(Mr. Fish cartoon)

A Very Bad Week

Where to begin? David Souter announced his resignation from the Supreme Court. Sounds good to have a republican appointee retiring during a democratic administration, but all is not what it seems.

"I will seek somebody who is dedicated to the rule of law, who honors our constitutional traditions, who respects the integrity of the judicial process and the appropriate limits of the judicial role. I will seek somebody who shares my respect for constitutional values on which this nation was founded, and who brings a thoughtful understanding of how to apply them in our time.

As I make this decision, I intend to consult with members of both parties across the political spectrum."

Well, f_ _ k me. I'm sorry to have dropped the old F bomb twice in one day, but I have had enough. When we speak out against the democratic party we are always told to remember the power of judicial appointments. It is terribly important for a democratic president to be able to put his stamp on the judiciary.

OK, if that is the only great thing about a democratic president, why should I be happy that he is planning to consult republicans about his choice? Obama has a 68% approval rating and the republican party has a paltry 21% approval rating. If he can't fight for a liberal on the court what the hell can he fight for?

Limits on the judicial role? What does that mean? It sounds very right wing to me, but then again so does Obama.

Sorry, but we would be no worse off if John McCain were president. No I wouldn't want to look at him and Cindy, who if they did live in the White House would be living together for the first time in years, but let's stick to substance shall we.

The United States government is openly undermining the elected president of Pakistan, a man was sentenced to five years in prison for broadcasting Hezbollah, AIPAC spies got off scot free, and Bush policy on Guantanamo continued seemlessly. The Employee Free Choice Act is declared dead on arrival, thanks to democratic senators who also killed "cram down" legislation that would have allowed renegotiated mortgage agreements in case of bankruptcy.

Well, Arthur Silber is posting again, so there was one bright spot after all.

Don't F_ _ k with the Ruling Class

Barack Obama is going to do what George W. Bush would not. His Defense Secretary, and Bush Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, told congress that Guantanamo detainees will be held on U.S. soil after the prison is closed.

Now the New York Times reports that the Obama administration will revive the military tribunals they once criticized.

So what was that about change? There is nothing like that coming any time soon to this country. As my friend and fellow blogger Arthur Silber pointed out,"Any individual who rises to the national political level is, of necessity and by definition, committed to the authoritarian-corporatist state. The current system will not allow anyone to be elected from either of the two major parties who is determined to dismantle even one part of that system."

Don't listen to any nonsense about polls or opposition from republicans. Obama won't dismantle the Bush era system because doing so would jeopardize the very foundations upon which the entire political system is built. Truly changing anything that Bush did would send a signal that the rulers don't like. If he changes Bush policy who knows what is next? He might get crazy and actually promote democracy or something and we just can't have that.

In Defense of Ahmadinejad

What is the big deal? Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did nothing but state the truth. He spoke of the "dire consequences of racism in Europe," in short, the Jewish holocaust. Why is it so terrible for him to repeat what most Jews say about the rationale for Israel's existence? My whole life I have been told that genocide against the Jews in Europe justified the establishment of the state of Israel.

At any rate, that walk out was as phony as a three dollar bill. I'm sure the European nations who attended the conference had already agreed to leave the room if Ahmadinejad mentioned Israel.

The U.N. conference on racism has been killed by Obama and by zionists who have their noses out of joint because of any criticism of Israel. People all over the world should know about debates on reparations for slavery or for genocide against indigenous people, but you can forget that happening.

Israel has destroyed any effectiveness this conference might have had. Ahmadinejad is right about the damage that western nations have done to the world. He is right that the Security Council is powerless. Why should the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China have veto power 60 years after WWII? That current set up means that UN members have no way to condemn Israel when it massacres people in Lebanon or Gaza or wherever they choose to kill next. It means that China can veto resolutions regarding Tibet. The UN is a paper tiger and there is nothing wrong with Ahmadinejad pointing that out.

You go Mahmoud!

Viva Ahmadinejad!

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a very smart man. We are told he is a lunatic, hell bent on the destruction of Israel. Take a look at this interview in Salon that first appeared in Der Spiegel. Here are some of his choice statements.

"But think of the things that were done to Iranians! We were attacked by Iraq. Eight years of war. America and some European countries supported this aggression. We were even attacked with chemical weapons and [Western countries] aided and abetted those attacks. We did not inflict an injustice on anyone. We did not attack anyone, nor did we occupy other countries. We have no military presence in Europe and America. But troops from Europe and America are stationed along our borders."

"I agree that our reputation with the American government and some European governments is not positive. But that's their problem. All peoples are fed up with the American government."

>"The Afghan government should have been given more responsibility in the last seven years. President Hamid Karzai said to me once: They don't allow us to do our work."

"We are talking about Europe and the United States, where not a single politician wants to meet with you. Senior Italian politicians avoided you at a U.N. conference in Rome last year."

"We see that too, of course. But we are saying that Europe is not the whole world. Why do you believe this? Besides, I didn't even want to meet the Italian politicians."

"If a technology is beneficial, everyone should have it. If it is not, no one should have it. Can it be ... [that] we are not even permitted to pursue the peaceful use of nuclear energy? Our logic is completely clear: equal rights for all. The composition of the Security Council and the veto of its five permanent members are consequences of World War II, which ended 60 years ago. Must the victorious powers dominate mankind for evermore, and must they constitute the world government? The composition of the Security Council must be changed."

"We hope that the changes in American policy are of a fundamental nature, and that more has changed than the color. And that American policy will become more equitable, for the benefit of Africa, Asia and, most of all, the Middle East."

"Do you believe that the German people support the Zionist regime? Do you believe that a referendum could be held in Germany on this question? If you did allow such a referendum to take place, you would discover that the German people hate the Zionist regime."

I think such a referendum would have the same result all over the world.

"How I Miss the Transparency and Openness of the Bush Administration"

Thank to John Caruso at Distant Ocean for pointing out something I noticed last week.

I was trying to find a quote from Obama's Prague speech for my Black Agenda Report column, Phony Nuclear Disarmament. I went first to the White House website, which in the Bush days was easy to navigate.

To make a long story short, I had to do some creative googling because the White House site didn't have a link to the president's most recent speech. Go figure.

I wouldn't tell a lie, even if I thought it would make Obama look bad, so please take my word for it when I say that the Bush administration made it much, much easier to find out what the president was saying.

G-20 Summit

The Group of 20 summit can be summed up thusly, thanks to George Monbiot writing in the Guardian.

"We, the Leaders of the Group of Twenty, will use every cent we don't possess to rescue corporate capitalism from its contradictions and set the world economy back onto the path of unsustainable growth. We have already spent trillions of dollars of your money on bailing out the banks, so that they can be returned to their proper functions of fleecing the poor and wrecking the Earth's living systems. Now we're going to spend another $1.1 trillion. As an exemplary punishment for their long record of promoting crises, we will give the IMF and the World Bank even more of your money. These actions constitute the greatest mobilisation of resources to support global financial flows in modern times.

Oh - and we nearly forgot. We must do something about the environment. We don't have any definite plans as yet, but we'll think of something in due course."

Rachel Maddow Creeps Us Out

Isn't Barack Obama wonderful! He is going to build hospitals in Pakistan. He ought to because the drones he sends there, the first within 48 hours of taking office, certainly maim enough people to warrant more hospital beds.

Well Rachel Maddow certainly thinks it is a very big deal. She starts this segment by comparing creepy code words like "homeland" and hackneyed phrases like "standing down when they stand up" that Obama shares with one George W. Bush.

But like a good little liberal she can't bare to follow through on the obvious conclusion that Obama is continuing every aspect of the Bush policy of military aggression. She even manages to wax enthusiastic because Obama shows up in public with his secretary of state. You see, he is different because he includes diplomatic niceties before he kills thousands of people, or whatever. See for yourself. Maddow and her fellow useless liberals will find a way to defend anything coming from Obama, including a future attack on Iran. Mark my words.

Glenn Beck thinks 'political correctness' is driving people to shooting rampages

Only Beck could make Bill O'Reilly look like the voice of reason.

Israel Lobby Sinks Freeman

"Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced today that Ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. has requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman’s decision with regret."

The Israel lobby always tells American presidents what to do. Eventually the Israeli prime minister will drag Obama off of stage and tell him what to do and they will brag about having done it. So what else is new?

"The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.

There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government - in this case, the government of Israel.

The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending appointment will be seen by many to raise serious questions about whether the Obama administration will be able to make its own decisions about the Middle East and related issues. I regret that my willingness to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government."

Single Payer Health Care and Economic Recovery

Should taxpayers continue shoveling money down the AIG "where taxpayer dollars go to die" black hole or should they have single payer health care?

We all know that AIG wins, but single payer health care would create 2 million jobs and increase public and business revenues by $317 billion. Those figures come from a California Nurse Association study and Black Agenda Report has the scoop.

Single payer health care, medicare for all, call it what you will, would save and create jobs and save many businesses. Yet it is off of the political table. We are left with saving the parasitic bankster class and the policy decisions that would really change the economic landscape are forbidden and kept in the attic like crazy relatives.

Too bad for us. We are just ass out as the saying goes. More good money after bad, instead of a true bail out.

John Amato - LEAVE LIMBAUGH ALONE - crooksandliars.com

He is right. Limbaugh looked like a Sopranos wannabe in that black shirt at the CPAC convention. He should be pitied and left alone.

All jokes aside, Limbaugh is a very dangerous man who appeals to millions of people. Correction, he is dangerous because he appeals to millions of people.

Prison Nation

What was the most important news story of the past week? Was it Rihanna and Chris Brown and whether or not they should get back together? Maybe the Rush Limbaugh hullabaloo kept you glued to the news. Or perhaps Michelle Obama's latest ensemble fits the bill for news worthiness. The correct answer is none of the above.

The biggest story of the week was the release of a Pew report which proves once and for all that the United States is the number one prison nation on earth. One in thirty-one Americans are behind bars, sentenced to probation or are on parole. The mass incarceration rate is directly tied to race of course. One in eleven black people are in jail, 1 in 27 Latinos and 1 in 45 whites.

One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections is a sobering study of the pernicious effects of incarceration which costs more than any other government program except medicaid. Incarceration costs states much needed revenue yet it thrives.

It thrives because it is racism perfected. What better way to keep black people in line after the civil rights movement gave us big ideas about being free? No Jim Crow, no problem. Just lock us up.

But black people won't speak up about this awful problem. We don't speak up for one simple reason. We are embarassed. We don't want to be connected with people who have broken the law. I don't defend law breaking, especially violent crime, but no one should be in jail for writing a bad check or failing to pay child support. Sentences for those infractions accomplish only one thing. They make sure that black people are always punished disproportionately and are kept under control.

Yet incarceration is not on the national agenda at all and the ascendancy of Barack Obama has only heightened the propensity for black people to ignore some of their brothers and sisters who are very hard to defend. Very few people are so hopelessly lost that their misbehaviour should only result in time behind bars. Most people can be rehabilitated into leading productive lives, but that has to be seen as a worth while goal.

It isn't seen as being a worthy goal because it would mean an end to racism, a system which is still so useful in maintaining the status quo and in keeping white people in line. White Americans haven't taken to the streets against bank bail outs or endless war because they still have a privileged position, however tenuous it may be.

One in thirty-one. Disgraceful.

Why We Must March Against Obomba

"With his speech today, President Obama has essentially agreed to continue the criminal occupation of Iraq indefinitely. He announced that there will be an occupation force of 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq for at least three more years. President Obama used carefully chosen words to avoid a firm commitment to remove the 50,000 occupation troops, even after 2011.The war in Iraq was illegal. It was aggression. It was based on lies and false rationales. President Obama's speech today made Bush’s invasion sound like a liberating act and congratulated the troops for 'getting the job done.' More than a million Iraqis died and a cruel civil war was set into motion because of the foreign invasion. President Obama did not once criticize the invasion itself."
Answer Coalition

The video in the previous post is a picture that speaks 1,000 words. It shows just a small part of the reasons why we must continue to march against America's evil occupation of Iraq. The occupation is no less evil under Obama than it was under Bush. Occupation still kills and maims in Iraq or in Afghanistan.

The nature of occupation doesn't change. A democratic occupation is the same as a republican occupation. That is why we must march on Saturday, March 21st.

BTW, I know how the president's name is spelled.

The Evil Face of Occupation

This is it. This is occupation. The soldier in this video can be replaced or demoted or whatever, but occupation will look the same. That is what it looks like all the time. This is what Obama wants to continue. No change and nothing I want to believe in.

Satan Perhaps?

Is it just me, or does Newt Gingrich look like Lucifer?

I Can't Wait to Kill or Be Killed

"No matter what the commander in chief says, I will follow."

"I am excited. I am serving my country. We have to fight back and take action."

"As a Marine, you have to be ready to go when the military says so. I am ready to serve wherever my country needs."

Steve Bell, The Guardian

The Real Deal About Obama and the New York Post

I have been boycotting the New York Post for a long time, and so have thousands of other people too. I am put off by its open racism and love of the American empire. Its obvious right wing tilt and freak show headlines keep many readers away, in droves. It has bled red ink for years in its circulation battle with the Daily News, but because the News Corporation wants to keep its print foothold in New York, it continues to subsidize the losing operation.

The Post only costs 25 cents, the only way the paper managed to increase circulation. That price gives me no incentive to change my ways. I am proud to say that I wouldn't purchase the Post if it only cost a penny. So great is my antipathy that I won't even pick up a discarded copy to read the sports or television sections.

The Post is now involved in a new controversy of its own making. Last week the president signed the stimulus bill and a pet chimpanzee mauled and nearly killed a Connecticut woman. The chimp was later shot to death by police.

Enter the Post with the editorial cartoon shown above. The Post claims there was no intent to mock or caricature Obama personally, to compare him to a chimp or to support an assassination. Many people are still outraged, and with justification. No newspaper should even imply support for a presidential shooting.

However, the outrage expressed over the cartoon is misguided in many ways. Last year the New York Post endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the New York presidential primary. The endorsement was tepid at best, it was in fact more of an anti-Clinton screed than an expression of support for Obama.

Yet the fact that the Post chose Obama over Clinton should have raised the alarm in the progressive community. It was one of many opportunities for progressives to question Obama before supporting him. The New York Post wouldn't endorse any democratic who was good for the country.

But Obama supporters said nothing, in fact they were happy. The Post is no more racist today than it was one year ago, but Obamaites were glad when their guy got another leg up against Hillary Clinton, even if that leg came from Rupert Murdoch.

Why picket the Post offices only over this cartoon when the Post always calls for Israel and the United States to kill thousands of people whenever and wherever they choose? Every call for death and profits its met with ghoulish happiness in Murdochland.

When Obama attacks Iran, and the Post waxes enthusiastic, will anyone protest? I already know the answer. They won't protest at the Post or at the White House either. The Post didn't suddenly become ugly because of the chimp cartoon and it will still be ugly even if it apologizes for this latest example of right wing racism.

American militarism is ugly and racist too, but no one cares about that anymore because of the color of the current oval office occupant. So by all means protest at the Post, but don't stop with the chimp cartoon. And when the time calls for it, protest Obama too.

Boycott Israel!

My column does not appear this week, but that is no reason to miss Black Agenda Report. One issue of BAR tells you more of what you need to know than the New York Times or the Washington Post ever will. If you think I'm exaggerating, just observe how the Times has noticed that the Obama administration is reproducing the Bush doctrine on civil liberties, rendition and torture. “It was literally just Bush redux — exactly the same legal arguments that we saw the Bush administration present to the court.”

The august Times figured out what I said in my column last week and what anyone paying attention has noticed ever since Obama was inaugurated. Bush crimes against national and international law will not be investigated or prosecuted, mostly because the Obama administration plans to do the same things. As the ACLU says, "The Obama administration's position is not change. It is more of the same. This represents a complete turn-around and undermining of the restoration of the rule of law. The new American administration shouldn't be complicit in hiding the abuses of its predecessors."

But I digress from the topic of this post. Israel is America's chief partner in crime, its mini-me bully around the world. Even worse, despite getting more U.S. aid than the rest of the world combined, Israel quite openly tells American presidents what they can and cannot do. Last week Israel scuttled the appointment of General Anthony Zinni as ambassador to Iraq. Zinni got the thumbs up from Secretary of State Clinton and a congratulatory phone call from Vice President Biden. Unfortunately neither of them had checked in with "some major supporters in New York State" who couldn't abide the fact that Zinni has criticized Israel in the past. Bye-bye Anthony.

One of Bush's last actions in office was to change his position on a UN vote calling for a cease fire in Gaza. Why did he do it? Because Ehud Olmert got him on the phone and forced him to.

"Olmert told the crowd that when he heard a Security Council vote was to come in 10 minutes, he tracked down Bush, who he was told was speaking in Philadelphia. Bush left the podium, according to Olmert’s account, to take his call." We know this happened because Olmert quite publicly bragged about it.

So Obama and Clinton know who is the boss. It is Israel. No change here, nothing to see, just move along.

Leon Panetta is a Criminal

Forget Sully and Suleyman. Watch Leon Panetta. He is the former Clinton administration chief of staff who is now Obama's CIA director nominee.

Panetta had stated quite correctly that the Bush administration kidnapped people and had them tortured. He stuck with his story until a Republican senator got all testy with him at his confirmation hearing and he then folded like a lawn chair. "I'm not aware of the validity of those claims."

But wait, there is more. There was great celebration when the Obama team said they would abide by the Army Field Manual directives in their treatment of prisoners. That promise lasted for all of two weeks. Now Panetta supports the old ticking time bomb excuse.

“If we had a ticking bomb situation, and obviously, whatever was being used I felt was not sufficient, I would not hesitate to go to the president of the United States and request whatever additional authority I would need."

Of course, we all know the problem with the ticking time bomb. CIA agents, soldiers, cops, teachers, and dog catchers will all claim that a ticking time bomb is all that stands between us and death and they will torture people. They will do it a lot. Not to mention that torture is a violation of U.S. and international law.

But wait, there is even more. Panetta announced that he will violate international law, just like his predecessors. He will not prosecute anyone who claims they were ordered to torture and he won't go after Bush administration officials who broke the law in ordering the torture. "I'll leave that for others," said the cowardly Mr. Panetta.

Panetta knows the truth about torture and rendition, but he didn't get to be where he is without also knowing the rules and he isn't about to buck them.

Yes we can!

What You Should Be Watching

You should be watching your new president as he acts just like the old one.

"Let's be very clear about all this. The Obama Administration is going to court to uphold -- to uphold -- the president's "prerogative" to arbitrarily declare any U.S. citizen an "enemy combatant" -- even if the citizen is arrested on U.S. soil -- and have that citizen held for years on end, without charges, in federal brigs where he can be isolated, broken and subjected to 'harsh interrogation techniques.' The Obama Administration is going to court to uphold -- to uphold -- the "prerogative" of government lawyers to proffer blatantly illegal memos concocted solely to justify an already existing system of crimes that are punishable by death under American law. The Obama Administration is continuing the Bush Administration's blatant blackmail against the nation's closest ally in order to keep evidence of torture -- evidence which involves no "sensitive" national security information whatsoever -- from being made public."

Turn off the idiot box, and read Chris Floyd.

Sully and Suleyman

As I watched WCBS television here in New York, I heard a brief promo. "Salute Sully, Monday at 5 a.m.!"

Americans are as dumb as dirt. Instead of paying attention to the debate in Washington about the stimulus bill, they are stuck on stupid, worrying about octuplet moms and airline pilots.

The economy is tanking fast and Obama and Congress are making thinks worse with an ineffective stimulus plan. Paul Krugman tells us. ". . . to appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts." That is what we should all be worried about. Instead we are besotted with Nadia Suleyman and Chesley "Sully" Sullenburger

No one had ever heard of Nadia Suleyman until she gave birth to octuplets two weeks ago. It turns out she already has six kids, all conceived by IVF, and then had six more embryos implanted in her uterus. OK, that is pretty hardcore, but so what?

I don't know her, I won't be supporting her kids, she hasn't asked me to babysit, so I just don't give a damn. Many Americans do not share my lack of interest. First they were fascinated by the story, then they wondered who the mommy was, then they foamed at the month when they found out she was unmarried. She is the wreck at the side of the road that people claim they won't watch but instead slow down to gaze upon.

Speaking of wrecks. There was a plane crash here in New York a few weeks back. A US Airways jet lost both engines when they sucked in a few geese. Who knew? I thought the worst thing geese did was poop on golf courses, but I digress.

The pilot and co-pilot were forced to ditch the plane in the Hudson river and they did so without loss of life. Sullenburger and the rest of the crew deserve kudos for doing their jobs well, but of course our dumb ass culture and corporate media bent on getting ratings for broadcasting stupid crap won't leave the story alone.

CBS won the exclusive 60 Minutes interview and will be shoving Sully and company down our throats for the next couple of days. The Early Show will devote its entire Monday morning show to the US Airways story. The demand from the media is so great that Sullenburger, the pilots unions, the flight attendants union and US Airways all have their own media representatives deciding who they will and won't talk to.

We don't have the luxury of being distracted by this bullshit. There is not that much to say. The crew were skilled and lucky that conditions permitted them to land safely. End of story. Nothing to see here, just move along.

As for Suleyman, who cares that a weird chick keeps making babies when the nation is on the verge of an economic depression? Unfortunately, too many people care about things that are none of their business when things that are their business cry out for attention.

I will not be watching and Sully or Suleyman interviews. I will be watching Congress.

Thanks for the Shout Out

Counterpunch and OpEd News both linked to my current Black Agenda Report column, "Economic Crisis Widens." I love both of these sites. I am deeply flattered that they saw fit to include me.

Americans Won't Protest

The French, God bless them, are fed up with bail outs and declining employment. So they took to the streets and went on strike. The Icelanders brought down their government after their economy was destroyed by crooked bankers. What do Americans do? They do nothing but complain to each other and that is the best case scenario. Some are committing murder and suicide in their ever increasing despair.

Why won't Americans protest? I don't think the answers are very complicated. Americans are propagandized into stupidity and they are afraid of their government. If you believe your nation is "the greatest country in the world" you have no reason to complain. The greatest country on earth can't be wrong, even if millions are out of work and losing their homes and their health insurance.

Our corporate media lie to us all the time. We live in a state of perfect disinformation* about the most basic issues facing us. We don't know that military spending is killing our economy, or that Iran doesn't threaten us, or that private prison systems insure a steady stream of prisoners, or that we could have national health insurance or that American citizens could be bailed out like financial institutions are. When anyone rises up to tell us these facts, they are marginalized and prevented from playing a part in public discourse.

America has a greater percentage of its population behind bars than any country on earth. That statistic is not lost on anyone. If police can kill Oscar Grant in cold blood, they can certainly lock you up for stepping out of line at a protest. Of course, when Americans last took to the streets in large numbers in 2003 to stop the occupation of Iraq, it made no difference. The media disappeared the marches from their papers and their broadcasts and the Democratic party proudly disassociated themselves from the people who could have put them back into power. So even those predisposed to take action will ask themselves if they should bother.

What would make Americans protest? I can't think of anything. I don't know how bad things will have to be before protest will play a significant role in this country again. Now that Obama is president, the situation is even worse. We don't need to protest because our president is so wonderful and so understanding and so historic and so bipartisan and so post-racial and I could go on but you get the picture.

In any case, he didn't close Guantanamo yet, so if you protest you just might end up there.

*"If it were not for the Internet that provides Americans with access to foreign news sources, Americans would live in a world of perfect disinformation." Paul Craig Roberts

Laura, Is There Anything I Forgot to F_ _ k Up?

Obama Sides with Bush

"President Obama is substituted in his official capacity as a defendant in this case."

Yes, you read correctly. The Obama administration has sided with Bush administration policy on warrantless wiretapping. According to Wired, Barack Obama is now making the same argument that George W. Bush did in a lawsuit against federal government. Bush asked a federal judge to stay an order requiring the release of classified documents in the case of al-Haramain v. Bush. It is now known as al-Haramain v. Obama.

So what exactly why was anyone getting the vapors last Tuesday? Change we can believe in? Now that Barack Obama is officially George W. Bush can we please stop the pretense. I guess those 2 million people who went to Washington feel like chumps.

How could they? The story probably won't make the papers and even if it did, Obama would be excused.

In a recent Black Agenda Report column I called him Black Reagan. He certainly is that. Obama has teflon to spare.

Wish I'd Said That

"States aren't moral agents. They don't have personalities or pet peeves. States represent the interests of those who rule them. And it's in the interest of our present rulers to reboot the American brand. Words like "morality" and "ideals" are smokescreens, blown in the faces of the public. Bush used the same words, but fewer and fewer people believed him. It was his own damn fault. A cheap failure in so many ways, Bush's recklessness made Obama's ascent not only possible, but inevitable. His actions weren't out of the mainstream of imperial thought, just riskier, crazier, more destructive. Bush's tactics were questioned, but not his crusade, which remains with us. His violence didn't seriously bother Democrats, as they continually helped finance it. So all this "new day" blather is utter bullshit. What's new is that we have a better, smoother bullshitter in office."

Dennis Perrin

Let the Killing Begin

I was among the crush of humanity in Washington on Tuesday, January 20th. It was a strange place to be for an opponent of Barack Obama, the Democratic party, the Republican party, the military and prison industrial complexes, the Israeli lobby, and the Wall Street banksters, to name but a few.

Just when I wondered if anyone else knew they were witnessing dumbed down mass hysteria I turned and saw a brave/foolish soul protesting among the mostly zombified hordes. Adam Kokesh is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and a committed activist who I once heard speak at a peace forum here in New York. Adam stood atop a barricade and displayed a sign which read "Occupation is Still a Crime" on one side and "Obama: Future War Criminal" on the other.

Of course, American presidents always end up being war criminals at some point in their terms of office, but Obama was especially speedy. On Friday, just 72 hours after assuming the presidency, American attack drones killed 22 people in Pakistan. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs wouldn't respond to questions regarding the first pile of dead bodies created by the Obama administration.

"But Gibbs refused to answer the question by NBC News' Chuck Todd, saying, 'I'm not going to get into this matter.'

After Fox News' Major Garrett joined the slight fray that erupted over the non-answer, asking if he considered whether there was 'justifiable curiosity about the president's first military actions.'

'There are many things that you should be justifiably curious about,' Gibbs responded, perhaps taking a knock at Fox News in general, 'but I'm not gonna get into talking about this.'

'If other members of the US government are confirming this, why is it that you can't?' Todd wanted to know. 'I'm not going to get into these matters,' Gibbs said with a smile.

Afterward, other reporters went back to the economy and didn't press Gibbs for more details about what could be the first military operation conducted during the Obama Administration."

In less than one week, the Obama administration continues the Bush administration policy of carrying out military actions in Pakistan against the wishes of the Pakistani government, and the press can't be bothered to ask more than two or three questions about it. At least they are being consistent with the new president, showing the same degree of deference to him as they did to his predecessor.

I should point out that Adam received a mixed reaction from the crowd around him. Some looked on curiously, some took pictures. He was greeted by people who appeared to know him. There were surprised and angry reactions too.

One woman said, "That is an ugly sign." I felt compelled to speak up and said that the sign was beautiful. The woman responded that I should look at the other side, the "war criminal" side. I replied that it was indeed beautiful. Obama had publicly stated many times that he would continue warfare in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, which would result in deaths, which was certainly criminal.

I got into similar verbal scuffles on Adam's behalf. Actually I should say on democracy's behalf. There will be precious little of that when we have a president who is sitting in the cat bird seat with an idol worshipping population prostrate at his feet.

Let the war crimes continue.

Glen Ford on the Real News Network

As I discussed in the previous post, my colleague Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, participated in an inauguration day panel discussing the new president's foreign policy.

Black Agenda Report on The Real News

Did anything significant happen in Washington on January 20, 2009? You betcha. Black Agenda Report was in the house with The Real News.

Watch and listen to our very own Glen Ford here, here and here. While millions of people swooned, wept and danced for joy for no earthly good reason, Glen and I told the truth and held nothing back for very good reasons. (Hopefully you can see my interview tomorrow).

As I point out in my column this week, the over the top celebration for Wall Street grand theft and endless war should not be seen as a defeat, but as a call for determined resistance. It is time to resurrect the dead language of movement politics and put it front and center. Celebrations for the status quo, even if they are carried out by millions of people, are no reason to give up. There are millions of people unimpressed with the barrage of media propaganda, people who are desperately trying to find kindred spirits who need to know that they exist.

January 20th was a day for celebration. It is day to celebrate the beginning of determined dissent and uncompromised truth telling.

Valerie Jarrett, Who Asked You

Soon to be President Pompous Ass and his patronizing tone are getting on my nerves and he hasn't even been inaugurated. First friend and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is equally presumptuous, telling Americans when they should and shouldn't be upset.

“You do not need to have demonstrations in front of the White House to convince this president that there is a disparate impact in the African-American community around issues such as health care and education. He’s got that. The campaign stood for change. It stood for a grassroots, bottom-up drive toward a better country. That does not have to be confrontational. It can be engaging.”

Pardon me Val, but could you just STFU? It is up to citizens to decide that they should or should not demonstrate and yes, sweetie, presidents have to be confronted. Your smooth "don't worry your pretty little heads" talk does not intimidate me or millions of other people either. Only a fool would choose not to confront the powers that be, and my mother didn't raise one of those.

You know what Val, sometimes engagement doesn't work. Sometimes presidents and their advisers just don't give a damn and they have to hear to things they would rather ignore. So if you look out the White House window and see me or others demonstrating, you will just have to get over it.

Black Voters Did Not Pass Proposition 8

I said as much in Black Agenda Report on December 17. A widely reported CNN exit poll stated that 70% of black California voters supported the anti gay marriage proposition. The true figure is between 57% and 59%.

A report released this week by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute reveals that Proposition 8 supporters were mostly older, over age 65, and regular church goers. It also states that the proposition was supported by every ethnic group to varying degrees. In other words, the argument in favor of gay marriage just didn't fly with enough people throughout the state. No one group can be blamed.

I hope that this data based conclucion will get the same degree of attention as the phony 70% figure.

Under the Bus

Thanks to Mike Flugennock for the great image. This picture is worth 1,000 words.

Black Reagan

“I am a little concerned by the way that Mr. Summers and others are going at this in that, to me, it still looks like a little more of this trickle-down, if we just put it in at the top, it’s going to trickle down. A number of people in there said, ‘Look, we have got to have programs that actually create jobs and put people to work.’ ” - Sen. Tom Harkin

Trickle down, trickle down, hmmm, sounds eerily familiar. Oh wait, it was Reagan, the last guy with serious teflon, the great communicator.

Don't say I didn't warn you. Obama hasn't even been inaugurated and he is already talking tax cuts and "reining in" medicare and social security. I was right but it is cold comfort.

Thanks to Guys from Area 51 for the image.

Obama to Liberals. "STFU!"

"Progressive" is a Latin word. It means "chump."

Wish I'd Said That

"What's the difference between a progressive writer giving instructions to the Democrats, and an insane homeless guy screaming at invisible devil dogs on the street corner? The homeless guy knows nobody cares what he says."
John Caruso

Wish I'd Said That

"Any individual who rises to the national political level is, of necessity and by definition, committed to the authoritarian-corporatist state. The current system will not allow anyone to be elected from either of the two major parties who is determined to dismantle even one part of that system."
Arthur Silber

The next time you wonder why Obama is keeping Bush's Defense Secretary or why the evil Lawrence Summers is still around, just remember Silber's words. They will keep you from asking silly questions like, "Isn't Obama a progressive?"

Wal-Mart Worker Trampled to Death by Shoppers

"He was bum-rushed by 200 people. They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."

No, that is not a headline ripped from a Saturday Night Live routine. A human being was killed by frenzied shoppers at a Wal-Mart located in Valley Stream, New York. Photos of the mad rush can be seen here.

Too bad shoppers didn't know that today is Buy Nothing Day. The day after Thanksgiving is an opportunity to digest the previous day's meal. It is a day to contemplate and reflect on the amount of credit card debt you already have. It is a day to stay as far away from stores as possible.

The reasons for boycotting post Thanksgiving shopping are numerous. When you celebrate Buy Nothing Day you are simultaneously giving consumerism the finger, saving money, and decreasing consumption of worthless crap that destroys the environment. Now it turns out you may be saving your life too.

Join up with Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping and get yourself some salvation. Then say a prayer for the poor man who not only had the misfortune of working at Wal-Mart, but dying there too.

I am concerned that reaction to this awful tragedy will be racist. All of the shoppers in the photos I saw were black. I certainly hope that we are not singled out for condemnation. Consumerism is a sickness maintained by propaganda fed to us all on a constant basis. Here in New York City ads can be seen on top of taxis, inside subway cars, outside of subway cars and on giant screens at bus stops and subway entrances. There is literally no way to escape them.

The behavior of people who ignored risks to their own safety in pursuit of cheap crap made in China should be put in its proper context. We have been turned into drones who work and buy and don't stop to think about anything other than working or buying. I hope that a needed discussion of the overt and covert messages we get to keep spending will not turn into a story of so-called pathologies unique only to black people.

Wal-Mart should not escape blame either. There was clearly no security at the store and employees and shoppers alike were in danger. But then again, Wal-Mart never spends more than it has to. Better think twice about rushing to the store next year. Don't fall for Black Friday propaganda. Observe Buy Nothing Day instead.

Rick McKee, Augusta Chronicle

Wish I'd Said That

"Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries]?"

"I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that."

"I've always though that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted . . . "

Lawrence Summers, Clinton and possible Obama administration Treasury Secretary

"What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House."
Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, terrorist

As I pointed out yesterday, Rahm Emanuel's devotion to neo-con, pro-war foreign policy nearly cost Democrats the majority in the November 2006 elections. I should have also pointed out that his father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, was a terrorist. The president's chief of staff is the child of a terrorist.

Emanuel senior was a member of the Irgun, the group that blew up the King David hotel in Jerusalem and murdered Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte in 1948. Dad is very proud of his son and proud that he will be helping out Israel in his new position.

" 'Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House.' The Ma'ariv article also quoted Dr. Emanuel as saying that his son spends most summers visiting in Tel Aviv, and that he speaks Hebrew, but not fluently."

Should Jews worry about an Obama presidency? I guess not, although the rest of us ought to.

Loser Rahm Emanuel Wins

That was fast. Less than 24 hours after Barack Obama won the presidential election, he proved his detractors right. Change is an empty slogan for Obama, a marketing ploy used to make fatigued and grateful Democrats disbelieve their own eyes, ears and memories. While an official announcement has yet to be made, it appears that Congressman Rahm Emanuel will be named White House chief of staff.

Emanuel is Chair of the democrats Congressional Campaign Committee and has been credited with engineering the 2006 return to the majority. Yet the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in spite of Emanuel's strategy, not because of it. John Walsh (scroll down for story) explained it all in Counterpunch back in November 2006.

"Long ago Rahm chose 22 key races, open or Republican seats, where Dems might win. By any reasonable criteria, all the candidates chosen by Rahm, save perhaps for one, were pro-war as is Emanuel himself. In two cases Rahm had to put in considerable dollars and effort in the primaries to drive out antiwar candidates. He drove out Cegelis in Illinois's 6th CD, at the cost of one million dollars, in favor of Tammy ("Stay the course") Duckworth who lost in the general election. In California's 11th CD primary, Emanuel backed the prowar Steven Filson who lost to the antiwar candidate, Jerry McNerney, who went on to win in the general election."

Looking at all 22 candidates hand-picked by Rahm, we find that 13 were defeated, and only 8 won! (3) (One is still undecided.) [Note: 9 eventually won] And remember that this was the year of the Democratic tsunami and that Rahm's favorites were handsomely financed by the DCCC. Tammy Duckworth, for example, was infused with $3 million ­ and was backed in the primary by HRC, Barack Obama, John Kerry, etc. The Dems have picked up 28 seats so far, maybe more. So out of that 28, Rahm's choices accounted for 8 [Note: 9]! Since the Dems only needed 15 seats to win the House, Rahm's efforts were completely unnecessary. Had the campaign rested on Rahm's choices, there would have been only 8 or 9 new seats, and the Dems would have lost. In fact, Rahm's efforts were probably counterproductive for the Dems since the great majority of voters were antiwar and they were voting primarily on the issue of the war (60% according to CNN). But Rahm's candidates were not antiwar. So Rahm Emanuel nearly seized defeat from the jaws of victory."

At Black Agenda Report we have been saying all year long that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were "political twins." Now that Obama has won, it looks like Clinton administration retreads will be his top advisers and cabinet members. Lawrence Summers may be headed to the Treasury department and Emanuel will be Obama's second in command.

I'm sorry to burst the bubbles of those of you who wept in ecstasy just two days ago, but the truth is still the truth. Obama's chief of staff is a pro-war democrat who couldn't figure out how to beat republicans when the voters had turned against them. His appointment is a signal not only that endless war will remain on the table, but that the choice of Obama over Clinton was a meaningless one. Obama is smarter and savier than Hillary Clinton and he used those skills to be favored by more big money people than she was. That is why he is the president elect.

Face it. There will still be a Clinton in the White House. The people at the top of the establishment pyramid will always be friends. Nothing changes among the power elite. They are the biggest cynics on earth and they don't believe most of what they tell us. Obama and Bill Clinton will be thick as thieves and triangulation will still be the order of the day. If it weren't, Emanuel's name would not be atop the adviser rumor mill.

Obama Wins

When I went to my polling place here in Harlem I witnessed something I had never seen before. There was a line stretching out the door, down the block and around the corner. Fortunately the poll workers did an excellent job of managing the crowd and it took me no longer to vote than it did in any other presidential election year.


It was a strange day for the Obama non-fan. We were definitely left out of a very big party. It was quite moving to see people who were obviously first time voters. They were excited and engaged about the political process, some for the first time in their lives. It is good to know that it is still possible for people to be newly energized. Hopefully they can be energized to do something truly useful in the future. I don't know how they would explain their feelings, but it is certain that by voting for Obama they were upholding war and theft on a grand scale.


I know that Green party candidate Cynthia McKinney got at least one vote in New York City yesterday. I used to say that living in a solid blue state made my third and fourth and fifth party votes justifiable. Now I say that I will only vote for peace candidates. If I lived in Ohio, the swing state where I was born, I still would have voted for her. I will never again cast a vote for a war criminal. That conviction means I am disenfranchised. My vote will never count and I can only play the role of spoiler. I no longer care. I can't pretend that America's aggression around the world can be dismissed if it is carried out by the lesser of two evils.

So what do we have to look forward to? Read Black Agenda Report and find out.

"We have learned that this generation will have to learn from damn near scratch what a real social movement looks like - which will be doubly hard, since they have been misled to believe that this year's frenzied electioneering was actually a "movement." Now it is over, and one Black man is moving - into the White House, having never promised his Black supporters a single thing of significance. But of course, hardly anyone Black made any demands of Obama."


Sad but true. I fear that the situation will continue. Obama can get away with anything, and that makes him a truly dangerous man. Black America lives vicariously through him, asking and getting nothing in return. White progressives are likewise silent.

"I'll give Obama this much -- his campaign has been one of the most brilliantly conceived and cynically executed appeals I've ever seen. His propaganda team has ably exploited people's desire for HOPE and CHANGE, offering them empty platitudes which they can fill with any fantasy they choose. Even when Obama baldly states whose interests he actually serves, his followers either don't care or pretend not to hear. Besides, they bleat when pushed, Obama will be pressured to do the right thing should he stray too far from liberal concerns. The fact that he already has done this shows that claim to be as empty as Obama's speeches. The idea that libs are going to shift from genuflection to lighting fires under Obama's feet is preposterous, but fully in line with the general fantasia."

Dennis Perrin is absolutely correct. Progressives aren't interested in saying anything. I know because I used to be just like them. When Bill Clinton was president I was overjoyed to see a democrat in the White House. I excused almost everything he did because I thought that support was the only way to keep republicans at bay.

It takes one to know one. Obamites will say nothing if he bails out thieving banks or starts new wars. It will be a sad day when black Americans , ordinarily the group who opposed the empire, fall in line and make excuses. It will be a day to grieve when people who took to the streets to opposed the occupation of Iraq excuse Obama's continuation of that violation of international law and human rights.

Much of the joy comes from relief that the republicans are gone. Ding dong the witch is dead. The Bush years have been a nightmare and we are waking up from the terror.

Now we have a man in the White House who can hide his criminality with intellect and good marketing. Because he is the big money candidate the press will protect him as much as they protected Bush. McCain got the shaft because his party had fallen out of favor. Their brand is dead right now. Otherwise he would have gotten the kid glove treatment like Bush did for so long.

Stay tuned. So much is changing in the world right now. The economic meltdown has not hit bottom and new wars are in the planning stages. We will see what supposedly good people are made of.

It Isn't Over on November 4th

Joe Biden drunk on campaign trail - NOT a joke video

Hmmm. It may explains his famous "gaffes." Read my Black Agenda Report column on Wednesday.

Colin Powell is Still a Criminal and So Are Most Progressives

"I'm well aware of the role I played [in the Iraq war]. My role has been very, very straightforward. I wanted to avoid a war. The president agreed with me. We tried to do that. We couldn't get it through the U.N. and when the president made the decision, I supported that decision. And I've never blinked from that. I've never said I didn't support a decision to go to war."
Colin Powell

Liar, liar pants on fire. Chris Floyd explains.

"This is murderous bullshit of the highest order. Before the invasion, Bush and Powell claimed they were being forced to consider war because of Iraq's alleged non-compliance with past UN demands to destroy its WMD arsenal and programs. In late 2002, the UN duly authorized -- and Iraq accepted -- a vigorous program of inspections to verify compliance -- or discover non-compliance. This process was going on, successfully, with cooperation from the Iraqis, when George W. Bush ordered the UN inspectors out of the country, before they finished their work, so that he could launch a military invasion -- which was now unnecessary by the very criteria that he and Powell had set out publicly."

Tell me again, why do "progressives" love Obama and Powell? Because they aren't any better, that is why. Americans from almost every point on the political spectrum applaud their government's use of force. There are very few people who really believe that it is wrong for the American government to invade Iraq or any other country for that matter. Some think the war was "mismanaged" while others just disliked George W. Bush. Most progressives supported Bill Clinton's bombing of Bosnia and the deaths of thousands, I have to admit that I didn't think about it at the time. I was democrat, he was a democrat. I didn't question his decision and I supported him whenever he was attacked by republicans.

Were it not for the influence of wonderful people like my friends Glen Ford and Fr. Simon Harak I would probably be in the thrall of Obama too. It took thought and education for me to think differently from most other people.

So it isn't surprising that Powell is not seen as the no good lying murding dog that he is.

Trig is Palin's Grandson

Will this shoe drop before election day? The New York Times asked Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin for their medical records. Obama and Biden said yes, but McCain and Palin said no. McCain's reasons are obvious. If his melanoma has not recorred already it is likely to do so in the future. He released some records to the press but reporters were not allowed to make copies of them.

As for Palin, what reason could she possibly have not to turn over her records? If she does they will show that she has given birth to four kids, not five. Trig is her daughter Bristol's child. You heard it here first.

Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama

“Colin Powell is the most powerful and damaging black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime.”
Randall Robinson

Robinson spoke too quickly. In 2004 who knew that Barack Obama would be on the verge of being elected president. Powell now has competition for Robinson's condemnation.

Robinson was speaking of Colin Powell's dirty work in the Bush administration to overthrow Jean Bertrand Aristide, the elected president of Haiti. Powell lied to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who were forced to bumb rush the White House and get an audience with Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Bush. All three lied in their faces. They promised not to undermine Aristide but two days later they orchestrated a coup and a kidnapping against him.

Powell has a lot of blood on his hands. The year before he helped destroy Haiti, he led the charge for the U.S. to invade and occupy Iraq. Chris Floyd describes Powell's perfidy.

"In fact, it is not too much of a stretch to say that Colin Powell is more responsible for the mass murder spree in Iraq than any other person except George W. Bush, who gave the actual order for the hit. For it was Powell who "made the sale" for the Bush Faction's deceitful warmongering campaign, with his infamous February 2003 presentation to the UN, laying out the false evidence about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction. After that farrago of artfully delivered lies, the American Establishment -- urged on by the fawning, bloodthirsty commentariat -- lined up solidly behind the war. After all, if Colin Powell -- so "reasonable," so "honorable," so "honest" and "bipartisan" -- stood foursquare behind the Bush case for war, then it must be ironclad."

Colin Powell is the ultimate careerist. If he had resigned from the Bush administration before lying like a cheap dirty rug at the U.N. he would be on the verge of the presidency now instead of Obama. But that isn't his thing. He is a courtier. He attempted to cover up the My Lai massacre and he and his boss Caspar Weinberger engineered the Iran Contra arms for hostages deals. Powell has been behind American government wrong doing for the past four decades.

It is little wonder that today Powell announced his endorsement of Obama. They are a perfect pair. One works behind the scenes, the other wants the top job.

The progressives who have fawned over Obama are still fawning tonight. A Powell endorsement ought to be the kiss of death, but liberals have silently colluded with Obama all year long. Why should they stop now? So what if the architect of death and destruction in Iraq has endorsed their beloved leader.? They just want to win. They want their guy to be at the top of the killing food chain. Any pretense of progressive politics is just that.

Cindy McCain

"The two often relax in separate places: Mr. McCain prefers the family’s ranch in the Arizona desert, while Mrs. McCain’s refuge is a high-rise condominium on the Pacific. "
New York Times

So the McCains are separated, not hard to do when you have eight homes. I don't really care, but the media have no problem picking and choosing whom they will scrutinize and whom they will not. The New York Times wrote a truly tawdry, unseemly article on Bill and Hillary Clinton last year, claiming that the public were interested in their private lives, a specious argument at best.

"Four other senators were implicated, and one Senate spouse: Mrs. McCain. She and her father had invested in a shopping center with Mr. Keating, and while Mr. McCain insisted that he had reimbursed Mr. Keating for vacations their families had taken together in the Bahamas, he said his wife, the family bookkeeper, could not find the receipts."

Remember the Keating scandal? It was yesteryear's financial crisis, with the taxpayers bailing out the savings and loan industry. McCain used his influence to help one crook in particular, Charles Keating. I had never read before that Cindy McCain and her family had a personal interest in this scandal, so the Times was correct in pointing it out.

Glenn Greenwald, who alternates between good investigative journalism and useless namby pamby liberalism, takes the Times to task for the story. I disagree strongly. Candidates for public office give up their privacy, and someone who has half-siblings yet describes herself as an only child ought to be called on her lie. The Times pointed out that the McCains lie about their private life when they claim to be a married couple and that his wife profited from the savings and loan thievery. Cindy McCain has also injected herself into the campaign, it was she who first posited that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave Sarah Palin foreign policy credentials.

Greenwald and his ilk are a huge problem. He did great reporting on Obama's FISA treachery, but then rejected the notion that progressives ought to withhold support from him because of it. We should just accept the loss of our constitutional rights, hold our noses, and vote for the "lesser" of two evils. Although if democratic presidential candidates think we have no fourth amendment rights, their evil isn't any less.

At any rate, I'm glad the times exposed the Cindy McCain fraud.

"Cindy McCain was new to Washington and not yet 30 when she arrived at a luncheon for Congressional spouses to discover a problem with her name tag.

It read “Carol McCain.” That was the well-liked wife John McCain had left to marry Cindy, to the disapproval of many in Washington."

Married woman don't like home wreckers. Thank goodness.

Wish I'd Said That

"To me, Obama's friendship with Ayers and Dohrn means that once he rubbed shoulders with amateur bombers, but now pines for the Real Fucking Deal. As president, Obama will have access to weapons that ancient radicals could only imagine while tripping. Better, he's free to use them, hell, expected to use them, and I have complete confidence that Obama will do just that. Instead of mailing cryptic messages to the media, he'll announce his murderous intentions on international television and all over the Web. So Obama palled around with people who blew up parts of empty buildings. If you desire to be the imperial manager, you gotta start somewhere."

Dennis Perrin

Is John McCain Sick?

John McCain never looked well. Lately he has looked very ill indeed. This two week old video from Crooks and Liars clearly shows that his left eye seemed to be drooping, which can be a symptom of stroke, among other conditions.

Counterpunch has received reports that McCain's melanoma has recurred, and that he may be receiving radiation treatments.

"An official in the National Institutes of Health, well known to our reader, has confided to her that in an informal conversation with a doctor in a California hospital the NIH official had learned that there had been a metastasis of McCain’s melanoma, and that this had come to light in a checkup in the past few weeks."

John McCain has not released his medical records to the press, but this is nothing new. In 2004 Bush skipped his August physical until after election day and when Reagan ran for re-election in 1984 he already knew that he had colon cancer but kept that fact from the public.

If the corporate media did their job, they would demand that presidential candidates release all medical records. Of course, many things would be different if they lived up to the title journalist, but I digress. McCain is sick, and it should have come to light sooner.

He is behind in every poll, and if reports of illness become more wide spread it is safe to say that he will lose. Of course, the thought of President Palin is taking a toll on his poll numbers too. If he should pass away in the near future, there ought to be a public outcry about the story that should have been. Oh wait, I'm sorry. No one cries out anymore. I forgot myself.

What's the Rush?

"The situation may get urgent, but it's not urgent right now. Right now it's a financial sector problem.''

That is what 150 economists say about the proposed $700 billion bailout/giveaway to Wall Street. They outlined their concerns in a letter to Congressional leaders and warned them not to be stampeded into doing further harm to the economy.

In this week's Black Agenda Report I expressed my fears that the give away is the first step in stealing from the national treasury. We will be told that social security, the only safety net Americans have, must be privatized or that spending on non-defense related programs has to go.

One of the signatories of the letter, David K. Levine of Washington University, had a more disturbing observation about recent market activity or rather inactivity. "I suspect that part of what we're seeing in the freezing up of lending markets is strategic behavior on the part of big financial players who stand to benefit from the bailout."

Hat tip goes to Arthur Silber, who as always makes the point that the ruling class are doing what they always do. They are ruling the rest of us. Just assume the position, like politicians tell you to do. Barack Obama says that ". . . issues like bankruptcy reform, which are very important to Democrats, is probably something that we shouldn't try to do in this piece of legislation." Of course not, that would mean answering to working people instead of the corporate masters who control both political parties.

Michael Hudson points out that the only way for the give away plot to work is for another bubble to be created. It isn't possible to make money for Wall Street while also helping Americans facing foreclosure. "In order for the existing junk mortgages to be “made good,” real estate prices must be raised further above the ability to pay for this year’s five million homeowners in arrears and facing default."

That is really not very shocking. It is just the ruling class doing what they always do. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Ahmadinejad on Larry King

I used to sneer at Larry King. He is king of the puff piece interview, whether his subject is a presidential candidate or a celebrity promoting a tell all memoir.

You can imagine my surprise when I turned on the tube last Tuesday and saw King interviewing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the full hour of his program.

King wasn't much better than he usually is, but so what. Ahmadinejad was allowed to speak for himself and tell the American people what they ought to know but don't.

"Now for eight years, Saddam was supported against us. He bombarded Iranian cities and towns. He used chemical weapons against us. And in the meantime, the American government was giving support to Saddam. And then the U.S. government went and overthrew Saddam. Well, perhaps in the first instance, we might have been happy. But when we realized that the U.S. government is more interested in staying in Iraq and to dominate, through its presence in Iraq, the region, we -- I ask you, would you have been happy if you were in our shoes watching this?"

"The largest number of inspections in the history of the IAEA has been done with the country of Iran. We have offered the IAEA the largest number of documents in its history. No country in the world has cooperated with the agency as much as Iran has done. And that's verified. But I'd like to ask you, at the same, that there are countries who have nuclear weapons arsenals and are actually developing a new age nuclear warfare. Should they not be inspected, as well? Don't you think that their activities should be brought to an end, as well? Who exactly is the threat?"

"Perhaps as a journalist who has years of experience,(ouch!) you must be aware of what goes on in the Middle East, the extent of the calamity, in other words. For over 60 years, more than five million Palestinian have been displaced -- people who were forced out of their homes.And those who have stayed are being bombarded every day militarily. They are being killed in their homes at times. Women and children at times are besieged. And medicine, water and food does not always reach them sufficiently. Children lose their lives, as do women, as a result, at times. Sometimes women die giving birth. Palestinian figures are assassinated and it goes to such extent that it's actually announced beforehand.Three big wars started by the Zionist regime, the last of which was in 2006, when they attacked Lebanon.S o when will this calamity -- this catastrophe end?"

"I think that every government that comes to power in the United States must address two sort of agenda items. The first is that it must limit the circle of the interventions of the United States abroad because these interventions and interferences bring about heavy cost to the American people, both materially and both in terms of the level of dignity of a people. The dignity of the American people around the world has been hard when you -- other people, other nations do not have a good image of American people anymore. And materially, you can tell for yourself what it has done to the American economy. I heard this recently, that 700 billion dollars are to be infused to the financial institutions. Where is it being paid from? The pocket of American people."

We depend on stand up comedians like David Letterman and John Stewart to give us the news and now we depend on Larry King to give access to an important world leader when supposedly superior news people won't. Viva Larry!

The interview is on Youtube in six parts. Once again there is a problem posting Youtube on to blogger so I can only give the link.

Baby Mama Drama


Alaska governor Sarah Palin didn't deny the rumors that her infant son is actually her daughter's child. She did announce that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant now and will be getting married. Okey dokey.

I'm still unconvinced. Just look at this, the Sarah Palin's Pregnancy Decision Map. Maybe it just proves that she is dumb, but I like my scandal and I'm ging to stick with it.

I am also going to stick with saying that this is a relevant campaign issue. Governor Abstinence Only has a pregnant teenager. Every study has shown that abstinence only is a failure and there is no reason to dance around the issue. Also, Palin could have chosen to save her pregnant daughter this scrutiny, but like other narcissists, i.e. politicians, she chose to grab the spotlight.

I think more shoes are going to drop on Palin and it is too late for McCain to choose someone else. They must be nominated this week. He is stuck with her and if he wins, we will be too. We are just so screwed.