Obama's Big Sellout

Obama's Big Sellout by Matt Taibbi

" ... Then he got elected.

What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside."

Like many Americans who voted him into office, I've wanted to give Obama time to adjust to the job, and the benefit of the doubt.

On the surface, of course, he's black. I, and it seems the majority of Americans, don't think badly of black people. We associate the word "soul" with blacks, and my take on things, especially nowadays, is that soul means "down deep" good people. After watching America devolve under the thumb of an opposite nature, we wanted to put someone into office who would take a stand against the "powerful special interests" that run Washington. We expected him to stop the war they launched, and to stand up for the "Spirit of America". We wanted to see him put those responsible for the criminal invasion of the Middle East on trial, and more thoughtful people wanted to see someone stand up to Zionist power in America.

I believed, because I wanted to, that despite some early major capitulations to the greedy, arrogant, belligerent gang that ran Washington while the scumbag Bush was in office, that Obama had tricks up his sleeve that he would pull out at just the right times to brilliantly put them in their place (and, for the leaders, that would be on trial).

Now, as time has passed and he's pulled no tricks out of his sleeve - because there were none there - we're seeing our worst nightmare come true, that he's nothing more then a wolf behind black-soul clothing. It may be an open question as to whether he's been this way all along or was compromised along the way, but, be that as it may, whatever hope we had for a transformation of Washington is all but gone by now.

With the escalation of war in Afghanistan, the dogs of war on their way to Pakistan and Iran, the fundamental instability in Iraq, the staggering debt we already face for many years to come - which will only grow as war expands, the blood on our hands already, the massive taxpayer money giveaways to banks. Even health care reform - a no-brainer - is being turned into yet another money tree for those at the top.

It is clear now that we've been scammed again. Once again history reminds us that there is no appeasing the appetite of the aggressor. The new lessons for America are that the aggressor can attack from within, and that editorial control of our information supply, the so-called "news", makes guns unnecessary.

I'm outraged. And if I were black I'd be double outraged.

Kucinich Plans to Force Vote on US Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Daniel Tencer

You want a leader? Here you go: Dennis Kucinich.


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Bill