Obama has consistently broken not only his campaign promises but turned a blind eye towards the looting of our treasury by the Wall Street Banks and turned a deaf ear to the cries for mortgage help by not even pressuring the Senate for loan "cramdowns". Obama's "go along to get along" approach has yielded no results for ordinary people while he escalates violence and expenditure in Afghanistan ...

It is past time for Obama to represent the people that elected him by leading the effort for Single Payer and the reform of Wall Street ... It is past time for Obama to reconcile his abhorrence of useless death with the killing of thousands of innocents in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world at the hands of our military ... It is past time for Obama to take care of the sick, unemployed and homeless people before hiring tens of thousands of mercenaries to kill in our name abroad , and to spy on us here at home ...

Obama's new slogan should be :

Chains You Can Believe In !

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Obama is nothing more and nothing less.

Politics always contained "ends justify the means" approach but recently it became a dominant aspect in so-called democracies. One is allowed to cheat, lie, steal, murder, abduct its way to the politcal position. Once there he/she is safe for a period of tenure.

In theory this practices are to be curbed by justiciary monitoring politicians and by electorate denying them re-election. In practice the justiciary has been subdued by interests and power plays so it is not independant.

As for electorate, the oligarchy has a political monopoly so a voter has a choice between two glib sheisters. Either of the two will make sure that the system favouring him remains intact.

However this approach starts to bog down US. In foreign mattters Obama is increasigly seen as a new face of an old enemy and is/will be treated accordingly. In domestic matters peopel are gettign disillusioned but majority is not ready for radical steps, however passive resistance and obstructionism is another matter.

Audacity of hope was a nice campaign slogan and nothing more.

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Why are you trying to convince us that we are?

Ask questions, demand answers!

The truth shall set us free.  Love is the only way forward.

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Garry Trudeau might consider Pinocchio as the icon for Obama in Doonesbury.

(Should that occur, whenever I see it, I will hear Bela Lagosi's character from Ed Woods' 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' crying "Pull the strings!")

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were essentially placed under house arrest on 9/12. The mechanics to demand change at the voter level, coupled w/a integrity-based MSM whose focus is public driven awareness was dismantled. WE are disenfranchised because WE suffer from ADD.

In other words WE don't communicate, they prevaricate. Denial is very cruel, it blocks us the association between cause and effect.
MSM/PBS/NPR were de-fanged, replaced by media gimmicks and distractions of mis and disinformation.
WE can't affect change because the proximate linkage between citizen & its representative has been severed.

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Many of us on the left seem to have forgotten that old, trite but true saying: "politics is the art of compromise" Right now the biggest issue facing the US is the health care crisis. Obama is using his position to push for real reform and a public insurance option (as he promised in his campaign). I believe that Obama is ignoring many of the contentious issues that he dealt with in the campaign in order to push this most important issue. If health care is passed and Obama continues to renage on his other promises, I will start seriously mistrusting him.

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Any promise that was even slighly left-learning or truly moderate has been trashed so far. But why is Sirota saying all this now when last year he and the Obama partisans wanted us to ignore Obama's dishonesty and just vote for him? At this rate, Mccain/Palin being in office would have made very little difference. Anyone who wants to defend Obama is nothing but a Republican conservative at this point. Even the center can't stand this man.

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I have to admit that I had misgivings about Obama from the beginning. (Call it "intuition.") I didn't think anything would REALLY change as long as either major party held office, and that influenced me to vote for a 3rd party candidate: Cynthia McKinney. I'll never regret it now, esp. after the trail of broken promises Obama has left behind.

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And it just happens to be the one reason that supports your point? I would like to believe in halcyon days myself, but I think that raising taxes might be a bigger reason than inaccurately promising not to raise them. And then there was the wimp factor.

Cynicism about American politics is not a new thing, nor is campaign promise breaking. Obama, who is better at not saying what he seems to be saying than most, has done very little campaign promise breaking and a whole lot of campaign rhetorical implication breaking.

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wait till all those blacks who voted for Obama, just because, well, because he was black and would "give' them money they were owed for unclear historical reasons, realize he is slashing their pay checks. He's already trying to import a cheap labor force from Mexico, El Salvador and Haiti to replace black and white workers. But now the coup de grace!

When his CO2 bill backed by those advocates of the poor, multimillionaires Boxer and Pelosi is enacted, gas prices, plastics, food and everything connected to carbon fuels will go thru the roof. Unemployment, which won't go down because no one has faith in our dollar or our banks, will shoot even higher as businesses spend more on fuel and electricity and less on paid help.

Does Obama read old editions of Prairie Fire or SDS Notes every night? He sure is making cracks in the key pressure points of the system a lot more efficiently than ol' Bernadine and Bill.

Hang that red flag off the front portico Barry!

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I voted for him, yes. But for one reason: He was the only practical alternative for the moment. Now, maybe we can start to think about this seemingly unreachable star known as "Democracy".

But it is up to us. The alternative: We won't have long to find out, if we do nothing now. Our troubles will be over, though. Because we will have ceased to exist.

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I love how so many left-thinking people are so cynical about the outlook of a presidency that is barely out of infancy. The comments on here really astonish me. Where were all of you for the last eight years? What were you doing while Bush was bowling gutter balls? Do you think that somehow Obama is going to be able to snap his fingers and change the game completely? You can't win a basketball game by bringing a football. Obama, within a few short months has done more positive things than Bush did in the last eight years. This is the problem with the left. Everyone wants to complain about our lack of utopia on a blog then go on about our lives as if it's up to one man. Obama is only one man; if we loose the fight for leftist policy it will be because of us, not him. Get a grip people.

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The larger problem is we have been so shell shocked by the Bushites big lies that we now expect to be lied to, used, abused and ignored. When we discover Obama is no different (lesser lies in colorful speech), we just shake our heads and move on as we now expect nothing less. Writing letter, e-mails, protests meetings, getting behind a new candidate--None of those things seem to work. We can't vote them out (We did that with the Bushites and nothing has changed), we can't take legal action against them as some judge dismisses the suit or the WH invokes Executive Privilege),big business isn't listening...As a political and green activist for decades I have all but given up on "change" for the better across the govt. board locally and nationally. I am not the only one. It is a sad, sad commentary as a lot of us do care but no one in power is listening and Obama is no different. In fact, this article is correct--He doesn't even bother to make excuses about his lies that once were promises.

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Obama's ruthless cynical exploitation of false hope and the need for real social justice and political change in America will stand as a monument to failed democracy.

The authoritarian Democratic leadership is monolithic in its message control organization so expecting any outcry from the populous is a waste of time. The political organizations that would raise the cry have all been co-opted and subverted by the Democratic machine. The only time any social justice organization stands up its because the Democrats think that the activity will discomfit the GOP and benefit the hegemony of the DNC.

Real political action in America has no leadership. Only Democrats working for the advancement of the same old Jim Crow Democratic machine.

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I voted for Obama because I thought the alternative, McCain-Palin, would be worse.

In that respect I guess I'm right, for had McCain been elected the current economic disaster would have been worse.

However Obama's administration is not bringing forth the promised sea change in Washington. Thus far the administration and Congressional Democrats are back to the old business of putting Band-Aides on sucking chest wounds and hoping for the best. As usual when Democrats are in control the working public gets a few more crumbs yet the coordinator and bourgeoisie classes get the largest slices of the cake.

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it came to me in a nightmare!

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called, or just bitched about it? I guarantee you the right wingers are putting constant pressure on him and all Dems, so do something besides whine.

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Barrack Obama is one lie after another. He is nothing more than Bush-lite. He must be impeached and removed from office.

I voted for Obama as I knew, rightly, that McCain was/is worse, but now Obama is in the McCain camp and is heralding more of the same. He must go, along with Biden. It is time for thorough cleaning of the third branch of Congress and kick his sorry ass out of the White House. It is time to bring impeachment charges against Obama for his high crimes (caving into the Zionists and hate mongers) and misdemeanors (refusing the prosecute the nefarious thugs at the CIA who created secret torture prisons from Poland to Peru, to disenfranchising labor). Obama has got to go!

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"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither person nor property will be safe. " Frederick Douglas (1817-1895), U.S. Abolitionist in a speech in Washington, D.C., April 1886. Nuff said!

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Bush promising to do godawful things, and then doing them, or Obama promising to do wonderful things and then breaking all his promises.

It seems that the honest villain is more reputable than the dishonest politician.

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who works for the some of the same interests that Bush worked for, sadly. If we could do nothing about the horrible policies of the Bush baby era, how can we be expected to do anything about Obama? Not only that but if you question this guy accusations of racism seem to come out of the woodwork, though no one seemed to find insulting Bush "racist." Funny how things go.

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Ten Questions For Everyone Who Supported Obama
by Stewart Browne

Dear Supporters of Barack Obama,

You presented Mr. Obama as the candidate of change. You attached that word to his face and plastered it across the country. Change We Can Believe In. Change From Day 1. The Candidate of Change. It's time for Change in America.

On election night, you announced to the world that Change has come to America . You hijacked Google so that the first search result for Change led to Obama's change.gov web site.

America responded. Clearly, the country was in the mood for change. Bush left office with dismal polling numbers, some of the worst ever, and Obama's victory was decisive. Not only did your guy win the White House, but his party locked in a solid majority in both houses of Congress. The first quarter of Obama's first fiscal year is now closing...

1. How much change has Obama brought to America?

His first major decision was announced before he was sworn in. The country was in the throes of the worst economic firestorm in a century, and the markets demanded to know who would be the new Treasury secretary.

The candidate of change chose the man who constructed all the corporate bailouts of the Bush Administration.

2. Who might McCain have chosen as his Treasury secretary?

and...

3. If Bush were given a third term, what role might Timothy Geithner have played in it?


4. Were you expecting Obama's financial rescue program to be the same one proposed by the Bush Administration last fall?

5. When you voted for him, did you think Obama would propose and oversee the biggest piece of fascist corporatism in American history?

Your guy just gave a trillion dollar gift to the bankers who drove their companies off the cliff and took the global economy with them. He put together a complicated scheme where the taxpayer ensures that neither the stakeholders in the insolvent banks nor the wealthiest institutional investors have to take a loss.

6. Why is Obama giving even better deals to the financial tycoons than they got under Bush?

All this makes me wonder...

7. Is the Obama Administration in the pockets of the big banks, or are they just getting rolled?

8. Are you sad that Obama is escalating our wars overseas?

Hidden in his super mammoth budget is a huge increase in defense spending. Obama wants to spend 2 percent more in the next fiscal year than President Bush allocated, and 9 percent more than we spent last year.

The bulk of this increase is in Afghanistan, where even Time Magazine can’t help but notice that the Obama plan is very reminiscent of something else we’ve heard….

9. Are you excited that Obama has initiated a Surge of his own?

Shortly after taking office, Obama announced he'd add 17,000 troops to the 36,000 already in Afghanistan . A few weeks later, he made a surprise second announcement that he was sending 17,000 more.

And more troops is just what he announced. In addition to the soldiers and civilians, Obama is also overseeing enormous growth in the number of private military contractors set to operate in Afghanistan .

An army of mercenaries, a quagmire of a war with no exit strategy, even a Surge -- it doesn't sound terribly different from what we've been getting. Gee...

10. Who is Obama's Defense Secretary?

Oh yeah, the same one who served under Bush.

LINK

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I was trying to tell you this guy was a liar and a shill months ago. I voted for him thinking he might just be the real deal. Twas the first and last time I will ever vote. I dont ever want to lend any degree of legitimacy to our election process. My suspicions were confirmed by feb that Obama was "same as the old boss".

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I voted for Obama. I regret it now. After months of canvassing in support of Ron Paul, I was a bit disenfranchised with the crop of political candidates, I began to look into this Obama guy, on the insistance of my girlfriend. Living in Denver, I witnessed Obama's wonderful oratory skills firsthand and I must admit, that I was swept up in the midst of his persona and the popular rhetoric that he espoused. I reluctantly voted for him on Nov. 4th, Hoping that Change was not just another catch-phrase. I was wrong.

He has reversed nearly every position of importance that he canvassed on. His actions have wholeheartedly betrayed that he is an "Agent of Change". It is absolutely clear to me now that there is no difference between the 'left' and 'right'. They are indeed agents of change - change for the worse. Both sides perpetuate a culture of war, deception, and death. Obama has killed more innocent civilian Pakistanis in the first 100 days than Bush did. We are expanding into a third theatre of war there, this time with a sovereign nation in possession of nuclear weapons. Obama was put in place by the elite puppetmasters who pulled the same strings on GW Bush. These sychophantic terrorists are the same people who brought us all WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam and the current post-911 world of fear, lies and murder. Obama's cultof personality is the scariest part of this whole mess. So many American people have invested themselves into Obama's success, as a rebuke to the disasterous Bush policies and foibles, that they cannot admit the errors of their ways. This happened with Bush supporters as well - no matter how obviously bad things were, Bush supporters could not admit that their president did anything wrong, because it would be a self admission of error.

We must move beyond the "Left" vs. "Right" mindset as it is all based upon a media produced illusion that keeps We The People isolated and bickering amongst ourselves. A divided people are easier to conquer. It is time to question how we got here, why we have lost so many freedoms, how the bankers have looted us for $14.8 TRILLION since Oct. 2008, and why no heads have rolled. Mere incompetence of our leaders cannot explain all of this - the only way that such obvious errors have occurred over the past 10+ years is if it is part of a plan. America is a juicy beefy meal for the globalist agenda and We The People are expendable in the whole process to carve up the USA to pay off our creditors. It is past time to wake up and question How and Why we have gotten to this point and what type of leaders do we have taking us down the path towards a Depression. Do they work for the internationalist bankers or do they work for US?

Move past the left/right paradigm and question authority. Now is the time to wake up before it is too late.

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Forgive me if I am wrong, but I recall Mr. Obama characterizing himself as "a free market kind of guy" during the election campaign. So, why is anyone surprised that he is not pushing for universal, single-payer health insurance? He also strongly endorsed an expansion of the Middle Eastern conflict in Afghanistan. So, why is anyone surprised that the troops aren't coming home? He further stated that he is opposed to gay marriage, in favour of capital punishment, open to "drill, drill, drill" and against the decriminalization of recreational drugs. So, why is anyone surprised that he is not in the forefront of the movement for "progressive" social issues?

Face it! In Canada, he would be at home in the Conservative Party. In the USA, he is a self-proclaimed "centrist." He may be a "socialist" to Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter; but, to anyone with a claim to sanity, he is in the "dead" center of American politics.

Mr. Obama is, at base, a high quality but standard-design brokerage politician. He may be more "liberal" in spirit and style than most Washington politicians, but he is above all a politician and that means he is not about to take risks by supporting substantive, transformative change that will unduly annoy society's ruling elites.

Those who were besotted by his undefined promises of "change," and who are now "shocked and appalled" that he has not miraculously transformed American culture and Washington politics should sit calmly in front of a mirror and gaze critically at what happens when a naive enthusiast comes to grips with reality. Then, they must decide what to do.

Here are some options:
(a) retire to the kitchen, make chicken soup, watch Oprah and regret that you ever soiled with yourself with politics;
(b) retreat into the idiocy of private life and project your former "idealism" into drugs, poetry or an affair with a neighbour's spouse;
(c) watch the business pages closely in search of cheap stocks or real estate;
(d) grow up!

If you chose (d), congratulations; but maturity has a price. Electing Mr. Obama was the beginning and not the end of the process of "change." Now, it is time to apply the kind of pressure to politicians that the right has so successfully pressed in the past (and continues to this day).

Mr. Obama is not the second coming of the great American hero. He is not a secular saint. To pursue progressive goals, he needs to feel the full force of progressive people, otherwise he will merely supervise the congressional sandbox with a view to making sure everyone is well-fed, tidy and uninjured at the end of the day.

And what applies at home also applies abroad. His backsliding on Guantanamo is not encouraging, but his Cairo speech was. The Palestinian question - the key to peace in the Middle East - was not resolved; however, a new tone was set. Let the negotiations begin!

Again, Mr. Obama will not bring peace, prosperity and ecological sanity to the USA or to the world. But, he is not a hopeless, antedeluvian ideologue either. He is not Cheney and he is not Bush. He will drift where the breezes push him. It is time to huff and puff, to expect set-backs and disappointments, but to understand that Democratics are more susceptible to popular pressure than Republicans, who routinely pre-dismiss any argument not endorsed by the plutocrats and the religious fundamentalists, the Steve Forbes-Sarah Palin axis.

It is not time to slam the door, locking ourselves out again. Any candidate who seems too good to be true probably is. Obama is no exception. Those who imagine that a mighty hero will win the day, deliver us from evil and make all our dreams come true need to learn about democracy ... it's the people! And the people must now become fully participating citizens, not the fawning adorers of a well-crafted political image.

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No matter who the CEO of Walmart is, his chief concern will be making it as economically viable as possible, regardless of social or environmental repercussions.

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Let's face it most Americans can't even figure out how to live within their means, let alone discriminate between honest politicians and tinhorns. One of the things Obama should've said in his speeches as a candidate is "This is what I hope to accomplish, but I'm going to need your help. There are a lot of very bad people who have to be brought up short if we're to accomplish our common goals." Then, he should have explained just HOW we could support him.
There's simply NO way most of us could figure out how to do this. After all, there are more important things in our lives, like NASCAR, comic books, and Twinkies.

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A bunch of whining babies. Not even in his 6th month in office, faced with a finacial crisis nearly as large as the great depression, two wars and an international reputation that was in the gutter, you expected Obama to snap his fingers and have everything perfect by January 31, 2009?

The President has only limited power and must work with Cognress and the Courts. regardless of what Bush may have thought, we do have a constitution with a speration of powers. Working with Congress does mean comprimises and horse trading, not demanding Congress does X or else.

Lets publish this article after a year is up and see where the economy is, where the jobless numbers are, etc. Otherwise the progressive camp is going to isolate itself from an administration that would have listened to it.

As for the Nadarites, where is Nadar?

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It is unbelievable how virulent the criticism from the left has become. Just as unreasonable as the criticism from the right.

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In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

Count Obama seems to be voting for the global expansion of the feudal state of multinational business, if actions speak louder than words. They do.

Surprised?

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If I recall correctly, President Obama has been in office for 20 weeks as of tomorrow. What I do not recall is his ever saying he would fulfill EVERY campaign promise during his first month, six months, year, etc, which is why I find this article, and those agreeing with it, more than a bit ridiculous. The presidential campaign lasted nearly 2 years and in just the 2 1/2 months between the election and the inauguration new challenges arose which take precedence over some of OUR personal pet projects. President Obama has 41 months before I dare judge what promises he did or did not keep. My common sense, and the fact that I'm not of the generation that demands instant gratification gives me patience that others seem to have lost far too quickly.

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MAN MAN MAN.... ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE NEGATIVE. DO YOU WANT BUSH BACK? HE'S A MUCH BETTER PRESIDENT HUH? DAH.... GIVE PRESIDENT OBAMA TIME TO GET THINGS DONE. DO YOU THINK HE CAN SNAP HIS FINGER AND VOILA.... DONE.... HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING. PLUS... LOOK WHO HE IS UP AGAINST... THE MIGHTY DOLLAR HOLDERS. DO YOU REALLY THINK WE ARE FREE? THE RICH OWN THIS COUNTRY AND THEY CONTROL WHAT THE PRESIDENT DOES OR ELSE... ABE LINCOLN AND JFKENNEDY. BANG... GOODBYE. SO, LET HIM DO WHAT HE NEEDS TO DO TO GET THINGS DONE. OR MOVE ABROAD AND BITCH THERE.

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I HAVE TO WONDER WHO WRITES THIS SHIT AND WHO IN FACT ARE THE COMMENTS FROM. KNOWING THE PROPAGANDA BS THE RIGHT WING PULLS I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED AT ALL IF THEY ARE COMMENTING TO STIR THINGS UP. I USED TO RESPECT THIS NEWSLETTER; NOW IT IS CRAP. POO POO STINKY DOO DOO. I'M SO SICK OF THE NEGATIVE WRITINGS DAY IN AND OUT. GET A GRIP AND HELP INSTEAD OF CRITICISE AND PLOT TO DESTROY WHAT IS GOOD IN THIS COUNTRY. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY TO HELP SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? WHAT?

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That's racist, Alternet. For Shame.

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I knew when I voted for him that Obama was not a progressive or a liberal, but I had no idea he was a neocon. As soon as he got into office, he openly refused to end the illegal war on Iraq, expanded the war on Afghanistan, refused to move on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," started throwing our tax dollars at failed banks to protect their directors' unearned salaries and bonuses, resurrected the kangaroo courts known as military tribunals, announced his intention to continue the illegal practice of indefinite imprisonment without charge, and in general refused to end the imperial presidency so disastrously put in place by Mad King George Dubya. More quietly, he has OKed more strip-mining for coal, continued torture and "extraordinary renditions," and watched the transformation of the "energy bill" into a massive gift to the coal and oil industries without a peep of protest. I shudder to think what kind of health care "reform" we will get from this corporate-owned administration.

Congress laughed at single-payer advocates, and Obama is laughing at people who even suggest that he might think about keeping those campaign promises that are now being revealed as outright lies. Apparently, we can't trust anyone who is rich and well connected enough to get elected to office.

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It is clear, that voice of people are heard only when wanted by people in the oval office. It has been proven so for many many years.

Obama will only hear us if we make same noise which got him elected.

I believe he is still our man in the office, but he needs to hear some grass root invocation of what we are looking at in our streets .

scream and yelp and stay on top of your reps.

Enjoy.

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And what are you going to do to stop him? Vote? Write your representatives? THEY DON'T CARE!!!!

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Thank you, David Sirota. It is always nice to see one of the few articles about telling the truth about Obama that slip through Alternet occasionally, in between the ones preaching the blind optimism for his administration and the “Hey! Look over there! Bill O’Reilly just said something crazy!” distraction pieces.

With the level of admiration President Obama got coming in, if he ever gets called on his cons in a major way (which I doubt, having witnessed the re-writing of history Bill Clinton received) it’s going to take some time. People aren’t going to go from “Obama is so cool! What a great President!” to “Hey, wait a minute, he lied.” over night. And I see a bunch of third party members insulting those who support(ed) Obama, which needs to stop. You cannot alienate people just because they don’t fall in line 100% with your views. No successful political party has people that agree on everything, the ones that do are tiny groups that never get anywhere. If alienated Obama voters and disaffected Republicans want to come on board, you can’t turn them away with insults. If you want your third party to be an exclusive club where you all sit around nodding in agreement with each other all day, then you’re just as guilty in letting Democrats get away with pretending to be the GOP opposition as the voters who continue to fall for the “lesser of two evils” game.

And it doesn’t mean a third party will ever necessarily be successful. Realistically an independent grass roots campaign building into competition with the two major parties who hold a stranglehold on politics isn’t going to happen over night. We’ve seen what Democrats will do: guilt trip ex-members back in. Because not falling in line with the “lesser of two evils” propaganda means there’s a good chance the Republican will get elected, so instead of blaming themselves they go back to “it was that other liberal parties fault!” We can’t keep continuing falling for that. How many times of getting fooled is it going to take?

At the very least, if you plan on staying with the Democratic Party and backing Obama, you owe it to yourself to stay objective. Ask yourself “How would I have felt if Bush took this action?” Because I cannot see the same people letting Obama get away with things like increasing the drug war in Mexico, threatening war in Pakistan, increasing the failed war in Afghanistan, continuing corporate welfare bailouts quietly allow Bush to have done it.

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Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.

William Shakespeare, "Othello", Act 3 scene 3

The banks and Wall Street have stolen our purse, our money. But "moving on" and allowing the crimes against humanity by the Bush Administration to go unanswered is robbing me of my good name.

I can no longer say that I am proud to be an American.

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Though Mr. Sirota is to be commended for his reportorial courage -- his defiance of the Obama cult suggests a dawning awareness of U.S. political reality that could literally end his career -- he nevertheless omits a singularly damning historical fact: that the post-Kennedy Democratic Party has repeatedly proven its mastery of bait-and-switch electoral tactics.

In 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson, president by default after the murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, ran for re-election as the peace candidate -- even as his henchmen were plotting the entirely bogus Gulf of Tonkin incident to escalate U.S. operations in Vietnam into a full-scale albeit undeclared war.

In 1976, the Christian fundamentalist Jimmy Carter reassured voters that despite his implicit belief in theocracy, he would protect reproductive rights -- then as soon as he was in office not only prohibited all federal funding of abortion but began the nation’s long theocratic march toward repeal of all reproductive freedom.

In 1982, the opportunist Bill Clinton ran on a pledge to oppose the job-stealing, union-busting, environment-destroying North American Free Trade Agreement -- which he signed into law shortly after his election. Clinton also promised health-care reform, but sabotaged it in such a way true reform now impossible and will undoubtedly remain so forever -- a “failure” that becomes not just astonishing but gravely suspicious when you consider the Clintons’ enormous political sophistication.

Now we have Obama, for whom (as I said at the time), I voted much as a shipwreck victim clutches at flotsam to save himself from drowning -- only to discover what I thought was debris that might keep us all afloat was instead the dorsal fin of a shark. I doubt even the pariah-president George Bush would have dared publicly jeer, as President Obama now does, at those of us vexed by his ever-more-obvious betrayal of any rational “hope” for meaningful “change.”

While Republicans are surely more honest about their tyrannical intentions, that is merely because their purpose includes giving voice to the nation's storm-trooper mentality. Their collaboration with world fascism (which dates from the 1920s), and their more recent associations with the forces of Abrahamic fundamentalism (whether Judaic, Christian or Islamic), are prompted by ruling class endorsement of fascism and theocracy as ultimate guarantors of capitalist power and profit.

The ugly truth about this nation is that its two-party system is a Big Lie. It dupes us into believing we live in liberty when in fact we are the helpless subjects of a one-party state. The U.S. eschews obvious Gestapo tactics merely because its celebrity-cult skill at the Josef Goebbels methodology of mass manipulation has rendered Heinrich Himmler’s purposeful brutality mostly unnecessary. Nevertheless the Department of Homeland Security -- the equivalent of Himmler’s Reich Security Administration -- waits watchfully should more forceful measures prove necessary.

When we understand that the sole purpose of government and governance at all levels of the U.S. is the propagation of capitalism -- that is, the absolute protection of the ruling class and the total subjugation of everyone else -- the reality of DemoPublican unity comes into sharp focus. Beyond the smokescreens of manufactured controversy -- and precisely as Obama's presidency is proving -- each so-called "party" predictably guards the omnipotence of capitalism: infinite greed as maximum virtue.

Meanwhile Mr. Sirota is obviously beginning to see through the Obamascam. Let us hope he is not blacklisted into obscurity -- or otherwise silenced.

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Obama voted center-left as a senator and campaigned with center-left rhetoric during his campaign. But as I predicted, he moved to the center once elected. Although an improvement over the Dubya/Cheney regime, (almost anyone would), lies and hipocrisy are part of the nature of Democrap and Repiglican politicians.

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"We won the election; it's our due." Dick Cheney

Is there any question remaining for whom all these politicians really work? They work for the Owners, and They ain't us.

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JUNE 2009:
'You Have the Right to Remain Silent': Congressman Says Obama Admin Reading Rights to High-Value Detainees... Developing...

Flashback: Obama in March: 'Now, do these folks deserve Miranda rights? Do they deserve to be treated like a shoplifter down the block? Of course not.'

SUCKAS

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March 2009: "Do terrorists deserve Miranda rights? Of course not"...Obama...
and now...
According to a top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee on TV June 11, President Obama and his administration have ordered FBI agents to read terror suspects their Miranda rights; even though they have been captured on foreign soil and are not U.S. citizens officially protected by the Miranda vs. Arizona decision over 40 years ago.
--
Modern liberalism is a mental disorder

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If President Obama walked in the oval office the first day and was able to do anything he wanted, all of his campaign promises would have been kept that day. The great shame of all of this, and the shame is on us, is that never in history has one person been so attacked, so lied about, had so many calls for his harm and so vilified that I don't see how he does any job at all. We elected about 20 Democrats in the House and Senate that never vote Democratic. One is a rabid anti abortionist. And what have we done to stop the onslaught so he could do his job? We have complained. The only voices America hears are Limbaugh's, McConnell's, Hannity's, Beck's, screaming at the top of their lungs all day every day. There are about 50 people who do nothing but this. It has frightened so many Americans that they are not sure what is true anymore. They cannot find the TRUTH. They have turned their back on President Obama because we have not lifted one finger to protect him or back him. When they look to see what we think, when they go to the trouble to find an "AlterNet" all they see is what a terrible job we think he is doing. You go to work tomorrow and have everyone scream at you, have 3/4 of it be totally unfair and then have your boss stand back and disavow any knowledge of you. See how you feel. Presdient Obama would do all we ask, if he had close to the votes in Congress and only we can see that he GETS those Democrats next time. But this total rejection by us just validates everything the radical right says.

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President Barack Obama, well... what can I say. He shouldn't have been elected in the first place. Even though I live on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in Australia. Many of us Australians could see right through his stoic, yet majestic appearance. Questions asked of him, were laughed off by him as if they did not matter or as if they were not serious enough to diginified with a response.

Well... I can certainly say come next election, I think a lot ciitizens of the United States of America are going to vote in a NEW president. Yes he was/is the the first black president that doesn't mean he was the right choice! With promises broken and deadlines not met!

So much for the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.

I believe, President Barack Obama, needs to revisit the Pledge of Allegiance.

"I pledge allegiance To the flag, Of the United States of America, And to the Republic, For which it stands, One Nation Under God, Indivisible, With liberty and justice, For all."

I would also suggest he checkout the work that students are doing here ==> http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/flag/main.htm

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I think you miss the whole problem. Obama is a liar. Learned behavior from the Alinksy playbook adopted from Stalin. Tell a lie often enough, and the people will eventually think it as truth.

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