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Editoral Policy | Webeditorial
Newswire Archive                   Hidden

Obama

This is not to say he did not have any opportunities to bring the reforms and changes asked of him by voters in 2008, but he really seems to have decided to have just done his own things when he got in. Where he decided to try and work with members across the isle from him he really tried, but has often come up short giving more than he has been able to cause the other side to be wiling to budge on. It's not that the change can't occur, or that he can't leverage some of his generosity to perhaps come through on some of the bigger promises by getting the folks across the isle from his party to make a few sacrifices themselves. Sacrifices he has shown a willingness to make himself.

Obama's New Chief of Staff and Economic Team - by Stephen Lendman

On January 7, New York Time writer Jackie Calmes headlined, "Obama Promises Full Recovery for Employment," saying:

Visiting a window-manufacturing plant "to promote his economic policies and his new team of advisers," he said:

"We will not rest until we have fully recovered from this recession."

Another promise, another to be broken by a scheme to create ruler-serf societies globally, especially in America and the West. Obama's citing a "foundation" for growth is political blather, his specialty like other key team players around him.

Yet Calmes called his new appointees "pragmatic liberals with experience in the policy-making bureaucracy - and negotiating with Republicans in Congress."

Hail to the Chief: Spinning Obama's Presidency - by Stephen Lendman

As if on cue, major media reports hailed "the Comeback Kid." In Obama's December 22 press conference, Reuters' Caren Bohan asked:

"You racked up a lot of wins in the last few weeks that a lot of people thought would be difficult to come by. Are you ready to call yourself the 'comeback kid?' "

CBS News anchor Katie Couric gushed about how "the president isn't calling himself the 'comeback kid,' but some other folks are."

From ABC News came Jake Tapper offering "congratulations," and George Stephanopoulos saying:

"The president takes a victory lap. How the Christmas season became what he called a 'season of progress.' Will it continue in the new year?"

New York Times writer Michael Shear added:

Obama Year Two: Continued Betrayal and Failure (Part II) - by Stephen Lendman

Part II concludes an assessment of Obama's year two.

Lessons from the Gulf

The aftermath of last April's Deepwater Horizon disaster left Big Oil again triumphant, thanks to the Obama administration's close industry ties, conspiring with BP in the greatest ever environmental crime. At the time, Public Citizen's Tyson Slocum said BP has "the worst safety and environmental record of any oil company operating in America."

It's been cited numerous times for willful negligence, shoddy maintenance, environmental crimes, neglecting worker safety rules, manipulating energy markets, and making a mockery of good industry practice in a business devoid of standards and ethics.

This threat was extremely grim back when Churchill inspired. We have different dangers. Manufacturing jobs are gone. The Internet prefers hiring from the lower or lowest paid parts of the world. On the Internet there are no unions or worker's protests to make working condition better. Telephoning, bookkeeping, and some secretarial work and many security guards and quality control experts, can be replaced by TV monitors being viewed from across the ocean. The whole developed Western world is in stress, and one of the exceptions is ominous. The Australian economy is booming but with very high unemployment.

Obama Year Two: Continued Betrayal and Failure (Part I) - by Stephen Lendman

Last December, a two-part article discussed Obama's year one betrayal and failure, accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-year-one-betrayal-and-failur...

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-year-one-betrayal-and-failur...

In year two, the pattern continued, revealing domestic and foreign policies that:

-- outdid George Bush by exceeding his harshness, lawlessness, belligerency, and public trust betrayal;

-- maintained a 30 year agenda of shifting public wealth to the rich, as well as supporting capital, not public welfare, including targeting middle class households for destruction;

Obama Capitulates to Republicans - by Stephen Lendman

Despite campaign pledges and President Obama opposing extending tax cuts for households earning over $250,000, another promise made was broken. At the same time, while supporting them for working Americans, he said doing so permanently is unaffordable. Unsurprisingly, a December 6 White House press release issued a "Statement by the President on Tax Cuts and Unemployment Benefits," saying:

While "disagree(ing)" with Republicans, he capitulated, arguing that "without a willingness to give on both sides, there's no reason to believe (the current) stalemate won't continue well into next year....I am not willing to let that happen....it would be the wrong thing to do."

Challenging Obama's Anti-Progressivism - by Stephen Lendman

Believing Obama is progressive is like calling a cat a dog. Only the delusional think so. He's, in fact, hard-right, a neocon, a warrior president, a corporatist pursuing anti-populist policies favoring wealth and privilege, not social justice when more than ever it's needed.

He's a fraud, an elitist, chosen years ago, then put on a fast track to power. Big monied interests love him. So do war profiteers and members of America's aristocracy. He's one of them.