Obama Loves Bill Kristol

“What’s the joke – they told me if I voted for McCain, we’d be going to war in a third Muslim country? I voted for McCain and we’re doing it.” – Bill Kristol

Obama’s War

“For those of you who were able to tear yourselves away from the tragedy in Japan and the US media’s gushing over Obama’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Libya, there was some horrifying news from Afghanistan which underscores Obama’s hypocrisy in the area of human rights and violence: the publication in German publication Der Spiegel of a batch of photographs taken by US soldiers with their ‘trophies’ — the corpses of Afghan civilians murdered by ‘kill teams’ who created artificial ‘combat situations’ in order to hunt human beings for sport.”

Mike Flugennock

How the U.S. Strikes Fear In Its Own People

“In fact, the only person to suffer any legal repercussions from that NSA scandal was someone named Thomas Tam, who was the mid-level Justice Department whistleblower who found out that this was taking place and was horrified by it and called Eric Lichtblau at the NYT and exposed that it had happened. The person who was the only one to suffer repercussions was the person who exposed the criminality. The criminals were fully immunized.”

Glenn Greenwald

A great read. Greenwald explain the importance of Wikileaks and how the incestuous relationship between the government and “journalists” endangers us all.

The Tea Party and the Media - Glen Ford

Left Forum 2011

Glen Ford and I were panelists at this year's annual Left Forum in New York City. Here is Glen on a panel discussing the Tea Party and the media.

The entire discussion was interesting. Other panelists wrung their hands about the tea partiers and how we progressives should engage them. I for one have no interest whatever in engaging them or worrying about what they fear. No mystery here, they fear black people. Period.

The left need to concentrate on advocating for their own positions and not worry about unrepentant racists and reactionaries.

Overseer Obama Vexed by Disobedient Haitian Negro

OK, so America is once again killing huge numbers of people, this time in Libya. But there is a bright spot some where on the globe. Jean Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti and the people who elected him president. Barry Obama tried to keep him in his South African exile, but to no avail.

(I stole this title from Distant Ocean.)

Diet Soap Podcast #95: Wisconsin Workers Struggle On

My Take on Wisconsin and Other Things

The Wisconsin union busting story is so two weeks ago. Now we are transfixed by the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan and the resulting nuclear accidents.

Before you forget though, check out my interview on the Diet Soap podcast with Douglas Lain.

Diet Soap Podcast #95: Wisconsin Workers Struggle On

Dont Worry America Israels Behind You! Truth Hurts

Don't Worry U.S.A., Israel Is Behind You

Break it down brother Ayad!

Worthless Liberals

Aren't they always? The shallowness and indeed the corruption of liberal commentators has been on full display as events have unfolded in Egypt.

Atrios and Digby had no problems giving us their two cents when Bush was president, but now that the guy at the top of the greasy pole is a democrat, they can't find anything to say. They see that Obama has been sitting on the fence, trying to look like he wants change when he really does not.

"On Egypt I got nothin'." Really Atrios? Then it is time to close up shop and blog abut restaurants or fashion or travel and leave the commentary to the grown ups.

Hat tip to Chris Floyd

Hyper Patriotism and the Super Bowl

I am trying to watch the super bowl pre-game show, but I have to be subjected to a recitation of the declaration of independence, and lots of people in uniform. Even Fox isn't stupid, they have football legends everyone loves and many people of color and women in uniform along with men, but it is just too jingoistic for me.

Sports are supposed to be non-partisan. People of any political view point should be able to watch the super bowl without getting a dose of hyper patriotism. Hopefully I can just watch the game now without any more political interruptions.

Obama Admits Rendition Guilt to Bill O'Reilly

I sat down to watch the Super Bowl pre-game show only to learn that I would have to sit through a Bill O'Reilly interview with the president. I could have turned to another channel but I was transfixed, sort of like seeing an accident by the side of the highway. Like Clinton before him, Obama dealt with a mid-term election setback by embracing the right wing. What better way to do so than to appear on Fox news on Super Bowl Sunday.

My favorite moment came when O'Reilly asked Obama about Egypt. I don't have a transcript (it happened just a few minutes ago), so I'm paraphrasing. O'Reilly said the following to the president.

"They know a lot of bad things about us, the renditions and all."

O'Reilly asked the same question twice, but Obama did not reply either time. What an admission of guilt, an indictment of American wrong doing. I have to note that it all started under Bush, but the U.S. has been sending terror suspects to Egypt and other countries where they are tortured by operatives of the host nation or by Americans themselves.

It may have started with Bush, but Obama has done nothing to stop it, and he admitted it on live television.

Ronald Reagan Possessed by Demons

Must we really spend an entire year hearing about how wonderful Ronald Reagan was? It seems so, Obama established a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission for that very purpose. Thanks for nothing Barack.

At any rate, it is important to remember that Reagan was a truly awful president who ruined this country and the world. The growing income inequality and American empire building can all be laid at his door step.

These are the words of Miguel D'Escoto, foreign minister of Nicaragua when Reagan made war against that nation.

More perhaps than any other U.S. President, Reagan convinced many around the world that the U.S. is a fraud, a big lie. Not only was it not democratic, but in fact the greatest enemy of the right of self-determination of peoples. Reagan, as you mentioned just a few minutes ago, was known as the great communicator, and I believe that that is true only if one believes that to be a great communicator means to be a good liar. That he was for sure. He could proclaim the biggest lies without even as much as blinking an eyelash. Hearing him talk about how we were supposedly persecuting Jews and burning down non-existent synagogues, I was led to believe really, that Reagan was possessed by demons. Frankly, I do believe Reagan at that time as much as Bush today was indeed possessed by the demons of manifest destiny.

That pretty much says it all.

Happy King Day!

Liberals Get Their Groove On

“Jared Loughner gave liberals something they desperately needed: a political distraction, and as an added bonus, a platform from which to proclaim their superior values. They haven't had such a gift since Oklahoma City. Prizes like this are rare, and liberals will rub it out long after the coating's worn off, cheap tin exposed to toxic air.” – Dennis Perrin

I wrote a post about the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords in Tucson, Arizona. I later deleted it because I didn’t think I made any points that millions of other people hadn’t already.

Yes, Arizona is a hell hole at the center of right wing nut land. Yes, Gabrielle Giffords was targeted for defeat by Sarah Palin and other tea partiers who are just shy of a diagnosis of psychosis.

But our entire country is a hell hole. Obama lovers are as guilty as tea partiers of being blood thirsty. Our president says he can kill citizens and liberals and the courts say he is right. Because he is from the right side of the elite tracks he can kill indiscriminately and still get a nobel prize for peace. Meanwhile, babies in Fallujah, Iraq are being born with birth defects because of America’s chemical weapons and none of the snooty liberal class can manage to utter one word against this continuing terrorism.

The real story is that there is no story,  only a change in political fortune for Sarah Palin, who is pretty much toast as a presidential candidate. Obama is sitting pretty. His worshippers love him even more, and will do even less to oppose his terrible policies. We used to say that Ronald Reagan had teflon, but he had nothing on Barack Obama, who is now in the cat bird seat because of a schizophrenic college dropout in Tucson.

Concerned Coalition for Prisoners Rights Press Conf 2011-01-06

Prisoner Rights in Georgia

You wouldn't know it if you only read the corporate media, but Georgia prison inmates recently went on a work strike to protest lack of medical care, abuse, and slave labor.

The United States has more of its population behind bars than any other country on earth, and the worst punishments are meted out to black people. We have The New Jim Crow and it has been privatized. Prisoners are just another commodity, cogs in the system's wheel. New York State is no different. Women at the Bedford Hills prison work for the Department of Motor Vehicles and can make up to $1.14. Up to? That means some make even less.

Mass incarceration is one of the worst injustices taking place in this country. Please pay attention to this story and spread the word as much as possible.

I Am Not Middle Class

"They call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin

In today's Room for Debate in the New York Times, the topic of discussion was the middle class, or rather why so many Americans think that meaningless term applies to them. I readily admit that I don't know what "middle class" means. According to a Pew survey, nine people out of ten will describe themselves as middle class but no one has a solid definition.

I am a working person. I have a college degree and an income which outside of New York City, would give me some creature comforts. No matter. If I were unemployed I would be in big trouble financially.

I depend on employment. That makes me a worker. End of story. If more people called themselves workers, which they really are, they would be more politicized and less likely to be delusional about their status in this country.

So that explains it. Being middle class means never having to think about your situation. That would be too painful for the average American.

Ted Rall

Obama Stokes Nuclear Fears

According to the New York Times, Barack Obama wants us to duck and cover. The administration wants us to: A. Be afraid of a terrorist nuclear attack and B. Stay inside when it happens. I have only three words: what the f*ck.

What are they hiding? What are they planning? What do they want us to support? No one knows exactly what they are planning, but I can guarantee that we are supposed to be in the mood for more war or for an increased attack on what is left of our civil liberties.

If I lived in Tehran I would be very afraid.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

December 7, 2010 certainly sucked. Julian Assange is in jail, a federal judge rules that the president has the power to assassinate us at will, and our pompous ass president calls other people sanctimonious when they dare to speak out against his latest act of treachery.

December 8th can't get here soon enough.

Obama is Middle-Man!

Chris Floyd: Truth in Chains

Chris Floyd: Truth in Chains

"Tell a truth that discomforts power, that challenges its domination over our lives, our discourse, our very thoughts, and you will be destroyed."

Julian Assange has been brought down. Chris Floyd explains.