In Pakistan, when we hear Obama’s rhetoric on Libya, we can only laugh. If he was worried about the pointless massacre of innocent civilians, there would be an easy first step for him: stop doing it yourself, in my country.
Posts tagged obama
Posted 1 year ago
Your quote concerning Obama's brief comments after Mubarak's departure seem a little cynical, Obama is trapped by his office, I believe in his heart he supported the people of Egypt. Do you disagree?
Anonymous askedYes.
But even if I believed that Obama supported the people of Egypt ‘in his heart,’ that would not stop me from criticizing him. Politicians are defined almost entirely by policy and actions. If his intentions are not reflected in his actions, then what’s the point in referring to them? Even if Obama turns out to be a ‘good guy’ on the inside, trapped by the limitations of the presidency, it shouldn’t matter to our assessment of his administration unless he actively tries to change or overcome those limitations in a positive way. Since he’s not doing that, I really don’t see the value in speculating as to what his internal motivations are.
Posted 1 year ago
Just got done watching President Obama’s brief statement about the departure of Mubarak. His body language was in marked contrast to his words, conveying a sense of fatigue, of defeat, of the realization that he was not able to shape events in Egypt in a way consistent with perceived US interests.
Posted 1 year ago
Obama is speechifying in his classically elevated, sonorous fashion. He should shut up. He has nothing to say. He spent weeks first backing Mubarak, then the torturer Suleiman. He thought his man, Suleiman, had been put in charge last night. It never once crossed his mind that he would stop aid to the regime, even stop sending the bullets and tear gas that have been used against protesters. The US has been handed its arse by the Egyptian people, the vanguard of global democracy, and should at this point be feigning humility.
Posted 1 year ago
Let’s start by giving up a lot of BS about “principle.” There is no history of Democratic Party or liberal principle that Obama is betraying. FDR’s compromises to achieve Social Security and labor legislation abandoned African Americans with effects still strongly felt in our social order. No Democratic president was able to pass universal healthcare and all bargained away any chance of achieving it. It was FDR who gave J. Edgar Hoover the authority to spy on the Left, and JFK who gave him the same to spy on Martin Luther King.
Richard Flacks, “Beyond Barack Obama”
Posted 1 year ago
Ralph Nader challenges Obama at the University of Buffalo Law School
Posted 1 year ago
Coming out of the election, Obama will renew the drive towards bipartisanship with which he began his administration, going out of his way from the moment of his election to rehabilitate a completely discredited Republican Party. All the compromises that he proposes will amount to acceptance of Republican demands for deeper reductions in social spending as well as further tax cuts and other concessions to corporate interests.
This prediction was made in early November- a quite accurate foreshadowing of Obama’s tax proposal.
Posted 1 year ago
One of the main uses of the material support statute, I think is to demonize organizations that the U.S. government doesn’t like. Had they had such a statue during the period of the African National Congress (ANC) opposition to the apartheid government in South Africa, they would have labeled that—and that’s how they thought of it in the U.S., under Reagan and before—as a terrorist organization. Any contacts with the ANC of any Americans opposed to apartheid would have been considered criminal.
There are two aspects to this. One is that the government can label, without any kind of hearing or way to challenge it, a foreign organization as a terrorist organization. The other is that any American contact with that organization or support for that organization is prohibited.
Posted 1 year ago
We Were Warned - An Excerpt from 'The Empire's New Clothes'
In an exclusive extract from his new book ‘The Empire’s New Clothes’. Paul Street argues that the failings of the Obama administration could be easily predicted based on his campaign and initial statements on the night of his election.
Election Night Comments
Obama’s comments on the night of his election were loaded with warnings of progressive betrayals to come.
“Anyone Out There Who Still Doubts the Power of Our Democracy”
Citizens were given warning of audacious, privilege, and power-friendly deception and policy to come by Obama’s interesting election-night speech. The first public words out of President-elect Obama’s mouth on the evening of his election were revealing. “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible … who still questions the power of our democracy,” Obama intoned, “tonight is your answer.” The supposed “left” president-elect’s first statement was NOT a call for peace, justice, and equality. It was a declaration bolstering the American plutocracy’s claim that the United States—the industrialized world’s most unequal and wealth-top-heavy society by far—is home to a great democracy and limitless opportunity for all.
note: this blog has no affiliation with the New Left Project, apart from common political slant.
This blog has been retired.
