by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Barack Obama actually said it: a truncated form of the hackneyed rich man's expression, "a rising tide lifts all boats." The cliché was a fixture of trickle-down Reaganics and the Bush I and II permutations, as well as the Clinton deregulationathon. Now Obama employs it to justify his refusal to offer any programs to "address historical and emerging racial disparities." The twisted logic goes something like this: "The deeper Blacks sink into the abyss, the more they are eligible for general assistance - therefore, the Obama plan already contains everything African Americans need as a group, and will be of more use to them than to more advantaged groups." Thus, the nation's first Black President turns the misery index on its head.
Obama Preserves Entrenched Power, Sidesteps Racial Disparities
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“Obama deploys the same twisted logic as generations of white, corporate politicians.”
In his own clichéd words, President Obama reveals himself to be, at best, ambivalent on the need to confront historical and current racial disparities in the United States. Behind the awesome hype and intellectual façade lies your garden variety corporate-bought politician whose worldview is no deeper than the shallowest catchphrase in long-discredited American economic discourse: a rising tide lifts all boats.
Widely believed to have been coined by President John Kennedy in defense of his support for a pork barrel project, the platitude was quickly embraced by every corporate shill touting schemes to make the rich richer, while ignoring the specific plights of the poor and oppressed. President Ronald Reagan’s “trickle-down” economics was justified by the imagined hydraulics of rising tides, as were the Bush I and II permutations. Bill Clinton’s administration let loose a tsunami of speculative tidal forces that finally came crashing down on the entire planet, last year, submerging African Americans in the deepest recesses of the muck. The mad bankster behind that rising tide was Clinton’s then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, assisted by his protégé and successor, Larry Summers. The two are now the right lobes of Barack Obama’s economic brain, along with current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, another Rubin mentee.
“Obama is reluctant to even acknowledge the greatly disproportionate damage inflicted on African Americans in the current crisis.”
Obama displayed his corporate colors (and trite bent of mind) at his 100th day press conference, April 29, in response to a pointed question by BET reporter Andre Showell. The brief interchange, which came near the end of the session, reveals the coreObama, a man who is reluctant to even acknowledge the greatly disproportionate damage inflicted on African Americans in the current crisis, and who offers nothing whatsoever to address historical and emerging racial disparities. The question and response bear repeating, in full:
SHOWELL: “As the entire nation tries to climb out of this deep recession, in communities of color, the circumstances are far worse. The black unemployment rate, as you know, is in the double digits. And in New York City, for example, the black unemployment rate for men is near 50 percent.
“My question to you tonight is given this unique and desperate circumstance, what specific policies can you point to that will target these communities and what's the timetable for us to see tangible results?”
OBAMA: “Well, keep in mind that every step we're taking is designed to help all people. But folks who are most vulnerable are most likely to be helped because they need the most help.
“So when we passed the Recovery Act, for example, and we put in place provisions that would extend unemployment insurance or allow you to keep your health insurance even if you've lost your job, that probably disproportionately impacted those communities that had lost their jobs. And unfortunately, the African-American community and the Latino community are probably over represented in those ranks.
“When we put in place additional dollars for community health centers to ensure that people are still getting the help that they need, or we expand health insurance to millions more children through the children's health insurance program, again, those probably disproportionately impact African-American and Latino families simply because they're the ones who are most vulnerable. They have got higher rates of uninsured in their communities.
“My general approach is that if the economy is strong, that it will lift all boats….”
“So my general approach is that if the economy is strong, that it will lift all boats as long as it is also supported by, for example, strategies around college affordability and job training, tax cuts for working families as opposed to the wealthiest that level the playing field and ensure bottom-up economic growth.
“And I'm confident that that will help the African-American community live out the American dream at the same time that it's helping communities all across the country.”
No Pretense of a Racial Policy
So confident is Obama that his personal Blackness is all that is required to offset horrific realities such as New York City’s nearly 50 percent Black male non-participation in the formal job market – statistics from 2003 that have certainly worsened in the current crisis – he offers not a single programmatic response. Obama is quick to point out that his plan is “is designed to help all people” – another way of saying there’s nothing in it to address the specific problems of people of color.
“Obama claims there is no need for specific programs.”
He deploys the same twisted logic as generations of white, corporate politicians, who pointed to Black overrepresentation on welfare rolls as proof of the government’s deep concern for African Americans. In fact, concentrated levels of public assistance, food stamps and unemployment checks are elements of the misery index that, especially when dramatically skewed by race, cry out for specific programs and policies of remediation. Obama claims there is no need for specific programs because “folks who are most vulnerable are most likely to be helped because they need the most help.” Thus, he turns logic and language on their heads. The deeper Blacks sink into the abyss, the more they are eligible for general assistance – therefore, the Obama plan already contains everything African Americans need as a group, and will be of more use to them than to more advantaged groups. According to this line of reasoning, the worse things get, the more responsive the Obama plan is. There’s no need to deal directly with the underlying causes of disproportionate misery, such as institutional racism.
Presidential Denial
Obama is not even willing to fully acknowledge that Blacks and Browns have actually suffered disproportionately in the meltdown. In three successive sentences, he three times uses the word “probably” to describe what are solid facts. African Americans have not “probably” lost a disproportionate amount of jobs – Obama’s own Labor Department figures show that to be the case, on top of previously existing, horrendous rates of structural unemployment.
African American children are not “probably” over-represented among those lacking health insurance. They are, in fact, disproportionately uninsured. Obama belatedly corrects himself on this point, but his reflexive reluctance to give voice to the glaring racial disparities that are fundamental markers of American life, is deeply disturbing.
“President Obama served definitive notice that he has no intention of tackling structural racism.”
Then Obama drops his inane line that a strong economy “will lift all boats,” with the caveat that it be “supported by…strategies around college affordability and job training, tax cuts for working families as opposed to the wealthiest that level the playing field and ensure bottom-up economic growth.” Nothing there to deal with specific Black problems, which means they will remain “intractable” – a word used to describe conditions that the powerful refuse to ameliorate.
In 240 words, President Obama served definitive notice – for those who still didn’t get it – that he has no intention of tackling structural racism. Ever. That is his “general approach,” which should be understood as his principled position. The only change in the racial status quo we can expect from Obama has already happened: the integration of the White House.
The Big (Fat Cat) Picture
President Obama is consistent – consistently conservative, in the broad sense of the word. He is no more interested in reshaping U.S. society’s basic economic contours, than its racial ones. His consuming project is to resurrect the finance capitalist class through formulas conjured up by the denizens of his right brain lobe, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner. Toward that end, something around $10 trillion of the national treasure has been committed. Every other project of domestic revitalization is subordinate, and ultimately expendable.
The Obama presidential bully pulpit is reserved for banking interests. As the Associated Press reported in the wake of Senate defeat of legislation that would have allowed hundreds of thousands of homeowners to escape foreclosure through bankruptcy – the “cram-down” bill dreaded by bankers – “Obama did little to pressure lawmakers” to support the measure, despite having endorsed the idea since campaign days. Moreover, “the bankruptcy option got only a tepid endorsement from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,” who was busy trying to figure out how to take toxic securities off his banker friends’ books by providing public subsidies to private sharks that might be enticed to buy them. “As it became clear the bill would fail,” wrote the AP, “the administration did little to counter the aggressive lobbying by banks fighting the bill and focused its efforts instead on a more popular bill targeting credit card companies” – a very limited measure that is, as of this writing, in doubt.
“The Obama presidential bully pulpit is reserved for banking interests.”
Obama insists that health care is one of his irreducible priorities. Yet he cuts supporters of single payer plans out of the loop to embrace congresspersons friendly to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, who will ultimately sabotage his own jury-rigged health scheme. New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer is already scuttling the boat, with an industry-written alternative to the Obama plan. The kiss-of-death proposal would require any “public” health insurance program to operate precisely as if it were a private insurance plan, effectively negating its reason for being.
The lessen settles in, slowly. President Barack Obama’s administration is not only “race-neutral” – it is essentially change-neutral, as well.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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He is The Best
I think Obama is one of the best presidents since slice bread!
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awesome job he is doing
I do agree that Obama is doing a really great job!
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Obama The Great Leader
Obama Is really a good leader as he have taken very good steps to improve the society.Now he is concentrating on health industry.Keep it up Obama...
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I second That
I do believe He is doing a great job and even though it is a rough time, I think he is taking the country in the right direction.
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Great Leader
I totally agree with you, President Obama has been a very good leader so far.
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Oh
Oh no Obama! Another issue besides the health care reform. SIGH!!!
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What a joke
"President Obama is consistent – consistently conservative, in the broad sense of the word. He is no more interested in reshaping U.S. society’s basic economic contours, than its racial ones." This is really unfortunate. Is he just wasting our time. As I was working out with the shaun t insanity workout I got to thinking what are all the sweat and tears for. President O is in office and what now? A shorter exercise like the 10 minute workout might be better. then I won't think as much.
It is more important to focus
It is more important to focus on the economy situation. i agree with you in this. But I also hope that he could do more real things rather than just speaking out. free ads |employment |adjustable beds
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The fact that her public statements have a smidgen of truth in them shouldn't convince people to just accept what she says, or repeat what she says. Examine her points closely and compare what she says, to how she lives -- you'll see she's a hypocrite. I really wish people would stop referring to her as some wise old sage. Ed Hardy She's just a used car salesman....
During his campaign, Obama
During his campaign, Obama emphasized the importance of diplomacy and development as tools to aid the U.S. in building new and even stronger alliances, re-building broken relationships and repairing the United States chicago flights image abroad. In addition, he stated that one of his foreign policy objectives was to combat global poverty, generate wealth and build educated and healthy communities as a means to combat extremism.[citation needed]
President-elect Obama nominated former rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to serve as his Secretary of State on December 1, 2008, and chose to keep Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as his Secretary of Defense. He would appoint General James L. Jones to serve as his National Security Advisor hawaii vacations and nominate Governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Clinton stated during her confirmation hearings that she believed that "the best way to advance America's interests in reducing global threats and seizing global opportunities is to design and implement global solutions" and "We must use what has been called "smart power," the full range of european vacations tools at our disposal.
It requires a blurring of the
It requires a blurring of the color lines between blacks and Latinos; civic mobilization that is based on something other than group identity.
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The Office of Racial Policy
The Office of Racial Policy or Office of Racial Politics (land-de|Rassenpolitisches Amt) was a Nazi office created under NSDAP for "unifying and supervising all indoctrination and propaganda work in the field of population and racial politics."
Created by decree on 17 November, 1933, it mandate stated in part that all press releases on issues of race required the approval of the Office, and that the Office deals with all measures concerning the field of population and racial policies VCP-410 exam, in cooperation with competent authorities. They were also to take part in Government legislative measures in this field.
The racial policy of Nazi
The racial policy of Nazi Germany is the set of policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the "Aryan race," and based on a specific racist doctrine digital camera which claimed scientific legitimacy. It was combined with a eugenics programme that aimed to achieve "racial purity" of the "Aryan race" by using compulsory sterilizations and extermination of specific minorities, which eventually culminated in the Holocaust. These policies targeted, first of all, Jews, who were considered as the most "inferior race" of all on a hierarchy that included Jews at the bottom and the Herrenvolk (or "master race") of the Volksgemeinschaft (or "national community") at the top.
Between 1933 and 1934, Nazi laptop policy was fairly moderate, not wishing to scare off voters or moderately-minded politicians (although the eugenics program was established as early as July 1933). The Nazi Party used popular anti-semitism to gain votes. They blamed poverty, unemployment, and the loss of World War I all on the Jews and the left-wing. German woes were attributed to the effects of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1933, persecution of the Jews became active Nazi policy. It only became worse with the years, culminating in the Holocaust, or so-called “Final loans Solution to the Jewish Question”, which was decided by Hitler during World War II and officialised at the January 1942 Wannsee Conference.
Each of these dimensions have
Each of these dimensions have been suggested as possible causes for disparities between racial and ethnic groups. However, most attention on the issue has been given to the health outcomes that result from differences in access to medical care among groups, and the quality of care different groups receive. Additionally, attention on health care disparities is largely focused on race and ethnicity; data on racial and ethnic disparities are relatively widely available. In contrast, data on socioeconomic health care disparities are collected less often, often using education as the indicator of socioeconomic status.
The goal of eliminating disparities in health care in the United States remains elusive. Even as quality improves on specific measures web hosting, disparities often persist. Addressing these disparities must begin with the fundamental step of bringing the nature of the disparities and the groups at risk for those disparities to light by collecting health care quality information stratified by race, ethnicity and language data. Then attention can be focused on where interventions might be best applied, and on planning and evaluating those efforts to inform the development of policy and the application of resources. A lack of standardization of categories for race, ethnicity, and language data has been suggested as one obstacle to achieving more widespread collection and utilization of these data.
obama
EXCUSE ME WHILE I COMMENT ON THE MADNESS THAT IS ELECTORAL POLITICS...IT'S PERPLEXING TO ME WHY WE PUT SO MUCH INTO ELECTORAL POLITICS AND ORGANIZED RELIGION AND WE SEEM TO GET THE LEAST RESULTS FROM BOTH...IT CAN'T BE AN ACCIDENT THAT WITH THE ASCENTION OF BLACK ELECTED OFFICIALS AND THE SLEW OF BLACK CHURCHES IN SOME CASES HERE IN CHICAGO THREE IN A BLOCK,OUR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITION CONTINUES TO WORSEN....WE SAY THIS IS A SYSTEM OF WHITE SUPREMECY YET WE CONTINUE TO TRY AND WEDGE OURSELVES INTO THAT WHICH CONTINUES TO SHOW US BY DEFFINITION AND ACTION IS NOT INCLUSIVE...THAT'S NOT TO SAY THAT IT WILL EXCLUDE ALL OF US,BUT IT IS DEFINITIVE THAT THOSE IT ALLOWS IN SUCH AS OBAMA,PERPETUATE WHITE SUPREMACY...AS A RESEARCHER AND LECTURER FOR YEARS, THE MOVES OF OBAMA ARE NOT ONLY PREDICTABLE BUT EXPECTED...IN MY FIRST LECTURE THIS YEAR ENTITLED THE "ILLUSION OF INCLUSION",WE OUTLINED WHERE HE CAME FROM, WHO CONTROLLED HIM,HIS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY,AND WHAT HE WOULD BE EXPECTED TO DO...WE POINTED OUT THAT IN 9 MONTHS OR THE TERM OF BIRTH BLACKS AND WHITES WOULD BE ALL OVER HIM BECAUSE OF THE SCRIPT HE WAS GIVEN TO FOLLOW...THE GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS WHO SOLD HIM TO YOU DID SO TO CALM THE MASSES AS THEY ARE ON A TIME LINE TO ACHIEVE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE...HIS CAPACITY TO SPEAK THIER LANGUAGE IS INDICATIVE OF HIS ACCULTURATION IN WHITE AMERICA...WE SEE A BLACK FACE BUT WE DON'T WANT TO ACCEPT THE WHITE MIND THAT GOES WITH IT....THE FACT THAT HE DISSES BLACK PEOPLE AT EVERY TURN WITH RELATIVE EASE IS REVEALING....MANY OF US IN CHICAGO HAVE BEEN AWARE OF BLACKS NURTURED AT PARTICULAR INSTITUTIONS SUCH AS THE UNIV OF CHICAGO(THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE NEOCON MOVEMENT)AND THIER PENCHANT FOR GAINING CREDABILITY BY DISSING US...WE KNOW HE IS A TOOL OF THE ELITE JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT AND THAT IS REFLECTED IN THE MANY NON MOVES HE'S MADE TOWARD US...WE ARE TOLD STUPID NON-THINKING THINGS LIKE WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL HIS SECOND TERM WHEN HE CAN THEN ACT WITHOUT FEAR...THAT PRESUPPOSES A SECOND TERM AS WELL AS ASSUMES THAT CONSERVATIVE DEMS WILL VOTE VOTE BLACK STIMULUS PACKAGES...WHITE DEMS KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THEM IF THEY "APPEAR" TO VOTE FOR BLACK STIMULUS...FURTHERMORE,THE GLOBALIST POLICIES CALL FOR A HARMONIZATION OF WAGES,CONSIDERABLE LONG TERM UNEMPLOYMENT,SELLING U.S. ASSETS,EXPANDING PRIVATIZATION,AND CEMENTING THE POLICE STATE GRID...YOU CAN PICK ONE OF THOSE CATEGORIES AND GET IN BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE WE HAVE BEEN SLOTTED TO BE...THIS IS WHY HE REFUSES TO ADDRESS BLACK ISSUES,HE'S READ THE SCRIPT...TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCASIANS HAVE ASSUMED THE POSTURE OUTLINED TO THEM IN THE SEVENTIES,"MINORITIES WHO HAVE BEEN SET ASIDE OR MINORITY SET ASIDE"WITH ABSOLUTELY NO VOICE ON ANYTHING EXCEPT MOANING ABOUT OBAMA BEING CALLED A LIAR WHEN THEY KNOW THAT HE HAD ALREADY MADE DEALS WITH BIG PHARMA AND THE INSURANCE CARTEL WHO JUST HAPPEN TO BE HIS BIGGEST DONERS ALONG WITH WALL STREET....YEARS AGO WE USE TO SAY THE ONLY TIME ANY OF THESE BLACK POLITICIANS GET ANY GUTS IS DURING THE HOLIDAYS WHEN CHITTLINS ARE SERVED...WE HAD BETTER UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A GLOBAL HOSTLE CORPORATE TAKEOVER AND AS SUCH BEGIN TO IMMEDIATELY PUT ALTERNATIVE CORPORATE STRUCTURES IN PLACE TO DEAL WITH OUR PROBLEMS THAT HAVE BEEN CONSISTANTLY NOT ADDRESSED FOR 30 YEARS,AND CAN SERVE AS AN ORGANIZING TOOL AS OPPOSED TO BEING BLINDED BY PERSONALITIES WHO COME AND GO....MAAT HOTEP
Dont blame obama
Obama will be responsible for the national health care system, good or bad, success or failure; but the huge debt is Bush's, and his father's, and Reagan's. Likewise the fallen economy.
"Barack Obama actually said
"Barack Obama actually said it: a truncated form of the hackneyed rich man's expression, "a rising tide lifts all boats." The cliché was a fixture of trickle-down Reaganics and the Bush I and II permutations, as well as the Clinton deregulationathon. Now Obama employs it to justify his refusal to offer any programs to "address historical and emerging racial disparities." The twisted logic goes something like this: "The deeper Blacks sink into the abyss, the more they are eligible for general assistance - therefore, the Obama plan already contains everything African Americans need as a group, and will be of more use to them than to more advantaged groups." Thus, the nation's first Black President turns the misery index on its head."
I never thought Barak would say such things, but maybe his views will change for the better.
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Previously I thought Barack
Previously I thought Barack Obama as the perfect President who can guide America to get of this economical crisis but now I am a bit disappointed by the way he is handling these issues. But still I think he will make a difference with a positive impact. We can just wait and watch as there is nothing we can do about it.
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I guess it is only wise that
I guess it is only wise that he sidesteps the racial disparities and said the right words. He is right the government should lift up everyone, whatever ethicity they belong. I guess reshaping the American society's economic contours is the best step he should do. [url=http://www.romanreference.com/rome-apartments.php]rome apartments[/url]
Well I guess he just said the
Well I guess he just said the right word, because he say that the government will only lift the boat of black or white, because it need to be done at the same time.
I don't think so
I don’t think so. Obama is the President of the country and as such he is working for the whole nation rather than only for the Afro-American black community. He is definitely going to bring back what we have lost.
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President gets shot
If this president gets shot and lives. Im going to nearest church and not leaving.
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obama is the best president
obama is the best president of uniter states in my point of view so he can't take a wrong decision any way i think capitalism creates a bad effect on american economy. so the decision is completely right in this regards.
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Obama’s plan will
Obama’s plan will really help in the upliftment of the Afro-American blacks but it won’t be correct to say that his plans are primarily focused on the blacks only.
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Initiatives of the White
Initiatives of the White house on overcoming of an economic crisis in the field of disarmament, non-distribution of the nuclear weapon, counteraction to terrorism, settlements in the Near East, in Afghanistan, on the Korean peninsula can be welcomed in the Kremlin. Scales of cooperation of Moscow and Washington have chance to extend. However collisions on the post-Soviet territory are inevitable. America movable by great-power tummy ambitions, economic and geopolitical calculations, not begins to reject declarations of love and appeals to be on friendly terms from the party anti are Russian the adjusted elite of Georgia and Ukraine, any other Post-Soviet states. Russia never will reconcile in its vital space of the USA. This rivalry also will sadden first of all the Russian-American relations. The situation after all in something even is worse, than in cold war. Then Europe has been divided on two zones of influence, Moscow and Washington in another's "kitchen garden" did not climb, annoyed each other on periphery - in Congo, Yemen, Vietnam, etc. And nowadays the opposition line lies directly at the Russian borders. There is no reason to expect harmonisation and the American-Chinese relations. Though these two powers on many directions co-operate, nevertheless they remain contenders. And in steam of the China-USA Chineses are the coming party, they increase economic and military muscles, undermining domination of Americans in Asian-Pacific region. Two basic allies of Washington in Northeast Asia - Japan and South Korea already trade from the Peoples Republic of China more than with the United States, and are compelled to reckon in increasing degree with positions of Beijing. There are also other problems which will prevent to be reconstructed and strengthen to Americans the positions in the world. In the Near East, in Afghanistan, concerning Iran, Pakistan Washington should make of the decision which it is far not all will arrange, are fraught with aggravation of the Antiamerican moods in the world.
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I really hope Obama's new
I really hope Obama's new step will bring a rebelion in our society. Descrimination against the blacks are going to far that its is actually the right to say No to it. I appriciate him wholeheartedly.
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Economic plan Obama
The senate of the USA has suggested to increase program financing on stimulation of the American economy to 887 billion dollars, on January, 27th. The initiative was approved by two key committees of the upper chamber of the Congress.
The committee of the Senate on the finance has approved allocation of 522 billion dollars on struggle against crisis consequences. This package of measures, besides the state investments, included the offer on clearing of middle class of payment of the minimum alternative tax to one year (a surtax kind into the USA). The given tax indulgence will add 70 billion dollars to 825 billion dollars, before the democrats provided by the program.
In turn, the committee of the Senate of the USA on assignments has suggested to allocate for stimulation of economy of 365 billion dollars. As marks Reuters, voting in the Senate under the given program will take place next week.
Two weeks ago the Democratic party of the USA has promulgated the plan on stabilisation of economy of the USA which volume has made 825 billion dollars. It was supposed, that of these means of 275 billion will make tax deductions, and 550 billion will be direct investments in various branches of economy. In the American press the program began to name "the plan obama".
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For Оbama the policy spent by
For Оbama the policy spent by it will have more great value, rather than its black colour of a skin.
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the entire system is corrupt
As Mumia and Glen and others have pointed out before: the entire selection and campaign system is corrupt to the bone in the first place. It is a sham democracy let's face it. We cannot expect the same slanted, corrupt, billion-dollar election cycle, corporate media dictated and orchestrated, two-party duopoly, winner-takes-all system to offer us a real choice to begin with. Any candiate whether it be McKinney, Kucinich or even the racist Republican libertarian Ron Paul who does not toe the line of the Corporate Elite and their Two-Party political puppets has no chance of getting put on the ticket, let alone of getting elected. We have seen this time and time again.
However, as a man of African heritage, Obama could show some cojones and stand up to these corrupt elitist racists and do something to help the suffering people of color (and even poor whites for that matter) that have been vicitmized by the same bankster gangsters that are calling the shots in his administration. He could, he should and he ought to, but I aint holdin my breath. I with we could be more optimistic
(Se)lected to preserve, protect and build White Supremacy
Precisely. Obama was (se)lected because he will not only preserve and protect White Supremacy but will build its power.
Sad but true as genocide of People of Color continues here and throughout the world as expendable and inferior compared to the Euro-peoples.
Worse than than is that so many People of Color in the US are so brainwashed and accepting they no longer know how to think for themselves and resist injustice. At least People of Color in other countries, though maybe poorer or less educated and less assimilated by the System, still have the dignity and wisdom to resist. Why do so many Americans fall for the myths & lies?
Worse than than is that so
Worse than than is that so many People of Color in the US are so brainwashed and accepting they no longer know how to think for themselves and resist injustice. At least People of Color in other countries, though maybe poorer or less educated
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Naomi Klein used the boat metaphor
Recently, Klein said that the rich were throwing the poor overboard to save the leaking capitalist ship.
Also a rising tide lifts all boats in the harbor, but you have to have a boat. Obama clearly is in his yacht with his friends and has tossed a "How to Swim" manual to the poor and middle class bobbing in the water.
Having started to study Obama in 2007 and reading analysis by Glen, Kevin Alexander Gray, Paul Street, Adolph Reed, I was well aware of who Obama was long ago. Now we see the middle class progressives scratching their heads in disbelief. Thank goodness some are not just scratching but howling like Chris Hedges. But will it be enough? I think we are so screwed.
beware the shell game played by Naomi Klein
I realize a lot of people look to her as an authority. But she's a massive hypocrite. While she rails against hyper-consumerism, she's a consumerist herself -- she just dislikes tacky logos. She has no problem with the fundamentals of a consumer-based economy. Also, she writes books and takes speaking engagements to get rich, not to spread truth. And she is a Canadian, not an American. And she is a very rich woman already, comes from a rich family.
The fact that her public statements have a smidgen of truth in them shouldn't convince people to just accept what she says, or repeat what she says. Examine her points closely and compare what she says, to how she lives -- you'll see she's a hypocrite. I really wish people would stop referring to her as some wise old sage. She's just a used car salesman.
Have you read her book "The Shock Doctrine"?
and her articles on spyware in China? She actually does her reporting on the ground. She went to Baghdad, New Orleans, Sri Lanka to do her reporting. I don't really care about how much money she has if her reporting is accurate. Her reporting jives with John Perkins' "Confesssion of an Economic HItman". In other words, her evaluation of how Milton Friedman and his Chicago Boys operated in Chile, Russia, Iraq, South Africa, Bolivia make sense.
I have not read "No Logo". I have read her articles such as "Baghdad Ground Zero" where she reported on there being no reconstruction after the invasion. She ferretted out the information that Bremer put in a rule that would make Iraqi farmers buy Monsanto seeds.
How rich is she? I don't really care, Her parents were real leftys. Her father was a pediatrician who joined Physicians for Social Responsibility and avoided by being drafted by fleeing to Canada. That's why she's Canadian. But her parents and grandparents were American. I suppose a physician is well-off, but I'm not sure Klein is like Paris Hilton.
Her husband is Canadian whose father and grandfather were heads of the socialist New Democratic Party. So she married a person very to the left. Their movie "The Take" about Argentinian workers taking over a factory is inspiring.
I think you should give her another look. I have been impressed with her standing up for economic justice in places all over the world. I love her writing style and her quick mind.
Lady Di:I like your comment. Klein and spouse were good on DemN
DemNow, DemocracyNow this morning. Klein and Avi Lewis. The Vanity Fair profile of her
(a mag I don't usually read), mentioned her mother has been a disability
rights activist for a few decades, since her stroke;she's a wheelchair
user.. I can relate to disabil-
ity activism. (The Vanity Fair article was online.) I googled her mother's name, which I don't
recall now. It comes up when one googles Naomi Klein. www.democracynow.org
good points both
As I see it Naomi is representative of a "progressive elite". I agree with much of what she says and I applaud her doing the work she does (she could have done something sinister with her life, like design missile systems or work for BigOil or some such thing, or even worse: be a member of AIPAC trying to tell us exterminating Palestinians is OK)
On the other hand it would be nice to have a forum where ordinary working-class and poor folks that have articulate views (and surprise or not, there are a lot out there) could be heard, not just the "progressive elite". If we had a real public broadcasting system, maybe that would be a good place. Even independant radio stations.
WBAI has been independent and will if it survives the current
battle for power. see www.wbixradio.org
Klein didn't graduate from college. That's pretty "regular" folks to me.
why applaud a hypocrite?
Lady Di's apology for the fraudulent Klein I won't bother answering.
who has the proof of Naomi Klein LIVING in the way she pretends to argue for?
where has she impoverished herself to understand what it's like to be poor and struggling? who can show me that proof? when did she reject her family's wealth and her cushy childhood? when has she struggled in her life, ever?
how is she actually criticizing capitalism's flaws when she's an eager participant in its bounty?
as to reading "Shock Doctrine" -- I could have written that book in a week, it's full of obvious platitudes and no real exposee occurs.
never mind, she says what "liberals" want to hear, she blames it all on evil rethugs and occasional bad apples in the donkey party.
and remind me, please, when she became a US Citizen, or when she ever was one.
thanks.
"Could have" but you didn't write "Shock Doctrine"
She did.
Isn't TARP the single biggest "government program" ever?
The last letter of TARP is P for program. What's interesting is that in several months more money has been given to the so-called "productive" members of society conservatives love to talk about with nothing to show for it, in most cases we don't even know where the money went The bottom line is the people who installed Obama have no plan to specifically target problems specific to blacks so they came up with some clever language about proportionality. The reporter asked for specifics, and Bammy can't give them because he hasn't been told to do anything about it by the puppeteers. A program being administered by the government.The people who put Bammy in office know that having a black president deflects any criticism of Bammy himself, and then the Obamabots criticize everyone but Bammy. This man will dump billions of dollars into Afghanistan to rebuild their agriculture and their schools, when in the shadow of his own office, with schools that are 99% black, and crumbling, he's afraid of asking for "set asides".
Disdain for the "people"
Remember the CBS interview when Bammy laughed aloud and said that the only thing less popular than bailing out the banks, was putting money into the auto industry, and broke out into hysterical laughter? Was I the only one that caught that? At least putting money into the auto industry is saving pensions, health insurance and jobs, and actually producing something.
On election night he told everyone change HAS come to America.
Perhaps no one was listening to him. HAS means past tense. With the pull of a lever, centuries of crimes against humanity by the global white collective have been absolved.
This whole presidency is the biggest PR sham ever. Every single thing is about PR. He wants it both ways on the torture, but even for that he is worshiped for being a "centrist", who doesn't want to start a partisan fight.
This guy will bend over backwards for the transgendered community or any lobby big enough before he'd even acknowledge blacks. He'll talk about the mistreatment women face when pandering to the female vote and signing the Lilly Ledbetter act. He figures what's in it for him. In that respect he's just like Bill Clinton, who reportedly didn't do anything about the Rwandan genocide because it "didn't poll well."
He takes boths sides of every issue, but carefully leaves himself an out, so that he leaves him self room to back-pedal. Bammy's job description is to function as a liason between the "people" and the world's most powerful White Supremacists and pseudo-capitalists. He has accepted this Faustian deal, but we don't have to respect him for it.
Wall St. Barry
Greetings,
You hit the nail on the head again Mr. Ford.
South Side Barry is a fraud, a front man for Wall St and a terror to
Main St. We were more than adequatly warned. During the campaign
he constanly berated Black men and families. He said that there is
no Black America. He was setting us up for anihilation. Black people
who voted for Barry insisted on eating hope cookies and ignoring the
warnings. Now in the
White House he is benignly neglating us in fact.
He betrayed Black farmers. Black home owners need not
look for help from him. Its time to wake up and smell the coffe.
Put the Obama Kool Aid aside. Organize. We are going to have to get
our needs met ourselves. Loudly disaprove of Barry and get the Articles
of Impeachment ready.
Eric
Obama Administration Oppresses Slave Descendants
As long as the Obama Administration opposes Reparations for slave descendants and faithfully implements the vile agenda of the Caucasian American ruling class, we cannot respect or trust it. The primary reason that most Afrodescendants are confused enough to celebrate President Obama as their political saviour is that they are unaware of how deeply we as a people have been damaged by centuries of meticulously engineered ethnocide and forced assimilation.
Although dedicated Reparations activists like AFRE's Silis Muhammad and NCOBRA's Dorothy Lewis have been waging a legal battle inside the United Nations for more than fifteen years, their noble interventions have rarely been covered by most Black newspapers and magazines. However, all of our people deserve to know that there is an Afrodescendant government in their midst which is dedicated to establishing Human Rights and securing Reparations for all 250 million slave descendants in the western hemisphere. We include African-Americans, Afro-Mexicans, Afro-Panamanians, Haitians, Jamaicans, Afro-Cubans, Afro-Colombians, Afro-Venezuelans, Afro-Brazilians and so forth.
We invite the world press to interview our President Ajani Mukarram and learn more about the seldom-publicized quest for justice for all of our people. We are not just interested in financial restitution for 400 plus years of brutal oppression. We seek complete Restoration, including the ability to feed, clothe, shelter, educate and employ ourselves in a righteous political economy on some of this Earth that we can call our own.
Sincerely,
Senator Malik Al-Arkam
www.allforreparations.org
that mothah
The astounding thing is that he's turned out to be even worse than many of us thought he would be.
Some of us knew he'd be this bad -- and worse.
It's going to get a lot worse. Obama is Dubya Bush in every meaningful way. The fact that he is half-Black and has an exotic, African-sounding name doesn't mean he can't be a thieving criminal (through his policies and bills signed) and a callous murderer (through his Commander-in-Chief acts) like Dubya Bush or Dick Cheney. Condi Rice is a Black woman who served criminal murderers. Same for Colin Powell, a Black man who served criminal murderers. Being Black or half-Black is no guarantee of honesty or integrity. Even as much as it may seem a big accomplishment to have a half-Black POTUS, what really matters is to have a federal government that answers to average and poor people and not just rich folks, corporations, PACs and lobbyists.
Obama is a servant of the rich. While some may see his position as an accomplishment, I see it as dragging Black folks down, because he's not there as a Black man. He's there as a servant. He is what Malcolm X called the "house Negro."
What a creep
What a creep this Obama fraud is. He is everything I feared and worse. A spineless coward whose first talent is not offending authority. Knowing what the boss wants before he's told. A kiss-up, kick-down kind of guy. As despicable a character as he is, he's not really the problem
I don't see much noise coming from the Obamabots lately, since they are doubtless too ashamed to open their mouths to defend their foolish folly.
But seriously, it's way past time we gave up childish leader-worship (no leader, he), that serves only lull us into inaction with the false hope (oh god, that word again) that some hero will do our job for us. Or "identity politics" which serves only to subsume class, gender and race politics, in favor of a phony "representative" of the oppressed, who inevitably betrays his own class.
I am afraid that historically progressive black american political expression will be set back for years--decades--as a result of this cynical, manipulative and dangerous administration.