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A Word, Mr. President
If I were a close adviser of President Obama's, I would say to him, "Mr. President, you have two urgent and overwhelming tasks in front of you: to put Americans trapped in this terrible employment crisis back to work and to put the brakes on your potentially disastrous plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan."
Reforming the chaotic and unfair health care system in the U.S. is an important issue. But in terms of pressing national priorities, the most important are the need to find solutions to a catastrophic employment environment that is devastating American families and to end the folly of an 8-year-old war that is both extremely debilitating and ultimately unwinnable.
We have spent the better part of a year locked in a tedious and unenlightening debate over health care while the jobless rate has steadily surged. It's now at 10.2 percent. Families struggling with job losses, home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies are falling out of the middle class like fruit through the bottom of a rotten basket. The jobless rate for men 16 years old and over is 11.4 percent. For blacks, it's a back-breaking 15.7 percent.
We need to readjust our focus. We're worried about Kabul when Detroit has gone down for the count.
I would tell the president that more and more Americans are questioning his priorities, including millions who went to the mat for him in last year's election. The biggest issue by far for most Americans is employment. The lack of jobs is fueling the nervousness, anxiety and full-blown anger that are becoming increasingly evident in the public at large.
Last Friday, a huge crowd of fans marched in a ticker-tape parade in downtown Manhattan to celebrate the Yankees' World Series championship. More than once, as the fans passed through the financial district, the crowd erupted in rhythmic, echoing chants of "Wall Street sucks! Wall Street sucks!"
I would tell the president that the feeling is widespread that his administration went too far with its bailouts of the financial industry, sending not just a badly needed lifeline but also unwarranted windfalls to the miscreants who nearly wrecked the entire economy. The government got very little in return. The perception now is that Wall Street is doing just fine while working people, whose taxes financed the bailouts, are walking the plank to economic oblivion.
I would also tell him that rebuilding the economy in a way that allows working Americans to flourish will require a sustained monumental effort, not just bits and pieces of legislation here and there. But such an effort will never get off the ground, will never have any chance of reaching critical mass and actually succeeding, as long as we insist on feeding young, healthy American men and women and endless American dollars into the relentless meat grinders of Afghanistan and Iraq.
We learned in the 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson's Great Society was trumped by Vietnam, that nation-building here at home is incompatible with the demands of war. We've managed to keep the worst of the carnage - and the staggering costs - of Iraq and Afghanistan well out of the sight of most Americans, so the full extent of the terrible price we are paying is not widely understood.
The ultimate financial costs will be counted in the trillions. If you were to take a walk around one of the many military medical centers, like Landstuhl in Germany or Walter Reed in Washington, your heart would break at the sight of the heroic young men and women who have lost limbs (frequently more than one) or who are blind or paralyzed or horribly burned. Hundreds of thousands have suffered psychological wounds. Many have contemplated or tried suicide, and far too many have succeeded.
"Mr. President," I would say, "we'll never be right as a nation as long as we allow this to continue."
The possibility of more troops for the war in Afghanistan was discussed Sunday on "Meet the Press." Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania noted candidly that "our troops are tired and worn out." More than 85 percent of the men and women in the Pennsylvania National Guard have already served in Iraq or Afghanistan. "Many of them have gone three or four times and they're wasted," said Mr. Rendell.
More troops? "Where are we going to find these troops?" the governor asked. "That's what I want somebody to tell me."
While we're preparing to pour more resources into Afghanistan, the Economic Policy Institute is telling us that one in five American children is living in poverty, that nearly 35 percent of African-American children are living in poverty, and that the unemployment crisis is pushing us toward a point in the coming years where more than half of all black children in this country will be poor.
"Mr. President," I would say, "we need your help."- Posted in
70 Comments so far
Show AllWe can have Democracy or we can have Empire, but we cannot have both.
Royce
You bet your booties! Damn the Republic! Empire, full speed ahead!!
Oh, and Merry Christmas, everyone.
The US has been an Empire for a long time already. Remember the Maine? False flag operation to start the Spanish-American war. Some things never change.
There isn't a whole lot of USA that wasn't created by conquest and empire building.
RichM: You articulated some very important points, and I agree with you! Thanks!
Every morning, when I awaken, I think about the women and children, and yes, the men, too, of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- wondering how many of them, innocent civilians, were murdered while I slept!
Of course, I am also deeply saddened by the loss of U.S. troops -- our young men and women, but not just those who lose their lives, but those who return and can't seem to find their place in society, those who are scarred by what they saw and what they did when they were there. How can they rebuild their lives?
I was horrified by the "Shock and Awe" of March 19, 2003. I am still horrified!
With the possible exception of Israelis, whose lives are apparently valued by many in the US government and corporate media even more than the lives of US citizens, the value of foreign lives lost, as determined by the corporate media (including the NY Times and the Washington Post), is dependent on the cause of death -- if directly or indirectly attributable to the actions of the US government or US corporations, the value is near zero, but if attributable (often only reputably) to the actions of those who stand in the way of the US empire (e.g. the Taliban), then the value is significant, sometimes even equal to the value of US lives.
"He's pleading that the carnage be stopped, but makes his case STRICTLY on the basis of the hardship suffered by "our" troops." - RichM
It's not just the troops but the American people that he is making the case for. This article is focusing on 50/50 on domestic issues and foreign policy so you will have to expect some tradeoffs in his discussion. I am not disagreeing with you about his not talking about the innocent Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis murdered but for this article, it's too much for him to write in his view. I wanted him to talk more about domestic policies such as green jobs and getting rid of the drug war to stimulate the economy but it wouldn't fit it.
One way to look at this article is to think of this. Bob is implying that this president must pay more attention to the domestic issues and the murder rate of the innocent people abroad goes down.
I will ask him to write an article dedicated to the foreign policy mess you described and see how well it turns out.
Good Comments! I wanted the author to write about saving the dolphins who are murdered by Japanese fishing boats. But the author is STRICTLY concerned about hardships for U.S. troops! What a bleeding heart liberal, who doesn't pay any attention to what I want him to write about! :[
Read the article again. The troops are not the victims compared to the civilians who were killed or seriously injured. Why should the lives of troops be given a higher value compared to the lives of the innocent civilians?
They shouldn't. They are hired killers.
I can't even imagine the daily horror our 'heros' bestow upon these poor civilians. All for nothing.
While thousands more soldiers are sent and billions more dollars (on credit) are spent for this evil failure.
As Jennifer suggests, give up your NYT subscriptions, but go a step further and don't do business with its advertisers. (Let them know why, too.)
Everytime someone says that the troops are hired to kill, I cringe. One may never know just how many of them really like to kill and are inherently vicious but a good portion of them are very reluctant to put themselves to this task after being offered virtually nothing for a job or just joining because they're desperate for being recognized as a somebody instead of a nobody from a dreary town. I still blame the politicians even if the troops did do the killings as per orders.
With all those video games and movies, Max, you would guess that they have at least some inkling of what soldiers do, for a 'righteous cause' or not. Perhaps they did/do not realize the risk it posed to their own physical being. One understands why the military wants to recruit them as such a tender age or when they're still naive about political corruption and seek excitement in the 'rite of passage' military engagement seems to provide.
Good point on the games and movies that are violent. Anyone signing up these days would have to be totally ignorant or uneducated but it's possible. From cartoons to video games to everything, this militarist culture is like a cancer. I've met plenty of soldiers in the army, marines, navy, etc ... and most of them are friendly to talk to but still maintain strict discipline of their behavior to make sure they don't mistakenly let out something confidential. I could never be comfortable questioning those people for fear that I would get into trouble. To me, that would be like smoking marijuana and failing that drug test for employment. I'm that scared and that weakness is still in me and I don't know if it will subside or keep me trapped just looking at the unemployment rate going up every month.
If people would give up their subscriptions to NYT and switch to local papers or just use the Internet for news, NYT would fail or at least find itself desperate to reform and be unbiased in its treatment of the lives of the civilians of Iraq, Af/Pak, etc... At least I think that unlike banks, customers pulling out would make a significant difference when it comes to newspaper media companies like NYT. I don't see anything truly liberal about NYT as it is.
THEY LIE!
Consider how many times the Times has told us, or hinted, that Zelaya in Honduras wanted to extend his term in office. In fact, Zelaya would have been out of office months or years before a Constitutional Convention could have said anything about term limits. But neither logic nor facts keep the Times from the Establishment, State Department, Empire line.
And that's just the lie that sticks most in my craw right now. There are many more.
Nevertheless, Bob Herbert is a compassionate man, and I like him. Very few other columnists have his sense of the suffering of the American working class.
I agree with you on Bob Herbert that he was compassionate. I used to read a lot of Bob Herbert's articles in the VA Pilot editorial section when that Hampton Roads newspaper was still in business. He was bolder back in Bush's first term. I thought he was always fairly independent in his level of thinking.
The opinions in my community were mixed. Those opposed him would either mock him or give another Limbaughian reaction to his column in the opinion section while the other side would appreciate him. I miss him a lot now that the paper is out of business. Thank GOD for this site.
Not everything local is good, despite what some progressives believe.
Who do you think owns the typical local paper? Local workers? Local average people? Hardly. The "local" fat cats, who might not even be living the area. Local papers in most cases are nothing more than mouthpieces for the rich fat cats that own them.
If anything, local papers are even worse than the papers like the NYT.
The NYT times isn't so much liberal; that is the mistake that people on the right, and also some liberals progressives make: viewing the NYT as a liberal paper; it is basically a paper that is reflective of the views of the North Eastern (NYC and surrounding areas) elite. In some cases those views are liberal, in others they conservative.
Thomas Friedman was allowed to call for war crimes against innocent Palestinians/Lebanese on the pages of the NYT but this same paper prevented Paul Krugman from using the word "lies" in reference to GWs invasion of Iraq.
Friedman glibly stated that the slaughter of so many innocents in 2006 was "worth it, if it teaches a lesson." Friedman's book, the Lexus and the Olive Tree, is rife with misrepresentations of the truth and outright lies.
And every two weeks he laughs all the way to the bank, then heads out to his compound to enjoy the fruits of his labor (of lying).
You're right, of course-- it is the civilians in the countries we've invaded and occupied that have suffered the most. But even without talking about that-- through the lens of domestic U.S. affairs alone-- these wars are having horrific effects and need to be stopped.
Herbert has the NYTimes as a vehicle to appeal to Obama, but it is if he isn't listening as things get steadily worse and he surrounds himself with his hand-picked financial crooks--and the equivilant in every dept.
What a fucking disaster.
The New York Times should drop the slogan "All The News That's Fit To Print" and replace it with: "What a fucking disaster".
Bob Herbert writes:
"More troops? 'Where are we going to find these troops?" the governor asked. "That's what I want somebody to tell me.'"
What're the chances that Oblabla's attempted private-insurance draft is the forerunner to a military draft?
Chances look pretty good. He's got some troops to find.
- the relentless meat grinders of Afghanistan and Iraq. -
I suggest that we stop trying to deal with each of these theaters of the absurd in isolation.
America is paranoid about terrorism, and that fear is used and manipulated.
To be successful, Progressives must calm the fear and show how this war is DAFT.
Jobs?
Obama would simply say: "But, uhhh... the stock market is doing spendidly!" Ummm....Why don't the unemployed and poor invest in the stock market? It's not this administrations fauly if the unemployed don't invest their money in the Free Market that makes America Great!
Kind of has the ring of Bush's invest-in-the-stock-market Social Security proposal. Wall Street will cure all of our woes. I wonder what Obama's response will be to a secondary crash -- a double-dip recession -- urr, depression -- which many economists have predicted in light of the dire predictions in the housing market, which are coming true -- commercial, ARMs and Alt-A.
All these gimmicks -- Cash for Clunkers and the $8,000 housing credits (now extended, I believe, with more additions) -- do really nothing more than create little blips in the GDP that the Administration can blather excitedly over. I heard a report a few days ago -- on Marketplace, I believe -- talked about the dismal picture -- no sliver linings, and while the stimulus may have saved some government jobs virtually nothing is being created in the private sector and, of course, we're still losing.
Actually, what I wrote above was supposed to be satire. I had Marie Antoinette's apocryphal remark in mind.
The poor have no paychecks to buy bread? Let then cash in their stocks for some Brioche!
A DOUBLE DIP "RECESSION" IS INEVITABLE.
Recessions/depressions are caused by increasing INEQUALITY. We can't pay for an acceptable standard of living out of our salaries, so we borrow more and more, until we can't afford to pay the bill and there is a "credit crash." It's that simple. Except that the corporations and their hireling government do all they can to lure us into increasing debt (sub-prime mortgages, credit cards to 15 year olds, etc. - known as a "bubble") so that we keep buying and feeding their profits.
Has anyone seen Obama doing anything to substantially increase the income of workers? Liberals Bob Herbert and Paul Krugman keep crying out for an extended jobs and stimulus package. Fine. But they forget to tell us that a jobs program would have to be paid for by TAXING THE RICH. FDR did it. He raised the 25% Hoover tax rate on the rich to, eventually, over 90%. Can anyone imagine Obama's handlers letting him do that? Or even to some respectable fraction of the pre-Reagan 70%? No, of course not. The power of the corporations, who own all of the Republicans, most of the Democrats, and nearly all of the media, is too great for a tax on the rich to be even talked about. (Except, to his great credit, by Thom Hartmann on Air America.) The problem with Herbert and Krugman is that they KNOW better, but that they can't or won't venture too far outside of the liberal consensus and the "art of the possible."
A New Deal style jobs program, Civilian Conservation Corps, Works Progress Administration, et al, cannot be financed exclusively by debt. The dollar is already going down, and India just dumped billions of dollars to buy gold. Therefore there will not be a major jobs program. The power of the corporations is just too great. Who knows how far down we will have to go before people wake up.
Economic problems?
Congress response: Uhhh! Maybe we can put that off until next year. Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming soon, and give us a break, we just worked on a Saturday to pass a crappy piece of legislation. Besides we only can work on one major bill at a time; we need time to fund raise, count our contributions, go to luncheons with lobbyists, and enjoy our recesses... We did find time to pass a resolution congratulating the New York Yankees for winning the World Series. That created work for the Congressional administration staff.
the author writes: If I were a close adviser of President Obama's, I would say to him, "Mr. President, you have two urgent and overwhelming tasks in front of you: to put Americans trapped in this terrible employment crisis back to work and to put the brakes on your potentially disastrous plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan."
i guess there is no surprise then that this author is not a close adviser to brother o - or even a distant one
mr author: let me be a close adviser to you, just for a moment - obama is a nwo puppet who may "mull" the occasional dribble over or he may not. but he makes no decisions. he does what he is told.
the country is run for and by the wall street bank cabal and the 1% of the population who own 99% of the wealth
it is for them that we are in afghanistan, iraq, colombia, india, sri lanka, the balkans and many other places
their job is to kill peasants and safeguard the extraction of resources like oh say oil and gas to name a few
their job is make slaves out of the populations in those countries and to exploit - very cheaply - their labor
like toilet paper they are to be disposed once they have wiped our asses
forget the nwo stooge obama - why don't you mull some reality over for a while
you might learn something...
after you learn something you might want to save your breath with regard to obama
>>
it is for them that we are in afghanistan, iraq, colombia, india, sri lanka, the balkans and many other places
their job is to kill peasants and safeguard the extraction of resources like oh say oil and gas to name a few
their job is make slaves out of the populations in those countries and to exploit - very cheaply - their labor
<<
Next "theatre of operations"? U.S. supported invasion by Colombia of Venezuela. Mark my words.
Mr. President: When are you going to quit the mendacious, rhetoric and live up to your campaign promises? Where is the transparency that you pledged on the internet and C-Span? If you send another 40,000 troops to Afghanistan to put their lives on the line and in which many will die to prop up one of the most corrupt drug dealing, regimes in the world, then many will see you for what you are: AN ABOMINATION TO OUR NATION! You said you were " OVERWHELMED " when you saluted the coffins of the dead soldiers whose lives were used for nefarious purposes, but that seems to be just a punic,photo op. Mr. President, I wonder if you would be willing to send your daughters to die in Afghanistan?
As WSHU commentator David Bouchier said at a seminar on the year 1968: The American Government learned its lesson from Vietnam -- regarding that constant barrage of photographic evidence from that war -- keep the war out of the vision of the public and you can keep it going indefinitely. He also surmised that one way to get the people out into the streets scream was to propose a draft. Maybe it is the only thing that will wake the public out of their stupor.
On a side note: A ticker tape parade in honor of millionaire ballplayers in front of fans, many of whom would have to ransom their firstborn, at the very least, to attend one game. Baseball is now considered a spectator sport for the elite. Very sad.
"On a side note: A ticker tape parade in honor of millionaire ballplayers in front of fans, many of whom would have to ransom their firstborn, at the very least, to attend one game. Baseball is now considered a spectator sport for the elite. Very sad." -- Samalabear
I agree -- the parade took place downtown in Manhattan! The celebrity cult that has been created is disgusting! I used to enjoy sports, but no longer. In fact, I live in NYC, and wasn't aware that the Yankees won the pennant until Friday when I tried to cross the street from City Hall to the Municipal Archives to do research for my clients. Finally, a policeman allowed me to cross the street -- after showing him my ID. One woman discovered that she was going to have to walk 15 blocks out of her way in order to arrive at her office building. You're right, most of the people who filled the streets probably can't afford a ticket to see one game.
Babe Ruth was once asked how he felt about making more money than the president. "I had a better year than Hoover," he replied. No doubt.
Now even a bonus rookie makes more money than the president, owners are royalty, and I too have stopped watching. Especially since all the best players for the Oakland A's get hired away by the Yankees. Money is everything.
Just one more sign of what Thom Hartmann calls, "the cancerous phase of capitalism."
What he won't recognize is that the "cancerous phase" is an inevitable part of the capitalist cycle. But that's another discussion. In fact it's a whole syllabus.
Many of the young will appreciate the "job."
Almost certainly the high cost of health insurance is a major, major factor in businesses failing and will continue to be until we have a universal, single-payer system.
It is bad business for a parasite (health insurance companies) to overwhelm the host, but the growth imperative has forced health insurance companies to suck more and more blood out of the body politic until... well here we are.
So, the health insurance problem really is priority 1.
And I would tell Mr. Herbert that this is a very fine piece he wrote.
He touches on two points I think especially important. One is "rebuilding the economy in a way that allows working Americans..." Our government helping ordinary people, not counting crucial voting blocks and checks from a special interest constituency. As witnessed by the current fraud of "healthcare reform," a government incapable of responding to the general welfare will ultimately destroy the same.
And it is with great irony that a president claiming to be of the future has taken the party back to the past - the tax everyone and give a little back to some great bureaucracy that looted in the name of the poor - that tanked the D party for the Reagan. People on both the left and right now fully appreciate the transfer of wealth from those who "played by the rules" to those that didn't.
Herbert says, "nation-building here at home is incompatible with the demands of war..." This is an understatement. A nation that long ago justified lying to its own people as an element of war, that declared war against its own people's right to informed consent, that allowed techniques against hostile governments to be used at home, that substituted "one man, one vote" with the voice of money and then created the ultimate in political-military corruption by privatizing defense... Etc.
In other news not covered, Obama met with Netanyahu for one hour and forty minutes last night. Who else was in the room and what was discussed beside "peace" is something best not discussed in front of the peasants.
Good luck Mr. Herbert in getting anyone to heed your plea. America is at crisis. Washington remains oblivious to the fact that helping the nation out of crisis would require real change... and those corporate sponsored deck chairs are so comfy. If the dims or the rips want to gnash teeth over who will lose the next election, I can tell you already that America will lose the next election, just as they've lost every election in my memory.
"Washington remains oblivious to the fact that helping the nation out of crisis would require real change... "
Ya think they're oblivious? really?
"nation-building here at home is incompatible with the demands of war..."
What Herbert should add is that LBJ's war in Vietnam destroyed liberalism for a generation, and made the Nixon - Reagan - Bush reaction inevitable. Johnson's "Great Society," "War on Poverty" and Civil Rights Laws raised expectations and "hope." But then, when all the money went to Vietnam, expectations were dashed. Elements of the population turned on each other, fighting over crumbs. White against Black, straight against counterculture, patriots against peaceniks. Without the War there could have been enough to satisfy everyone's expectations. Instead there were assassinations and riots, and the success of the Southern strategy, supported by people who thought that the "Great Society," Blacks and Counterculture were going to take away the little that they had. Rather like the Tea Baggers.
Will Obama's wars have a similar effect? Will liberal "hope", frustrated again by a liberal's war, open up a new age of reaction? Beware Mr. Obama. Since our resources now are less than those of the 60's, anything can happen.
Families struggling with job losses, home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies are falling out of the middle class like fruit through the bottom of a rotten basket.
The looting and ultimate destruction of the middle class is one of the absolute prime goals of both the Republicans and the Democrats. You say to yourself: but that's suicidal. Destroy the middle class and there goes the country. True, but the jackals and vultures running the USA DON'T CARE. Their credo is: Get it all and then move on to the next place and do the same. This is as true of Obama as it was for George Wanker Bush. When they are done with this country we will be a nation of serfs, scrounging in landfills and singing The Star Spangled Banner.
"Their credo is: Get it all and then move on to the next place and do the same. This is as true of Obama as it was for George Wanker Bush."
Yes, all part of globalization and the NWO. Obama is just the new CEO of US Empire Inc. He is even more dangerous than Bush, Obama can tell a lie without a smirk and most people believe him. Bush was not so skillful in that regard.
I like your image of the jackals and vultures wilding through the landscape. They truly do not care as long as they can tear away and get the most. (Did you ever notice how ugly scavengers are, how they move in loping bursts - the fronts of their bodies are overdeveloped so they can rip and tear at the dead and wounded.)
I just called my credit card company. They sent me a note that because I am a "valued customer", they are raising my interest rate to 21.99%. We don't use the card much and always pay on time.
I asked her what justification do they have, and mentioned that usury is forbidden at least 20 times in the bible. (Thought I would throw that in, why not?) She said they had to do it so they could continue to extend credit, an answer which means nothing.
I asked them what they do to customers who are not "valued". The person on the phone said she could not discuss the accounts of others. So I asked her to lower mine to 9%. Said she couldn't do that either. I kept her on the line for a while, making sure she knew that my anger was not directed against her personally, but otherwise not being very nice.
Anyway - credit cards are the next site for the gathering of the ugly scavengers.
Where are the scissors? This card will now be slowly and painfully killed as I mutter some incantations in what I hope will be a voodoo ceremony aimed at the vultures and hyenas of Citibank.
Joe
Credit card usary is an on-going event.
So far I have paid off and closed two cards, one with Bank of America and one with HSBC. Both were charging interest rates right at 30%. I was a good customer, paid on time and more than was due. My credit score is very nice, too.
Now I am working on my American Express cards. I have 3, my Gold, Blue and Clear. My interest rate is now 26% on the blue. All will be paid of this month. I will not keep any of them. If I need money in a pinch I will just do without.
You may be able to pay an additional $30/100 every month on your cards, but I can't.
I think killing the credit card industry is about all we can do. Nobody cares about us anymore.
OK when can we officially declare Obama a war criminal? How many months or years will his grace period last?
The minute he appointed Robert "uncle Bobby" Gates as Minister of Imperial Aggression I knew we were in for Bush Jr.'s third term. (uncle Bobby is a long-time crony of the Bush family)
One way to end the imperial wars is to introduce a truly universal draft, where no one would have exemptions. When the offspring of the rich start getting sent to Afghanistan, we will see an end to it quickly.
Right now we have a back-door draft where only poor, under-educated, desperately unemployed people die for corporate profits.
When Yankee fans are spontaneously chanting "Wall Street sucks!" during a celebratory parade through downtown Manhattan, you would think that the political party of the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the Great Society would awaken from its slumber and take note.
But alas, this is not the case. All that righteous grassroots anger over blatant corporate greed, all that understandable, growing cynicism of Main Street America over the inability of the federal government to effectively govern is blithely ignored by the inside-the-DC-beltway Democratic Party leadership.
Heaven forbid that the invisible hand of the marketplace should be regulated, even gently, in the public interest. Don't even think about breaking up the big bank and insurance monopolies, going back to a progressive tax structure, or disgorging wealth stolen in broad daylight during the Bush/Cheney years. Let the masses trade in their clunkers for some quick cash, and dream big dreams about clean green jobs that will trickle down from heaven, some time in the next year or two or so. Meanwhile, the super rich get richer as the unemployment lines grow.
An historic moment passes, an historic opportunity is missed.
Three years from now, those folks in the street will no longer be chanting about how Wall Street sucks. Their frustrations will focus instead upon the politicians who played them for suckers, promising hope and change, but delivering nothing but yet more war abroad and taxpayer subsidized crony capitalism at home.
You can almost see it coming. Small wonder Bush, Cheney, and Rove are still grinning all the way to the bank. It will not be pretty.
Bill from Saginaw
excellent as usual bill. and also the pavement will unfortunely be
red instead of black.your right bill its gonna be mighty ugly.
no justice no peace. money is the worst thing that ever happened
to mankind. sometimes on discovery or science channel you see
indigenous peoples in documentries talking about money.
they ask "why do i need that?" now who's primitive? those
people have their priorities straight! we have much to learn from
them about everything!
Big BH fan, but - like the rest before him, he calls for the President to 'create jobs,' without a single suggestion on how this wholly impossible feat is to be carried out.
Here's my advice for BO:
Man the f**k up, renounce your Big Bankster owners, fire all Banksters now in gov positions, call a 1 year moratorium on all health care, war, and Big Anything lobbying, then announce the following:
"...I was elected to fix the historic mess left by the previous, REPUBLICAN, administration - not to run for re-election, or kiss Wall Street Bankster ass, or find middle-ground between what HAS to be done, and what a fringe cult of crazy R-nuts demand be done.
So, starting today, I will be using every ounce of political will and power to deliver Universal Health Care to all Americans; from now on, there will be microscopic oversight of the entire financial sector, and anyone caught stealing will be dealt with swiftly and harshly; the complete withdraw of American military personnel from Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, Cuba, S.Korea, and the rest of the hundreds of posts worldwide will begin immediately; and next week, your government will be launching a major Jobs+Careers public/private initiative aimed at repairing our aging infrastructures, educating and training the next generation, and leading the world towards a greener future.
Fellow Americans, let me be perfectly clear - the clock is ticking. We simply cannot continue our over-consumptive, materialist, war-mongering way of life any longer without suffering the catastrophic consequences of our behaviors.
If the above list of Must-Dos results in my being a one-term President, so be it. But I will be a one-term President who tried as best he could to return control of the government to The People while doing everything possible to secure a safe and healthy future for all Americans.
And make no mistake - from today forward, the family and I will be living in an undisclosed location, due to the number of mortal enemies this speech has surely created.
Thank you and good night."
You've got my vote, Frank.