The change we were told to believe in turns out to be a change for the worse. The appointment of Rahm Immanuel was the first clue for me. Since then there have been few surprises. The problem goes much deeper than Obama, however it would have been nice had he risen above being two-faced sell-out liar. America, it seems quite apparent, is on a rapid, irreversible trip to hell. Hold on. It's not just your money thats gone missing Marie. It's our grandparents, ours, our kids and their kids money, their dreams and any hope for a future. Our very country has been stolen. The only sensible, legal remedies for treason are not allowed to be talked about.

FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

Nanoo

Marie, by all means you should write Obama and request your money be returned as you are disappointed with the product. From what I've read, Obama has all kinds of money left over.

It could be the media and then the individuals themselves. Like the author, I am noticing a similar pattern with what little we have of the progressive media. During election year, most of the progressive sites on the Internet play go-along get-along with the media and do not offer real progressives such as Nader, Mckinney, Kucinich, Sheehan, etc ... a voice. When I looked back at the archives, on most progressive/liberal sites, I noticed that there was very little mention of Kucinich in the primaries and same of Nader/Mckinney in the general election. So if we're to build a progressive/liberal media, why do these younger alternative media outlets on the Internet keep giving high preference to Dubya-lites such as Hillary and Barry?

I would at the same time like to ask this author if she had even given Kucinich, Nader, and Mckinney a look at all through the primaries or general election despite bad media showings. If all Marie is worried about is money, then why didn't she actually take even a few minutes to look up Obama's actual voting record in the Senate? Except for one war spending bill, he's pretty much voted yes to more war funding. In fact, often times on the corporate media, during his Senate tenure he always attacked anti-war rallies and people against continuing the war. Even throughout his entire campaign trail, Obama made his intentions crystal clear and even the rightwing media started questioning his flip-flopping to the right on almost every issue.

I don't know what made me immune to Obama's pixy dust but I'm finding out and so far I have a blurry understanding of his seductive nature. He'll no doubt get tougher by 2012 about it. However, I would like to see the author apologize for not giving Kucinich, Nader, and Mckinney a chance.

I, too, had hope that he would live-up to our expectations. Although I am disappointed, I am not surprised. He never really made any commitments. Just a lot of lofty rhetoric. I despise him as much as I despise Bush. At least Bush was predictable from the get-go. Obama played us for suckers. I had my first inkling that something was amiss when he took the train from Philadelphia to Washington. That was pretentious. When he assembled his cabinet, I knew for certain that he was just another clown. I will not be fooled again! I will never vote for another mainstream candidate.

Blackagendareport.com pegged him as a phony from the start. I dismissed it as just more sour grapes. Glen Ford and Margaret Kimberly knew what they were talking about.

DON'T TREAD ON ME~

Won't get fooled again, huh?

I didn't have any money to give the dumb-ass (not that I would've) because they already took it all, thanks to Reagan.

He's not my boss (new or old), he's my persecutor and torturer-in-chief.

Just the latest in a long line.

FUCKERS.

Last week I left a request at whitehouse.gov for a refund of $25 for a contribution I made last October since I was the victim of a bait-and-switch scam.

Six months in, and the alarm bells are going off, a collective wake up call is growing exponentially, and yes, we are finally realizing what we created; or should I say what we asked for?

Wait a minute, actually I voted for McKinney. I am old enough to respect my cynicism. A starry eyed dreamer, I am not. Cynicism is another word for realism. And politics is the best way to catch the virus.

How many times does it take to be fooled again?

Wait a frigging minute: there must be a tune by the Rock group, Who, that goes something like, "We Won't Get Fooled Again, Meet the New Boss, Same as The Old Boss" or something like that.

Yes, I am sure my cynicism is perpetuated by cynical people - elected people - who suck our blood like parasites. They bleed our collective bodies dry.

It is pretty clear that politicians are the dregs of the world and those who seek public office see it as a path for personal wealth, power, prestige, and a means to personal security. Wonder if inside their smoke filled rooms they are having one of the best belly laughs at our expense?

They don't say it in public or at cocktail parties, but it must give them a glow as they stuff their pockets with corporate cash. They probably go to bed at night laughing themselves sick.

As I write these words, I just have the urge to punch Nancy Pelosi phony looking and plastered smile down her throat, and kick Obama's skinny ass at basketball.

What a crybaby. You got a Kindler, Gentler Puppet. That's not enough for you?
Presidential actors aren't cheap you know.
McCtain or Hillary would have given us the same agenda but with less candy talk.
The horrors of the Bush administration guaranteed a Democrat would get into office and like Iran whose Mullahs control which candidates run, we are only given two choices.
PS, by the time you would get your refund it would be worthless anyway.

Obama raised most of his money by means of small donations from millions of people like you and me. I am old enough to realize that third party, single cause candidates have historically only served to split the opposition vote, effectively helping the very people they oppose. So I will not support the candidacy of a Nader or Kucinich. But I want all the Democrats to know that next go round I will not contribute one penny to their cause unless two things happen before November of 2010: 1. we see the beginning of the end of a US military presence in the Muslim world; 2. we have a single payer health care option for everyone signed into law.
Those in Congress are old enough to know that campaign contributions from the people with deep pockets are not without strings and always given as well to the other side to insure the bet. They need those of us who give a little but don't play both sides. When I give $50, or $100, I also cast my vote. Big Oil or Pharma or Defense will stroke you with money and vote for the other guy. If you don't get my money, you won't get my vote either.

Maria: I share your disappointment in President Obama although my first preference was for Dennis Kucinich. I knew Dennis was for real and the depth of his true compassion and spirituality mirrored my own inner feelings.

The radical left must now finally recognize reality, the powers that be within this rotten capitalistic system will never allow for the election of a true reformer.

It can only be taken from these capitalists in the streets.

There has to be at least 5% of us that are willing to take to the streets, and to be truly peaceful and non-violent. These numbers would be more than enough to bring about radical social change. The election of Obama has proved that this is the only way. The big unanswered question is, how do we get it going?

I would like to share with CD posters today's Reflections by Franciscan Father Richard Rohr:

FREEDOM
The primal freedom is the freedom to be our True Self—the freedom to live in the whole truth of the moment—attractive and unattractive. This takes far more courage than we might imagine.

Great religion offers us, not just freedom from our small illusion (often called “sin”) but freedom for the Big Picture. That’s why the saints could be imprisoned and not lose their spirit. They could be put down and persecuted like Jesus and still not lose their joy, their heart, or their perspective. Their freedom came from within. Our freedom from finally and eventually becomes our freedom for. We must always seek the positive and full meaning of freedom, which nation states know little about.

Secular freedom is having to do what we want to do. Religious freedom is wanting to do what we have to do.

Aw, poor Marie. She wants her money back after all that trouble she and millions others went through to help Obama and his party drown out Nader from the debates, lie to the public and flip flop on the issues, mislead the voters, etc ... ? Sorry lady but you contributed to the corrupt two-party duopoly so let this loss be a lesson of K-A-R-M-A to you and the rest of you losers who gave money to either scumbag, Mccain or Obama ! Thanks to you we're all gonna keep losing !!

Was not Obama packaged and sold to a desperately needy country (after 8 years of Bush/Cheney) in the same ways and by many of the same people and advertising/PR professional liars who wrap slogans and visuals around any other "product" they push in this consumerist society? And thus many bought the package of "change you can believe in" without investigating what was inside the colorful enticing wrapper. Would the two-branched one party of militaristic global EMPIRE ever allow anyone to become their front man/POTUS who hadn't been carefully vetted as a full team player on the fundamental issues? And they don't mean protecting the Bill of Rights or supporting and preserving the general welfare of the people. Their issues are power and control and domination and greed, those core values of patriarchal male society--Hillary and Pelosi only get to play with the boys having proven that they understand the rules and goals of patriarchy and empire and will peform and act accordingly. Yes, apply for a refund, but don't expect to get it or even a reply any more than most get refunds on purchases of the many other products sold here with dramatic promises of change and hope. Many of them turn out to also have toxic contents and side effects. The package ain't the product. Thus the continuous need for colorful, distracting, cunning wrappers for the toxic goods being merchandised. As the ancients knew: buyer beware!

Unbelievably, I find myself returning to the habits I held during the previous administration: I do not watch the staged press conferences but rather find a transcription of it later. I do this so I am not beguiled into the 'personality' trap. It brings more objectivity to the study of duplicity and deceit. Just the words please! - not the smiles, the rhetoric, the jokes, the personalisms with the crowd, the same worn and already tired jargon in each and every speech.

I think something we should all remember is that Obama actually got most of his money from corporations, not the small donors he so loudly publicized during the campaign. And when further analyzed, his numbers even on those contributions were suspect as he allegedly counted multiple small donations from the same donor as separate donations from separate donors.

Also, when asked directly in one press conference to respond to Bush's use of signing statements, Obama obviously hedged on the question, stating he felt it had been misused, but he wouldn't make a definitive judgment at that time. The consequence: his signing statements to the war funding bill where he stated that he will not go along with Congressional oversight of how money is used in the IMF, and that he disagreed with incorporating labor regulations in our trade agreements with foreign countries. Both these statements are in sync with what Bush would have done if he had been president. The IMF has, in the past, destroyed the economies of small countries and put them at the mercy of larger western economies; and if labor standards were upheld, the transnational corps would be forced to pay a living wage and decent benefits when they established businesses outside the US.

The days of worrying about throwing you vote away by voting 3rd party - those days are past. The "3rd Party" needs to become the new "2nd Party." Only when this happens will we see democratic principles reinvent themselves in what has become a malignant, greed-driven plutocracy.

An excellent piece! I neither financially supported nor voted for Obama, though I did share in the Audacity of Hope, feeling all along it would be dashed upon the trasheap of history.

His vote in favor of the telecom immunity was the dead giveaway to me. Keeping Gates on confirmed my suspicions.

The rest has been downhill, except for the random acts of lip service.

Marie, a bit of advice.

If a politician ever tells you to "HOPE" for something, run as fast away in the opposite direction as you can. (You might even choose to blow a whistle loudly while running to alert others to a crime in progress)

If a politician ever tries to get you to recite a mindless chant, for example, "YES WE CAN", again, run in the opposite direction as fast as you can. (P.S. He thinks you're very naive).

"HOPE" should be saved for church or prayers.

Mindless chants should be the exclusive domain of Sunday afternoon football games.

Now normally I wouldn't tell anyone to double-down on a bet, as it is a sure way to lose everything.

But I want you to invest another $680 and buy a ticket to DC.

Park yourself in front of the White House holding a sign that says 'RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION".

Don't leave until it is.

And pass the message along to the other 60 million dupes who voted the same way.

If Ms. Marchand had read before the election either The Democrats: A Critical History by Lance Selfa or Savage Mules by Dennis Perrin she most likely would have realized that Obama was just one in a long line of Democrats who was going to be just as militant and imperialistic and just as much of a phony as the Republicans. A couple of weeks before the election my neighbor, looking at my button on my shirt, declared Nader to be an idiot. He has now, like Marie Marchand, expressed buyers' remorse for having voted for Obama.

During the campaign, Obama said he would withdraw our troops from the cities by June of '09. That is on track to happen by the end of this month, June '09. He said he'd get all of our troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011. So far, that is also on track, having reduced the number of troops in-country to pre-surge levels, already. He's doing exactly what he said he would on the timeline that he campaigned on.
And it was that campaign pledge that Maliki took up and forced the Bushies to agree to. They and McShame had no intention of ever leaving, but because Maliki and the Iraqi Parliament picked up his suggestion and ran with it, Obama can rightly claim to have put an end date on the Iraq Occupation before he was even elected.
If you had some idea that on January 21 09, all the troops would be on boats and planes heading home then you conned yourself. That was never part of Obama's plan because it's not physicaly, logistically possible.
And considering that we have 133,000 troops, probably as many contractors and hundreds of thousands of tons of equipment, getting those assets back home takes money. That's what the supplemental is for, to effect an orderly winddown and withdrawal. Cutting off funding would strand our people over there, is that what you voted for? And if you didn't notice, while Obama was campaigning against the war, he voted for the supplementals, did you miss that?
It seems many people on the Left had built up some serious flights of fantasy about Obama, created expectations that were not based on reality, not based on anything he said, but rather on wishfull thinking and pipedreams. And now they are "so disillusioned".
Get over it.
This is the real world.

"THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME".

Chains we can believe in, eh? I voted Green, as opposed to None of the Above.

Obama hasn't lied. He has kept every promise. If he didn't explicitly promise, he is not a liar.

First, to be a critical thinker, you have to step out of the 'comfort zone' when you gather information. You have to look for information that will both 'prove' a position, as well as 'disprove' a position. That is a minimum requirement.

Obama (and Hillary) clearly did not support bringing an end to the war; support single payer health care; and offer a willingness to go after corporate corruption. It was evidenced by their voting record as well as their public statements.

And why did people like Marie Marchand support Obama and not consider Nader, McKinney or Mike Gravel? Because of their own failure to seek real solutions to their concerns; and because of their willingness to find a convenient response without bothering to consider the validity of it.

Sorry Marie, but you wouldn't have voted for Obama if you truly supported the progressive position that you claim you support.

Of course, I'm have also been disappointed with commondreams which has consistently supported the corporate candidates by giving them a platform; while giving only lip service to Nader, McKinney, Kucinich, Gravel, or Ron Paul. Check the archives to confirm that.

If I was Nader I wouldn't give commondreams permission to reprint his articles, since all they are trying to do is to buy some credibility in the progressive world, after failing to stand for progressive causes and candidates before the election when it could have made a difference.

Where was the outrage when Kucinich and Mike Gravel were excluded from the debates.

Those who continue to marginalize third party candidates are either doing it out of ignorance or malice (they don't really want the system changed).

www.NotOneMore.US

Marie,

I believe in your work for peace. Here is my offering:

Http://web.mac.com/ctb3

click on the photo numbers and wait to see the peace vigil paintings.

Thanking all of you for your hard work to bring peace.

I feel betrayed by Obama. I thought, that as a constitutional law professor he must have read the constitution, had some understanding of it, and hopefully even believed what it said and would take some steps to honor it and seek punishment for some of the most egregious violations by members of the Bush junta. I was wrong.
I felt that Obama had an opportunity to be an actual leader and at least offer important needed change, such as in health care when, in his video before the AFL-CIO in 2003: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer health care program. ... A single-payer health care plan, a universal health plan. And that's what I'd like to see. And as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, we have to take back the House."
So much for hope - Obama so far seems little more than Bush light.

Hooray for Marie Marchand.

"Our hearts were desperate for hope."

there is nothing to hope for but hope itself.

1. Vote for A.
2. Get disillusioned.
3. Bitch.
4. Vote for B.
5. Get disillusioned.
6. Bitch.
7. Repeat.

Sigh...

This was all very predictable.

I was sitting and watching the 2004 Demo convention which crowned Kerry and up steps this political nonentity to give the keynote.

Who is this guy, anyway? Why, Wall Street’s, that’s who. Shortly after the Kerry meltdown, the talking heads are saying "Barak Obama is being mentioned as a possible candidate in 2008" Over and over. So here's this first term junior senator putting together this big money machine and getting all this money from Wall St. and Silicon valley and making a few progressive noises on the side.

Meanwhile, Dennis Kucinich is down in the trenches fighting for the people. The corporate press had nothing good to say about Kucinich except to say he believed in UFOs and "couldn't win" when they weren't completely ignoring him, but heaped adoration upon our pseudo-Black candidate. There's more, but that should have set alarm bells ringing. I gave Kucinich hundreds in two election cycles and not one dime to Mr. Hope/Change/Yes we can.