March 31 2010 by
hijabella in
FASCISM |
BY CHRIS HEDGES The Democrats and their liberal apologists are so oblivious to the profound personal and economic despair sweeping through this country that they think offering unemployed people the right to keep their unemployed children on their nonexistent health care policies is a step forward. They think that passing a jobs bill that will give tax credits to corporations is a rational response to an unemployment rate that is, in real terms, close to 20 percent. They think that making ordinary Americans, one in eight of whom depends on food stamps to eat, fork over trillions in taxpayer dollars to pay for the crimes of Wall Street and war is acceptable. IMAGE: Facile speechifying rightwing bimbos like Sarah Palin are the tip of the propaganda spear in the establishment’s arsenal to derail real change.
Share on Facebook
ANNALS OF HISTORY ALIVE: BY GAITHER STEWART Despite the many centuries intervening, Thomas Becket’s assassination foreshadowed similar political murders of Martin Luther King and of Archbishop Oscar Romero at the altar of a chapel in El Salvador in 1980, both murdered by reactionary death squads. Like Becket’s early relationship with the King, Oscar Romero was at first considered an ally of the ruling oligarchy of El Salvador in the grip of US imperialism. After he was named Archbishop in 1977, mounting repression, attacks on the clergy, murders of priests and the misery of the poor changed his views. Romero became a spokesman for the poor and the message of Liberation Theology so despised and feared by the popes of Rome. Oscar Romero boycotted the new President’s inauguration on July 1, 1977, denying him the blessing of the Catholic Church, and declared the election invalid.
Share on Facebook
BY SHAMUS COOKE What looks like a big victory for Obama and the Democrats may be their greatest undoing. It’s true that the passage of Obama’s health care bill represents a significant political victory for the Democrats. But sometimes a battle won could equal a lost war.
.
It’s telling that Obama had so much trouble in getting his own party to pass the bill on a simple majority basis: the bill was so blatantly watered down with the corporate hose that anyone with their name attached to it feared future electoral doom.
Share on Facebook
BY DAVID M. GREEN YOU GOTTA HAND IT to the agents of the regressive right for playing the weakest imaginable hand so well. I’m talking about the Lee Atwaters and Frank Luntzs of the world, who both understand human psychology (read fear) and are absolutely pitiless about employing it for purposes of assisting the rich and powerful in raping the rest of us. If you can get past the absolute amoral viciousness of these sociopaths, you have to admire their handiwork at some level. (Oh, wait a minute: correction. Lee Atwater actually did apologize for some of his crimes against humanity. Of course, it was on his death bed.) PHOTO: TIME magazine euphemistically called him “a warrior with words,” to be expected from a notorious corporate propaganda organ.
Share on Facebook
By Kate Randall 22 March 2010 [print_link] With a special bonus feature by Jane Hamsher, sorting out myth from truth throughout the bill. After months of closed-door negotiations with insurance CEOs and pharmaceutical executives, Obama made the absurd claim that the measure came “from the bottom up.” In fact, the legislation was entirely dictated from [...]
Share on Facebook
March 18 2010 by
hijabella in
FEATURED |
By Robin Hahnel I completely agree with Norman Solomon’s excellent piece on the Democratic Party Healthcare Bill. The bill is a disaster and the Democratic Party “cave” on healthcare reform is another example of how progressives are betrayed by the Democratic Party – as if we needed another example! I also find looking for silver [...]
Share on Facebook
By David Michael Green IT WOULD BE A GIGANTIC MISTAKE to believe that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid or anyone else of prominence in today’s Democratic Party actually gives a damn about the fate of the American people. But it’s not such a stretch to imagine that they might care about their own political [...]
Share on Facebook
The Dems’ healthcare gambit backfires Obama was never serious about getting a real healthcare reform passed. He wanted (and still does) to have it both ways: to convince the public that the messy, ludicrous Rube Goldberg program he has allowed his minions to advance is the best possible solution to the healthcare mess, while also [...]
Share on Facebook
