6 Responses to: “Obama’s Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers and For-Profit Healthcare” - By Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report
Here are six responses I have received so far about the story I sent out on Friday titled:
"Obama’s Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers & For-Profit Healthcare"
By Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report - www.blackagendareport.com
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Thanks for spreading the EXCELLENT Glenn Ford commentary. I couldn’t agree more and for those of us who were saying all this before the fact, sad to see, we have been vindicated.
Sherna Gluck - sbgluck@csulb.edu - Host of KPFK’s Radio Intifada, Thurday’s at 3:00 PM.
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Excellent article, Frank. Thanks for the forward. There is another by Paul Roberts that I want to forward you on Iran. The ease with which the reapplication of the ‘Formula’ is being applied to Iran without a serious look from even Pacifca has been surprising even to me. History repeating itself in spades.
Peter Thottam - peterthottam@gmail.com
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Dear Frank,
Thank you for forwarding the article which was critical of President Obama. This is an act of courage in a time when many people still believe the campaign, and its slogan "Hope and Change", which beat out Nike and numerous other companies to be the "Ad Campaign of the Year."
If we look at just one act of President Obama, we will see that this Hope may have been misplaced.
As Investigative Reporter Greg Palast wrote, when President Obama forced out the President of GM, and appointed a "Mini-Czar" to oversee the (forced) bankruptcy of GM (really, this is fascism, as defined by (not me) but Mussolini):
The creditors, workers and dealers of GM were screwed by the Bankruptcy Filing…however, Mr. Steven Rattner, Obama’s Investment Banker appointee to oversee the dismantlement of GM raided the Worker’s Pension Fund to make certain that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were made whole.
Once again Frank, thank you for forwarding this article. We wanted Hope and Change…but, Hope is always in the future, and Change was never specifically defined.
The fact that the realization that President Obama serves the same Secret Government, the same Economic and Political Masters we have had since (and before) the Murder of John F. Kennedy should not be cause for despair. The fact that a great Peace Activist like Frank has recognized the Reality of who and what President Obama truly represents is cause for hope.
All the people who cursed Ralph Nader, when he was the only guy (aside from Cynthia McKinney and Dennis Kucinich) to state the truth….let’s get behind the truth tellers, rather than revile them. There IS an alternative. We are strong…rather than always going for the Evil of Two Lessers, why not get behind the Truth Tellers. We are at a Crossroads now. Even now, we can turn the tide. On all the major issues, President Obama is the same, or worse than Bush. On Wiretapping, on the Expanding War, on the "Bailouts", on NOT speaking out force lenders to lend to Main Street, on not forcing Credit Card issuers to initiate meaningful reform….
We all remember Bill Maher getting on his knees and begging Ralph Nader not to run…that was shameful. Let’s cut through the Mainstream Media Propaganda. We have lost NPR, whose chief advisor is Max Boot, Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, where Henry Kissinger has an Endowed Chair. Let’s move KPFK back to where they should be…not supporting the war in Kosovo, and not remaining mostly mute on the War in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the ever-widening, fast encroaching National Security State, brought to us by Fatherland…..er, Homeland Security. Let’s shake off the anti-war torpor caused by the election of Barack Obama, and get back to who we really are….
Chuck Noyes - californiaspy@gmail.com
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One of the best critiques of Obama to date. No true leftist (that would be communist or socialist, not democrat) supported or would ever support a marginal reformist like Obama. The third world "left" cheerleaders supported him because like the Maoists of old, they advanced the naive and false position that the darker your skin color the more progressive you are. ("The most oppressed are the most revolutionary" and other inane slogans). Take us back to 1979 and it was "leftists" of the same reformist stripe who supported a "reformist" candidate in Iran. His name was Ayatollah Khomeini who wiped the left off the map in Iran. How could any self-respecting Marxist have ever supported anything associated with Islam? How also Obama? Great article. Build a real left in this country.
Scott Craig - scraiglaw@gmail.com
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Good to see and probably too little, too late. Also doesn’t mention Obama’s commitment to "clean coal" (an oxymoron) embedded in the new global warming initiative, which proposes "reductions" in carbon emissions that I think are about 1/4 of what all scientific estimates of what is needed to make a dent in the catastrophic climate change-ocean acidification process. Add to that Obama’s "education reform/stimulus" package being run by Arne Duncan, which is specifically designed to favor and promote "charter schools" (privatization) and "merit" pay (breaking teachers’ unions). Not to mention his normalization of indeterminate preventive detention, his cover for Bush’s use of torture, his escalation of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, his rejection of any programs specifically addressed to overturning racial discrimination, his immigration "reform" which will doubtless include a national ID card and still stronger border enforcement, his absolute opposition to even discussing reparations for slavery and the slave trade, manifested in his boycott of the World Conference Against Racism (Durban II). It’s unimaginable that Obama would even address questions of political imprisonment in the US, as Cynthia McKinney did.One could go on and on. The main thing to underline is that this is not on Obama. It is on the so-called "left." Obama is generally speaking doing nothing other than he promised. It’s the left that has totally abandoned its morality, consciousness and responsibilities. It is way past time for a deep and thoroughgoing self-criticism and reassessment of colonialism, elitism, class collaborationism, white supremacy, male supremacy, reformism, gradualism, neo-colonialism and other forms of identification with the empire, (most of them embedded in a slavish commitment to the Democratic Party), and the way they have gutted and destroyed any semblance of militant resistance to the powers that be or any deep-rooted organizing of the oppressed and exploited to overturn this rotten and destructive system. It is we, not Obama, who have a lot to answer for. I hope Glen’s and your readers will understand that the "near (?) total collapse of the Left" is the responsibility of the "left"
itself, not Obama.–
Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-LA/People Against Racist Terror - antiracistaction_la@yahoo.com
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How do you fight "Charisma"???
WITH THE TRUTH.
"Barack Obama is the most evolved communicator that has ever run for President" goes the line in an ad that runs regularly on Progressive Radio here in Los Angeles. Translation: The "Song and Dance Routine" just got fancier.
SLICK WILLY GOT AN UPGRADE.
The moment I saw what kind of Advisors and Staff members Obama surrounded himself with…
I KNEW that this was going to be another Clinton-Style Administration.
RIGHT DOWN TO ANOTHER FAILED ATTEMPT at HEALTH CARE.
This is all a RE-RUN.
Clinton failed to hold the previous Administrations accountable for crimes against the Constitution.
Obama is doing the same.
Obama is fully aware of the power of his Charisma & as long as his approval numbers continue floating above 50%
Congress will continue to submit to that Charisma with their own current direction.
Obama & Congress are going out of the way to uphold the practices and dictations of the previous administration.
BILLIONS MORE in Increased WAR spending while waste and fraud by Military Contractors spins wildly out of control.
By September, Barack Obama will have more troops in the Iraq and Afghanistan "War on Terror Theater" than the Bush Administration ever had.
In a recent speech in Cairo, Egypt
Obama continued to uphold the SAME BUSH ADMINISTRATION, AL QAEDA, 9/11
Falsehood that helped justify ILLEGALLY INVADING IRAQ in the first place.
Bush-Cheney style SECRECY POLICIES CONTINUE as the Obama Administration
refuses to reveal (to the Public) the names of Coal Industry Executives who visited the White House.
AFTER promising to make his administration MORE TRANSPARENT.
Don’t get me started on the BAILOUTS!!!
Oh… By the way…
What ever happened to OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES, Mr. Constitutional Scholar???
Los Angeles is still in a "Constitution-Free Zone".
We are all still being MONITORED.
One last question.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SO-CALLED PROGRESSIVE RADIO???
Every single Progressive Radio Host was always ready bark about the Bush Administration…
Neo-Cons…
Corporatism…
Torture…
The facts behind 9/11…
and the lack of Accountability… Seemingly for ANYTHING.
The Presidency has changed hands.
Now that the Democratic Party has gained "So-Called Control",
Progressive Radio Hosts recently have just fallen into line.
(Just like the "Liberal Talk" radio hosts of the 80’s & 90’s)
Many Progressive Radio Hosts also craftily DEFLECT THE TRUTH
(As well as LEGITIMATE PROGRESSIVE CONCERNS) by blaming EVERYTHING on the Bush Administration…
Sure, these issues STARTED with the Bush Administration…
BUT LOOK WHO’s IN CHARGE NOW…
AND LOOK and LISTEN to who is NOW supporting THOSE POLICIES.
One problem with the recent Progressive Radio Talk Show Host Logic is:
WE ARE SMARTER than your average Conservative or Casual listener.
We are more informed and concerned about the directions this Country is taking.
AND… MORE IMPORTANTLY…
WE KNOW BETTER.
I agree 8,000% with what Mr. Ford has written. I look forward to reading more.
S A N C H E Z - original-d.j.sanchez@hotmail.com
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In Peace,
Frank Dorrel
Publisher
Addicted To War
P.O. Box 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
310-838-8131
