Barack Obama pulled one of the greatest "bait and switch" con games in history: he said all the right things to get himself elected, and then abandoned most of them once he got in office. I fear he has disillusioned millions of voters who only got involved in the political process because he inspired them, only to discover after the guy got in that he was no better than the other craven politicians and in some ways worse. These people are not likely to ever trust a politician again -- even one who is genuine in their beliefs and sincere.

Obama is counting on progressives to vote for him again because the Republican alternative will be worse. He thinks that gives him license to pursue policies which are only marginally better than the Republicans.

Isn't in interesting that when it comes to honoring his campaign promises, Obama appears so "hesitant" (as some have called him), or "too conciliatory" with Republicans in his quest for supposed bipartisanship. Yet the one life-and-death issue above all others that he is unequivocal about is his stubborn insistence on squandering our human and financial resources on the futile war in Afghanistan.

Like Bush, Obama enjoys strutting around and being photographed with the military commanders in their dress uniforms and referring to himself as the "Commander-in-Chief." He even did that in this week's radio address. Since, according to many accounts, Michelle hen-pecks him night and day, playing war games appears to be the only way Barack can feel like a man.

3/5 of House Dems "Obsessed" with re-election.

... and that means balancing the very real inflow of corporate cash against the creation of a narrative to sell the volk back in the district.

At the end of the day, all this obsessing netted $34 billion for the empire's contracted hit men.

Set a timeline for withdrawal. Claim it a great victory for Americans and "peace". Win re-election. Have a "sober" reassessment of "facts on the ground". Conclude a firm withdrawal date would threaten National security.

Repeat as necessary.

eclipse 2010 said "Barack Obama pulled one of the greatest "bait and switch" con games in history: he said all the right things to get himself elected, and then abandoned most of them once he got in office."

Unfortunately, there are plenty of examples that are far worse than Obama. One is Bolivia after the election of the former, and pro-democracy president Victor Paz. He got elected then promptly let loose the Chicago School Boys to open up Bolivia to the "free market." There had to be a 'state of siege' with thousands arrested and disappeared. It took years and a genuine movement from the masses to try and reverse what had been done.

Of course, this kind of bait and switch wasn't limited to South America but it's a good place to start studying about what has been and is going on, right now.

Several books that explain the recent history of the world, include, Naomi Klein's brilliant book, "The Shock Doctrine," and almost anything by Eduardo Galeano.

In most countries this agenda can't be run on openly because most sentient beings won't vote for their own destruction. (There are exceptions, but you have to get those being fleeced to identify with the fleecers.)

This recent G20 austerity pledge is more of the same. Destroying the people for the benefit of the corporations and mega-wealthy. I'd bet that most of the leaders in attendance, those who were elected, didn't run on that kind of platform with full disclosure.

"President Obama said there's 'a lot of obsession' about the withdrawal date for U.S. troops from Afghanistan, AP reported Sunday."

Well, President Cool, I'd like to see a similar obsession in you about an illegal, obscene war that is claiming lives every single day -- men, women and children -- for a dishonest, greedy, imperial purpose.

I'd like to see an obsession within you to get some employment programs going, like a Public Works Program. We're really in a Depression, not a recovery, you know, if you would chance removing some of the stuffing put there from your Treasury Department cohorts and financial advisors.

I'd like to see an obsession with getting every kind of assistance from every nation and from the private sector globally who have ideas and expertise and equipment and tankers and whatever to get the volcano of oil continuing to erupt in the Gulf contained and sealed up.

I'd like to see an obsession with really holding BP to account. Paying damages to people who've lost their businesses in Louisiana is one thing; paying for the destruction of a coastal area, of wildlife above and below water, for projected damages from future hurricanes that will pick up that oil and spray it on people and houses and property, and perhaps bring floods of it many miles inland.

I'd like to see projected damages' monies for the destruction of the tourist industry and all other damages that other states are bound to suffer as the oil gets carried on deep-sea currents and by the tides all around those states' coastal areas, including up the Eastern seaboard.

I know you made a promise to the Queen of England and maybe new PM David Cameron that you'd do everything you could so BP wouldn't go under as it is one of England's major corporations if not its #1 corporation. I think BP should pay through the nose to the people of this nation, and if they go under, they go under.

I'd like to see an obsession with World Peace, President Cool. More than half of our budget goes to the Pentagon and it's costing the people of this country benefits and genuine help for the economy with the development of new industries and personal assistance if they need to get a new start or a leg up. We're tanking, President Cool.

It costs a lot to keep building new military bases -- 1,000 now -- and some truly elaborate creations, such as the Green Zone in Iraq and a similar facility scheduled for Pakistan, to house diplomatic personnel and other staff in a style most of us are not accustomed to. They can swim in a swimming pool, eat at fine restaurants, shop, enjoy a lovely apartment, and see a film in a theatre, while those the U.S. "liberated" still are getting 1 hour to a few hours of electricity and a few gallons of water per day in some areas.

Yes, I'd like to see an obsession with World Peace, President Cool, so that people in Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Columbia, Venezuela, in Central America and Africa, and many other places don't have to keep holding their breath waiting for the impersonal bombing machines to fly overhead and release their lethal cargo on a few bad guys and usually a few hundred innocent people ... by accident.

I'd like to see an obsession with FREE Health and Medical care for every citizen in this country and not the cobbled- together excuse for a Health Care bill and new System that insures donations to political campaigns from the beneficiaries of that System -- primarily the Insurance Companies -- and still shortchanges the truly ill from getting the procedures and the medication they need without having to go into hock and maybe lose their homes to pay exorbitant fees.

I'd like to see an obsession with good education and great teachers, not an obsession with scoring high points on tests which do not mean students have mastered a subject by any stretch of the imagination.

I'd like to see an obsession with protecting wildlife and West Virginia's remaining mountains; and an obsession for reining in the agri-business conglomerates that are destroying family farms by the hundreds to thousands by planting very questionable crops grown from seeds that are genetically altered without the proper long-term research and monitoring to find out what this FrankenFood is doing to our bodies and bodies elsewhere around the globe. In the meantime these Frankedfood seeds and plants and required fertilizers are killing off heirloom seeds and crops and the micro-organisms in the earth/soil itself. These non-chemical, non-modified life forms fed us, our livestock, and people of other nations and their livestock well for a good number of centuries and were not nutritionally questionable.

Well, you get my drift, President Cool. Over-all I'd like to see an obsession for the well-being of all people in this nation, of all people on this earth and all living things on this earth.

Sometimes, it seems to me, especially given so many of the things you promised or sort of promised in your campaign speeches, but then didn't do or did the reverse, that you're just another politically ambitious creature without a feel for the job and genuine feelings for The People, and in fact, you're just another half-baked human who either never developed or left morality, conscience, that "empathy" you talked about in your speeches, genuine concern and compassion outside the White House kitchen door.

- MORE -

Time is running out on the Obama Administration's ability to maintain politically a large-scale deployment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Obama is living in the same homicidal fantasy land as any other emperor at any time in the history of the human race. The man is totally corrupt and is "obsessed" with VICTORY in Af-ganef-stan. The United States can crumble and dissolve into utter chaos. It means nothing to him beyond the maintenance of his own power. The empire will be sustained at any and all costs. Obama, the ex-boy scout, class valedictorian, head of the debating team, president of High School Seniors for Good Government, is now the shyster mouthpiece for the world's latest assembly of killers and thieves. The only question left for future biographers is to determine at what point in his morally screwed-up life did he decide this was ultimately what he wanted to be.

A previous article cited Obama as being obsessed with getting out of Afghanistan. The American people don't support this war and never would have if they had not been the victims of a propaganda blitz. Now 2/3 of Congress is obsessed with leaving.
Thank heavens. I thought the entire government had gone brain dead.
So what's the problem? Why are we still there?
Whose running the country? Certainly not the President, Congress or the rightful owners, the American people.
It must be unelected war profiteers and bankers or Dick Cheney or his foot soldier Robert Gates.

Understand the need to do something different . ..

but going backwards into the hands of the Republicans

simply accelerates the destruction . . .

We have to find a way to go forward --

to an anti-corporate future --

Granted no third party -- Greens -- can win -- but a huge

vote for them would wake up both parties.

"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"

Poor Mr. Obama, as Johan Galtung has termed him. Obama is deluded, repeating the imperialist mistakes made so many times in U.S. history -- Vietnam comes to mind.

Military "victory" means gross violation of Afghani human rights and loss of life. It means fomenting greater hatred against the U.S. Such a military "victory" is likely (and has already) to result in terrorism against the U.S. Drones bombing/murdering Afghani civilians. That is supposed to make the world a safer place????

See Johan Galtung's interview on Democracy Now. His analysis of the U.S. war/invasion of Afghanistan is brilliant both in insight and clarity.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/15/i_love_the_us_republic_and

RE: "Obsession" isn't just "a fragrance for men." - Robert Naiman
MY COMMENT: Did Naiman steal this from Stuart Smalley?
"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt!" - Stuart Smalley
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Stuart Smalley is a caring nurturer, a member of several 12-step programs, but NOT a licensed therapist.

As someone who has been working in Iraq for 3 years.
I can say that billions have been wasted for nothing...
If we burn billions more its not gonna fix anything.
As someone who has been seeing things here first hand, I can tell you the best thing we could do is cut losses and go the cause has been lost for a while now. As far as i know Afghan is in the same boat DC needs to understand ADVANCED NEO IMPERIALISM failed, and it costs us lots of money and blood.

who knows maybe MARX was right after all ....

'Advocacy of a withdrawal timetable is the principal means by which Americans outside of the military can act politically to protect the lives of our fellow citizens who are being deployed.'

This quote from the article serves perfectly to underline the problem. The rest of the world already sees the US citizen as a murderer 'obsessed' about the safety of his fellow murderers and careless of the victims. This confirms the matter. In the majority it is a country of most cowardly and callous people.

Believe me this is not a facetious comment. The war crime grows as the US citizen speaks.

Just how low can you go USA? The slide is irreversible, whatever the author thinks. And where is the shame?

Re-education on a massive scale is required.

Capitol Hill's obsession is only to get re-elected
to their cushy job.

The out of Afghan group only has about six true members,
the rest jump on the band wagon at election time to satisfy
their grumbling constits.

They are thieves, liars, murderers, and tramps
and a few other words.

This guy Naiman is FoS. He keeps saying a "timeline" is the only way to get the USA out. But all timelines for peace are made to be broken. Meanwhile, this same Congress could stop the war in a month by voting no on the funding bills. But the Dems don't, even when the GOP is giving them tons of cover by voting no themselves.

These same congresspeople yelling about a timeline are mostly the ones funding the war. It's all a scam.

Dims are chameleons who put on Peace customes around election time to hide their true Vampire attire.

We want a withdrawal timetable,,, here's your funding for imperial murder ,, have a good time.

When our a domestic agenda budget is only half the size of the defense budget, we are indeed lost!!!!!

We have become nothing less than a warmongering country. The Middle East has become America's Viet Nam all over again!!!!

The following statement was issued by the Democratic National Committee in response to Mr. Steele's homily:

RNC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL STEELE BETS AGAINST OUR TROOPS, ROOTS FOR FAILURE

"Here goes Michael Steele setting policy for the GOP again. The likes of John McCain and Lindsey Graham will be interested to hear that the Republican Party position is that we should walk away from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban without finishing the job. They'd also be interested to hear that the Chairman of the Republican Party thinks we have no business in Afghanistan notwithstanding the fact that we are there because we were attacked by terrorists on 9-11.

"And, the American people will be interested to hear that the leader of the Republican Party thinks recent events related to the war are 'comical' and that he is betting against our troops and rooting for failure in Afghanistan. It's simply unconscionable that Michael Steele would undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement. Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing, that we were attacked and that his words have consequences."

Has the Whitewash House distanced itself from this vile piece which renders almost every commentator on this website unpatriotic if not a traitor? No!

Given what these people think of us it will be an act of supreme masochism to vote for any Democrat this fall, except for Dennis Kucinich. Still this piece of "foxglove" brings into question why Dennis wants to remain in this reactionary party.

I wouldn't negotiate with Obama. Why should the Taliban? History is on their side. U.S. out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama out of the White House. Democrats and Republicans out of Congress.