The extreme right policies of the Obama administration are a rather blatant example of a much larger problem: the futility of voting for Democrats.

In a series of postings and with a bit of help, I came up with 140 examples of Bush Regime policies that this administration has continued or expanded on. And, it wasn't like I was trying to write an exhaustive list. I didn't have to do much research at all to come up with those items.

Our economy still sucks, when Democrats had the power during the last congressional term, they refused to pass real healthcare reform, lower the Social Security retirement age, or get rid of the Bush tax cuts for the rich (much less the Clinton, Reagan, Carter, and Kennedy tax cuts for the rich). Although Obama got the legal authority to lift the military ban at the end of last year, his administration keeps putting up homophobic administrative obstacles to postpone lifting the ban forever.

Neither this administration nor the Democrats in Congress have done anything to fight AIDS, pass ENDA, fight the banksters, prosecute crooked Bush regime officials, or end the wars. It's been new bosses, same old shit. Now, Barack Obama is working with his Republican allies (the "conflict" between them is as fake as the WWE) to implement the Crusade of Obama's Cat Food Commission against Social Security, Medicare, and Medicare.

Obama and the Democrats have been just as callous and unconcerned as the Republicans about the plight of the middle class and the poor in this country who continue to suffer while their wealthy donors party down with money that rightfully belongs to the rest of us. This is an administration that is so brazenly corrupt that they have chosen to give hundreds of thousands of Americans cancer just to show favoritism to some well connected airport X-Ray scanner companies.

Where is the opposition to all of this in the Democratic Party?

Where indeed!

It is disturbing that there is no real Democrat left to fight for what the party used to stand for. No one is willing to take on the rightist political elites in the party who treat everyone else like garbage.

There really isn't anyone left in the Democratic Party to vote for. These days, voting for Democrats or Republicans is throwing away your vote. The only hope, and a slim one admittedly, is to vote Green. There really is nothing left in the party that once brought forth the New Deal and Civil Rights laws.

Top Photo: jurvetson

 

In a recent Nation blog entry, extreme right columnist Eric Alterman accuses Noam Chomsky of lying about him. Let's look at Alterman's rant first.

So Chomsky uses exactly one example to demonstrate his joint contention regarding both “America’s obsessive belief in capital punishment” and its “rejoicing in the manner of Bin Laden’s demise.” Regarding the death penalty, I do not support it and never have. Regarding “rejoicing,” Chomsky purposely ignored the sentence that followed the very one he chose to quote. It reads: “But it should not be occasion for joy. The Talmud tells the story of angels dancing and singing as the waters of the Red Sea close over the heads of the Egyptian troops after the Israelites have safely crossed over, only to be rebuked by their God: ‘How dare you dance and sing as my children drown in the sea?’”

This would sound convincing if one didn't bother to read Alterman's reprehensible commentary on bin Laden's extrajudicial murder. I should point out the fact that the very title of the piece, "Bin Gotten" rejoices in that murder. (Bolding and italics mine.)

The killing of Osama bin Laden was a just and necessary undertaking; just because he had the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands, and necessary because his continued escape from justice was an inspiration to others to try to follow in his footsteps. But it should not be occasion for joy. The Talmud tells the story of angels dancing and singing as the waters of the Red Sea close over the heads of the Egyptian troops after the Israelites have safely crossed over, only to be rebuked by their God: “How dare you dance and sing as my children drown in the sea?”

So, Alterman drools over the killing of bin Laden in the first sentence and the name of the essay, yet he admonishes people not to do exactly what he is doing. This nonsense is as self contradictory as the Bible, and equally irrational.

Let's look at some other things that Alterman said about this illegal, extrajudicial killing.

"Barack Obama’s solemn announcement of this tremendous achievement hit the perfect note."

"the president’s cool, calm decision-making and demeanor—coupled with the peerless professional execution of the operation—can only impress world opinion with the mature and steely determination of America’s post-Bush leadership."

Sick, sick, sick.

Chomsky is correct. Alterman was rejoicing.

In the italicized text, I noticed out a huge problem with Alterman's and the Nation's fact checking, assuming there actually is any by either party. Alterman makes the highly questionable claim that "he had the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands."

The Nation should know better than to publish unsubstantiated claims in defense of government murder. There still hasn't been a credible, independent investigation of 911. The "911 Commission" was a cruel joke. They didn't demand all of that illegal regime's emails, memos, etc. They didn't subpoena people.

Even worse, Bush spoke to that sham commission, not under oath, while Dickless Cheney was present. That is absolute proof that he and other Bush regime officials were lying about 911. That "911 Commission" did nothing about those lies.

There certainly is evidence supporting the theory that Bush regime officials knew that attacks were coming and deliberately allowed the attacks to take place. However, there also is evidence strongly suggesting that the 911 attacks were committed by the Bush regime itself. The most damaging evidence is that fact that all the amateur video footage of the attacks was stolen by the Bush regime under "national security" grounds. That footage has yet to be made public. (Gee, I wonder why.)

The most any professional journalist can say about bin Laden is that he is alleged to be the mastermind of the 911 attacks, and that the allegations are rather weak.

I am so sick of incredibly evil politicians like George W. Bush and Barack Bush shitting on our Constitution and our nation's values. I am equally sick and tired of their gleeful enablers like Alterman.

The killing of a man without trial in a legitimate civilian court is murder, cold blooded murder. The lack of convincing evidence of guilt only makes the crime more heinous. How can a "liberal" magazine like the Nation allow someone like Alterman to post disturbing, fascist nonsense on their website?

Is it any wonder why The Nation is always begging for money and subscriptions? They have become such partisan Democrats that they have gone to shocking lengths to pander to an extreme right President like Barack Bush. If that magazine wants more liberal and progressive supporters, then they should fire the shills for this corrupt, rightist administration and hire some real liberals and progressives to write for them.

Ted Rall is absolutely correct about The Nation when he discusses their censorship of writers criticizing this execrable administration from the perspectives of the left.

I was merciless to Obama. I was cruel in my criticisms of Obama’s sellouts to the right. In my writings and drawings I tried to tell it as it was, or anyway, as I saw it. I thought—still think—that’s my job. I’m a critic, not a suck-up. The Obama Administration doesn’t need journalists or pundits to carry its water. That’s what press secretaries and PR flacks are for.

Does Obama ever do anything right? Not often, but sure. And when he does, I shut up about it. Cartoonists and columnists who promote government policy are an embarrassment.

But that’s what “liberal” media outlets want in the age of Obama.

I can’t prove it in every case. (That’s how blackballing works.) The Nation and Mother Jones and Harper’s, liberal magazines that gave me freelance work under Clinton and Bush, now ignore my queries. Even when I offered them first-person, unembedded war reporting from Afghanistan. Hey, maybe they’re too busy to answer email or voicemail. You never know.

Other censors are brazen.

Even if The Nation didn't specifically target Rall, their censorship of genuine liberal and progressive views about Barack Bush is so blatant one cannot help but notice it.

Yet, a rightist like Alterman is published regularly by The Nation. It's truly reprehensible.

 

Note: This is not a prioritized list.

121) Refusing to respect any treaties with the indigenous population of this country.

122) Demanding the "right" to assassinate US citizens.

123) Continuing the Bush-era policy of opposing the return of Haiti’s ousted former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was overthrown in a 2004 U.S./France/Canada-backed coup.

124) Supports government Internet ID to spy on Americans.

125) Sicking a grand jury on peace activists.

126) Pushes a salary freeze on federal workers.

127) Votes against ending Cuban trade embargo at UN.

128) Rebuilding a Pentagon database that was shut down three years ago after it was found to have been used to monitor US peace activists.

129) Deploying Special Forces to over 70 countries.

130) Supports mountaintop removal mining.

131) Siding with Cheney and Rove in Plamegate lawsuit.

132) Trying to slash Pell Grants.

133) Trying to cut heating assistance to poor people.

134) Supporting another rigged election in Afghanistan, keeping the widely loathed Karzai in power.

135) Refuses to support taking "In God We Trust" off of US currency.

136) Continuing to endanger the food supply by approving genetically modified crops, including alfalfa which is fed to cattle and sugar beats that are refined and put into many processed foods.

137) Censored reporters covering military tribunals at Guantanamo. (Thanks to Christopher of From the Left for reminding me about that one.)

138) Trying to put in place an "Internet Kill Switch" similar to the efforts by dictators to shut off the Internet when they face popular unrest. (Thanks again to Christopher of From the Left.)

139) Starting yet another war for oil in Libya.

140) Taking the necessary steps to ensure technical and legal obstacles to warrantless surveillance are removed.

Some of the items in this entry were from a list by St. Pete for Peace.

Got more? List them in the comments section so I can add them.

 

Note: This is not a prioritized list.

101) Continuing ethanol subsidies (corn based ethanol in the US takes more fossil fuel based energy to grow than it actually produces) instead of shifting the money to public transportation.

102) Continues to keep hundreds of thousands of Americans on no fly lists.

103) Continues operating the kangaroo courts known as "military tribunals."

104) Blocking efforts by clean government groups to get access to Bush regime emails.

105) Supports Bush's 11th hour directive to allow concealed firearms in national parks

106) Refuses to condemn Israel's nuclear arsenal or demand compensation for the attack on the US Navy vessel that gave Israel its nuclear capacity.

107) Refuses to prosecute Ratzi or other high level Roman Catholic officials for obstruction of justice in child molestation cases.

108) Opposed shifting target of TARP bailout from banksters to homeowners.

109) Exempting global warming from protections afforded polar bears by the Endangered Species Act.

110) Continuing the Bush administration's exclusion of Alaska's Tongass rainforest from roadless protections.

111) Got the House to drop family planning funding from stimulus bill which they had added to his original proposal.

112) Pushing tax cuts for corporations.

113) Refuses to do anything about homelessness, even during the Great Recession.

114) Continues bowing and scraping before the fundamentalist, terrorist regime in Saudi Arabia.

115) Refuses to condemn Israel for their apartheid policies against the indigenous population of Palestine.

116) Continues providing economic and military aid to Israel.

117) Continues arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

118) Opposing a windfall profits tax on Big Oil.

119) Pushing the myth of "clean coal."

120) Treating African Americans as if they don't even exist.

Please put other items in the comments. I've already done more of this list in posts scheduled in the future, but there is room for new items at the end.

 

Note: This is not a prioritized list.

81) Opposes banning land mines.

82) Is working to certify meat and dairy produced with genetically modified alfalfa as "organic."

83) Opposes truth in labeling laws on genetically modified foods.

84) Continues to spy on the emails and text messages of all Americans.

85) Expanding charter schools despite the fact that they aren't working.

86) Engaging in union busting against teachers unions.

87) Continues to deny detainees access to the courts.

88) Opposes any new gun control legislation.

89) Supported phony "elections" in Haiti where the balloting is rigged and the most popular political party is banned.

90) Working with George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to block aid to Haiti and to restrict it to corporations like KBR.

91) Keeping secret the names of White House visitors, even in cases not involving national security or diplomacy.

92) Fought in court for immunity for telecoms who helped the Bush Regime engage in illegal wiretapping.

93) Refused to vigorously enforce antitrust laws (e.g., break up Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil, Apple, Macys, etc.)

94) Opposes legalization of marijuana.

95) Continues to support the Unpatriotic Act.

96) Continues to issue illegal signing statements.

97) Supports outsourcing US jobs to India.

98) Continues to operate the torture center at Gitmo.

99) Resisting Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

100) Interrogating innocent Americans who have traveled abroad, including demanding access to emails and other electronic records.

Even this doesn't come close to getting all of it.

Please put other items in the comments. I've already done more of this list in posts scheduled in the future, but there is room for new items at the end.

 

Note: This is not a prioritized list.

61) Demonizes liberals and progressives.

62) Lionizes the extreme right.

63) Through his Cat Food Commission, supported starting the privatization of Social Security.

64) Pushed through huge Medicaid cuts.

65) Flat funding US domestic AIDS budgets.

66) Improved relations with brutal military government in Burma in order to benefit Unocal.

67) Dramatically increased government subsidies for nuclear power plants, which are the most dangerous and vulnerable targets for terrorists while producing waste that cannot be disposed of safely.

68) Opposed a House resolution which would have recognized the Armenian Genocide.

69) Continuing the policy of creating AFRICOM instead of shutting the latest over extension of the US empire down.

70) Expanding military action in Afghanistan.

71) Expanding covert military operations in Iran.

72) Refusing to even propose an anti poverty initiative of any kind.

73) Refusing to acknowledge the problem of military suicides or help our veterans because it would show the damaging consequences of the wars.

74) Failing to support the Gulf Coast Civil Works Project, a long overdue program to create jobs and to help the recovery from Hurricane Katrina which still is far from done.

75) Supported tearing down safe and usable public housing in New Orleans and replacing it with far fewer units in a city where homelessness already had gotten worse.

76) Hired a Monsanto lobbyist as an administration adviser on food safety.

77) Condoned the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for being at home while black.

78) Refused to lift a finger to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

79) Met with a leader of the Mormon hate church in the White House.

80) Following the Bush regime policy of covering up the photos of torture at US detention facilities.

Continued next week.

Please put other items in the comments. I've already done more of this list in posts scheduled in the future, but there is room for new items at the end.

 

Note: This is not a prioritized list.

41) Opposes a federal SUV tax.

42) Has taken no action to reduce the number of tax loopholes for wealthy and corporations.

43) Opposes treating capital gains (except from home sales) as regular income, taking income earned by working at higher rates.

44) Supports reducing the inheritance tax instead of raising it.

45) Uses high profile banksters as his top economic advisers.

46) Gradually eroding Net Neutrality.

47) Illegally criminalizing whistleblowers instead of going after the crooks they expose.

48) Sabotages global climate change summits and bullies poor nations in attendance.

49) Continues to make big promises on global AIDS but doesn't even include the funding in his proposed budgets.

50) Refuses to even propose a national safer sex campaign.

51) Supports fundamentalist "abstinence only" campaigns in the public schools.

52) Put carcinogenic body scanners in airports in order to help a lobbyist from the Bush Regime.

53) Continues to wildly exaggerate risks of terrorism to promote wars abroad.

54) Opposes an independent investigation of 911.

55) Continuing to practice torture at Guantanamo and throughout the world.

56) Siding with British Petroleum against the environment and the people in the Gulf Coast.

57) Discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Cabinet level appointments.

58) Engaging in saber rattling with Iran and Venezuela.

59) Reappointed corrupt and incompetent Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke.

60) Lied about the "cleanup" after the British Petroleum oil spill.

More next week.

Please put other items in the comments. I've already done more of this list in posts scheduled in the future, but there is room for new items at the end.

 

Notes: This is not a prioritized list. This is part of a series of blog postings that will appear over the next few weeks.

21) Negotiated a corporate controlled trade deal with South Korea.

22) Opposes the US withdrawal from the World Trade Organization.

23) Opposes the repeal of NAFTA, CAFTA, and other corporate controlled trade agreements.

24) Continues Most Favored Trade Nation status with China.

25) Opposes increasing tariffs to balance budgets.

26) Opposes making it a felony to ship US jobs abroad.

27) Supports Israel's military siege of Gaza.

28) Gone along with Israel's illegal settlements in Palestinian territory.

29) Opposes the Gaza flotilla and has refused to challenge Israel's violations of the human rights of Americans involved in it.

30) Has used the IMF and World Bank (which the US dominates) to impose The Shock Doctrine on Greece and Ireland.

31) Opposes Medicare for All.

32) Opposes even the Public Option.

33) Participates in unconstitutional National Hate Breakfast.

34) Opposes moratorium on foreclosures.

35) Opposes subjecting hedge funds to the same regulations as legitimate mutual funds.

36) Opposes criminalizing derivatives.

37) Obnoxiously flaunts Christianity even though this is not a Christian nation. (at least according to George Washington and other founders)

38) Opposes a ban on all offshore oil drilling.

39) Continues government contracts with Halliburton, KBR, Xe, etc. despite their blatant misconduct.

40) Opposes closing unnecessary military bases abroad.

Stay tuned. There's more to come.

Please put other items in the comments. I've already done more of this list in posts scheduled in the future, but there is room for new items at the end.

Notes: This is not a prioritized list. This is part of a series of blog postings that will appear over the next few weeks.

1) Opposes reinstating the Glass-Steagall restrictions on the banksters and brokesters.

2) Supports the coup government in Honduras.

3) Continues to involve high profile misogynist and heterosexist preachers in public events and public policy.

4) Continues to drag out the Iraq War.

5) Continues to drag out the Afghanistan War.

6) Is making our military increasingly dependent on mercenaries.

7) Continues to kidnap and torture people under "extraordinary rendition."

8) Refuses to prosecute crooked Bush regime officials.

9) Refuses to prosecute Wall St. crooks.

10) Opposes moratorium or even limits on interest rate increases on predatory mortgages.

11) Is expanding Bush's Hate Based Initiatives.

12) Cut taxes on the rich.

13) Raised taxes on the poor.

14) Opposed seizing British Petroleum and revoking its corporate charter.

15) Has barely funded public transportation in his budgets while making roads a high priority.

16) Supports the military dictatorship in Egypt against the Egyptian people.

17) Illegally wiretaps Americans without warrants.

18) Opposes nationalizing the banks and brokerages.

19) Compared homosexuality to bestiality and necrophilia in DOMA court filings.

20) Opposes government funding for abortion, a perfectly legitimate medical procedure.

Sadly, there's a lot more fodder for this list. Stay tuned.

Please put other items in the comments. I've already done more of this list in posts scheduled in the future, but there is room for new items at the end.

 

Here are some interesting news stories that haven't been emphasized by the US corporate media.


Hundreds of Iraqis protest lack of basic services (Reuters 2/11/11)

Lawyers lead anti-government protest in Baghdad (AP 2/11/11)

Iraqis step up protest in job and food crisis (The National - Abu Dhabi 2/6/11)

Iraq's Maliki says he won't seek 3rd term, in possible reverberations from Egypt (Washington Post 2/11/11)

Someone who hasn't followed the Iraq story might be asking, "But, isn't Iraq a democracy?" Hardly. George W. and Barack Bush have rigged all the elections there to keep a divided and impotent government in place, a government that was so weak it couldn't even kick out Blackwater (now Xe) after that employees had gotten caught killing Iraqi civilians. If this vote rigging sounds shocking, remember that the 2000 and 2004 US presidential elections were stolen.

If freedom and democracy keep spreading in the Middle East, would it really be that surprising if the Iraqis decided they want some too? No one could blame them for taking what supposedly had been given to them by Saddam Hussein and then by George W. Bush.

Let's hope the Iraqis finally get their freedom.

 

With legislation that should result in finally lifting the military ban, it would be easy to think that Obama is OK, everything is just fine, and that we can relax now, especially if you are queer. However, the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) is more important, in terms of its substantive impact on queer lives, than all of the rest of the queer civil rights legislation that was pending this past legislative term.

ENDA never even got a vote this session.

If that isn't enough perspective, I Can't Believe It's Not a Democracy pointed me out to this gem on Obama's "accomplishments":

WhatInTheFuckHasObamaDoneSoFar.com

It's sobering, to say the least.

As promised, here's a fab graphic from Zaius Nation on Obama's betrayal on the tax cuts for the rich/tax increases for the poor legislation Obama just signed. (click to embiggen)

The Washington Post has sunk to this level.
Photo: a kingdom for a donkey

It's no big secret that the Washington Post has been a corrupt, partisan, rightist, unpatriotic, and unreliable news source for some time, especially when it comes to the lies of wealthy and powerful Republicans.

However, a 12/3/10 editorial by this propaganda rag attacking the movie "Fair Game" which explores the crimes committed by the Bush regime against Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson took things to astonishing extremes.

The only grudging admiration I can offer the Post's editorial board was its efficiency. They managed to pack so many lies into such short sections of text with a ruthless efficiency that the paper seldom devotes to actual new reporting.

Lies (3):

The movie portrays Ms. Plame as having cultivated a group of Iraqi scientists and arranged for them to leave the country, and it suggests that once her cover was blown, the operation was aborted and the scientists were abandoned. This is simply false. In reality, as The Post's Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby reported, Ms. Plame did not work directly on the program, and it was not shut down because of her identification.

Facts:

1) Ms. Plame did work directly on the program.

2) There was no claim that the entire program was shut down. The claim was that CIA front company that Plame was involved with was shut down.

3) That company was shut down, and the lives of its employees were endangered.

Lies (7):

The movie portrays Mr. Wilson as a whistle-blower who debunked a Bush administration claim that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the African country of Niger. In fact, an investigation by the Senate intelligence committee found that Mr. Wilson's reporting did not affect the intelligence community's view on the matter, and an official British investigation found that President George W. Bush's statement in a State of the Union address that Britain believed that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger was well-founded.

.
Facts:

1) Joseph Wilson was a whitle-blower.

2) He debunked the claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger.

3) The entire US intelligence community knew that the claim was false.

4) George W. Bush and the rest of his administration deliberately lied when they made the claim.

5) The Senate intelligence committee's "investigation" was a fraudulent, partisan, GOP sham.

6) The British "investigation" was a white wash designed to protect Tony Blair from political scrutiny and criminal prosecution.

7) The Downing Street Memos prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that both the US and British Government knew that there was no Iraqi nuclear program.

Lies (4):

"Fair Game" also resells the couple's story that Ms. Plame's exposure was the result of a White House conspiracy. A lengthy and wasteful investigation by a special prosecutor found no such conspiracy - but it did confirm that the prime source of a newspaper column identifying Ms. Plame was a State Department official, not a White House political operative.

Facts:

1) The supposed "investigation" was conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, a highly partisan and politically connected Republican who took Bush regime claims at face value rather than running a real investigation.

2) It is physically impossible for a newspaper column to be the prime source of information on this. Insider information was needed for Robert Novak to make his treasonous revelations.

3) The sources of the leak were in the Bush regime.

4) The leaks were coordinated by Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and probably other Bush regime officials.

Lies (2):

Though it was long ago established that Mr. Wilson himself was not telling the truth - not about his mission to Niger and not about his wife - the myth endures.

Facts:

1) Joe Wilson did tell the truth about the war.

2) Joe Wilson did tell the truth about his wife.

---

The Washington Post really is trying to out Moonie the Moonie owned Washington Times.

I should note that the facts I have pointed out have been widely and publicly known for several years for now. There is no possible way that the Washington Post could not be aware of them.

The dishonesty is yet another example of the corporate media's Judith Miller style approach to "journalism." "Reporters," pundits, and editorial boards act as stenographers for the lies of the wealthy and the powerful, especially when those lies get our country into illegal, corrupt, and genocidal wars. I can't imagine why anyone would subscribe to the Washington Post. Why pay to be lied to in a way that only serves to insult one's intelligence?

If this library reflected what Bush actually was as a man, it would be filled with coloring books.

Bush Blog: Tempers Flare Between Bush Supporters, Protesters from SMUDailyMustang.com on Vimeo.

If the video already wasn't funny enough, there actually are far right bloggers who are posting it and praising the fool.

SMU has completely degraded itself and devalued the degress of its graduates by hosting this farce. Bush was never even president, having illegally occupied the White House for eight years due to two stolen elections. Yet, the GOP and SMU pranksters are actually calling it a "presidential library."

The wingnut in the video certainly shows the anti intellectual mentality of the far right. So does SMU.

What's next? Is SMU going to start the Dan Quayle School of Philosophy? The Glenn Beck School of Critical Thinking? The Sarah Palin School of Communications?

 

Before I get to this particular activist campaign, I thought I would give what appears to be the answer to the question that piqued my curiosity. Who is the ghostwriter of Shrub's book? (The Daily Beast 3/9/10)

How did 28-year-old ex-Yalie and former speechwriter Christopher Michel become the man behind Dubya's memoirs? Bryan Curtis talks to Bush chief of staff Andrew Card and former speechwriters Matt Latimer and Marc Thiessen about how Michel went from Barbara Bush’s classmate to the confidant he dubbed “Junior Bird Man.”

Now, onto the substance.

Various activists are calling for people taking Shrub's Bush, which most bookstores are misfiling, and putting it in Crime sectionsm where it belongs. From CODEPINK's 11/12/10 press release: (bolding mine)

With the release of George W. Bush's memoir Decision Points, CODEPINK activists are mobilizing throughout the country to make sure Bush is greeted by protests. They have already "greeted him" at book signings in Dallas and Milwaukee, and will be outside his events in Miami this weekend as well as at the opening of Bush's Presidential Library in Dallas next week. Activists are also descending on bookstores to move Decision Points into the Crime section at local bookstores, and are downloading special "This Book's Author is a War Criminal" bookmarks to put in each copy.

"With his book, media appearances and the opening of his library in Dallas, George Bush is being treated as a respected statesman instead of what he really is: a war criminal," said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin. "That's why we, the people, have to set the record straight."

Bill Quigley, writing on Michael Moore's website, discussed the true crime nature of the book as well. Somebody also started a Facebook Group which proposes moving the book where it belongs.

It's odd how something as innocuous as properly filing a book in a bookstore or library has become subversive in our incredibly censored and propagandized society.

As CODEPINK pointed out in their press release, there is a very serious issue behind this rather mild act of restoring correct order to book collections.

"High officials must be held accountable for criminal acts," says CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans. "Otherwise, it sends a clear message to future administrations--including the current one--that they are not required to uphold the basic tenets of human rights and international law."

Image: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

 

I certainly have my views on some of the current controversies surrounding 911. However, living in NYC, blogging about them today seems inappropriate. Today, I've seen the pain in the faces of people who lost loved ones that day, and it makes you stop and think.

I lived in DC at the time of the attacks. For most people there, it was a day more of fear than loss. Most people in the District didn't know people who died in the Pentagon. People did experience a situation that certainly achieved what terrorists are trying to achieve, creating terror.

I remember the efforts of people to evacuate from downtown after the Towers fell. Walking past the cars stuck in traffic made me realize that it wouldn't be realistic to get most people out DC if there was a sudden need. People who lived in Virginia were the worst off, because the only reasonable evacuation routes with such a mass exodus were through Maryland. (The Potomac River is in the way.)

Washington is a city where speculation about politicians and world events rivals celebrity gossip. Most people are geographically close to power, yet have very little. So, it wasn't exactly shocking that people who felt powerless over the possibility of another terrorist attack would speculate about it...endlessly. It created a climate of fear that surpassed the rest of the country by far, with the possible exception of NYC.

I eventually realized that most peoples' views of what would be the terrorists' next target were based on how important those places were in the world view of the people doing the speculating. Trying to picture the world view of, much less empathize with, the terrorists was considered nearly treasonous by some people, as bizarre as that seems now. So, they just projected their world views onto the terrorists in bizarre and senseless ways.

The same thing worked for dates. We were always taught to be afraid in national holidays and Christian religious holidays. Jewish holidays were thrown in there sometimes too. No efforts was made by the authorities, or most people listening to them, to figure out what dates, if any, would be important to Islamic fundamentalists. (It was considered terroristic to even question if Islamic extremists were the ones who carried out the attacks.) So, people waited and speculated, waited and speculated, waited and speculated bizarrely for the next attack that they were sure was going to happen.

Many were convinced that the next attacks, yes attacks, would use "dirty bombs." Others were sure that chemical or biological weapons would be involved. The "Washington Consensus" on the streets was that we were all going to get hit, again, and again, and again.

Those attacks never came.

I remember that my own personal sense of helplessness was enhanced by the fact that we had an incompetent, illegitimate, and unelected regime whose leaders were not the slightest bit concerned with anyone other than themselves and the wealthy elites of this country. Considering who was running our government, there was no reason to trust it to protect me, especially after it had just failed to protect the country so spectacularly.

I live in NYC now. When I look back, I guess I am lucky. Being surrounded by baseless fear and frenzied speculation are nowhere near as bad losing friends or loved ones. 911 has been used as a political football by the right from the very day it happened. On most days, it is so important that more people are fighting back. Today, I'll reflect.

 

The following press release from Americans United for Separation of Church and State brings up some important issues.

Congress Should Reject Conservative Religious Groups’ Call For Taxpayer-Funded Job Bias, Says Americans United

August 25, 2010

If ‘Faith-Based’ Charities Want To Discriminate In Hiring On Religious Grounds, They Shouldn’t Get Public Funds, Says AU’s Lynn

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today urged Congress to reject an appeal for public funding of “faith-based” charities that discriminate in hiring on religious grounds.

In a letter to every member of Congress today, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, World Vision and other conservative religious organizations demanded that faith-based charities get government subsidies even if they hire only job applicants who meet certain religious criteria.

Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, “I am appalled that these religious leaders are trying to undermine the civil rights protections that every American counts on. If government pays for a social work position, every qualified applicant should be considered for the job regardless of their views on religion.

“At a time when the economy is hard-hit and a lot of people are out of work, it is disgraceful that some religious leaders want to deny government-funded job opportunities on the basis of religion,” he continued. “Members of Congress must say no to this exercise in discrimination.”

Lynn said the signers of today’s letter represent only one part of the broad spectrum of religion in America. He noted that groups representing the Jewish, Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Unitarian and Quaker communities have strongly opposed government-subsidized job bias.

Leading civil rights and civil liberties groups have also opposed this kind of hiring discrimination.

Lynn noted that public opinion polls show that Americans reject publicly funded faith-based bias by a wide margin. According to a 2008 Pew Research Center poll, 73 percent of Americans say organizations that hire only people who share their religious beliefs should not receive government grants.

There are a few things I would also like to bring up on the subject.

1) Government funding of religious organizations under any circumstance violates state/church separation. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the "establishment of religion," not just the establishment of a religion. There is no possible way that the government can fund religious groups or use them to provide services without establishing religion.

2) The very act of being a religious charity is discriminatory. An inclusive charity includes people and provides services to people regardless of faith or freedom from faith.

3) The very premise behind the hate based initiatives is bigoted against freethinkers. These existence of them is based on the claim that religion makes people better, which is as fact free as it is insulting to atheists and agnostics.

4) There already are plenty of greedy and power mad corporations corrupting our government for their gain. The last thing we need to do is add churches and religious groups to the corrupting entities. Privatization has been proven itself to be a corrupting influence in every society where it has been tried, and churches already corrupt human societies enough as it is.

5) When President Obama followed through on his campaign threat to expand Bush's hate based initiatives, this was terrible news for the First Amendment and the civil rights of atheists. What did surprise me was that many in the LGBT community were actually surprised when a lot of the funded churches and people making funding decisions were viciously heterosexist. All the major religions in this society are bigoted against queers. If they have their hand in the till, queers suffer.

Illustration: HikingArtist.com

Photos:typebalance

elisfanclub

 

The highest duty of any patriot is to work to make his or her country the best it can possibly. That represents the highest value of liberalism, and liberals have fought for generations to do just that. We need to ask ourselves something.

Are we still living up to this standard?

There are some rather unpleasant realities that very few people in our society want to face. There is very little difference between the politicians on matters of substance. Whether you are talking about Barack Bush or George W. Bush, Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich or Nancy Pelosi, you are talking about a set of politicians whose values and political agendas are almost identical. They vary in terms of style and the ability to coherently articulate positions, but they all have pushed for same substantive policies the overwhelming majority of the time. Those policies are overwhelmingly rightist.

Spectator sports and brand loyalty marketing have conned people all over the political spectrum into picking teams or selecting brands and obediently going with them without giving much thought to the whole process. Rationalization and denial have become national pastimes.

In the real world, the differnces between the Democrats and Republicans are no more meaningful than those between Coke and Pepsi, the Yankees and the Mets, Dodge and the former Plymouth, or the Patriots and the Jets. Yet, people beat their chests and root, root, root. During campaigns they buy, buy, buy.

The political discourse is poisoned by this not only in terms of substance, but also in terms of style. Having little important to disagree with from Democrats like Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, Republicans just keep getting nastier, more bigoted, and crazier.

Why are most liberals going along with this? Why aren't we questioning more? Why aren't most of us swing voters with a Green Party that agrees with us on the vast majority of issues? Why do so many on the left pretend that voting for the overwhelming majority of Democrats is anything but a wasted vote?

We need to start thinking critically and logically. We aren't helping ourselves or our country by going along with this rightist crap.

 

In yet another betrayal, President Obama has failed to meet his campaign commitments on Global AIDS. In fact, his proposed funding levels don't even keep up with inflation. Here's the protest press release:

AIDS Activists Demand End to White House Failures on Global AIDS, Protest at $15,000-a-plate fundraiser

Who: People with AIDS and their allies from the US and immigrants from countries affected by Obama's broken AIDS promises, including members of ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT UP/New York, Africa Action, African Services Committee, NYC AIDS Housing Network, VOCAL-NY Users Union, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, Housing Works, Health GAP, American Medical Student association, MCCNY Charities, Rude Mechanical Orchestra and Philadelphia Global AIDS Watchdogs.

What: Outraged at President Obama's about-face on AIDS, hundreds of angry AIDS activists will demonstrate outside of his appearance at the DCCC's $15,000-to-$50,000-a-ticket fundraiser. Activists will come from New York, New England, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC to demand that Obama meet his promises to fight global AIDS and stop turning people who were promised life-saving medication away from AIDS clinics around the globe. These protests follow frightening stories in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe and Newsweek.

There will be many "arresting" photo opportunities!

When/Where: 5:00 PM, Thursday, May 13th, outside the St Regis Hotel, 55th St. at 5th Ave., New York City

Why: On the campaign trail, President Obama pledged "to provide at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including our fair share of the Global Fund, in order to at least double the number of HIV-positive people on treatment and continue to provide treatments to one-third of all those who desperately need them."

This promise was ratified into law in 2008, through the "Lantos-Hyde US Global Leadership against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Act," which authorized $48 billion over five years. Now President Obama is breaking that promise.

The reality is that since taking office, President Obama's budgets have shifted funding away from AIDS programs, and his commitments to fighting AIDS have not even kept pace with inflation, let alone increased to the level he promised. As has been highlighted by recent stories in the Boston Globe and Newsweek, a flat-funded budget means that people who were tested under US-sponsored programs and promised treatment when they got sick are now being turned away. Clinics receiving money from the US government are being instructed to enroll no new patients in life-saving treatment programs. Doctors are being instructed to ration drugs and face choices between giving their dwindling supplies to young mothers or children. People who are turned away often have nowhere else to go, and will die. "Obama's broken promises are killing people with AIDS around the world. We cannot backtrack on our commitment to saving lives," said ACT UP Philadelphia member Jose de Marco.

Barack Bush strikes again!

George W. Bush was infamous for big talk on global AIDS funding, only to stiff people who have a fatal disease when it came time to actually fund the big talk. During the campaign, Obama praised Bush's shameful record on global AIDS, which really worried me.

How many people will die needlessly of AIDS in underdeveloped countries before Barack Obama gives a shit?

Photo: Reikhavok

 

During the first year of his administration, Barack Obama followed Bush regime policies in most major areas, while making a number of small concessions to try to mollify Democratic voters. Here are some examples of major policy continuity:

1) Increasing total occupying forces in Iraq (troops plus mercenaries)

2) Continuing the policy of kidnapping people and sending them to other countries to be tortured ("extraordinary rendition")

3) Keeping the torture center in Guantanamo open

4) Expanding the Bush regime's hate based initiatives to take federal grant money from inclusive nonprofits and give it to nonprofits that discriminate on the basis of religion.

5) Continuing the policy of creating AFRICOM.

6) Refusing to withdraw from the World Trade Organization

7) Refusing to negotiate the end of corporate controlled trade agreements such as NAFTA

8) Attending "National Prayer Breakfasts"

9) Expaning the wars in Pakistan and Afghanistan

10) Supporting a huge corporate giveaway in the name of "healthcare reform" (remember the Bush regime's Medicare changes?)

11) Refusing to support legislation cracking down on bankster and brokester bonuses.

12) Continuing illegal spying on Americans without warrants.

I could go on, and on, and on, but you get the point. This year's administration budget proposal includes some important continuity with the Bush regime. Obama wants domestic spending (including veterans benefits) frozen while continuing enormous increases of military spending. The proposal does nothing to cut off funding for the illegal war on Iraq that goes against American values.

Yet, there is an aspect of the budget that actually does represent a major break with the policies of the Bush regime. President Obama is calling for Bush's tax cuts for the rich to expire. Even when the tax breaks expire, the parasitical rich in this country won't be paying anywhere near their fair share in taxes. But, any progress in this area is critically important. It represents a break with 30 years of corrupt policies that have robbed the poor and middle class to benefit wealthy campaign donors.

We need to pressure President Obama to break with more Bush regime policies. This is a good start, but Obama has a long way to go before he can call himself a Real Democrat.

 

A lot of people on the right are so stubborn or gullible that they still want to pretend that the Bush regime went into Iraq because of the 911 attacks. Never mind the facts that the Iraqi government was not involved; Saddam Hussein's government and Al Qaeda were mortal enemies; and no individual Iraqis were involved with the attacks.

Now, we know that the Bush regime and its poodle, Tony Blair, worked to overthrow the Iraqi government before the 911 attacks even happened. From The Independent 2/1/10: (Hat Tip: Citizens for Legitimate Government)

A secret plan to foster an internal coup against Saddam Hussein was drawn up by the Government two years before the invasion of Iraq, The Independent can reveal.

Whitehall officials drafted the "contract with the Iraqi people" as a way of signalling to dissenters in Iraq that an overthrow of Saddam would be supported by Britain. It promised aid, oil contracts, debt cancellations and trade deals once the dictator had been removed. Tony Blair's team saw it as a way of creating regime change in Iraq even before the 9/11 attack on New York.

The document, headed "confidential UK/US eyes", was finalised on 11 June 2001 and approved by ministers. It has not been published by the Iraq inquiry but a copy has been obtained by The Independent and can be revealed for the first time today. It states: "We want to work with an Iraq which respects the rights of its people, lives at peace with its neighbours and which observes international law.

"The Iraqi people have the right to live in a society based on the rule of law, free from repression, torture and arbitrary arrest; to enjoy respect for human rights, economic freedom and prosperity," the contract reads. "The record of the current regime in Iraq suggests that its priorities remain elsewhere.

"Those who wish to promote change in Iraq deserve our support," it concludes. "We look forward to the day when Iraq rejoins the international community." A new regime was to be offered "debt rescheduling" through the Paris Club, an informal group of the richest 19 economies, given help from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and handed an EU aid and trade deal. Companies were to be invited to invest in its oil fields. A "comprehensive retraining programme" was to be offered to Iraqi professionals.

There is an investigation into the Iraq War going on in the UK which is revealing all sorts of things. There really needs to be a similar investigation here in the US to reveal all the lies and fraud that got us into the illegal war on Iraq that goes against all American values.