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Elections
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Sudhama | 01.31.2012
In politics the tendency for candidates to move to the center when things get tough for them has become increasingly popular. The move helps them to side step and deflect heat coming at them from things that they have done or that have been done to them causing their popularity to wane. It also can appease a segment of folks that typically are not their constituency when members of their own base are looking at them unfavorably in hopes of making up lost ground regarding supporters. Come election time this can be especially important as it can help garner support. However, this still requires strong support from at least most of your base, and when they are fed up with a politician it is usually a good idea to get them behind that person to have not only guaranteed votes, but so as to look as if you are who you say you are. Bizarre schizophrenic personality shifts that try and say “I am no longer the person I was just four years ago” can seem – off. When a politician starts their original campaign making things not as much about their personality as the issues, this can be different. In such cases for them to develop more of a personality can be a good thing. If they won on the issues the emergence of a stronger or strengthening character profile can be helpful to them. As their tenure continues we get to know them better.
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Stephen Lendman | 01.17.2012
elections Mitt Romney's Hard-Right Agenda - by Stephen Lendman Currently, five Republican presidential aspirants remain. Weak support caused others to suspend campaigns or drop out. In November, voters have unpalatable options between a lawless/crime boss/militarist/pro-war/anti-populist/morally corrupt president, and a rogue's gallery of alternatives looking more like a police lineup than legitimate candidates. Ron Paul's an exception for wanting the Fed abolished and America's wealth no longer squandered on imperial wars. At the same time, he stops short of endorsing peace, favors strong national defense policies, is uncompromisingly pro-business, and wants social spending ended, leaving America's least advantaged on their own.
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Stephen Lendman | 12.31.2011
elections Ron Paul's Anti-Progressive Agenda - by Stephen Lendman Compared to a rogue's gallery of Republican aspirants, supporters claim Paul looks good by comparison. Look again and think carefully about America in his hands. True enough, he wants the Federal Reserve abolished. He calls it "dishonest, immoral, unconstitutional," and America's "great(est) threat to....security and prosperity." "Out-of-control (and) secretive, (it) pumps money into the economy whenever it chooses and makes secret deals with Wall Street executives, foreign central banks, and other politically-connected insiders without any significant oversight from Congress." Several times in Congress he introduced the Federal Reserve Abolition Act. Without co-sponsors, no further action followed.
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Stephen Lendman | 12.26.2011
elections Russian v. US Elections - by Stephen Lendman Russia's December 4 elections filled 450 State Duma seats, Russia's Federal Assembly lower house. Claims of electoral fraud followed. All elections have irregularities. At issue is whether results are comprised. Election monitor Golos accusations were spurious. America's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funds it. It supports regime change in non-US client states. It backs opposition groups, conducts propaganda campaigns, and does openly what CIA operatives do covertly to destabilize sitting governments. Its mission is subverting, not promoting democracy. It operates with State Department funding and direction. It serves US imperial interests destructively against targeted countries.
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Lynn Lomibao | 12.24.2011
Deacon Alexander has agreed to assist Alexander’s presidential campaign in Los Angeles and throughout California. Alexander’s campaign is presently seeking volunteers who are ready to help build a left progressive movement for working people. Stewart Alexander says, “I am glad to have the ‘Deacon’ on board.”
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Sudhama | 08.16.2011
For the last two and a half years we have been waiting for the kind of change the nation opted for in November of 2008. We waited with baited breath and no matter what we kept the faith. Though not all, most Americans overwhelmingly voted for the current president and even more believed we would be moving in a better direction with him in office. President Obama has not accomplished the majority of his major promises. The economy is not significantly improved, the opportunity to end the wars has not been taken, healthcare reform was passed, but that was not why the majority of the nation voted for him, and it took up an entire year when so much else could have been accomplished. 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.
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Sudhama Ranganathan | 06.14.2011
We are a nation that likes to point to other nations in order to make ourselves feel better. We don't do it as much as we used to, but from time to time we still point to this or that nation in the news etc. and say, “see these guys, we are better than them.” In the eighties, when I was growing up, we did this on a daily basis and in an almost mocking fashion. The idea was the rest of the world was just plain wrong and in order to be right they needed to be more like us. In many of those countries we pointed to their systems of oppression to prove how much better life was here. It allayed our fears here helping us to believe we were secure in our spending on defense and wrapped in a pillowy impenetrable layer of protection through a shared ethos. Our freedom was indeed much better than that of those countries we pointed to.
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Stephen Lendman | 06.07.2011
elections Humala Wins Peru's Presidential Runoff - by Stephen Lendman On April 10, Ollanta Humala received most support among five presidential candidates, but not a majority. Eliminated were former neoliberal President Alejandro Toledo, his former economic minister and Lima mayor Luis Castaneda Lossio, and former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Discredited and now imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori's daughter Keiko proceeded to a runoff with him. On June 6, New York Times writer Simon Romero headlined, "Ex-Officer Set to Win Narrow Victory in Peru," saying:
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Stephen Lendman | 05.10.2011
elections Democracy, Haitian Style - by Stephen Lendman Except for Aristide's tenure, what passes for Haitian democracy would make a despot blush, thanks to America's imperial grip on the hemisphere's poorest, long-suffering people. As a result, last November's presidential and legislative elections might best be called a cruel joke. The entire process was rigged to exclude 15 parties, including by far the most popular, Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas. Moreover, the election was so tainted by brazen disenfranchisement and fraud, including ballot box stuffing and other irregularities, that legitimate independent observers would have demanded throwing out the results and starting over.
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Stephen Lendman | 01.28.2011
city politics Chicago's Mayoral Race: Rahm Emanuel's Eligibility At Issue - by Stephen Lendman On February 22, Chicago's mayoral primary will be held. If no candidate gets over 50% of the vote, an April 5 runoff will be held, the winner's term running from May 16, 2011 - May 18, 2015. Democrats dominate city politics. The last Republican mayor ("Big Bill" Thompson) left office in 1931. The Great Depression ended their rule when Anton Cermak took over, built a strong constituency among African Americans, and consigned Republicans to small pockets on the city's far northwest side and suburban areas post-war. 
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