended for me) once he took office.  Extending them will be political suicide for the president.

So, obviously, our president and the democrats are not without problems when we “follow the money.”  Their actions would indicate that they’ve bought the coolaid from the corporate heads as well – especially the “military industrial complex.”  But, they pale in the wake of what we just witnessed with the republicans and the “tea party.”  I’ve seen the figure $4 BILLION as the amount “invested” in the previous mid term election.  I presonally find that hard to believe.  And, I find it hard to believe that Americans of ALL political persuasions don’t care where the money came from.  The idea that BILLIONS are being spent from UNNAMED sources should get EVERYONE’S attention.  Do you really think that much of that money didn’t come from foreign “investors?”  I’m a little uneasy having Saudi Prince’s, Chinese business people, or business people from any country outside our borders “investing” in our politicians.  Is anyone here having trouble imagining why so many American manufacturing jobs are disappearing?  Does anyone besides me worry about our large corporations sharing their technology with countries like China and India – who don’t think twice about stealing the “secrets?”  Does anyone really believe that these people aren’t smart enough to take America’s trade secrets and turn them into future advantage?  It’s the same old make a dollar today at the expense of many dollars tomorrow approach to everything in America.

Getting back to Beck and his diabolical scheming to convince Americans that Obama is the fascist, he’s got unlimited funds coming from somewhere and people had better not continue looking the other way as he performs his duties.  This man is DANGEROUS!  He’s inciting unlimited numbers of Americians who believe he’s an honest commentator.  The divisiveness that is being driven by Beck, and some of the others such as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh – which is fueling the “tea party” movement, is reminiscent of former times in America – most recently in the 1920’s leading up to the Great Depression.  The parallels of the rise in corporate power, the HUGE desparity in wealth between the “rich” and the “poor,” and the greedy policies coming from Wall Street are earily similar to the “big crash” of 1929.

What’s even more scary to me is some of the inferences you can make about the republican party (and, unfortunately, some of the democrats as well).  I’m presently reading a book which is titled “The Family” by Jeff Sharlet.  The book describes a group of American leaders – mostly congress people – who are bonded through a fundamental extremist view of Christianity and who’s group history dates back to the 1930’s.  They have been funded by and have been supporting America’s corporate elite in a FIGHT against the New Deal policies of the Roosevelt era which brought the U.S. out of the Great Depression since Roosevelt’s first days in office.  Today’s version of this group are the ones accusing President Obama of being a fascist, yet the group is founded on principles espoused by Adolph Hitler himself.  The groups founder is quoted in the book several times as admiring the fascist governments of Germany and Italy.  Additionally, these people are grounded in a history of racism.  They have reached full steam ahead in the “right’s” overt attempt to ensure that President Obama fails.  We’ve heard the words from Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Beck, and most recently Mitch McConnell – the republican leader in the senate – publicly stated that the republicans NUMBER ONE goal is to make sure Obama is a one term president.  I’ve been following politics for a long time and there has been many major political differences among the parties in my lifetime, but I’ve never seen such an attempt to undermine a sitting president.  The bottom line is that we all succeed if the president succeeds.  Disagreement is one thing, purposely blocking every initiative in an attempt to destroy him is quite another.  (of course, Obama seems to be playing into their hands with his constant pandering – which wouldn’t seem so bad if 20 MILLION Americans weren’t unemployed or underemployed)

I invite anyone to read “The Family,” or to read Robert Reich’s “Aftershock,” or Kevin Phillips’ “Bad Money” and you will get a good view of the parallels between the corporate power grab of the 20’s and what is happening today.  The American people are proving to be poor students of history which is likely to sentence us all to repeating it – hence, another Great Depression.  That is my biggest disappointment from the recent turn of events on November 2nd.  The “tea party” professes to be a grass roots “populist” movement – but, they’re funded by some of the largest corporations in America and they will be totally beholden to the lobbyists in Washington once they take their spots in the new congress.  (actually, it should be fun watching the republicans fighting amongst themselves) I mean, some of the people the republicans elected were LOBBYISTS and FORMER congresspeople – talk about your mixed message.  The bottom line here is that the people behind this movement have a history of racism and Nazi sympathy.  They’re quick to throw out the accusations toward Obama, but when you look beyond the surface you have to wonder what are the American voters thinking.  I’ll say this to President Obama, if you don’t start standing up for the people who elected you and FIGHT this republican corporate takeover of our nation, you will go down in history as one of the worst presidents in history.  The American public didn’t vote you into office to placate republicans.  They voted you in to CHANGE the course of our government.  I believe it’s not too late to reenergize the liberal base, but it won’t happen if the president caves on the Bush tax cuts!  And, if the left doesn’t demonstrate a willingness to fight people like Beck, Limbaugh, and Palin they will succeed in destroying what’s left of the New Deal.  It was the New Deal which created America’s great middle class and these right wing power brokers have been attempting to dismantle it for approximately 70 years.  Members of the “Family” believe in authoritarian government (theocracy) – and include many now at the head of the “tea party” movement and sitting members of congress.  For those on the left who think Beck, Palin, and the “tea party” are a joke, I suggest you take a deep breath and prepare for the fight of your life!  They are the  perfect shills for whoever is behind this movement!

I started writing about the consequences of President Obama’s futile attempt at “bipartisanship” from the beginning of his term in office.  I also pointed out the FOLLY of surrounding himself with Washington AND Wall Street INSIDERS as he began his historic administration.  I, along with MILLIONS of other LIBERALS (progressives – we seem to have given up that word “liberal” in the face of the republican propoganda machine), began pointing out the “mistakes” as they were unfolding only to be referred to as “f___ing liberals” by Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.  When Emanuel received no consequence for lashing out at the “base” I knew we were in BIG TROUBLE.  And, I wish I could put this differently, but I’m just now getting a grasp at how big the trouble is.  I’m feeling that President Obama and those surrounding him got EXACTLY the WRONG message from the recent midterm election.

Now that I’ve seen the president in action for almost two years I have to admit that I almost anticipated this.  He’s already reaching out to republicans in a way that I’m guessing will allow them to succeed in getting the “Bush tax cuts” extended.  Remember, if they’re extended for even two years the republicans will be chomping at the bit in 2012 to get them “permanently extended” then.  This will be another in what’s appearing like a long line of “deja vu’s all over agains.”  (OK, I “get” that was a bit awkwardly put)  And, if we haven’t reached depression stage with our economy by then, we’ll be even more on the “brink.”  I think I’ve already written this, but if Obama “caves” on this one, he won’t even get the democratic nomination for re-election.  What’s TOTALLY ironic to me is the so-called “tea partiers” railing against the deficit, yet supporting the tax cuts, the wars, and all the corporate welfarism that runs Washington DC.  It makes about as much sense as when Ronald Reagan first proposed the idea:  “I’ll cut taxes and balance the budget.”  Voodoo economics then, voodoo economics NOW!

President Obama has cringed when he’s been dubbed “republican-lite” by those of us who really want him to succeed and he, along with his supporters like Randi Rhodes, are quick to reel off a list of accomplishments that would separate him from republicans.  Yes, he’s headed in a different direction in the overt decisions of his administration, but when you look a little deeper, it’s a lot closer to “business as usual.”  That is what has the “liberals” upset and that is why they stayed home in November.  Personally, I voted in November, but I’m thinking this is maybe a necessary “correction” (I’m an optimist by nature) because most of the democrats who were “purged” from Congress (with a few notable exceptions – and, I have to add here that, in my mind, Alan Grayson of Florida is one of my favorite politicians.  Talk about your congressperson with the guts to speak the truth as he sees it – without fear of losing his seat – which he lost.  But we need more leaders willing to speak their minds without putting re-election ahead of their values) were the so-called “blue dogs.”  The democratic party is in need of a remolding to get it back to Main Street and away from Wall Street.  If Obama doesn’t figure out what’s really happening, and FAST, the struggle to save this nation from the suffocating grip of multinational corporations will become even more daunting.

“Grass roots” is a great notion, and it can be very powerful.  But, you need leaders to guide the “ship.”  Take the “tea party” for example.  They had a convention with something like 600 people attending.  Their movement has been inspired by corporate cronies with unlimited funds to spend on advertising, TV personalities with mammothly egotistical agendas, and Americans who – whether you want to believe this or not – just can’t handle someone who’s not “white” in the White House.  Unfortunately for those of us who are shaking our heads that this phenomenom could reach such “heights” in present day America, President Obama has taken the wrong turn at almost EVERY intersection when confronting this.  I’ve been listing these things for almost two years, but I’m going to do it again (relax, I’ll try to be a bit abbreviated :o) because if Obama doesn’t start fighting back, those on the left need to begin looking for a different leader – YOU HAVE TO HAVE A LEADER!  (That’s where I believe the “tea partiers” are going to fall short – I think their agenda is likely to conflict with the “republican” agenda, and the fallout could be very interesting to say the least – remember, their de facto leader is Sarah Palin)

I wrote about this to the point that I probably turned off some of the 300 or so of you reading these posts (I still find it hard to believe anyone found my spot in cyberspace) – but President Obama’s decision to BLOCK all investigations of the Bush/Cheney administration will go down in history as one of the major presidential BLUNDERS of all time.  That decision alone GAVE the debate back to the republicans.  It was like showing blood to a shark in the water.  It showed Obama to be indecisive and basically spineless – not up for a good fight.  He said at the time he wanted to “look forward instead of back” – which is absurd on its face – I’ve pointed out that using his logic (and he’s a constitutional lawyer) there would never be another crime committed in America – because you have to look back AFTER THE CRIME’S BEEN COMMITTED!  He also said he didn’t want the “distraction” of all the investigations (and, there would have probably been an endless stream of them because the fraud, abuse, and outright lawbreaking was routine in the Bush/Cheney White House).  Well, what Obama got were way more “distractions” anyway.  (not to mention the “distractions” Obama’s going to be facing with a republican chairing the House government oversight committee in the next congress)  He (and the rest of us) would have been much better off had the “distractions” been focused on what Bush/Cheney did illegally instead of on Obama caving in on one piece of legislation after another.

Let me refresh your memory.  Obama took office with two wars being mismanaged, the economy was on the precipice of disaster, the government itself had been essentially dismantled, jobs were being lost at a rate approaching 1 MILLION per MONTH, and the previous president was leaving town with his “tail between his legs.”  I’m dead serious when I say that in the last few months of his presidency George W Bush looked like a “deer in the headlights.”  I’m not even sure he realized the magnitude of destruction he had imposed on America and the rest of the world.  In fact, it was Bush’s Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen – former head of Goldman Sachs who was intimately involved in the risk taking abuses which led to the “meltdown” – who created the TARP bailout that so angered MILLIONS of Americans.  It was forgivable for Obama to vote for the bailout as a senator, but it was unforgivable for him to then ally himself with Tim Geithner (also intimately involved in the process leading to the crash) and Larry Summers (another Goldman Sachs alum who was instrumental in the repeal of Glass Steagall which allowed the Wall Street banks to become “too big to fail”) and then BLOCK all investigations into the impropriety of what was being done in the name of (and to) the taxpayers.

By abandoning what should have been a process to uncover ALL the wrongdoings in an attempt to make certain they didn’t happen again, President Obama opened himself up for the absurd criticism which has led to, as of the mid term elections, upwards of HALF of American voters believing it was Obama who engineered the TARP bailouts.  I realize this is an indictment of what I call the “low information voters” in America (there’s your opening Lars), but the president is the LEADER!  The investigations would have made things clear.  Also, they possibly could have uncovered ahead of time the malfeasance which led to the mine disaster in West Virginia and the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  In both of those instances, culpibility goes right back to regulatory agencies “in bed” with corporate interests in such a way to save them money at the risk of their employees lives.  To me, that is ALL unacceptable!  Now we have energized republicans sans “tea partiers” clamoring for less taxes, less regulation, less government, and – oh yes – a balanced budget.  And, for good measure, they’re not only happy to be bumbling through TWO wars indefinitely, they want to increase instead of decrease our nuclear arsenal and many of them would love to invade Iran!

It gets worse.  I realize that the republicans could care less about how America is viewed by the rest of the world, but the reality is that it’s very important and we are in a state of accelerating decline.  It’s almost as if we’re shooting oursleves in the foot and we’re wondering how it happened.  For anyone reading this who is unaware of the economic realities of the day, much of America’s HUGE debt is held by foreign nations.  The dollar is tenuous, at best, in it’s role as the leading international currency.  And, America and it’s voting base seems to be oblivious to the potential of this impending disaster (and that would be the world turning away from the dollar).  We have become a nation of consumers and we’ve evolved to consumers who have to borrow to purchase goods.  2008 seems to have been the breaking point of our ability to continue borrowing so that we could keep consuming.  However, we’ve also – since the days of Reagan – been actually promoting American businesses to locate “over seas.”  Well, not only have the jobs been going over seas but so has our technology – which is the real prize in the eyes of the Chinese, the Indians, and others.  Keep in mind, once they build their own economies sufficiently, they have PLENTY of consumers.  Combine this with America’s imperialistic tendencies which are turning nation after nation off and I hope you can see the writing on the wall.  The cycle of greed that seems to have a grip on the corporate elite in America is choking the rest of us, it’s risking our position as the “leaders of the free world,” and – combined with “Citizens United” and the republican propoganda machine which controls our media – it’s threatening to leave our children with a nation in ruins.

Because of Obama’s decision to “look forward instead of back” we now have a bunch of extreme right wing “whackos” energized to bring our government to a halt.  They don’t want to “fix” the health care bill (which SHOULD have included a “PUBLIC OTPION” for ALL) they want to repeal it.  They don’t want to make sure the “too big to fail” banks don’t screw us again, they want to repeal regulations protecting us from them.  25% of the voters in the recent election were over 65 and now we’re looking at a scaling back or repeal of Social Security and Medicare.  They want to destroy public education, arguably the MAIN REASON America has reached such lofty heights.  (This hit “full steam ahead” with “No Child left Behind” and unfortunately is continuing to accelerate under Obama – we give schools mandates, we just don’t give them the resources necessary to carry the mandates out)  As someone approaching 65 I’m actually ashamed that these older Americans have been taking from this country for their entire lives and now are voting against the very programs which have benefitted them.  Of course, they don’t want to take away benefits now, just from their children and grandchildren.  I honestly don’t get it.  These people won’t believe in issues such as Climate Change until New York or Los Angeles is under water.

Worse than those “challenges” facing “progressives” in the coming two years, by “looking forward” President Obama has allowed George W Bush and Dick Cheney to travel this great nation essentially BRAGGING about authorizing TORTURE.  Again, in the eyes of the world now, we’re a nation that believes in TORTURE!  All the “human rights” posturing aside, I can’t believe we’ve evolved to this.  Does Obama really believe that by him saying we won’t TORTURE anymore that it makes it so?  Come on here!  TORTURE is a WAR CRIME!  It not only violates our own laws and international laws, it violates the Geneva Conventions which we were instrumental in setting up as the supporters of “human rights.”  The other day I was forced to listen again to George W Bush ADMITTING to authorizing WATERBOARDING and then claiming that by doing so he “saved lives.”  That is complete BULL S#*@!  EVERY professional interrogator I’ve heard interviewed or read has pointed out that waterboarding gets NO actionable intelligence.  Khalid Sheik Mohammed was providing actionable intelligence UNTIL he was waterboarded (183 TIMES!) after which he began trying to tell the interrogators anything to get them to stop.  Aside from that – waterboarding is a WAR CRIME!  If you do it, or if you authorize it, you have committed a WAR CRIME!  As far as I understand the legal system, it’s as simple as that.  Obama has created an environment where Bush is comfortable traveling from city to city bragging about this.  Again, UNBELIEVABLE to me.

So, we’re stuck with democratic leaders who are supporting Bush/Cheney illegal actions in court (warrantless wiretapping), supporting secrecy in government by defending the “State’s Secrets privilege” in court – something abused beyond belief by Bush/Cheney, who backed off of sufficient stimulus in the face of republican opposition at the beginning of Obama’s term, who willingly dropped the “Public Option” despite support from almost 75% of the public, and on and on.  The democrats have shown no willingness or capability to “take on” the republican propaganda machine.  Give the republicans credit – they are “out messaging” the democrats as if it’s men against boys.  The problem is that due to their lack of resolve during the past two years, they are going to need MORE resolve in the next two.  And, the initial indications I’m seeing since the mid terms is NOT good.  I’ve heard leading democrats already willing to throw in the towel on the tax cuts – I’ve pointed out here several times, just let them expire.  It’s time for Americans to start paying for the services we need – including TWO WARS!  The so-called “Deficit Commission” – who’s leaders made an initial report yesterday – have drunk the republican “coolaid” before any negotiations take place!  Republicans have somehow convinced the American public that taking care of the “rich” is the government’s main function.  It’s like we’re headed to 1929 ALL OVER AGAIN!  The battle against this impending corporatocracy will require courageous leadership.  It will require politicians who are not bought and paid for by the very interests who are undermining our nation.  It will require politicians far more courageous than those presently leading the democratic party.

I’m going to end with a couple thoughts – thoughts that will kind of lay out the prospects of what lies ahead for the next two years.  Within a couple weeks the so-called 99ers will lose their unemployment benefits.  Are the democrats going to make a stand in the lame duck session?  That alone will tell us a lot.  And, of course, with inaction the “Bush tax cuts” will expire.  I am in favor of letting them expire – I don’t believe the democrats have the guts to do so (that would raise mine and probably your taxes).  Short of that, they could propose IN THE HOUSE the extension of tax cuts for anyone making less than what seems to be the “in” cut off for “rich vs poor” – $250,000 – and send it to the senate – putting republicans in the senate on the spot to either vote for tax cuts for 98% of Americans or against it.  I seriously doubt that this president and this democratic congress has even the will to do something like that – which is arguably supported by 80% of the public – because they are cowering to the response by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and the other right wing “talkers” who would figure out a way to demonize leaving those at the top out of the picture.  Those two issues will pretty much define, in my view, what we – as progressives – face for the next two years. 

A couple of days ago I started reading “Obama’s War” by Bob Woodward and I’m finding the book intriguing to say the least.  I’ve been railing against republicans since President Bush tragically blundered this nation into the quagmire of Iraq – essentially destabilizing the entire world in the process.  Not only did Bush abandon the real fight against al Qaeda in Afganistan – in my view, he purposely allowed Osama bin Laden and his forces to escape certain defeat at Tora Bora in order to enable his real intention all along which was to find a way to invade Iraq.  Thusly, the United States of America has been mired in two unwinnable, poorly managed, extremely costly wars going on ten years now.  For those of us old enough to remember Viet Nam – it’s Deja Vu all over again.  Of course, not only did Bush/Cheney screw up our foreign policy, but they did a royal number on our economy at home as well.  They left Barack Obama arguably the WORST MESS any president in history has faced upon his first day in office.  Which brings me to my point for the evening – despite Obama needing to pull out some kind of miracle to resuscitate our economy he has two INCREDIBLY complex WARS to deal with that somehow have managed to get lost in the “tea party” headlines of the past year or so.

I’m just about a third of the way through this book, but as I read it I’m just getting more and more angry with the republican party, and unfortunately the large number of Americans who seem willing to turn the “reigns” back to them in congress.  When you start looking at the nuances of what these people are doing, it really is feeling traitorous to me.  Now, I’m not talking about the “man on the street” because most Americans don’t seem to have the time to look beyond the headlines.  And, the republicans have figured out that they can buy their way past the obvious hollow message that lies behind the so-called “talking points,” which is what we hear on Fox or the other media outlets who’ve bought into the “fair and balanced” nonsense.  America is STUCK in two wars – BOTH the work of incompetent republican policy decision making – and these people are doing everything they can to UNDERMINE a sitting American president.  I honestly can’t imagine this happening during a time of peace – yes, it’s OK to have disagreements and attempt to persuade the public that one position is preferable to another.  But, that’s completely different from CONSPIRING to cause an American president to FAIL.  And, that’s exactly what the republicans have been doing since day one of this administration.

I’ve often thought the main reason they’re doing this is because Obama is Black, although when I consider what they’d be doing had Hillary Clinton won the White House I don’t think it would be much different.  The bottom line with them is that the well being of this nation is secondary to their selfish, greedy desire to have POWER.  All you have to do is look at the amount of money being spent – SECRETLY – by large corporate donors and then think logically: “Why are these people willing to spend MILLIONS for a mid term election?”  The answer is disgusting – the republican party, in concert with who knows which large multinational corporations – are attempting to undermine the very foundation of our representative democracy through a concerted, well financed campaign of mis-information aimed at undercutting President Obama’s ability to change the direction of our nation from the Bush/Cheney/Reagan attempt to turn America into a corporatocracy.

President Eisenhower warned us all about the power of the “military industrial complex” back in the fifties – cautioning the American people to not allow this “behemoth” to get out of control.  Well, it’s out of control and it’s going to be very difficult to get it back under control – especially if the American people don’t rise up and demand an early end to the “Citizens United” era – which is coming at us like an out of control freight train.  I’ve been warning about this since the day the decision was announced.  Actually, I (and other listeners of Thom Hartman – “progressive” radio “talker”) heard about the pending possibility some weeks prior to the decision, but when it happened, and I took just a casual look at the implications, I reacted in almost horror.  My thoughts: “This can’t be happening in the America I’ve been living in for the past 60+ years!”  But, yes it can.

I can still see Samuel Alito sitting in the Supreme Court section of the congress during Obama’s State of the Union speech when Obama warned of the severity of this decision and the need to “fix” the problem.  The Supreme Court had essentially overturned 100 years of campaign finance laws – actually going way beyond the decision in front of them – yes, Lars if you’re reading this, your right wing judges are the most ACTIVIST judges I’ve seen in my lifetime – and, they opened the doors to FOREIGN corporations having a major influence on our elections.  (ANY influence they might have is TOO MUCH!)  As Obama was correctly pointing this out, there sat Alito shaking his head and mouthing the words “no way.”  Despite the unprofessionalism Alito displayed by doing so, the reality is that we have already been inundated by an indeterminable amount of foreign money in this, the first election cycle since the HORRIBLE decision.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Karl Rove (who’s controlling something approaching a half a billion dollars), and the other “Supre PACS” who don’t have to disclose where their money is coming from are undoubtedly receiving funds from foreign sources.  Hell, News Corp, run by Rupert Murdoch with its second leading investor ($3 BILLION) coming from a Saudi Arabian sheik have OPENLY funneled several MILLION dollars to various republican committees and right wing candidates.  Murdoch is an Australian and the Saudi sheik has ties to Osama bin Laden (that is, he’s helped finance bin Laden in the past) but this isn’t getting much play from our “liberal media.”  The sad truth is that we’ll probably never know where all the money’s coming from – but, $4 BILLION spent on a midterm election is obscene.

To make matters worse – and, if you’re paying any attention at all – Mitch McConnell, apparently in an attempt to stay lockstep with Rush Limbaugh, recently announced that the NUMBER ONE priority of the republicans is to assure that President Obama is a one term president.  Limbaugh, on numerous occasions, has publicly declared that the top priority of the republican party is the make sure that President Obama “FAILS.”  Are you kidding me?  Let me remind anyone who’s sensible out there, we’re still in TWO WARS!  When in American history has one political party been going out of their way to insure a president FAILS in the midst of two wars.  Let me be clear here, I believe that trying to insure that a president fails is bordering on treason – especially during wartime.  If the president fails, the people fail with him.  This is udder nonsense, yet, with all the money pouring in from special corporate interests thanks to “Citizens United” it is possible the republicans will retake control of one or both houses of congress (I really hope that doesn’t happen) meaning their OBSTRUCTIONISM will become even worse. (I started this post prior to the election night – we now know the republicans have a solid majority in the House)

Do you remember the endless “investigations” during the eight years of Bill Clinton’s presidency?  Well, that’s what is likely to happen.  The irony here is that had Obama followed my advice and allowed ALL the investigations which were warranted upon the departure of the Bush administration in 2009 we wouldn’t be having this discussion.  I hope the president has learned something here and I hope it’s not too late.  We are in THREE wars – and, in my view, the most important one is right here at home and it’s for the heart and soul of this nation.  I can’t even imagine a nation with Sarah Palin as a true national leader, but if the democrats don’t figure out what’s happening, we could all be in trouble.  I’m old enough to remember that Ronald Reagan was a marginal, at best, national candidate – but, with the help of the right wing manipulation machine and some short sighted democrats he managed to take the White House and this dreadful 30+ years of undermining our government at the expense of America’s middle class and FOR the benefit of the large corporations – just like in the 1920’s – was thrust upon us.  Honestly people, do we need another GREAT DEPRESSION to figure out what’s happening?  Does the American public have NO sense of HISTORY?  We’re repeating Viet Nam (twice) thanks to republcans and I’m wondering are we going to repeat the depression?  Ughhhhh!!!!

Back to Woodward’s book.  It is even more clear to me as I’m reading this that the republicans in the Bush White House conspired with the military leaders, prior to their anticipated defeat in 2008, to tie the hands of the incoming president.  Now, I believe Obama could have followed through with his plan to TOTALLY remove ALL American troops from Iraq by NOW – except that he would have had to renege on the withdrawal agreement Bush made with the Iraqi’s prior to the election.  In doing so, Obama would have created a major conflict with the military leaders such as General Patreaus who was part of a scheme to force Obama’s hand into keeping the troops there.  In fact, I’m convinced that when the end of 2011 comes around they (the military leaders) have a further scheme to keep the so-called “non-combat” troops there indefinitely.  I hope I’m wrong on this, but only time will tell.  At the same time, these military leaders were more than happy to have the troops being pulled out of Iraq funneled into Afganistan – where, I believe they would be willing to stay indefinitely as well.   You have to remember that many of America’s Generals are still stung at the thought of Viet Nam and America’s withdrawal without “victory.”  I guess they have a hard time accepting the FACT that in recent memory, our civilian leaders seem to have the propensity to put them in untennable circumstances.  However, I’m convinced they just don’t want to leave without being able to claim “victory,” whatever that might be.  Does anyone know what “victory” is in Iraq or Afganistan?  In Iraq, Moqtada al Sadr is ultimately going to be an integral part of that nation’s leadership and Iran and Iraq are going to be almost united.  This is TOTALLY due to Bush/Cheney’s decision to invade – but, the republicans will find a way to blame Obama.  The reality, as I see it, is there is no “victory” from the original goals of the U.S. in Iraq.  (and that’s not even with me putting in my cynical “two cents” about how I believe it was mostly about the oil)

Afganistan is called the “graveyard of empires” for a reason.  Somehow our leaders are convinced that we can do something that hasn’t happened in 4000 years.  This is where what I’m reading in Woodward’s book is making me even angrier about this war and the incompetent way it’s been prosecuted.  I’m convinced that the military is forcing decisions on Obama because they understand the political realities he’s facing as the first Black American president.  He’s young, and arguably “inexperienced” – although no more inexperienced than any of his immediate predecessors with the possible exception of George HW Bush.  He’s got an economy in virtual ruins and a near depression to deal with domestically, so having a major FIGHT over policy in Iraq or Afganistan would not be prudent.  And, if there’s anything obvious about Obama it’s that he’s prudent (sometimes frustrates me, but considering the alternative I find that character trait quite worthy).  As I’m getting into “Obama’s Wars” it’s becoming painfully obvious that the military leaders provided him with only options that were palatable to them.  That is, they PURPOSELY failed to give the president a wide range of options which would include withdrawal.  It’s like these people are suffering from major TUNNEL VISION when it comes to how to bring these “wars” (I really believe “occupations” is the correct term) to a conclusion.  They’re almost CHALLENGING Obama to take them on – Patreaus has done a masterful job of putting himself in a place where most Americans think he’s a military genius and he’s the reason for the reduction of violence in Iraq.  As I read this book, I’m seeing him more as a conniving, manipulator who will do whatever it takes to force a decision onto his superior that HE wants.  Patreus want to be the one calling the shots – and, he’s very sneaky in the way he goes about his “business.”

So, now Obama’s lost his large majority in Congress and the “you know what” is hitting the fan.  The next two years should be interesting – and, the “tenor” should be somewhat clear soon.  Are Obama and the democrats going to continue “caving” to the right wing – I mean it could look pretty bleak from their standpoint – or, are they going to show some spine?  People like me have been BEGGING for the spine to show up for almost two years now (actually, since 2006 with the democrats – yet, we’re still in both Iraq and Afganistan – and, the dems still don’t “get it”).  I realize they think they’ve done that (been courageous) – but, the reality is that Obama surrounded himself with a bunch of “business as usual” people at the beginning of his administration and any change has been superficial.  I said soon after he was in office, if he didn’t figure this out, quit pandering to republicans, and take an agressive progressive approach to the “problems of the day,” he was headed toward a one term presidency.  By now, maybe that looks good to him.  But, if he really wants to be the catalyst for the “change we can believe in” the intensity of the “fight” must be accelerated and SOON!  Obama and the democrats didn’t lose ground in this election because their policies were too bold (which is how the republicans will characterize this) – they took a good ole fashion “whippin” because their policies were too timid – they showed almost NO spine. 

 The stimulus package was too small – and, it shouldn’t come as a surprise now – because if I could figure this out at the time, then Obama’s team should have been able to do so.  Going along with the TARP bailout and supporting a resurgence of Wall Street was STUPID under the circumstances – and the re-regulation was too weak.  Abandoning the “public option” instead of strengthening it – in the face of nearly 75% public support (now, there’s bipartisanship with the public) was STUPID – if you can’t take a stand there, when can you?!  (the dems couldn’t even take a stand on tax cuts prior to the election – it was as if they were worried what a principled stand would do to their chances)  The backroom dealing that went into the health care legislation simply exposed the democrats as being republican-lite in their corrupt connection to the insurance industry and other corporate interests.  Also, Obama negotiated a similar deal to Bush’s Medicare Part D fiasco with the Pharmaceutical industry simply to buy their withdrawal from the “debate.”  That looked REALLY bad!  The opening up of offshore oil leases just in time for the Deep Horizon oil spill was a major blunder and, I could go on.  Tonight, I was watching Chris Matthews (not one of my favorites) on MSNBC giving analysis of the republican gains in the midterm election, and he said something that I started saying over a year ago.  “I’m tired of the rhetoric – I want to see action.”  I want to see leaders who will stand up – LITERALLY – for the rights of the middle class in America which has been under assault from the right wing since the Nixon years.  Until these democrats figure this out, I believe America continues to decline.  The greed of the republicans and their supporters seems to have no bounds.   

One final depressing note is that this is just the first “salvo” of the “Citizens United” era. If strong action isn’t taken soon to reverse that decision, we Americans could find ourselves in a situation that once seemed impossible.  Nothing scares me more than the successful “marriage” between large corporate interests and our federal government.  The “war” for the heart and soul of this nation hasn’t been lost, but people on the left had better wake up soon or the challenge could become more than daunting!  The republicans have shown they have no boundaries in their quest to regain control of our government and if they succeed again in 2012, with the help of Citizens United, I guarantee you they will pull out all the stops from that date onward to make their “majority” permanent!

I just finished a great read, “After Shock,” by Robert B Reich – former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton. (remember, when the economy produced over 22 MILLION jobs in just 8 years?!)  I had the pleasure of receiving the book at a lecture (about the book) Reich gave in Portland, Oregon.  The man is VERY short in stature, BUT very LARGE in ideas – some of which I’m not sure I agree with, but his “take” on our economic struggles I found to be “right on.”  The crux of Reich’s argument is that what ails the economy is not a debt gone wild or jobs being shipped over seas or the list of other common complaints, but it’s the rise of wealth to the “top” at the expense of the middle class causing a terrible imbalance where those in the middle class (the bulk of America’s consumers) have lost the wherewithall to purchase what our economy is capable of producing.  Therefore, the idle factories, the gross levels of unemployment, etc. (I hope I paraphrased that well – without insulting Reich)

In the course of making his argument Reich provides similar statistics to books I’ve recently finished by Joseph Stiglitz and Kevin Phillips which parallel what’s going on in this republican assault on our economy to what took place in the early 1900’s as America’s greedy business leaders led us into the Great Depression.  They’re doing it all over again and this time they’ve figured out how to buy their way into the heart of our media, how to buy one congress person after another (mostly, but not entirely, republicans er “tea partiers”), and how to turn an absurd argument that almost guarantees a declining future for America’s middle class into what could possibly end up being more tax breaks for the rich, more right wing judges for our courts, less wages for America’s workforce, and a bunch of embarrassing “leaders” in congress.  Remember, it will take 6 years to purge people like Sharron Angle, Christine O’donnell, Rand Paul, Joe Miller, and the others from the senate if America’s voters are STUPID enough to send them there.

If the voters take a GIANT step backwards on November 2nd, the great ideas of people like Reich, Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Phillips, and other moderate to progressive voices in the economic community will be even more silenced than they have been in the past 10 years.  I’m starting to get the feeling that Barack Obama is beginning to realize some of the political calculations made by his “team” in the past 20 months were a bit off base, to say the least.  He’s ginning up the “troops” at the last moment – and thankfully, because I hope they turn out in large numbers – at least large enough to preserve the democratic majorities in both houses of congress – and I hope Obama becomes more assertive in fighting for the true progressive agenda should the democrats hold onto their majorities.  The way I look at it, instead of kissing up to republicans for a few votes that won’t be forthcoming, the democrats should eliminate the filibuster in the senate and FORCE the republicans to say NO to legislation that the public favors. 

For example, I believe there is an even stronger MAJORITY of Americans today as opposed to when the legislation was passed who would back a move to open up Medicare to ALL Americans – including people like me who already have medical coverage (during the so-called health care reform debate something approaching 3 in 4 Americans supported the “public option”).  I read the other day that 81% of Americans are opposed to the “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision which will always identify the Roberts’ Court as part of the business lobby – the democrats need to pass legislation which, at the very least, prevents the foreign money and the secret money being infused into our election process.  Just the prospect that republicans would NEVER even think of doing that (remember, Mitch McConnell – the republican leader in the senate – was in the courtroom applauding the decision when it was made) should be enough for any THINKING American to vote against ALL REPUBLICANS.

Citizens United could be the “catalyst” these right wing thugs use to attempt to impose some form of fascist regime on the rest of us.  Make no mistake that these republicans are all about POWER and they’ll grab it by any means possible.  That’s not to say that there aren’t problems on the other side.  In fact, I believe if the “tea party” would have adopted a true grass roots progressive agenda, they’d be on the verge of taking over the congress.  The problem they can’t run from is that too many in their midst are OVERT RACISTS and their only agenda is defeating a sitting president (because his father was Black) plus, ironically, they are being funded by the very people they’re railing against – the large corporate interests which derailed this economy in the first place.  To me, that shows how intellectually devoid (OK Lars, there’s your opening) their movement is.  They are taking money from the corporations who’ve been ripping us (and them) off for years and somehow think they’ll get away with voting against these corporations once in Washington!  Talk about your naivete!

Reich very accurately points out that the middle class in America has been under assault for over 30 years.  The real period of prosperity was somthing like from 1947 until 1968 – that is, for most of that time “real wages” were rising in accordance with productivity and inflation.  Put another way, workers were not losing ground and were able to maintain their “standard of living.”  It was in the 60’s when American households started requiring two incomes to maintain that standard and women began to “work for pay” in increasing larger numbers.  Reich points out this was necessary for the family’s income to keep pace with its expenses.  When two jobs became an issue, people began working longer hours – in many instances two jobs – to make “ends meet.”  This was a phenomenom of the 80’s and early 90’s.

When people couldn’t work any more hours they started to BORROW money to keep up their standard of living.  Credit Cards became routine – I myself am still to this day getting two to three offers a day for 0% credit cards that I’m “pre-approved” for.  Plus, the Federal Reserve, which all these economists say has been throwing money at the problem for years – which is a large reason for the “boom and bust” cycles, lowered interest rates in the 2000’s to the point where homes became like debit cards – people (including me) kept refinancing their homes as interest rates continued to drop to the point where there was no equity left and now we’ver managed to get to the point where all these solutions to the problem that the middle class is not earning enough have “hit the fan.”  There are no more short term options like we’ve been using for the past three or four decades and it’s time to face up to the problem.

And, while I’m telling you DON’T VOTE REPUBLICAN, there is a lot of complicity in the democrats.  Should they manage somehow to turn away this republican “tide” I would recommend to President Obama a different approach to governing in the next two years.  (If the republicans wrest control of Congress, we’re going to be depending on Obama to have the courage to pen a lot of VETOES)  Let me go back to when Obama took office.  I’ve been complaining since day one about Rahm Emanuel, Tim Geithner, and Larry Summers as his close advisors.  Emanuel and Summers are now gone, but Geithner is still there.  The man was instrumental in the policies which led to the collapse of 2008 as the head of the New York Fed (he’s in the “in crowd” with Goldman Sachs) and he was heavily involved in orchestrating the TARP bailout which not only allowed the “too big to fail” banks not to FAIL, it allowed them to get even BIGGER!  Much of America’s outrage is aimed directly at that moment in time, and I’m simply surprised that Obama doesn’t recognize the image problems he creates by keeping Geithner around.  Please don’t try to convince me he’s the only person qualified to do this job.  If he would resign, they’d have a qualified replacement in a matter of weeks.

The level of corruption in Washington DC is almost beyond imagination.  In my last post I said that Karl Rove and his associates were going to be controlling something like 500 MILLION DOLLARS in this mid-term elections – most of it from unnamed sources.  What I’ve read since then is that the total spent on this MID TERM election will approach $4 BILLION.  Are you kidding me?  That’s a lot of obligations for our congressional leaders to keep track of.  Honestly, I’m going to assume there’s no one who might happen on this site who wouldn’t undertand that the people putting that kind of “dough” into the election expect a handsome return on their investment.  Do you think that might be why they want to remain anonymous?  This whole process is beginning to make me sick to my stomach as I’m watching it closely – but, then tonight I visited my grandchildren and remembered – sick to my stomach or not – I’ve got to keep writing, keep talking to people (I think I’ve convinced at least 5 or 6 FORMER republicans to vote against the thugs who are acting like wolves in sheeps clothing), and – most importantly – keep writing to Obama and the democrats to encourage them to actually take up an agressive fight against these right wing authoritarian obstructionists.

What I don’t think Obama fully understands is there is a large body of Americans who will stand strongly behind him if he “leads the charge.”  Trust me, no matter the results of this election, these people (republicans) won’t go away easily.  They have to be THOROUGHLY DEFEATED!  That is why I railed so about Obama’s pardoning of the Bush administration two years ago.  Their deeds need to be EXPOSED to the public so that the public knows exactly what’s been going on.  I keep wavering from thinking Obama has, unfortunately, bought into so much of what Bush was doing that he can’t allow investigations (because they would reflect poorly on him) to him not being combative enough.  Well, we need someone who’s combative – someone who thrives on the HATE that is inevitably going to be coming from the “right.”  In the 1930’s FDR said something like “I wear their hate with a badge of honor” (my paraphrasing) – The only way to FIGHT this corporate BEHEMOTH is to be agressive and force them to expose their selfish motivations to the general public.  Reich calls what emerged from the New Deal as the “Basic Bargain” for the middle class.  That is, wages would be sufficient for workers to buy what they could produce.  That bargain is badly broken and the main culprit is the policies of the tax cutting for the rich by the republicans – starting with Reagan.  Their claims that tax cuts for the rich stimulate the economy have NO basis in FACT.  During Bill Clinton’s eight years in office the economy made huge gains despite the FACT taxes were modestly increased on the “rich.”  The interesting irony of all that, even the rich, who were paying higher taxes, came out ahead of the alternative.  The way we’re going, not only is the American economy likely headed for stagnation at best and another true depression at worst, but these rich people who HATE taxes will be gaining less in the long run as well.