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Barry Yourgrau

Barry Yourgrau

Posted: November 24, 2009 02:51 PM

Add Jobs, Not Troops

What's Your Reaction?

So is this what Obama has in mind for adding jobs? 34,000 of em, to Afghanistan?

This isn't what I had in mind when I voted for him last year.

Can someone get through to Obama and his braintrust of political "pros" in the White House that he is digging the grave of his presidency and quite possibly (see USSR, 1980s) this country with all this more war/more boons for bankers stuff?

There is a huge pent-up fed-up populist rage out there, and if the Dems won't start heeding and serving it, the Right will be happy to, fraudulent and toxic as they are. Then God help us (and he won't).

 
 
 
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08:03 PM on 11/25/2009
Spot on.

Obama got elected, and the Dems rode his coattails, based on promises of sweeping change. It absolutely boggles the mind that this fact has been disregarded so casually. The populism of the campaign has been replaced by special interest based business as usual.

The impact of the anger and sense of betrayal will be enormous in upcoming elections as people stay home or vote third party, giving the Republicans, the few percentage points they need to get elected.

Then we will be in real deep doodoo.
12:14 PM on 11/25/2009
Somebody please tell me who is this man serving as our President? He bears no likeness to the guy that campaigned as the PEACE President a year ago. Surely an alien Republican creature took over his body back on January 20, 2009. Wasn't the big diff twixt him and Hillary, the Iraq war. His lack of experience is becoming painfully clear.
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Kassandra
Idiot savant artistic genius
09:50 AM on 11/25/2009
Word is Obama will set up another "Gang of Six" commission of "centrist/moderate" Democrats and Republicans to figure out the jobs crisis. Can't wait to see how long THAT will take ( another12 months?) or what they will come up with after the "healthcare" debacle.
08:51 AM on 11/25/2009
The public is not well informed on the possible reasons for continuing the wars in the Middle East. If the reasons are truly valid they should be made public. Put all the facts on the table and let people decide for themselves.

I strongly suspect, despite their protestations, that the war in Iraq was and is over oil. Most wars in the 20th century have been. If the money that had been used for conflict during the last 100 years had been used to make the U.S. self sufficient, with renewable clean energy supplies, the whole world would be better off.

If the wars are actually being fought for wealth and power (follow the money) then Senator Levin has a valid point. The wealthiest Americans are the ones profiting from these encounters, let them be the ones to pay for them. No amount of money will make up for the lost lives of the poor and middle class who actually fight in them.
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Kassandra
Idiot savant artistic genius
09:51 AM on 11/25/2009
UNOCAL oil pipeline is what its' all about. Go Google it.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
offred
A biocitizen is 3/5 of a corporate citizen
07:57 PM on 11/24/2009
I'd rather see that money used to hire Americans to upgrade our infrastructure and to build a 21st power grid for the U.S.

Let every hawk and war profiteer who's ever been quoted in support of either war be assessed a special tax to fund the Afghan war, since the U.S. can't afford it right now.

Start with the Cheneys, Bushes, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill-O, all Halliburton execs and staff, all Blackwater execs and staff, etc.

In fact, any company executive or manager whose company makes a profit from the war industry should also pay a windfall tax during a war. For example, KBR and Dyncorps execs should pay an extra 5 percent in taxes.

Not that such a tax would prevent them from lobbying for war, but it would make it less profitable.
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Awake-and-Sing
named after a great play written by Clifford Odets
08:02 PM on 11/24/2009
Let the wealthy who got an unnecessary and immoral tax cut in the middle of a war, albiet a war launched on lies, pay for it.
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BocaMom
06:32 PM on 11/24/2009
I agree 100% It's time for Obama to start focusing on fixing the economy, stopping unemployment and getting 15 million Americans back to work. In fact, Obama and Congress should have been doing this for the past year! Either they don't have a clue, or worse yet, hey don't care about the working class!
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JoAnnCr
03:35 PM on 11/24/2009
I started out being stunned that Obama sold his base out.

With the increase in troops, their cost, the quagmire, and no jobs, I'm angry.

I'll be supporting someone else for the Democratic nomination in 2012.
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HUFFPOST PUNDIT
Gidster
Not so much Liberal as I am anti evil.
06:14 PM on 11/24/2009
This is why Dems lose seats so often. The candidate does not instantly gratify your pet project, and you dump him like a hot rock.

We get the government we deserve.
07:43 PM on 11/24/2009
Lack of leadership on substansive Health Care reform, a tax-payer funded bailout for Wall Street with little for anyone else and now, an apparent troop escalation in the hellhole known as Afghanistan, are not "pet projects."
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Awake-and-Sing
named after a great play written by Clifford Odets
07:51 PM on 11/24/2009
Not exactly. This is not a case of impatience.

This is the case of a Presidential candidate running a fraudulent scam for a Presidential campaign and turning out to be the opposite of what he purported to be.

The President has proven through his appointments, his actions and non-actions that he is no-FDR, LBJ or Kennedy. He's just another corporate shill who serves the military industrial complex and Wall Street.

DUMP OBAMA
Kucinich/Feingold 2012