Barak Bush Continues To Erode Our Civil Liberties

Nat Hentoff in the Village Voice lamenting "Barak Bush's" continuation of Bush era policies that violate civil liberties and protect Bush era CIA and US military torturers:

I increasingly wonder whose Constitution Barack Obama was teaching at the University of Chicago. China's? North Korea's? Robert Mugabe's? Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional lawyer, whose byline I never miss on the Internet, asks: "What kind of a country passes a law that has no purpose other than to empower its leader to suppress evidence of the torture it inflicted on people?"

Marriage Equality Case Legal Timing

Openly gay serviceman dismissed by Obama Lt. Dan Choi weighs in:

There has been much debate about whether the court case currently being waged in California right now is the right way to go about achieving marriage equality. Is it too soon, some wonder? What if we are defeated, and that defeat sets us back for years to come?

As a veteran both of battlefield combat and of its political counterpart, I don't think so. Here, as with any fight, we have to be strategic, proactive, and most importantly willing to fight for what we believe in. Sitting back and allowing the status quo to prevail simply because it would be easier is not what moves us forward as a people. It is in our history, our Constitution, indeed, in our makeup as American citizens to take the fight to injustice, and to fight it wherever we see it raise its ugly head; right now that battle is in California, and so, even though I have no history with the marriage equality battle, that is where I will lend my support.

Obama Breaks Another Campaign Promise

BY supporting a tax on so-called "Cadillac" health plans to pay for health care reform, Obama is actually going to hurt middle class people. People covered by good plans provided under collective barganing agreements, for example, will be taxed on their helath care benefits. What happened to Obama's pledge not to rasise taxes on the middle class?

Drew Westin at Huffington:

It was nice to see the President make a decision. But it would have been nicer to see him make a good one, particularly when faced, as he has been so many times this year, with the choice between the interests of big business and the interests of working and middle class Americans--in this case, middle class Americans who just want to be able to choose the health insurance plan that's best for themselves and their families and workers whose unions had negotiated good health care plans in lieu of pay increases.

Dan and I have a PPO plan that will probably be taxed if the Obama-backed plan is adopted. We are not rich by any means.

The House would tax the rich to fund health care reform. Given the obscene inequality of wealth in this country, that is the way reform should be funded. But Obama, our "champion" and "savior" is siding with the interests of the rich and powerful once again. Yep: more "Change We Can Believe In."

1960s Values Will Triumph

Huffington columnist Mark Green on 1960s values and why they will prevail:

First, those who stand for civil rights, women's rights, a greener world, nuclear arms control, consumer fairness, and universal health care appear to be on the right side of history, just as those who fought for Social Security and labor laws in the 30s have proven to be. Second, with the percentage of non-white Americans and voters inexorably rising, it becomes increasingly difficult for a conservative party traditionally relying on white males to prevail.

Somebody needs to remind Obama of this. He has sold out to corporations, the military, and Wall Street. He has also forgotten to be the civil rights champion he led us to believe he is during his campaign.

Obama's Team Members Gave Us The Recession

Times columnist William D. Cohan:

The new, inescapable conclusion — thanks to the passage of time, of course — is that Wall Street and Main Street would be better off today had the power troika of Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner (at the time, Treasury secretary, Federal Reserve chairman and president of the New York Federal Reserve, respectively) let the 85-year-old firm fail outright instead of crafting their clever rescue.

The bottom line according to Cohan is that these free market capitalists should have let the market work, and let Bear Stearns go belly up in early 2008. That would have chastened the other banks and forced them to get their houses in order. The recession could have been avoided. Instead, the wealthy, greedy bankers got socialism at the expense of the whole country, actually, the whole world.

Giethner is now Secretary of the Treasury, and Bernakke is still the Fed chief. This is more "change we can believe in," Obama style.

Oh, and Obama is keeping Bush holdover and warmonger Gates as Defense Secretary for another year. Yes, more "change we can believe in."

Yea, right.

Avatar: The White Messiah Myth

Columnist David Brooks sees the dark underside of the current film mega-hit:

...would it be totally annoying to point out that the whole White Messiah fable, especially as Cameron applies it, is kind of offensive? It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration.

I guess I should see the film to see what he's talking about.

Change You Can Believe In?

Krugman on Obama and the banks:

...there’s a populist rage building in this country, and President Obama’s kid-gloves treatment of the bankers has put Democrats on the wrong side of this rage.

Our Great Recession was caused by greedy bankers chasing short term profits and obscene bonuses. But Obama, surrounded as he is by the same cast of financial advisors that is largely responsible for our predicament, remains solidly on the side of Wall Street in all of this. If you read the left wing blogs now days you are beginning to see comments something like this: "Next time I'm not voting for Obama...let the Republicans have the country. I don't care."

This is what Obama has done to his political base. How does he expect to be re-elected?

Cold Winter So Far

...and lots of snow. Our house heater is workingh full time.

Passenger Train Travel

Vice President Biden on support for rail transport...

"Support for Amtrak must be strong--not because it is a cherished American institution, which it is--but because it is a powerful and indispensable way to carry us all into a leaner, cleaner, greener 21st century."

Rail travel in Europe is a joy. Here in this country we've let passenger rail wither while fostering our dependence on gas guzzlers. Too bad.

Our Senior Senior Citizen

Little Nikko, our Burmese cat, is now approaching his 18th birthday. He is still healthy, takes no meds, and has a great appatite. On March 1st he will be 18. Go Nikko!