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Economic meltdown, climate change top list of things that are in need of global dialogue
MEMORANDUM:
TO: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
FROM: THE WORLD
![[Tourists look at a sand sculpture of U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama Nov. 2, 2008 at Puri beach, off the Bay of Bengal, near Bhubaneswar in eastern India. (BISWARANJAN ROUT/AP)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/vote1103.jpg "vote1103.jpg")
We
know you are not quite there yet. Whatever. The rest of the planet now
has concluded you will be. Your honeymoon suite awaits with a euphoria
that spans the globe.
A word of warning, however, before you snuggle in for that first group hug. There are bedbugs. And they bite.
A year of rising expectations is about to fall on your shoulders, with a thundering weight many now predict will buckle you.
Here in London, Simon Jenkins of the Guardian nailed the point, announcing the end of the bull market in Barack.
"Sell Obamas now," Jenkins advised his readers. "They are overpriced and the forward market has gone crazy. If he becomes president, the bubble will burst, I guess in the spring of next year."
Your era will begin with some immediate international advantages, it is true. Not least, the sheer glee that your name is not George.
"The first thing the world needs from America is the absence of George W. Bush," is how François Heisbourg, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Studies, framed things in an interview with the Star. "That guarantees a tremendous advantage. And for Obama - I assume it will be him - it will be all the greater."
How bloated are the expectations? On the waterfront in Barcelona today, artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada and an army of volunteers are shaping a mountain of sand, earth and gravel into a giant portrait of you. This is not a joke.
"The piece is ephemeral, it is not designed to last," Rodriguez-Gerada told the Daily Telegraph, explaining the artwork, titled "Expectation," is intended not as praise for you but rather, as a commentary on how desperately the world lusts for the idea of you.
"Who knows if the euphoria surrounding Obama will fade away like sand or lead to something more permanent?"
Many anticipate your first step will be to reboot America's conversation with the world. A kind of "great cleansing," in the words of Charlie Beckett, director of POLIS, the journalism think-tank at London School of Economics.
"Right now there is an enormous residual 'turning off' when Americans speak. The feeling is that during the Bush era, 'They caused mayhem, they ignored the world, they didn't listen to us - so why should we listen to them.'
"Now the conversation will renew. Which is tremendously important for the world. Especially for those of us who believe in America's place in the world as a force for democracy and freedom."
That, of course, is the easy part, given your deft oratorical skills. But the going is almost certainly going to get messy soon thereafter, when talk collides with realpolitik. As Heisbourg notes, "America's national interest is not going to change just because the president changes."
We got a sense of this in Berlin earlier this summer. Up there on stage, all you could see was a throng of 200,000 people chanting your name. But where we were, down in the crowd, we felt a distinct chill when you spoke of a stepped-up effort in war-weary Afghanistan - a conflict that Germans have just about had their fill of. And the rest of Europe is not far behind.
But Afghanistan may in fact prove the least of your worries, given the cluster of global crises on your morning-after to-do list. Global economic meltdown, far and away, trumps them all. Yet the interconnected issues of climate change and energy burn close behind.
Add to that the whole series of other urgent global challenges, from bioethics to migration to nuclear proliferation, and the task ahead wildly exceeds the bounds of a single brain, even one as well-appointed as yours.
Where to begin? Many of your unofficial global advisers suggest the only way forward is a Herculean act of multitasking. You need to dispatch individual teams on every one of these problems, each with marching orders to map how the United States can lead in crafting - and crucially,obeying - a new global rulebook.
Take solace in two important facts as you go forward. First, know that for now, at least, your name is the gold standard of global goodwill. People want you to succeed. And, most importantly, know that however ridiculous the expectations may be, nobody truly expects you to have the all the answers.
"One of the ways to manage unrealistic expectations is to recognize that the United States doesn't have to do everything. It doesn't have to solve all the problems. It just needs to be a constructive global player," said Ian Goldin, director of the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University.
Goldin, a former World Bank vice president, said the next leader's greatest challenge would be to rise above national self-interest. To see the global forest despite the domestic trees, and to understand that what is good for the world will, ultimately, be very good for the U.S.
"It comes down to a question of accepting there will be global rules and to abide by them. The problem with a superpower is that when the world shows you the red card, do you accept the red card or do you play the global bully?" said Goldin.
"That's why there is so much optimism today. There is a view that the United States now will not only participate very actively in establishing the rules of the game. But also they will be responsible players."
162 Comments so far
Show AllHey Dudes-I'm gonna nail three bong loads of the best weed in the world for Obama!
You all go have a Budweiser and bad-mouth him some more.....it's been a long ugly road on the threads of CD-Christ I've been here for years but never saw your true colors until this last year.
Obama, YES!
Well I'm gonna be hitting the bong right with ya' there, translucent. 2 hits for Nader, and 1 (hopefully) for Obama. Ha! 2 because I voted my principles, and 1 because the country will no longer be controlled by Republicans.
Uncannily, I echo tweck almost point for point.
The differences are negligible: waterpipe, not bong; I'm still struggling with dedicating that third hit.
But, pausing for a moment to put on my technocratic wonk's green eyeshade, I estimate that tweck is closer to the national average of hits polled, excluding outlying rural tokes and counting blunts as three-fifths of a hit-- yup, it's running about two hits to one, all right-- Nader/Obama.
After the break, we'll check McCain/Palin poll results of lines consumed by crystal/rock amphetamine users-- we've all heard about the prospect of especially long lines at polling places, after all.
Beautiful.
Awesome, I've bickered with some on CD re RN but never got a chance to say I actually admire his principles and positions.
Yeah, this day is so good, so good.
These Gangster Republican Rapists are finally reaping what thay have sown; defeat and ignominy.
tweck, I made up a joke, (while trimming.)
any-way;
Why do deer JUMP in front of cars?
becauseiftheyjustwalkedinfrontofcars,
peoplewouldhavetimetoswerve.
Whoops! Sorry for the repeat.
Carol
I am so very scared that Obama will become our President because first of all he is NOT an American in any way shape of form and that is a fact.
I sick of hearing that McCain is not an American because he was born in Panama, Canal Zone because that is where I was born and I am an American because both of my parents were American and we owned that part of Central America at the time so anyone born there were automatically American.
Obama has a lot of to hide and all the press and other people know it. There is a lawsuit now in the courts about him to stop him from becoming President but nobody has said anything about that have they? NO.
Obama is NOT a GOD if he is than all of our Gods. This man is a lier because I don't know how but he was able to hide the fact that he is African. Even his grandmother in Africa said she was in the operating room when he came into the world in Africa but all of that was buried.
Why do you think he married who he married an American black? Well you know the answer there or maybe you already know.
What happened to the old American saying you can tell what kind of person you are by who you associate with what happened to that?
The person that I really fear is his Wife because she runs the entire show and that is a fact. As she calls us those Whiteys she really hates us so watch out Whiteys things are going to change and that is a fact.
And OH by the way Obama is going to ORDER all the people in America to speak Spanish because of the influx of Latins. I am waiting for him to come to my front door and order me to do anything.
MAY GOD BLESS US ALL NOW AND FOREVER AS I AM SURE HE WILL!!!
Carol, that is the most subtle and brilliant post I've read. Your eviscerating analysis of that Charlatan Barack was Insightful and Down.
It is good to be viscerally reminded of why and how Obama is so defiled on CD.
You have found a wide audience and happy new home on Common Dreams.
Generally I agree with those who question Obama, from a liberal perspective...
... but you are just downright out-of-your-mind. Thanks for the laugh.
Carol -- you are either a brilliant satirist or a complete imbecile. If it's the latter (as I fear it probably is), you won't understand why I thought that "brilliant satirist" was a possibility. (In fact, you won't even understand the word "satirist.")
If your post was serious, then, on behalf of the Fraternal Brotherhood of Black Socialist Spanish-speaking Muslims, I must admit that you've really figured out our group's secret plans to take over America, and make Whitey into our slaves. I don't know how you managed to figure it all out, but you're absolutely right about it -- and the best part is, by tonight, we'll have succeeded!! Our vanguard unit will be in control of the White House!! Goodbye, White America!
You better start studying your Spanish! BWA-HAhahahaaa!
Darn Rich....I want to be a houseboy, I hate fieldwork. Put in a good word for me please.
Nice RichM. Interesting new chapter in America's life.
It would be nice if we started finding commonalities once again-it has been a divisive ride.
PeaceOut.
Don't leave out Spanish speaking Jews.
Now heres one in jest for sure.
Obama and McCain are both native born American citizens. Obama was born in Hawaii (period). My mother was Scots/Irish....does that make me an Irishman? We never "owned" any part of Central America. Anyone can file a frivilous lawsuit.
I imagine he married his wife because he thought she was smart, hot and sexy. If I'd been him I'd have married her too.
I have doubts about both. I studied them and their church in 07 before the church site was scrubbed clean. I read the church magazine, saw many sermons, watched the congregation during the sermons, etc. I can assure you that the church was racist, no doubt at all. None. BUT......it does not follow thast they are. And I can assure you Michelle Obama never said "whitey" not at church, not in her speeches I watched, not in print. Thats slander from the right just as the left slandered Palin.
By the way, the President doesn't have the power to order anyone to speak anything, aside from which its likely that English will become our official language in a few years.
But thanks for the humor.
Why are you such a fearful person? You don't really believe Obama is going to order us to speak Spanish, do you? As for Obama marrying Michelle, did it ever occur to you that he loves her? She never called anyone names like "Whitey." You're just a troll who is trying at the last minute to change people's mind about voting for Obama........lol
Speaking of hiding something, maybe you know why Sarah Palin refuses to release her medical records. Obama has released all of his records, including his birth records.
That's why you're on a progressive web site. You need to go back to the nonprogressive right-wing Republican sites where you'd be happy since misery loves company.
Speaking of hiding something, maybe you know why Sarah Palin refuses to release her medical records. Obama has released all of his records, including his birth records. And what about Sarah's ties to the Alaskan Independent Party, you know the one that hates America so much it wants Alaska to secede from the nation.
You'd rather have a senile old war monger like McCain and his face-lift old Barbie doll wife Cindy in the White House. Cindy looks as young, if not younger, than her daugter.....lol. Why is Cindy and their daughter always standing behind McCain whenever he's speaking, by the way? Is she sending the message: look at me, I'm blonde, blue-eyed and white, something Michelle isn't. ?? She and McCain are both adulterers; McCain abandoned his first wife to play around with and marry a richer, younger woman like Cindy.
I'd love to speak a second language really well. If somebody simply orders me to will that work? I am down with that. Spanish, here I come!
On being sure what God WILL do: In the Bible God sent his people into the into exile, and that was a challenge they didn't want. We Christians believe in the New Testament, which was a big surprise. Throughout the Bible we learn that we are not God, and we do not have the capabilities of God and we do not know what God WILL do in the big picture. The Biblical value of humility endorses these views. We also value truth.
On Truth: Sources for the various claims above would help stimulate discussion. It would add some humility, so people could look at where you're getting these ideas. Of course, who really is Sarah Palin? Well, she's someone who has NOT been scrutinized for very long in the public eye, and she has no significant record on federal issues. One thing we do know about her is that she calls on us to ask, over and over again: who is Obama really? Even as she avoids press conferences. But Obama has been long scrutinized and won the challenge, both as a candidate and as a potential leader of the free world. But we don't really know much of anything of what's going on in Sarah Palin's head, as the media has rarely been granted access.
I see no evidence for any of these claims about Obama. I'm sure a lot of folks would appreciate hearing about where you come up with this stuff. And then let's see the follow up discussion.
Getting rid of the Federal Reserve is the first thing that needs to be done in order to put an end to the resource wars.
The Grant Park Generation
Tonight as one million gather for peaceful change a new generation has been born and that generation is the Grant Park Generation. Its definition will be known for its collective effort to reify the words of George Bernard Shaw: “Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say 'Why not?
Today is a beginning. Why don't we move on and try to make things a little better.
Godspeed to us all.
It will be better and Obama is going to be a perfect candidate. All the left domestically we need and all the right internationally that we need. A perfect centerist. Go OBAMA!
"...Today is a beginning. Why don't we move on and try to make things a little better..."
- A very naive sentiment. Do you really think today is a "new beginning"? Has the military budget been cut? Is Wall Street's power any less than it was yesterday? Are there any fewer US bases overseas? Are any of the financial gangsters who cooked up the "sub-prime mortgage" scam going to jail?
We're having an election today. There are only 2 candidates, practically speaking, and both of them are fully committed to continuing "the War on Terror." Both jumped to support the Wall St bailout. Neither of them will lift a finger against any of the Bush administration criminals. Neither has said anything about undoing all the police state legislation of the last 8 years. The little matter of torture hasn't even been an issue in the "campaign," much less the concept of "preemptive war," which they both support.
Some "new beginning." It's really more of the same, but with "New and Improved!" packaging.
Today IS a new beginning.
Amen! You too, matti.
I commend you for your willingness to say so, even if cybertechnology has not yet advanced to the point where rotten fruit and eggs can be propelled at a commenter by a dissenting audience.
I just returned from a long weekend away with family-- brother, sister, bro-in-law; an old family friend and his truly lovely wife joined us for a Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast. All of us are in our fifties, college graduates including some advanced degrees.
Not surprisingly, I was Odd Man Out. We had a pleasant time, but I simply kept my mute button on in the face of a well-adjusted prObama consensus. FWIW, none of the party were actually gushing, twittering Obamistas. But they all bought into the conventional presumptions with which we have become so wearily familiar here.
To sum it up in a still-relevant universal adolescent term: they were all cool with Obama, and they all thought that Obama is totally cool. Even had I wanted to spoil the mood by voicing a dissenting view, there really was no place to get a foothold. Come to think of it, much of the discussion was about how Truly Awful Maverick and that Palin Woman are. No argument here.
But in this consensus, there was no attention paid even to Obama's most egregiously dubious positions, e.g. FISA or supporting Wall Street's "bailout". To even raise a skeptical or cynical view would've been the social equivalent of emitting a loud and protracted fart-- which, indeed, is how the militant soft-progressives here respond to contrary positions. There was such a strongly shared consensus based on selective perception that even the possibility of a dissenting or revisionist view (based on different selective perceptions), or even just a deeper discussion, was excluded. Concentrating on my food was the better part of valor.
I had a nice time overall, but it remains depressing to consider the non-rational aspects of the group's perspective. Again, these weren't fanatic, ecstatic Obama supporters, just "sensible", "pragmatic" well-adjusted and programmed units of the duopoly hive-mind. Despite a veneer of "practical" politics-- my BIL likes to follow polls and play that know-it-all prognostication game of predicting which states will go for whom, etc.-- it boiled down to "McCain BAD; Obama GOOD".
Sigh.
Ted Markow:I like your sentiments, with two caveats: it's still the ongoing until the votes are cast, counted, and the election is official:signed, sealed and delivered. And some of us who have your sentiments are not believers of a god. (I voted for Obama.)
I think one priority for Obama should be to begin the process of transferring wealth from the affluent areas of the world to the poorer areas. The Tobin Tax on the the almost two trillion dollar per day global monetary exchange of 0.005 to 0.25 percent would generate between $15 and $300 billion per year. A UN study has estimated that about $150 billion per year is needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals, including halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, ensuring primary schooling for all children, and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases. What is needed is an agreement not unlike the GATT among the wealthy nations of the world to impose this tax. It does not, therefore, have to be global. France and Belgium have already passed laws to impose this tax on the transactions of the wealthy conditional upon other nations adopting it. We ordinary people pay a transaction tax everyday. It is called a sales tax. As the wealthy of the world use these investment transactions to make money off off the constantly changing values of the various world currencies it is both necessary and more than fair that their transactions be taxed in this minimal fashion. Additionally, this tax would tend to mitigate the volatility of the world financial market by discouraging the high volume of over night speculation. If Obama could bring the United States on board and use our influence to facilitate the implementation of this tax it would do much to restore the badly damaged image of the United States.
Bob Newhard
I do hope that we progressives are able to pressure Obama into doing the responsible things. Unfortunately, he hasn't given us much reason to think that he will do them on his own.
I have seen way too much blind fervor for Obama and not enough rational and rigorous scrutiny. Let's hope we can look at the situation realistically and actually put compel him to do the things that the pro-Obama articles have been espousing.
THE CONGRESS WRITES THE LAWS!
What "things" are you wanting to "pressure" Obama to do?
And HOW?
Even people that are -rightly- skeptical of Obama speak about him as if he we are voting on a referendum to give him the same powers as a Roman Dictator!
I'm sorry to yell but, HAS EVERYONE LOST THEIR MINDS?!?
For the sake of the Republic, turn off your friggen' TVs already.
After you spend hours tomorrow watching the "election" results, turn the damned thing off, and don't turn it back on until your minds have returned to the real World.
This is getting to feel like being at a party where everyone has dropped acid, and I'm the only one on 'shrooms.
On the money. President sets a tone and pushes one way or another, but the laws, until recently, were written by Congress. If we only go back to *that*, we are all winners.
Right. And who owns the congress? Who owns the two headed party, one of which Obama is a member? Wall St. Prepare yourselves, after the lovefest settles down, for more years of millions without healthcare, endless war, no resolution of the Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine. One thing, and only one thing you can be sure of: Wall st. will continue to prosper at the expense of the working class, period...
Yes, let's have a moment of happiness when the Bushies are gone, tempered with the realization that Obama's foreign policies currently mirror those of the Bush administration.
This article assumes that some sort of change in popular will is being expressed through Obama. Unfortunately, we have two wings of the business party controlling elections here in the United States. Populist elements have been shunted aside.
Democracy is pretty much dead here. We're left with a fading, but still dangerous, empire.
I don't think the world looks to the United States as a beacon of any sort. A few people will get rich at other' expense. That's all you can say about this place.
Thanks for the hopeful thoughts, but a lot of us would flee to Canada if we'd be accepted. One thing's for sure: Canadians will be able to enjoy a favorable exhange rate for many years to come.
-TIA
You say Obama's foreign policies are mirror images of Georges?
I got one word for you: IRAQ.
Obama. YES!
Oh Yeah, I forgot, Bring It ON.
.Sometimes something is such an embarrassment to the one who posted it that folks simply avert their eyes and walk on by...So glad your appearences here of late have been infrequent.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Hey Stupid; I've been knocking on doors in Nevada.
You've been playing with yourself on the computer; you mean nothing.
Obama-Yes.
.I knew enough to quit smoking that stuff decades ago, because it made me stupid, arrogant and hot tempered. So you still smoke, huh...its pretty obvious. For your information you moron I ve been registering voters door to door for decades, and knocking on doors for Nader for weeks.
What you hope to accomplish by acting like a dolt is a puzzle, but I am only to happy to respond in kind.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Nader is heavily invested in Fidelity Magellan Mutual Funds.
They in turn are heavily invested in Raytheon, the world's leading maker of cluster bombs.
So you canvass for killing children?
I canvassed for Barack.
You are filth. Leave me alone. I don't visit you.
But I will.
Go Away.
This is a GREAT day You are tripped because you are an insipid jackass that backed a losing horse.
Go Far Away.
Forever. And burn? Hey Stupid- eff the bong hit, this fat effing joint is in honor of you.
P.S. When you use the word 'to' to mean too much, you use two 'o's: goddamn you are a stupid m-f*****, but that is why you quote some ho and don't write yourself. No guts.
Bye again. It's a GREAT DAY!
Thank You Common Dream's posters for insulting me every time I supported Obama this last year.
You're insulting comments this last year have been SO ugly-but I don't defer to bully's-well tomorrow you can can take you're lesserevilist stupidity and "vote Nader in wing states he'll be glad you did and so will I" canine excrement and put it where all you're insults came from this past year-up a dog's ****** and or your filthy hearts;
eat me;
eat Lisa.
Go Obama; eff you b******'s.
Love Translucent.
And don't disappear you gutless scum-as Obama helps America, Leave CD. Eat Me.
All those eat me comments. America must really be HUNGRY for change... LMAO
ahh -- literacy is prevalent.
I'm a published author. Are you?
And you capitalize the A in ahh, illiterate one.
Go away.
Obama. YES!
Jerome Corsi got published. Publishing is not the "end all" criteria of anything.
Yeah he did. I did. You are nothing. How's it feel?
Are you a published author? Fiction?
Nahh, you are a twit on CD.
I supported Obama. I canvassed for him. I voted for him.
And CD'rs were ugly and insulting every step of the way, although YOU are new....who cares!
Obama! Yes!
What World needs from US.
1- Stop acting as if you own the place (both politically as well in tourism). In other words: stop bullying and invading/occupying whomever you want (Nazis do that, not civilized nations).
2- Start behaving along the rules of your own Constitution ("International treaties become the Supreme Law of the Land"), and maybe those of your professed ideology, Christendom ("love thy neighbor").
Those would be great starting points, and the world would be really happy, happier than with whatever Presidential choice you could come up with.
"wagelaborer November 3rd, 2008 8:46 pm
It is totally disgusting for Obama to ask the Iraqis to pay for their own oppression."
YES, it's more state gangsterism, terrorism, ... criminal aggression, to demand for Iraqis to pay for the reconstruction of their country, which the U.S., et alia, destroyed; besides committing major enough genocide there, major enough, or else very major. For the very latter we can refer to much about this war on Iraq, but what I had in mind for adding mention of is the fact of the cholera epidemic that's been going on in much of Iraq and only due to the U.S. (et alia) not having restored necessary sanitation, etcetera, and which is a requirement, not a luxury or bonus matter.
It [is] part of the overall genocide, which was already very high; especially when we include consideration of the generations of Iraqis who'll be victims, including extremely so, of this present war and Gulf War I.
"Bush Missing Iraq WMD has Been Found in Iraq and One Million U.S. Soldiers are its Victims",
by PRWeb.com, sent Oct 30 2008 to Uruknet
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m48373
That article is not about cholera, but Dahr Jamail had an article copied at Uruknet just yesterday and on this cholera epidemic we've been recently getting reports on. The above article is ... as you guessed, about depleted uranium and hellish U.S. govt refusing to acknowledge the danger of this radioactive substance. The article covers not only impact (extreme) in Iraq, but also impacts spreading globally. 'Nightmare' is not an overstatement or exaggeration.
A video, of which the link was obtained from either the above article, or else from a Web search using the speaker of a video or article, source anyway, for the above article is the following. It's Doug Weir of CADU, UK, and the video is approx. 27 minutes. I haven't viewed it yet, but it begins with an 'extreme deformities' kind of image or picture (enough of which appear in the above article), so be prepared; if you're too "sensitive" to view the kind of hell that use of D.U. represents.
"Depleted Uranium: Iraq's nuclear nightmare",
Campaign Against D.U., cadu.org.uk, Oct 20 2008
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3282290837712416408
That's for 1mn (or more?) U.S. troops, besides Canadian, and so on; and besides the far more endangered Iraqis, possibly also Afghans, and so on! Read the above article for the details, which aren't provided in extended form, but which are nonetheless mentioned and can be used for further research or searches, whichever. It seems to be why, or very much why, the Cdn govt didn't want or accept to send Cdn (CAF) troops to Iraq; a very credible explanation, imo.
Jamail's article on the cholera epidemic is the following.
"The Cost of Slumber", Nov 1 2008 and originally at TruthOut.org,
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m48450
Slumbering, YES, damn, it can be very costly; extremely.
And then we have what?! We have the Dem. Party leadership demanding, really imposing, that Iraqis must pay for all of this?! Let's "get real", here; superpower imperialists, ... don't demand, they impose, only accepting to "negotiate" when conditions are ... "tight", say; only accepting to negotiate when straight imposition isn't working, else the latter is applied.
Leave it all to the Iraqis? To HELL with that! Instead, arrest all "tycoons", confiscate their temporal riches, and then spread these to [good] uses; and if the SOB's resist, burn the bastards in the Gehanna! After all, these predators have many billions of dollars robbed from many people(s), and that's where this money belongs.
I find it hard to believe that the whole rest of the planet is so naive.
Maybe you should consider that when the whole world seems out of place, it's you that needs to relocate.
Why not just have the courage to write "I don't like your opinions and I wish you were dead"?
.Gee, Matti, I thought that is exactly what this buffoon was doing already? Some people are simply so hostile to anything different from their own personal world view as to be embarrassing to the entire species....If he was sincere, or even worth spit he would post opinion backed by fact , but no, instead he remains in High School, angry because no cheerleader will give him the time of day.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Quit insulting people, ardy. Or insult me.
Obama. Yes.
ardee:some people really vent under anon names.
If the establishment wants to show me change, then at the swearing in of the new president Obama, the hand cuffs should be put on the old administration for war crimes, financial crimes, corrupt dealings within the government and any of a book of dirty deals.
This will not happen. It will be the Same Old ruling elite pulling the strings on the new president.
Courage versus cowardice. That's what it all comes down to. That's what the world needs from America. Only significant courage from citizens can bring out sufficient courage from the Democratic Party and from Obama. The last two elections it's been cowardice, caving in to let Bush win. On the wars it was cowardice. On the farm bill we had no price floors, no supply management, no grain reserves with price ceilings: Republican Freedom to Farm of 1996, with a green mask, cowardice by the party of FDR, when we had no commodity subsidies and these price mechanisms.
That's the next phase. Focus on each congressional district, Republican or Democrat. Get them away from voting Republican in Congress.
Ok, #1 big Obama win, #2 stop Obama from conceding anyway, #3 organize to get the Democrats to stop being cowards. #4 Take the country back from the biggest cowards of all: the Republicans.
Go for it! Speak truth to cowardice!
I'll tell you what the world needs from Obama....A NEW INVESTIGATION OF 9/11 AND THEN, INDICTMENT AND PROSECUTION OF BUSH AND THE REST OF THE MEMBERS OF THE MOST CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION IN THE HISTORY OF THE U.S.
You are correct.
Ain't gonna happen....
Hi Nannie; You and I have quite different opinions about an important American.
We have elucidated them here.
However I never got a chance to say how much I admire this man's positions and principles which I do. Initial pragmatic questions precluded getting to this more substantive point.
But Nader is way cool in truth. His positions venerable.
I would have liked to see him organize in between elections, but tres passe,
It's a good day,
Peace from Northern California.
Translucent.
No it isn't, but I have my dreams while we live a nightmare!
You speak for many Americans, Bayani. We who live outside the fantasy land that is America feel for you and millions like you.
Hopefully, Obama, should he win, will lead America in a new direction. If he doesn't win, then America is a basket case.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Sadly enough, I fear that even if we wind up with a 90% Democratic House and Senate, we will not see justice done on the war criminals who have run things for so long, we will not see more than window dressing and bandaids on the fiscal rape of the United States. There will be no impeachments, no censure. There will be pardons all around and the miscreants will walk away with their millions or billions and their contacts, and life will proceed, business as usual.
The main problem is that the whole bunch is culpable and don't want the Constitution raising its ugly head to smite the guilty. Not only that, but they have seen what can be done with a lawless government and they are drooling over the chance to use it themselves.
This may all be moot when the Black Op happens, Iran is blamed, the bombs and missiles fly and martial law is declared for the duration of the emergency, which has already been defined as "forever." Remember, NorthCom is activated and the combat brigades are already being trained in handling "civil unrest" and dispersed around the country
We the People, who do not read or understand history, are doomed to repeat it; to paraphrase Santayana.
I imagine Obama is the lesser of two evils, but even if he is lying in his teeth to gain a few right wing votes, don't expect much change. Remember who owns the government, lock, stock and barrel, and it sure ain't We the People, unless we happen to be multibillionaires.
I voted for Obama: deal with it Common Dreamers!
RIGHT ON! ME TOO!
Let the useless insulting NaderiteMcCainers go away.
Obama-4 years of healing.
But hear it dessicrated on CD!
.One might think a famous author like you would not desecrate the English language....
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We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
I voted for Obama.
That's nothing to be proud of, winning ticket. Interesting moniker, that. Do you think you personally win something if you pick the winning candidate? It's not really a horserace, I hate to tell you.
I also very proudly voted for...
(drumroll...)
44th PRESIDENT RALPH NADER ....YEAH....
I guess you'd rather be right than elect a president?
Would you rather do the opposite?
Helluva moral code you got there.
(I assume you meant DO right, since voting is an ACT, not an idea or a position that one can "be"?)
Rumpled Ralph will lose tomorrow. But Ralph knew it even before he started. He is the biggest loser in American politics. Thank the stars for Barrack Obama. Too bad the far left can't rejoice with this most significant sea change. But it is difficult to understand Obama's world wide appeal, if RR is your hero. For those who are chronically depressed, there are drugs and therapy. Go and get some relief for yourself and for those who read your remarks.
Cheer up, Obama is the President you have been waiting for.
Jesus, you can't even spell the name of your messiah correctly. Yeesh.
The real losers in US politics are the people who demand peace but vote for war, demand health care but vote for overpriced insurance, demand human rights but vote for corporate rights, etc.
Sorry, you will still have to keep demanding these things even after you vote.
Is Obama already backing off from his pledge to pull the combat troops out of Iraq?
From Robert Dreyfuss in The Nation:
In his most recent speech, yesterday in Sarasota, Florida, Obama didn't mention at all his plan to end the war in Iraq. He said nothing -- yes, nothing -- about withdrawing US forces. Here is the full text of what he said about Iraq in that speech:
When it comes to keeping this country safe, we don't have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end in Iraq. It's time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus. As President, I will end this war by asking the Iraqi government to step up, and I will finally finish the fight against bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. I will never hesitate to defend this nation. From day one of this campaign, I have made clear that we will increase our ground troops and our investments in the finest fighting force the world has ever known. Watching our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines fight in Iraq and Afghanistan has only deepened my commitment to invest in 21st century technologies so that our men and women have the best training and equipment when they deploy into combat and the care and benefits they have earned when they come home.
I won't stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy - especially now. The cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq, means that Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending on things we don't need.
Let's analyze that.
First, he doesn't reiterate that he is pulling US forces out. Instead, he appears to say that the key is to get Iraq to pay for the war, to get the Iraqis to use their surplus. That may appeal to budget-conscious US voters, but -- especially with the price of oil dropping fast -- Iraq, which is a poor, Third World nation with a devastated economy, isn't going to pay for the war.
Second, he says that he wants "the Iraqi government to step up," meaning, presumably, to fight its own war. That, of course, is exactly what President Bush can been saying, namely, that the US will "stand down" when the Iraqis "stand up." Problem is, the Iraqis need to be handed an unconditional timetable that doesn't depend on what they do or don't do. Iraq doesn't need President Obama to "asking" it to step up.
Third, and most troubling, Obama says that Americans will have to tighten their belts because of the "cost of the war in Iraq." Doesn't that mean that the war will continue?
Full piece:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/378887
He's never pledged to withdraw "the" troops from Iraq. He's said that he wants to withdraw SOME "combat troops" (while leaving any not directly involved in combat as well as tens of thousands of "combat troops")--and put them in Afghanistan instead. A lot of voters are kidding themselves with this notion that Obama wants to get the US out of Iraq. He's never promised any such thing, unfortunately. The anti-war movement will have to revive itself and force the US to get out.
It is totally disgusting for Obama to ask the Iraqis to pay for their own oppression. The fact that Democrats cheer this perversion shows that mainstream democrats are NOT progressive.
BinLaden not only didn't attack the US on 9-11, he's probably dead by now. He's definitely not in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan. Anyone on kidney dialysis won't live long with treatments 3 times a week.
For Obama to pretend that BinLaden attacked the US and that he is alive and that we should go kill him, is proof enough for me that any true progressive should vote for McKinney or Nader.
And to say before the election that we the people will have to tighten our belts so that the US military can have updated weapons of mass destruction, as if this military isn't better equipped to kill than any other military on our planet, is proof again that any true progressive should vote Green.
I'm sickened by that position, too. It's like we go in and bomb the hell out of the country and say "they" aren't doing enough to get their infrastructure and government up and running. As far as I'm concerned, we need to get the f*** out of there and leave their oil to them to do as they see fit.
We're like the mafia don of the entire world. A sleazy Tony Soprano mafia gang. Our government shucks and jives us into believing whatever they tell us, then they steal everybody blind and leave murder, mayhem, tragedy, oppression, and desperation in their wake.
We need to go even further.
We need to pay reparations to the Iraqi people and their families who've been injured or killed.
And set up a fund for rebuilding everything building we've knocked down.
Finally, we must put on trial the criminals who sold us this war of lies, including those in the media.
The trials must be public, telecast to the entire world.
Hear, hear. I'd love to see these things too. I'm revolted by obama's constant blather about going after bin Laden (like that would do any good at this point) and sending more troops to Afghanistan. What a crock. Hopefully the world, not just US citizens, will put a lot of pressure on the US government to reverse these positions and get out of the middle east 100%. We could later send folks as part of an international rebuilding/humanitarian/security force but that would be a completely different mission.
Hopefully Obama's militaristic blathering was only a front so he (not a veteran, war hero, etc) could go toe-to-toe with McCain in the campaign, and that will be toned down after he is elected. We'll see. But there needs to be pressure.
Aint going to happen.
The Good News is Already Pouring In!
Obama is set to choose centrist Democrat sellout Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff! (should he win)
Hip Hip Hooray!
Who could've seen a move such as this coming??
Already????
Let's face it, what the world needs from America is:
1. An acceptance that America is a small part of the world, not the center of it.
2. An acceptance that greed and American-style capitalism is destroying our planet.
3. An acceptance that greed and American-style capitalism is reducing humans to the level of moronic, two-legged pigs.
4. An acceptance that might is not right and that war solves no problems.
5. An acceptance that the American political system is deeply flawed and needs radical change (21 months and billions of dollars to elect a President is a farce).
6. An acceptance that American religious fanaticism is dangerous and irrational.
7. An acceptance that American society is deeply divided and flawed.
8. An acceptance that America is currently being run by greedy corporations, Zionists, fear-mongering politicians and corrupt media barons.
9. An acceptance that most Americans are poorly educated, easily manipulated and know little about the rest of the world.
10. A willingness by America to accept help from other countries to assist it to heal itself and become a responsible, peace-loving nation.
Is this too much to ask for?
www.dangerouscreation.com
>>Is this too much to ask for?<<
Yes. Most people don't believe what you believe. They want insurance, they want their savings safe. They don't care about other countries and they really don't need to because contrary to your first assertion, the US is the biggest economy on the planet and politically, financially, and culturally, it does dominate all the other countries. I'm not saying that's good, but it is true.
Goose, Americans, in the main, are egomaniacs! Your comment demonstrates it. That is their main problem. They are deluded dwarfs pretending they are giants.
Time for a reality check. America is a nothing nation. It is corrupt, amoral, and a complete waste of space! It got to be a military superpower because it spent far, far more than it could afford. That's why it is owned by China.
Frankly, the world would be a much better place if it disappeared.
Got it?
P.S. Your pseudonym is apt!
www.dangerouscreation.com
Interesting post but the facts don't bear out your comments. Just because a nation is filled with egomaniacs or that a country is evil (and I don't think America is, just this administration) doesn't make it any more or less of an empire and the composition is not an indicator of it's health.
As for being corrupt? Might want to travel overseas a little. The US is no more corrupt than many and far less than most (except Canada. They are actually whiter than the driven snow - which is fortunate there...)
The US is not owned by China, a large amount of American debt is owned by China. Different all together.
Have you travelled? Recently? American music, food, customs, clothes, movies. I remind you that Rambo made more money overseas than it did here. Golden Compass made 3x overseas what it did here. All that exports American culture whether you like it or not. You think that the Asterix park in France does more business than Disney France? You think that more people saw Amalie or Rambo? You think that more people listen to their countries folk music or Clay Aikens? English trumps every other language.
I know you don't like it, but you might want to take the hate colored glasses off.
Have a nice day! :-)
.I fail to see the relationship between how much a movie makes overseas and how many legally constituted govts we overthrow or how many innocents we torture. Perhaps you might explain it to me....
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We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Thanks for your good wishes.
Thomas, the world is sick of America and the problems it creates. It's time America had the status that a country with five percent of the world's population should.
America has been unfairly occupying center-stage for far too long! We who live in the real world have had enough of its childish, destructive antics!
David
I understand your opinion, but I would point out that the main reason we have occupied center stage for so long is that the world has been under our umbrella for all these years. Frankly, I agree with you. Its time for most of the world to stand up for themselves and pay their own way.
I would also suggest that America is blamed for most problems when there is plenty of blame to go around or we weren't even at fault. Watch us get blamed for Europes economic problems when it was their financial sector that was more out of control than ours.
You can't allocate status based on population or China would rule the world.
Having said all that, I certainly take your point. My country is far from perfect. FAR from perfect. We have many problems and we cause needless problems. Iraq being the latest and greatest example. We have to get our economic house in order, restore our own infrastructure and peace that the Greatest generation earned and gave to us....that we have squandered. And we need to repair the damage we caused by electing Bush and his knotheads twice. We're trying.
The US represents 20% of the world's business and wealth. America takes the status it has by nature of its wealth. You really think anyone here or around the world really, not after a bowl or a few shots, but really expects the US to take the same power as Tokealu or Nieue or Lichtenstein or Burma? The US and Europe together will hold center stage for many more generations.
Your China has 1/6 the GDP of the US and Europe which together are half the wealth of the planet.
There probably need to be some adjustments, but US power is not far out of line with its position in the world.