goedel's Comments (11)

“This IS a defeat for BO, if Sen. Reid prevails and a bill with a vital public option is included. BO has reneged, first on single-payer, secondly on the public option. Senators Feingold and Burris saved it. BO will get no credit for health-care, if achieved, and as with the Nobel Peace Prize he will not deserve it. Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi would get the credit, if achieved.”

“I learned that not all corrupted people realize they have been corrupted OR that the best actors are not in Hollywood.”

“I agree and disagree with Ms Noonan: it's Pres. Obama's policies I don't like. But his decisions on issues that would require a constructive president to stand up to entrenched power are deferential. It may be that he simply wishes to cultivate those big banks and investment houses in order to have their gratitude in the future. The same may be true of his health-care approach: he does not wish to do battle with big health insurers or pharmaceutical companies. Paul Krugman said BHO's prospective success in getting a health bill shows that he is strong, effective. What nonsense! It shows he will take whatever he can get without doing battle with the masters of US health.

Pres. Obama has had a meteoric ascendancy to a level above his competency on matters financial. On the one issue where he may be presumed to have some knowledge, the Constitution, he continues the imperial presidency, violations of privacy, habeus corpus and transparency. He allows the practices of the Bush adminstration with regard to presidential signings, torture, state-secrecy to continue or not to be revoked by prosecutions that would protect our separation of powers and the rule of law.

There is besides competency, the matter of intention. I find in our President no demonstration (other than words) that he is motivated by any concerns about our ordinary citizens or our country's future. Yes, he inherited many problems, but he has made them worse, more long-term, more irreversible.”

“Insignificant! All of the so-called "cultural" issues are insignificant. So what, you may ask, is significant? OK! I'll tell you:

1. BO has given away the taxes of our children and their children to save the big financial corporations that gambled and lost.
2. BO has immersed us more deeply in Afghanistan and worsened the situation of Pakistan internally. He has also killed many innocents.
3. BO has undermined international efforts to control carbon emissions.

These three issues are the ones that will determine the future of this country and of other countries. Everything else pales by comparison.”

“The Consumer Protection Agency, if it isn't already gutted, is very small potatoes compared with restoring Glass-Steagle and re-regulating. Obama gave away the game, when he allowed Geithner and Summers to be his advisers. They prevented the breakup of the financial institutions "too big to fail" and the regulation of the derivatives with which they gamble and we absorb the losses.

Obama is too little too late, and it is not by miscalculation. He took over 300 billion dollars from the corporate elite, a good part from the investment banks that caused the problems. Everything Bush III has done has been for the corporate elite. Nothing for labor; nothing for the small banks outside of New York; no jobs for the unemployed. Obama supporters are still living on hope and delusions. Their charmer is their betrayer. He is not a good person.”

“On the Polanski question or on any other question, why should we pay any attention at all to what Cokie Roberts thinks? She has been wrong on so many issues that even if she were right on this one, why care?”

“Racism in favor of Pres. Obama is what gall's me! No white president who came in promising change and who continued the policies of the previous administration, in matters of war and peace, as has Pres. Obama, would accorded as much slack from the Left as he has received.”

“Why care? These anchors are entertainers who are meant to draw your attention to what corporate media find acceptable for you to know. You will learn there that the N. Vietnamese attacked a US destroyer and is a cause for war. You will learn there that Afghanistan has Al Queda training camps and is a cause for war. You will learn there that Saddam Hussein has WMDs and is a cause for war.

You will not learn that Wall Street investment banks are taking big risks that can endanger your job. . . . Just one example.

If you depend on these charming anchors, you will remain ignorant and our nation will continue to decline.”

“I do not at all find this article by Nico Pitney "all I need to know". Discussions as to whether she is a liberal, moderate, etc., do not help either. Rachel Maddow's interview was of the latter sort and did not tell me more than Pitney did. That she is not the liberal counterweight to Scalia or Roberts also means little to me. That she will empathize with litigants and bring that empathy to bear on her reading of the merits of a case I find also an unhelpful characterization.

The greatest issues facing SCOTUS is the overweening power of the presidency and the failure of the elections system to generate political parties that give representation to ordinary citizens. The corruption of our government by campaign fund contributions from major corporations with interests in the industries of defense and finance and their control of mainstream media is destroying this republic and replacing it with an imperial, militarized tyranny. So long as SCOTUS does not act to restore government by consent of the governed, all of the other issues from abortion to discrimination are minor.”

“Jounalists allow the major candidates to get away with superficial campaigning. They are not pinned down on issues of our wars or our economy. The so-called debates are highly formulated and protect the candidates from serious follow-up questioning by each other, as well as by the audience or the press. Minor party candidates, in partucular the only one who has been right on everything from the economy to getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan - RALPH NADER - are excluded by the two majors who control the Debate Commission. So what is left but personal attack, lying, slander, slash and burn?

Our elections are a very unfunny joke!”

“The blackout in the media generally and in the left media especially of Ralph Nader is a worse threat to government by consent than would be the election of John McCain.

I am fervently hoping that the recent interest in Nader's candidacy shown by well over 6% ratings in several states (eg Michigan, N. Mexico, California) will result in a severe threat to Barack Obama. The left must cease supporting the better of the worse and support the best, Ralph Nader. Otherwise, there is no hope for change from weaklings like Obama.”