

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.


Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Obama apparently doesn't think he campaigned on a pubic option, just because he mentioned it during his campaign and included it in his health care plan. Why would that be?
Well, a couple of days ago my eyebrows raised when I saw this CNN poll on health care.
It indicates that Obama's popularity has risen since the public option
was removed from the plan. More interesting is the fact that support
for the Senate/White House plan rose too, even though the public option
had been more popular than the Senate/White House bill by a wide margin.
The Obama White House managed to successfully triangulate against
the public option by saying it was too "liberal," and presenting their
corporate-friendly plan that gives Aetna and PhRMA everything they want
as "centrist" by comparison. Because that's the left/right puke funnel
that the media must feed everything through. So even though taking out
the public option goes against public opinion, because "liberals" will
be upset, it must be a good "sensible" thing to do.
Having Joe Lieberman act as front man was the perfect delivery mechanism for achieving that goal.
Obama is triangulating against you today. They want all those
diaries of outrage by "liberals," so that right wingers will look on
and think "good for him - like Joe Lieberman, he really knows how to
stick it to liberals." It's the move of a deeply cynical politician who
believes in nothing but shameless manipulation for political
convenience. Meanwhile, the media will completely overlook the fact
that this bill is nothing but a corporate giveaway written by sleazy
greedy whores willing to hold the nation's sick hostage in order to
pull off the biggest Shock Doctrine scam in world history.
When I saw that CNN poll, I realized immediately that this media
dynamic must change. Dramatically. Because if it doesn't, Obama - and
all his fellow corporatists - will use it to easily deflect any
challenge to their continuing grand ambitions for a Bailout Nation.
So let's change it.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Obama apparently doesn't think he campaigned on a pubic option, just because he mentioned it during his campaign and included it in his health care plan. Why would that be?
Well, a couple of days ago my eyebrows raised when I saw this CNN poll on health care.
It indicates that Obama's popularity has risen since the public option
was removed from the plan. More interesting is the fact that support
for the Senate/White House plan rose too, even though the public option
had been more popular than the Senate/White House bill by a wide margin.
The Obama White House managed to successfully triangulate against
the public option by saying it was too "liberal," and presenting their
corporate-friendly plan that gives Aetna and PhRMA everything they want
as "centrist" by comparison. Because that's the left/right puke funnel
that the media must feed everything through. So even though taking out
the public option goes against public opinion, because "liberals" will
be upset, it must be a good "sensible" thing to do.
Having Joe Lieberman act as front man was the perfect delivery mechanism for achieving that goal.
Obama is triangulating against you today. They want all those
diaries of outrage by "liberals," so that right wingers will look on
and think "good for him - like Joe Lieberman, he really knows how to
stick it to liberals." It's the move of a deeply cynical politician who
believes in nothing but shameless manipulation for political
convenience. Meanwhile, the media will completely overlook the fact
that this bill is nothing but a corporate giveaway written by sleazy
greedy whores willing to hold the nation's sick hostage in order to
pull off the biggest Shock Doctrine scam in world history.
When I saw that CNN poll, I realized immediately that this media
dynamic must change. Dramatically. Because if it doesn't, Obama - and
all his fellow corporatists - will use it to easily deflect any
challenge to their continuing grand ambitions for a Bailout Nation.
So let's change it.
Obama apparently doesn't think he campaigned on a pubic option, just because he mentioned it during his campaign and included it in his health care plan. Why would that be?
Well, a couple of days ago my eyebrows raised when I saw this CNN poll on health care.
It indicates that Obama's popularity has risen since the public option
was removed from the plan. More interesting is the fact that support
for the Senate/White House plan rose too, even though the public option
had been more popular than the Senate/White House bill by a wide margin.
The Obama White House managed to successfully triangulate against
the public option by saying it was too "liberal," and presenting their
corporate-friendly plan that gives Aetna and PhRMA everything they want
as "centrist" by comparison. Because that's the left/right puke funnel
that the media must feed everything through. So even though taking out
the public option goes against public opinion, because "liberals" will
be upset, it must be a good "sensible" thing to do.
Having Joe Lieberman act as front man was the perfect delivery mechanism for achieving that goal.
Obama is triangulating against you today. They want all those
diaries of outrage by "liberals," so that right wingers will look on
and think "good for him - like Joe Lieberman, he really knows how to
stick it to liberals." It's the move of a deeply cynical politician who
believes in nothing but shameless manipulation for political
convenience. Meanwhile, the media will completely overlook the fact
that this bill is nothing but a corporate giveaway written by sleazy
greedy whores willing to hold the nation's sick hostage in order to
pull off the biggest Shock Doctrine scam in world history.
When I saw that CNN poll, I realized immediately that this media
dynamic must change. Dramatically. Because if it doesn't, Obama - and
all his fellow corporatists - will use it to easily deflect any
challenge to their continuing grand ambitions for a Bailout Nation.
So let's change it.