Sorry, I've just lost the will to blog.
Maybe it happened New Year's Day when I found a piece of confetti in my stool.
Or maybe it was brewing sometime before that epic event, when the realization that, in our country as we now experience it, the febrile intoxication of hope and change has reaped the cold despair of thwarted expectation and bitter frustration.
Happy new year!
Government has finally revealed itself to be professional wrestling for ugly people in business suits (except for that hunky John Thune. Wouldn't he and Sarah Palin throw some good looking calves? I see a future first couple!). It's very exciting but staged to within an inch of its approximation of life: lots of rivalries and fouls with occasional moments of authentic drama, but at the end of the day the outcome seems lamely predetermined.
Did we really think the young man from Chicago would actually change the way the game is played, merely by being inspiring, articulate, highly educated, benevolently ambitious and a vaccination against every diseased policy the previous administration and its grassroots apparatchiks spewed forth?
I belch a resounding "yes."
But the game, it seems, is bigger than him, bigger than all of The People.
Because it uses The People. It uses them as fuel and as fodder; it bleeds the hope from them and substitutes it with fear; it is run by tyrants steeped in a tradition of oppression. Only they don't oppress with the immediate application of armies and gulags and stormtroopers. They oppress gradually, slowly, steadily...with sugar. They suppress with intoxicants. They dazzle the eye with semblances of old pride and faded glory, both too diluted to have any practical effect upon a sated and dispirited population.
They have successfully bamboozled The People into having faith in a system which is incapable of reciprocation.
And so my president, for whom I have the utmost respect, is the most visible of dupes. Hell, given his savvy, he probably even knows he and his country have been rendered incontrovertibly, tragically superfluous.
Yeah, it's easy to lose the will to blog when the game's in the bag.
And so my president, for whom I have the utmost respect, is the most visible of dupes.
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Obama seems to have bought into The Third Way / DLC / New Democrat propaganda that government must serve The People via private corporations. What he doesn't realize is their philosophy is actually government must serve private corporations via The People.
The good news is, after enduring a painful period (the length of which no one knows), history shows that The People will correct the situation. According to economist Dr. Ravi Batra, he predicts a coming revolution against political corruption and economic chaos leading to a new Golden Age.
Dr. Batra had predicted the current economic meltdown, Greenspan's fraud, and is a recurring guest on The Thom Hartmann radio show.
- Tom
I feel like giving up on working for progressive change at least a couple times a week! I think it's just the nature of most progressive minds – we don't like to fight like uptight, greedy, selfish bastards do. But I also happen to hate those same greedy monsters running over me and all the other good people of our country.
I don't worry too much if Obama is overwhelmed by, or a tool of the right. He was elected by the majority of the population on a change platform. That in it's self is a good sign. The People want change – they want to move away from the shafters, the hawks, the liars, and a government that just lines their pockets while millions suffer by their greed. But, it's not going to be easy now that so many have been lulled or brainwashed into a sugar-coated stupor.
So, take a deep breath, and move slowly back to your keyboard. You've got a ton of support behind you.
Progressives need each other to help lift up those who have just become too beaten down. You are one that does it for me. I hope I helped you at least a little bit.
BUT - I can't help but think of those students in China, or the protestors in Iran who risk being tortured and killed because they desire democracy. Having rarely or never known democracy, they are willing to put their lives on the line for it. I also think of our founders, and what would have happened had they said: "The British won this battle. What can we do but give up the war?"
Here? Yes - the system is broken, the utter corruption in Washington aided and abetted by the apathy of most of our citizens. We're trained to believe we're "entitled" to democracy because we're so special and superior, so there's no need to make any effort to preserve it - other than to wave a flag around once a year in July. And really, those rather small groups of protestors are pretty embarrassing...and maybe even unpatriotic. Why don't they get jobs and stop trying to relive the 60s?
One presidential election is not going to fix what's wrong. It's going to take a mass movement from the bottom up. So to throw up our hands NOW and "give up" - well, The Powers That Be are no doubt grinning and licking their chops, thinking: "It Was So Damned Easy To Crush Them!"
Do we really have so little faith in ourselves and our power?
The point is to go after the people that no one goes after... Lobbyists, "Defense" Contractors, the XeIA, the Military.......... you know that whole "industrial complex" thing.
And go after them hard...... point out that Obama is a talker, and Bush (bless his pointy toes) is a doer...... point out that lobbyists should have to wear lipstick and fishnet stockings, point out that the CIA is impotent in the face of Osama bin Laden (they can't figure out when he is coming, they can't stop him, they can't catch him.... they just spent another billion dollars..... Got bin Laden?? How about now? ........ okay, Now?)
You are a better columnist then you are an actor.... and you are an alright actor.... but you are a BRILLIANT op-ed writer....... and start calling your "blog" something else..... like an "online op ed page" and you'll feel the spirit of "Lou Grant" wake up inside you .... the blahs are writers block..... and you sir.... are a writer.
Is some of your comment supposed to be satire?
Bush was a War Criminal 'doer' that ordered torture and attacked Iraq for their oil (still costing OUR country $10 Billion a month - bless his pointy little head), and covered for his veep's treason of outing noc-list CIA that helped lie us into that dishonest and dishonorable occupation.
How was your argument aided by that one line of delusional republican't spin? Why not also just tell everyone how Bush always kept us safe because 9/11 somehow didn't happen on his watch?
At least we don't have a VP Palin.
Graft, greed, and corruption in government are par for the course: seeing it with clarity can only numb the viewer, and suck the lifeforce from his will.
But there is nothing new here.
Nothing that hasn't been dominant in American politics since its inception.
It's always been about the rich and propertied making sure they continue to get theirs before and above anyone else's cut. Always been about creating a legislative framework to insure the game continues to reward those already heavily in the black. About talking one thing, and doing another, and then claiming the doing IS the promise fulfilled.
Nothing new here at all. Just same old same old. And yeah, it is very easy to get jaded and burnt by exposure to it: shit has a way of staining and stenching and humiliating the smeared.
But soap exists, and we are not out of the fight for true fairness and justice until we stop breathing.
That's the solace.
with the most interesting writers, photograghers, videographers and citizen journalists working today. This new internet thingie is the most powerful flashlight ever created to route out and expose the shenanighans going on in our country and around the world.
it's so new the old poltical hacks haven't figured out how to subvert it yet.
they are the ones dumbfounded when something they said in private circles the globe
before they can get the foot out of their mouths. remember the JFK/Nixon tv debates
changed the poltical landscape forever. ( not all for the good - we got a lot of broad shoulders/ good hair on a lot of empty suits). it didn't happen overnite........but it was change.
there are billiant citizens connecting the dots and collecting data so they can inform other citizens
who the donors are and which legislators are being influenced. There is no where to hide.
the sausage-making has been shown in hi-def, and its nasty. there will have to be changes made to both the corrupted recipe and the infested machinery. it's so bad, those silent country club republicans are starting to notice........it's embarrassing.
we have to perservere. (I've lost the faith from time to time and needed a booster shot from Steven).........continue to rattle cages.......and wait for Steven to find another
rant deep inside to keep us going........and he will.............we'll wait..
If you're unhappy w ith how healthcare, Afghanistan, etc., are being handled, then vote OUT your member of Congress. The president, as powerful as he is, can't command the Congress to do his bidding. Yes, W got through legislation that should never have been passed using fear and "carrots" to be paid for by future generations.
We have to keep turning out the politcians until they understand we've caught on. We understand the game and we're changing the rules.
Mr. Weber I'm surprised you're given in so early in the game. If I remember correctly, your own career had its share of ups and downs before you became a recognizable "name." While I,too, am frustrated I'm not out of hope. I have faith in President's intelligence and intregrity than those who voted for a slogan instead of a man.
Obama *said* he was for the public option, while working behind the scenes to kill it; he worked behind the scenes on the Baucus bill - the only bill coming out of committee without the public option - and reassured the insurance and hospital lobbyists that there would be no public option (see NY Times Aug 13th), in exchange for campaign cash. He also made a deal with the pharmaceuticals that cheaper drugs would not be allowed to be imported from other countries. Obama locked in a expensive, for-profit across the board healthcare system. He sold the American people down the river so he could fill his campaign coffers.
It's winter, it's cold, it's dark (at least here in the North). This is no time to join the right wing to undermine the current administration. Most of the work is still ahead of us. If people thought Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Sarah Palin, etc. were going to get out of the way, well then they were naive. Until we get MORE progressives in office, the fight will be difficult. We must keep working for change. It's only been one year. Think of the alternative - the right wing back in power.
Giving up is not an option. We need you.
Remember too, in his interview right before Christmas, Obama said the Senate bill was 95% of what he wanted.