Naomi Klein On the Progressives Love Affair with Obama

Well, it is less about Obama than about the Left's relationship with its candidates.

Nothing new is told here but one crucial point, that is not explicit but is clearly understated: the Progressive Movement have nobody to blame but themselves for the weakness of the political pressure they apply on the different presidents that have succeeded Reagan since the 80's - it is a clear pattern of letting the Right setting the political pace and agenda without any real fight nor oversight from us.

Why is that? If I had to continue the relationship metaphor with which Klein closes this interview, I would say that like any partner of psycho-rigid control freak abusers, Lefties are hoping to bring their sweet lovers to understand, embrace and validate their point of view. Its a conversion fantasy of another breed, but it reeks still of low self-esteem and overcompensation.

Converting Republicans to work for the common good is, of course, a lost cause. Nothing is more important to them than the smell of their own belly button or their own right wing, hate filled fart.

So, yes, we should, like I was saying since the beginning of my blogging days, regularly "poke the Dems in the eyes" to make them remember who worked so hard to bring them to power. We should put the collective nuts of our President Elect and his entourage in a particularly tight vise and protest loudly when we are discontent.

Nobody else will do it for us. And what other form of protest is there but writing. I won't bomb anything. And I'm too far away to go down in the streets and yell.

Naomi Klein is right about the necessity of a post-election strategy but I do not think that the Progressive Movement was wrong to put all effort in first avoiding another 4 years of hellish conservatism. Voting for Obama was the right thing to do. And concentrating our votes on one candidate instead of scattering them in the wind and see McCain win was the good call to make under the circumstances.

I do like Obama a lot. But now we owe to him to oppose the right wing neocons with all our might to help him create the political climate favorable to a Progressive agenda. As I said many times before, the Repugs won't just roll-over and die. They will try to manipulate this into their advantage. Nothing will be given to us: we just need to do the same and create momentum our way for our own good.

Found on Bad Attitudes.

Republicans are all big, fat, lying, thieving idiots: here's how to figth them

Or Begich wins, suckers!!! And Franken soon will too!!!

"...the country's best-known radio talk-show host wasted no time using our airwaves to attack the president-elect for preaching "racism" and "socialism," and for creating our current economic collapse by scaring off potential investors who fear higher taxes. "The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen," Limbaugh proclaimed only two days after the election. "Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression.""
-Steve Weissman, Truthout Web site

So it is an Obama recession, Rush. Got a little bit ahead of your next whiteline for this one, isn't it Rush. My favorite conservative cokehead is all "bipartisan" happy right now, spinning the next improbable tale of the Republican Agenda.

It shows clearly the next revolutionary tactic that the Republicans will adopt as they try to win their peau-de-chagrin base back: more of the same but more rabid, foolish and empty than usual. I did notice too that clear talking-points Repugs web-bots or brainwashed fake dems are springing a bit everywhere on left blogs' comment space. Republicans take nazi mastermind Goebbel at his word and apply every one of his recipes for "national enligthenment": radio, press, tv, now web. All media are blanketed by one message under all the joe the plumber , Bill Ayers, hate the Clinton nonsense: destroy and control.

Destroy as a mean, control as an end. This type of very disciplined, organized, deliberate sabotage of democratic freedoms and collective wealth for the benefit of a few won't just disappear because of an election. After all, they were in power for so long before, they could describe that fact as a success. They'll readjust. That's all. But they won't go away. For Rush and co to get their coke and bonbons they need to lie and attack and keep at it until nothing is left but their voices.

So the Republican party is not "down in the dump", or in "bad shape" or , if only, are they going to "self-destruct" anytime soon. They're barely wounded. And they are still dangerous. I am all for ignoring Palin: she has nothing but winks and lipstick jokes. But Savage, cokeline Rush or, it's all the same, Michele Bachmann are different. They have a base, a regular appointment with it and an habit of using false flag operations to augment or strengthen this base.

So how do we fight them?

Here's what I found: the axioms of counter propaganda:

Axiom 1: When they intensify. downplay.

Axiom 2: When they downplay, intensify.

Pasted from <http://webserve.govst.edu/pa/Schema/counter-propaganda.htm>

We need to literally level the playing field even in the area of conceptual thoughts and argumentation. We need to oppose them effectively by shining light where they would rather we keep the statue quo and downplay their hysterics.

"Realistic assumptions must be made: power exists, weakness exists. The strong do not voluntarily give up power. Total equality will never exist. Yet, a movement toward equality is better than a movement away."

Pasted from <http://webserve.govst.edu/pa/Schema/counter-propaganda.htm>

Then, education and getting ourselves good legislators, judges and lawyers that would pass and protect fair laws are our best bets.

Obama's Power: short of 60, it's nil...

At first, “filibuster” referred to a “free booter” or “pirate”, who engaged in illegal activities for self gain; then it became “an endless discourse to impede the passage of an ‘unwanted’ congressional bill.

Words for a Modern Age
www.wordsources.info/words-mod-filibuster.html


Well, Jimmy Stewart was a Republican and he did make that filibuster look good!

He was also one of my favorite actor of the 40's when I was young with Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda and Fred McMurray. With Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Capra made a movie about the figure of the Every American Man who watches his ideals and efforts corrupted by crooks, assaulted by thieving liars and self-serving public figures and saved by the bon-vouloir of individual power. Yes, we do know the feeling...
In the movie, the filibuster was used as the last desperate act of a desperate man, as a last measure to stop the usual going-ons of the Senate so it could pay attention to a particular injustice as a citizen used his right to petition the government and state his grievances.

But now...Now...

There is this great graph about the filibuster use in the Senate since the 1960's on the McClatchy DC web site (www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/18218.html), a real clear trend toward catastrophe can be seen in those numbers:
The use of the threat of a filibuster to delay or block legislation have gone from 3 to 7 case in the 60's to 50 to 100 projected in 2007!!!

Paralysis is what thwarted the Clinton Presidency and what do you think those beacon of passive aggressiveness that are the Repug will do starting January (if they have not started yet): screamed of partisanship while doing every partisan trick in the book to block changes. You know that, I know that but what can we do about it?

So, here a little article by Doug Page that I stumble upon on the Black Commentator web site comes more than handy: it is a goldmine of info on the filibuster and the inner working of Congress. Let me quote some to you:

"The unanimous maintenance of Senate Rule XXII by the Senators constitutes the overthrow of our constitutional governing pattern and an overthrow of our right to govern ourselves and to guide our destiny through our elected representatives. It is a bloodless coup by the Senators, as effective as a military coup in a banana republic. Given even the normal disagreements among humans, it is impossible to muster and maintain political support for legislation or for reform by a majority of the Members of the House, the support of the President, and in addition the votes of a supermajority of 60 Senators. This Rule stands as an effective obstruction to any reform, any hope of change, and any effective governmental relief from the effects of an economic downturn....

The House of Representatives, bound by the same phrase in the Constitution, has no such filibuster rule and has functioned by vote by simple majority for over 200 years. The Senate can and should also do its business by majority rule.

Our Constitution, with its cumbersome requirement that a bill be approved by a majority of the House of Representatives, a majority of the Senate, and the signature of the President, presents difficult obstacles to any change in the status quo, and to any reform. Unfortunately, we sovereign voters have this further unconstitutional obstacle. The filibuster authorized by Senate Rule XXII requires a supermajority, the affirmative vote of 60 Senators to pass any legislation, and not merely a majority of a quorum....

Why do our Elected Senators Maintain the Supermajority 60 Vote Rule?

Senate Rule XXII gives each individual Senator immense political power to block legislation or appointments. Under Senate practice at least since 1993, there are no long speeches, no long debates, and no speeches at all. A single Senator simply asks his party leader to put a “hold” on a pending proposal. The party leader and the rest of his party honor this individual request. If the proponents wish to proceed despite the opposition, the proponents must muster the support of 60 Senators. The Rule also gives overwhelming power to “special interests,” a drug company that wishes to oppose Single-Payer Health Coverage, a Wall Street firm that wishes to prevent reform or an ideologue who wishes to maintain capitalism as totally unregulated. These unelected “special interests” initially need to “persuade” only a single Senator to stall the legislation, and only 41 Senators to block our majority will, as manifested in the 2008 election. This accounts for much of the gridlock in Washington. Senate Rule XXII makes it easy for unelected “special interests” to maintain the status quo, even when an overwhelming majority of voting citizens vote for and desire change. Senate Rule XXII makes it practically impossible to enact reform legislation.

All 100 Senators support Senate Rule XXII because it gives each of them immense individual power, and it provides them with campaign contributions from powerful wealthy “special interests” to finance their re-election campaigns. The Senators routinely betray a majority of the sovereign voters, violate their oaths to support and defend the Constitution, and accept money from the special interests. Even newly elected Senators support the Rule, even if they may secretly oppose it, because of their belief that they must go along with Senate tradition if they have any hope of getting the support of more senior Senators for their own proposals.

We all need to organize and lead a million voter march, armed with symbolic pitchforks, on both the local and Washington offices of Democratic Senators, and to keep marching as long as is necessary. There are millions of voters...with a focused demand:

1. That when the Republican Senators filibuster this badly needed legislation, that the Democratic Senators and newly elected Vice President Biden pledge to use the nuclear option to eliminate the filibuster and restore constitutional legislating by majority vote in the Senate once and for all.

2. That the Senators halt the useless bail out to the very interests in Wall Street that created the problem.

3. That the Senators support legislation that will immediately and directly help voters and Main Street without making things worse.

4. That the Senators pledge to fund the costs of the Stimulus Package and other necessary rebuilding by a wealth tax on the wealthiest 1%.

5. In order to collect the new taxes, that the Senators pledge to require IRS to use the powers of the Patriot Act and DOD and CIA computers to locate that wealth, wherever on the planet the wealthy may have hidden it, to achieve the following objectives:

a. To heal the damage Wall Street has created.

b. To fund Single-Payer Health Coverage for every American, to fund alternative sources of green energy, and to rebuild the infrastructure.

c. To curtail the overwhelming antidemocratic political power that the wealth of Wall Street and the top 1% affords them.

Most of us do not know about the immense total wealth held by the wealthiest 1%. It is a well kept secret. It is at least $13 Trillion. How much is that? Well, it is as much wealth as all the bottom 95% own. This $13 Trillion is held by 30 thousand people. These 30 thousand hold as much wealth as 300 million of us. If we stack up $100 bills, a $1,000 stack would be a stack between ¼ inch and ½ inch high. A million dollar stack would be 39 inches high. A billion dollar stack would be 3280 feet high or 6/10 of a mile. A trillion Dollar stack would be 621 miles high. The $13 trillion total wealth of the top 1% would be a stack of $100 bills 8,073 miles high. The wealth of this top 1% must be taxed in order to help us build a stable functioning community as authorized by the 16th Amendment to our Constitution. We have no alternative. We ordinary citizens cannot afford further taxes during this economic downturn.

A further source of funds is a stock transaction tax. A tax of one dime on every purchase and sale of stock on our exchanges would raise $52 billion per year, assuming trades of 2 billion shares per day and 260 trading days per year.

We are motivated by our own need, and the desperate need of our human community. We seek Justice. As the moral philosopher Ronald Dworkin has written: “It is unjust for some to have more than they need when others are needy.” Our community is very needy and we the people must recapture our voter sovereignty." www.blackcommentator.com/299/299_obama_needs_our_help_page_guest.html

Well, this is not what Mr. Smith has envisioned with his used of the filibuster!! If we do not ACT to give a clear support to Obama to make immediate change that is beneficial to mainstreet, we will be friggin' cooked. If Pelosi and co. do not turn the table on the Republican and ask them for proof of their supposedly bi-partisan fervor, we are fried. And if the Repug cashmad Senators succeed again in their hijack of public power to benefit a minority of greedy spoiled brats that love the smell of cash burning in the morning, there will be no America left to look after but a country where 1% laugh at our feeble attempt at democracy while the rest of us live in abject poverty and desperation, giving every last dollar to Wal-Mart.

Somehow, I'm sure that is exactly what we're fighting against...

Republican non-event dumboes, ignoble acts and latest desperate sayings

Top 5 Repug dumb and dumber festival kings and queens:

1. Sarah "Bloody" Palin
She just can't shut up! Why the hell are people wasting my time analyzing every single one of her ferocious power hungry moves. She is a blank space. An imaginary creature. A new neocon vending machine. The latest science fair "Let's make a President-like puppet" pet project of the right wing fringe. Sometimes I think lefties and progressive are our own worst enemy: remember the Anne Coulter-effect. It's the left that gave substance and exposure to a pretty idiot mad ravings. And suddenly she was on the cover of Newsweek! Let's not make the same mistake twice, damn it!

2. Fed Thompson
He still can't distinguish his tv persona from the real deal! Now he wants to become RNC chair. Oooh shit! Just let him!! Let's rename the party "The failed actors and sociopath party" and the hell with it!!
Read it on James Walcott:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/

3.Blackwater
Oooh. A slap on the wrist? That must hurt? A friggin' fine?!! They're selling weapons to the US Army AND the Iraqi insurgent and they get a silently given hush-hush fine?!! They should have just shut up about the whole thing and fake - no act like their usually ignorant selves.

TPMMuckracker: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/

4. Stupid Georgia Congressman
Whatever is name is. Another non-entity. Rabid, mouth foaming free capital bonehead that still don't get that his party was in power for 8 years and made a freaking mess out of everything it touched. After the pyramid scheme have blown in their faces, he thinks the worst that can happen is Obama trying to help anybody that's not a corporation.

His logic:
“I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.”

Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun said. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”

Obama’s comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado in which he called for expanding the nation’s foreign service.

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” Obama said in July.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2008/11/10/congressman_Marxist_obama.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13


5.The stupid guy who thought a vote on Proposition 8 was a good idea.

Look. I'm sorry. I'm a black woman and my best friend have been gays since forever. I do not care who you sleep with as long it's an adult and s/he makes you happy. Why should I tell you who you must let in your trousers?!! So, I do not know why we voted as we did. Sometimes we think more conservatively than the Repug since every moves we make is set against us. Being a gay black man is sometimes a big cross to bear. But in the community, well, in mine, its more like the military: don't ask, don't tell. But everybody knows and tolerate it. My mother, for example, don't mind. She will say she minds but she will accept my best friend at her dinner table and his lover and their kids if ever they have any, no problem. I see it as a reverse of this "My black friends are ok but I'm afraid of all the other" type of white mentality I've lived through. The gay they know are ok, all the rest are weirdoes.

It's just a non scientific hypothesis. I might be wrong of course. But still, another bad Repug idea.