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Your Moment of: WTF?

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By John Cory, Reader Supported News   
23 May 2010
Republican video activist James O'Keefe on FoxNews, 01/26/10. (image: FoxNews)

Republican video activist James O'Keefe on FoxNews, 01/26/10. (image: FoxNews)

 

 

Reader Supported News | Perspective

 

guess if you live long enough you'll get to see it all.

On Thursday a federal judge gave James O'Keefe a stern talking to about his deception in entering a US Senator's office and trying to vandalize and muck about with the telephones. What could have been felony charges were reduced to misdemeanors by influential GOP lawyers previously and after the stern talking to - O'Keefe avoided trial.

Meanwhile in Georgia, a 14-year-old autistic boy with the mental function of a third-grader will face felony charges of terrorism for drawing a stick figure with a gun aimed at another stick figure with a teacher's name above it.

Sounds about right.

A guy named Rand Paul and another guy named John Stossel both agree that civil rights should not be forced upon private businesses because a free market is more effective than legislation. A free market is about freedom and freedom is about everyone having the freedom not to be free or making other people less free. Oh, both these guys think the minimum wage is a bad thing and will drive business - out of business - because paying workers a decent wage is not profitable.

Well, that makes sense.

A CBS news crew tried to film oil hitting Louisiana shores but got stopped by BP contractors and the Coast Guard and were told BP had not given permission to be there and film. BP = British Petroleum told an American News Organization that they did not have permission to land and film on American soil. But not to worry, I read somewhere that President Obama had harsh words and a stern warning to BP to get this oil disaster taken care of - ASAP!

I guess that will teach them, eh!

The corporations that caused the greatest financial disaster in American history have faced no criminal charges and no real changes in how they pay bonuses and perks to their executives. In fact, perks are rising. And remember that commission, looking into AIG? They said to move along now, nothing to see.

But I understand President Obama is forming a commission to look into BP about that oil disaster so that should even things out. Right? I wonder if he had to get permission from BP or Sarah Palin to do that?

I almost forgot, financial stocks rose on news of the Senate passing Financial Reform on to conference. If Wall Street likes it, how bad could it be? Like Healthcare? No.

President Obama gave a commencement speech to West Point. You should read it because frankly it chilled me to the bone to hear how the wars all started, why they continue and what is ahead on the horizon - more of the same but not as much.

I don't get it.

How upside down is this country?

I mean, come on folks. Chris Matthews is considered a leading liberal? The guy who ranted and railed against Clinton and Gore, who fell in love with George Bush's flight suit macho package only to turn around with a thrill up his leg for Obama and now he's a liberal? The only thing liberal about Matthews is the amount of wine he pours himself on the veranda of his multi-million dollar Nantucket house.

We are literally drowning Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in oil with very little action to stop it. We got pissed at George Bush for letting New Orleans drown during Katrina and now President Obama appears reluctant to interfere with the free market of Big Oil.

This has to be your moment of: WTF, over?

We are making sure teenagers go to jail but people of privilege skate.

Corporations are god and citizens as worker bees for the greater greed.

If you want freedom, start a business. If you want civil rights, stick with your own kind. Party like it's 1951!

And be sure to thank CNN for warning us about the new Miss America with that great headline: Miss USA: Muslim Trailblazer or Hezbollah Spy?

Apparently BP hates Arizona because the free market of Big Oil hires these folks in Florida. I'm sure it has nothing to do with minimum wage or regulations or big government impeding the free market or...?

We used to hang Old Glory upside down as a signal for distress.

No need for that these days.

The only reason to hang the flag upside down is to match America.

 

Comments  

 
+38 # ab 2010-05-23 12:00
This is a sad but accurate depiction of our country today. Our Congress is run by special interests. Our president makes great speeches, but does not know how to lead. Our freedoms are being gradually eroded. Our economy is based on quick sand. Great speech by President Obama- "full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing."
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+43 # Bert Bigelow 2010-05-23 12:33
A good rant and I agree with most of it.
But Obama DID get healthcare and financial reform passed. Not the bills we would have liked, but would any of it have happened if McCain had won?
We will never get everything we want...or even most of what we want until we get Big Money our of politics.
That means REAL campaign finance reform and a law that clearly states that a corporation is NOTNOTNOT a person.
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+15 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-23 17:11
Okay Bert, I agree partly. But the fact that McCain would have been worse doesn't carry a lot of water given that the healthcare bill fails to create affordable healthcare and billions in fines will be collected (still cheaper than unaffordable healthcare) and the financial reform bill won't prevent another economic disaster. And do you really believe Obama will get campaign finance reform? If so, it will be as useless as his presently ineffective legislation. And getting the Supreme Court to clarify that a corporation is not a person? Do you actually believe that Obama in this, or any other dimension in space or time, will ever pursue this?
Frankly, Obama has become, for me at least, a 16 month long WTF moment. BP has bigger stones than he has. The Pentagon has more power than he has. He has not, and evidently will not overturn a single bill signed by Bush and he will not prosecute for Bush crimes. He makes concessions he doesn't even have to make. He is a coward. WTF indeed!
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+5 # True Progressive 2010-05-23 22:47
You're absolutely right, Daniel. Obama is, indeed a coward, a leader who refuses to lead, a purveyor of change that doesn't rock the Establishment boat; i.e., change that is cosmetic or addresses only the fringe issues, while failing entirely to even come close to the core issues of the situation. Change that is watered down so as not to offend any Establishment person or entity. As Stevie Wonder would say, "[Obama], you haven't done nothin'."
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+4 # Tman 2010-05-24 10:05
This is how it's done (what you've just read, above). Seeds of doubt are planted, and the "liberal" (anything other than pure, super-capitalism corporatocracy) vote stays home because they are "disenchanted". But remember one thing - Obama's bills and ideas have been destroyed by the Republicans. They call "socialism" until they're blue in the face, get whatever bill torn to pieces and amended so that it's basically another corporate gift, and then when the gutted, lame version finally passes, they continue the same whining anyway.

The troubles we're in are not Obama's fault, nor is he guilty of not trying his best to fix things. He's dealing with an intractable situation - a nation of ideologues who can only think ahead about one year. Obama is not our savior, but he's one of the few who at least lose the battle to the continuing corporate takeover of America a little more slowly. Realistically, that may be all we can ask for, right now, I'm very sad to say.
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+6 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-24 12:09
Not good enough Tman. The intractable situation he faces would be less intractable if he really took the bully pulpit and if he really chose to exercise the executive authority he has to mitigate many prior administration errors by decree, and yes, there are plenty of these. I would rather he signed no bill than bills, not watered down by the Republicans, but watered down by him to curry favor that he isn't going to get any way. If he actually stood for something, even if it meant nothing got done at present, in the long run his constituents would be going all out for him, rather than feeling so betrayed. If he had demanded public option and taken his case to the people, heck, fireside chats and all, an army of the electorate would have descended on Washington demanding that Democrats take heed, and with a majority, we'd have gotten it. What we can rightfully ask for is that he declare a war on the corprotocracy even if he did then go down in flames. It's called leadership.
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+2 # True Progressive 2010-05-24 14:12
You're hitting the bullseye, Dan. Obama's an empty suit. Although his words are elegant, they have no passion or deeply felt sense of mission, beyond re-election, beneath them. He's quick to glad hand his enemies, while back handing those who carried him to the White House. Betrayal is the exact word to describe Obama's actions toward the millions who swallowed his "change-we-can-believe-in" campaign slogan. I agree with you. The current heath care "reform" bill would have been far more palatable had Obama fought, as you describe, for the public option, and especially had called out not only the Repugs, but also the fifth-column Dems like Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln. Look at his wimpy soft-pedaling of the BP disaster. A bold president would have already installed federal and state forces and expertise to stop the gushing, and would have frozen BP's US assets to assure payment of the liabilities. I've stomached all I can of Obama. Can't wait until he's gone.
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+1 # Tman 2010-05-24 19:43
"I can't wait until he's gone." That's exactly what I'm talking about! Are you dreamy enough to think that Obama will be replaced by a "true progressive?" You and I probably want the same things, but I don't think you're realistic at all. BTW, I call them Repug's, too! You can't win this game by thinking in miles. You have to think in inches. That is, unless you have some secret plan that will suddenly convert redneck-America and bring them in line with those of us with our brains turned on and our eyes open. What you call for will mobilize that half (more or less) of America even more than it already has been. They're calling Obama "Hitler" for trying to get a health-care bill passed. That's the mentality we're up against.
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+2 # True Progressive 2010-05-24 14:25
And while all you Obama aplogists are at it, check out http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/21-1 for another example of Obama glad handing corporate America and back handing the rest of us.
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+2 # Tman 2010-05-24 19:35
Daniel, I respect your position but disagree with you. If Obama did what you say, and indeed "go down in flames" the result would be a return-swing to the right. In fact, we could see just that very soon despite Obama's lack of any of the liberalism of which he is accused by the right. This country will not be moved in big steps but baby steps. Like you, I really wish that were not the case, but it is. And the backlash must always be considered. Where I wish there was a spine was in popular journalism. That's an even bigger pipe dream.
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0 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-24 22:37
Tman, believe me, I respect your observations and believe you have integrity. My problem is simply this: Obama behaving as though he were a leader, even if his initiatives intially went down in flames, does NOT mean that there would be a return-swing to the right. We continue to buy the false dichotomy that it's either the Repugs or the Dems that will prevail. If Obush, er, Obama took the bully pulpit, even if a backlash were to occur, the moral bankruptcy of Repugs would be so blazingly apparent that true rebellion against the ongoing abuse of the people by both parties as they presently behave would result in immense public outrage. Don't you get it? As things stand we are losing and it doesn't matter which side wins...the people will continue to lose. Obama has the power RIGHT NOW to overturn many of the Bills signed by Bush. He REFUSES to. He simply is not leading the people, he is leading the Washington establishment to our detriment. We need courageous leadership, not cowardice.
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+4 # other Fletcher 2010-05-24 04:29
McCain was never going to win. This housing bubble was allowed to intentionally go on to keep Bush having an economy to justify his agenda of tax cuts and war profiteering. The only let McCain run because they knew a Dem would win and they would not be able to effect any change with a collapsed economy (Assuming Obamma wants to change anything but the physical appearance of presidential appointees, which I doubt). Call me cynical, but that's how I think things work around here.
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+1 # BillyS 2010-05-27 09:12
I beg to differ over the suggestion McCain was a GOP pawn. Obama beat McCain by 52 percent to 46 percent. Ultimately there Dems voting for McCain because he is simply a smart guy. The spoiler was Palin. If you'd like to suggest she was thrown into the mix to jade the votes, I might side with you.
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+1 # Joe St.Clair 2010-05-24 14:52
I particularly agree with your last two sentences. Bravo.
Joe St.Clair
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+8 # Barbara S. Reed 2010-05-23 12:43
This is the same right-wing nut who "investigated" ACORN, which consequently lost $3 million in federal funding, I believe.
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+21 # Larry 2010-05-23 12:48
I could never hope to put my feelings about the decline of this once-great country as succinctly as has John Cory. Sadly America and Americans have been domesticated to a point that we no longer even recognize the peril we face. Imagine if Adolf Hitler had had access to the technology, power, and resources American government and business now have. When the American people fall asleep, as we now have, we may wake up to a totally new reality: a Brave New World.
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+6 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-23 17:16
...and sad to say Larry, we are already there. The present administration is a fraud. The more things change, the more they stay the same. War is peace.

Meanwhile, back on planet earth, the greed machine aka military industrial complex, steam rolls along crushing the life out of a once great nation. And at the wheel? A pretty boy full of pretty speeches all to the chanting of "Yes We Can" and exhortations to hope.

WTF indeed.
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+4 # louis plante 2010-05-23 13:14
ok let's do something. a site called mememe,
for this i'll pay.
free registration. you can find all your representatives with your zip code.
every pending bill can be seen, and progress shown.
some sort of voting can be made by site members.
site can be policed/monitored by revolving individuals with short term officiating.
the site set up and rules could be changed as reasons occurs.
yes, this would be a big big site.
the fire under the ass has to be lit.
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+1 # penguinsonarock 2010-05-24 00:49
Right on the money Louis. Let's do it.
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+31 # kalpal 2010-05-23 13:20
When Reagan had a tax bill passed and no general hue and cry arose I knew I was about to be screwed. When Clinton passed a tax bill and the GOP cried, moaned, wailed, rent their garments and swore that they would refuse to be held responsible for the coming catastrophe in the mid 1990s I knew all was well and I would prosper.

Any time a bill passes and Wall Street rejoices, America will be massively hurt.
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+2 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-23 17:17
Quoting kalpal:
When Reagan had a tax bill passed and no general hue and cry arose I knew I was about to be screwed. When Clinton passed a tax bill and the GOP cried, moaned, wailed, rent their garments and swore that they would refuse to be held responsible for the coming catastrophe in the mid 1990s I knew all was well and I would prosper.

Any time a bill passes and Wall Street rejoices, America will be massively hurt.


Amen brother!
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+37 # DaveW. 2010-05-23 13:25
The fact of the matter is that we, as a nation and as a people, have sold out. We're too damn busy watching endless crap pumped out by Hollywood on giant TV screens and worrying we might not have as much money as our neighbors. We don't know history and when we do we ignore it in our endless pursuit of material wealth. Emma Goldman, the early 20th century anarchist warned of the "worker bee" syndrome where endless amounts of cheap labor would be available and corporations would exploit the situation. Instead of worrying about it Americans are more concerned about who won Dancing with the Stars or American Idol. Instead of protesting endless war predicted by Orwell and others we're more concerned about the next version of an I-phone. Public financing is the only way to clean up politics. Fat chance of that now that the Supreme Court has stamped a corporate logo on the back of every politician in America. Obama is one step better than McCain. Even McCain might have told BP where to go.
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+1 # other Fletcher 2010-05-24 04:31
That's not what they say on Fox!
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+20 # Granny 2010-05-23 13:52
Let's all screech and shout and proclaim how the President (duly elected this time!) is not fixing everything at once, and how anything that goes wrong must surely be because he is not personally crusading to fix it. What are the gripers doing about it, besides griping in the comforts of their own homes? Any of them out canvassing? Writing to their hometown media? Learning how to support the good guys in the November elections?
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+9 # YellerKitty 2010-05-23 16:41
Well said, Granny. How did so many come to believe that President Obama came into office equipped with a magic wand that he's just contrarily refusing to deploy to magically undo all the accumulated nastiness that he inherited. It's a balancing act of priorities. Hercules probably would have preferred cleaning out the Augean stables to cleaning up the gargantuan piles of steaming, festering nastiness that have accumulated due to incompetence, indifference and downright duplicitous chicanery. Remember that some of Bush's first acts as president were to overturn environmental initiatives that President Clinton had initiated. Also, President Obama has to contend with the party of 'Just say NO, NO, a thousand times NO' as they filibuster their lips into smoking guns pointed at the heart of the democratic process.
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+4 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-23 17:27
Granny, I write my representatives weekly. They do not write back. I've signed petitions. They do not respond.

We never asked him to fix everything at once, but he hasn't fixed ANYTHING at all yet...and don't bother with mentioning his healthcare legislation and finance reform legislation. Both are bait and switch frauds that fail their purpose for being from square one.

I carry my picket sign. The media never shows up. I write letters to the editors and most are never printed. And supporting the good guys in the November elections? Prey tell...who would they be? Since who I get to choose from is determined by what people get the most corporate funding, who would I vote for? Who gets to run is not up to me, but up to others who do not care about my best interests or that of my community.

Obama has squandered the momentum WE gave him, and I'm supposed to trust him now? He has not refuted one single law passed by Bush so what else is he but a fraud? What to do? You tell me.
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0 # Granny M 2010-05-23 22:58
I think Daniel Fletcher should be president because he has all the answers. Get Sarah Palin for your VP.
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+1 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-24 09:02
Quoting Granny M:
I think Daniel Fletcher should be president because he has all the answers. Get Sarah Palin for your VP.


Sarah Palin for VP? Me for President? I have all the answers? I wouldn't be in the same room as that bimbo. I don't have sufficient corporate backing to run for president and never will, but with campaign finance reform I'd certainly run. As for having all the answers? Give me a break. The best I hope for is a good run at having the right questions to begin with, and very, very few of those are being asked these days. I don't pretend to be all knowing but I'm not gullible enough to be a good little citizen and I'm not interested in constituents that would be. We should all be beyond that by now.
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+5 # Harold Mencher 2010-05-23 20:27
Granny, if Obama truly was sincere about the change that he promised us, why would he not only support a TARP Bill that had no strings attached to it, a complete Bank giveaway, but also pressured his fellow Dems in Congress to pass it as is, without any strings attached? Why would Obama literally pick people to his cabinet that reflected the Bush policies, most especially Robert Gates as the Secretary of Defense, a man who supported Bush's war policies and his torture and his illegal spying on U.S. citizens, and why would he pick someone like Hillary Clinton as his SOS when he won against her in the primaries because she spoke of war and he spoke more of peace, the very reason why he beat her in the Democratic primaries to become the Democratic candidate for the presidency? He has done nothing to reverse the damage that Bush has caused our country with the support of the Congressional Democrats, and has actually exacerbated the damage.
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+2 # other Fletcher 2010-05-24 04:33
So the good guys can get into office and start collecting their bribes from big business...hear me celebrate our freedom!!!
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+2 # DaveW. 2010-05-24 08:18
Granny, you're right that many Americans do just complain without doing anything positive to create change. I'm not one of them. I write letters to my local paper every week. I write my Reps. and sign petitions. I went back to college at age 44, got an A.A. in humanities and continue to educate myself and my kids ( and anyone else who'll listen to me!) about the real nature of the world we live in. The problem with your "good guys in November" scenario is that the system is corrupt. Obviously some politicians are more corrupt than others but when the whole system is out of whack it's like putting new wheels on a worthless car. The point I tried to make in my earlier post was that a majority of Americans just don't pay attention. I think you're saying the same thing. Capitalism, as predicted by Marx, would eventually subvert the will and attention of the people living with it towards the accumulation of more and more material wealth leaving Capitalism's leaders "free" to exploit the situation.
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+7 # Harold Mencher 2010-05-23 14:04
What's wrong with Obama & the Dems? Who's in control in Wa, the Dems or the Repubs? Why aren't the Dems protecting their own? Fmr Dem Gov of Ala, Don Siegelman, was bamboozled into prison for doing something that wasn't illegal. His prosecution was intentionally & wrongfully engineered by pres adviser Karl Rove & officials of the DOJ to gain political advantage. Don Siegelman was prosecuted at the insistence of Bush-appointed officials at the DOJ, as well as the insistence of Leura Canary, a U.S. Atty in Montgomery whose husband was Ala's top Repub operative & who had for years worked closely with Karl Rove.

After Obama & the Dems took strong control of Wa & the DOJ. You'd think that they would have did an honest investigation of the matter, but that would have threatened Karl Rove, & Obama doesn't want to thread in that direction. If James O'Keefe gets away with this, as he appears to have, with the Dems controlling Wa, we are truly in deep trouble.
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+5 # Tom H 2010-05-23 14:11
It appears the President's agenda was too ambitious for the Congress to embrace and therefore has rejected much of it. However, the administration did get real Insurance reform started and financial reform is ongoing. However, people believed we would get too much too soon and are now disappointed that all the promises have not materialized. The fear is Obama is a paper tiger because a majority is not present in Congress and now we are seeing the results with the establishment and political institutions being voted out of office at every turn. I am afraid the President may have hurt the chances for HOPE by doing little to visibly fight the opposition and moving the message of HOPE forward. It is still early in the administration but, the mid term election is a good barometer of public opinion. The opinion so far shows people are disillusioned with this administration and either not voting or voting against it.
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-27 # MyKisa 2010-05-23 14:12
stick figure crime is a result of too much PC, Rand is correct and the video artist probably did more to expose corruption and waste than a truck load of run of the mill journalists....
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+13 # Bob Terpstra 2010-05-23 14:55
Obama did NOT get universal health care passed. He could have...by simply expanding Medicare for all, but instead, he threw the ball to Congress and said "OK, guys, here's your chance to pay your handlers (the insurance companies) back." He made NO effort to get anything even approaching universal health care. Hell Care is more like it.
We are 37th in the world in the quality of our health care, and Obama is no cleaner than the perps in Congress who said the heck with the people when the money is so good on the other side of the ball...
I'm a liberal and I say we voted for Obama, but got Obush.
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+12 # genierae 2010-05-23 15:42
Until sane, rational people, who care about the common good of all of us, organize, in large numbers, to push back against Republicans, we will have to put up with more and more insanity. The mega-corporations, their Republican flacks, and the corporate media, are bent on taking over this country and changing it into a police state, where they rule. We must get over thinking that it can't happen here. They are using uneducated whites to stir up trouble while they operate under the radar to spread their poisonous propaganda. If we want to live in a country where the people are in charge, and liberty really is for all, we must get involved. Its just that simple.
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+7 # DJean 2010-05-23 16:16
Kalpal...check this out ....HB5353 or as it's more popularly known "The War Is Making You Poor Act"
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+4 # Brian 2010-05-23 16:46
There are so many other examples of upside-down values, morals, and priorities in this country.
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+8 # Hors-D-whores 2010-05-23 17:02
Next time I hear someone say, "We are a nation of laws" I'm going to laugh in their face. That that spawn of Satan James O'Keefe is going to get off on a misdemeanor makes me mad as hell, and I'm saying WTF!!!?!? Our whole justice system is so corrupt that only the poor will be going to jail, nothing new, but it is worse than ever.
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+7 # Libby 2010-05-23 17:22
The corporations have effectively killed the planet, we will all sit around our 500 inch digital TV's and watch our own demise on FOX NEWS. Oh cheer, the Rapture is near.

Good night sweet mother earth, I'm sorry for what we have done.
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+1 # Austin Loomis 2010-05-24 06:00
Quoting Libby:
The corporations have effectively killed the planet, we will all sit around our 500 inch digital TV's and watch our own demise on FOX NEWS. Oh cheer, the Rapture is near.

Good night sweet mother earth, I'm sorry for what we have done.


The Earth doth, like the Dude, abide. Her continued status as a planet habitable, or indeed inhabited, by humans is what's at risk.
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+2 # C.P. 2010-05-23 18:03
On the bright side, consider what would have happened in the Supreme Court If McCain had won. Two more ideologue Republicans would have entered the hallowed legal halls and the unbalance would be 7-3 for the Conservatives. So breathe easier, lads. The game is early yet. If you really want to whine just vote for the right-wing nuts this November and see what Sarah Palin and Rove and Gingrich do for ya.
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+3 # kernel85 2010-05-23 18:23
To the liberals who criticize Obama for not getting anything done: If you're so smart, why aren't you in the White House? Politics is the art of the possible, and sometimes it's the art of getting the not-quite-possible done. You may think Obama is in the driver's seat, but everything is stacked against him. There is much more to this than meets the eye, so quit whining and help! Do you want the goopers to be totally in charge? Get out the vote for our side in November!
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0 # Daniel Fletcher 2010-05-23 22:30
Oh, I'll vote alright. And hey! I'd love to run for public office! I'd even run for the Presidency! The problem is that I am going to be unable to acquire the necessary corporate backing to be able to afford to run. And why would they give it? I certainly would be correctly seen as their enemy. Am I smart enough? Look, if George Bush could have held the presidency for two terms, there are very few of us that couldn't have qualified for the presidency.
As for the goopers being totally in charge...yep, they are greedy little buggers. They want it all. And gee, they may have to settle for a clearly overwhelming piece of the pie...virtually, but not quite all of it.

Sure, I'll vote. Old habits die hard. I just don't think it will make a difference because the country has been going down the toilet for nearly 40 years and Obush...er, Obama doesn't have the stones to lead. Until a Roosevelt runs, I don't expect things to improve much and even he couldn't get elected today. But gee, WTF.
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+2 # hettiemae 2010-05-23 19:22
The only things stacked against Obama are his own limitations and his choice of D.C. lobbyist and Wall Street veterans as his closest advisers. He is a total failure in my opinion, but at least I know that I was never fooled by Obama, and I campaigned for Clinton who would have been a much better President. Like her husband she would never fight a war of profit to enrich a few while the country goes down in a financial ruin and more Americans lose their lives every week. But we hear even less about that than we did when Bush was in office.
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-3 # David Heizer 2010-05-23 21:01
Um, hettiemae...

Actually, Clinton signed off on the disastrous and illegal Iraq invasion, an either cynical or hopelessly naïve decision which has cost perhaps a million people their lives. And Bill (who oversaw the deaths of half a million Iraqi children throughout the sanction years) was one of the people who advised her to cast that vote. That complicity in Bush's war crime by someone supposedly more "experienced" cost her my vote, and the votes of many others that could have put her in the Oval Office.

I wasn't "fooled" by Obama either (that is, I didn't drink the Kool-ade), but at least he had the clarity and integrity to call the impending Iraq invasion a terrible idea when everyone else was champing at the bit. In my opinion, anyone unable to exercise at least that degree of discernment (or unwilling to, out of political triangulation) is, quite simply, not competent for Chief Executive.
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+1 # Hors-D-whores 2010-05-23 21:35
My post above was not to criticize President Obama but to point out that our justice system is and was very purposely denigrated by the previous administration. I was disappointed when Obama's administration did not replace many of the District Attorney Generals that are party hacks for Republican and placed there by Rovian dictate, but whenever the the Dems try to hire a Judge that is not a partisan hack for Republicans, they cry like babies. I do think that President Obama and his administration needs not to be so compliant and stop with the nicy-nicy non-partisanship because all Republicans want to do is make sure he has a very un-successful presidency.
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+1 # Zenobia 2010-05-23 22:21
Would it be too simplistic of me to ask if the root cause of the global financial disaster was the deregulation of financial institutions perpetrated by the Bush cabal, thus releasing the genie of perfectly natural human greed? Is taking advantage of the free-for-all that ensued acually a chargeable offence? no economist, but if that had not happened, would we be where we are today?
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+1 # Eddiethelip 2010-05-24 03:01
For those of you who haven't as yet seen it, please look at the documentary about the late Howard Zinn, "You Can't Remain Neutral on a Moving Train". As he points out, the government has never given us anything that we didn't DEMAND first. Even going back to the Great Depression, FDR was forced by the mobilization of we the people to deliver the sweeping reforms of the New Deal.
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+3 # NuBN247 2010-05-24 04:18
@ab - Yes, Congress is run by special interests, but isn't that what conservatives want? Is not lobbying private enterprise and corporations persons? We once had an agricultural and manufacturing economy, but the same people who hate big govt are the same ones who shipped American jobs overseas, are against minimum wage laws and hire illegals! When our President acted to help banks and auto companies he was called a socialist-fascist, and now those same people are demanding that he take over BP, a foreign corporation! No one suggests that we drive less, stop building gas guzzling cars or cares about the oil spilled around the world in our name. As long as we have our Hummers, Benzs and SUVs we happily support the oil companies and other big businesses turn us into matrix-like minions. And somehow that is the fault of a man who has been President for less than 2 years? Amazing!
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+1 # Louise 2010-05-24 05:36
The situation of this article is exactly what Wendell Berry talks about: our society is sick. You cannot expect sanity from a sick society.
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+1 # gerry o. 2010-05-24 08:05
Obama is not stepping up to the plate because he is protecting his family, just as any of us would do.
Think back to the state dinner where you had two people crash the party without any credentials at all. Don't you think that was a very subtle nessage to both he and Michelle about how they(the secret service)can or cannot protect them.
I for one, believe that he is a captive of his own defenses and can do little against the corporations that control this country.
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+3 # Sallyport 2010-05-24 09:04
We need to remember that Obama was the choice of Wall Street. They knew what they were getting: a guy whose main mission was & is to keep the ruling class happy & comfortable in their place at the top of the heap. The Republican act is just that, an act. They are just as happy not to have to take the heat for the mess and to leave the committee chairmanships to the other guys onto whose heads the blame will fall. Then they can come back as saviors (ha) & carry on as before.
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-1 # Dave 2010-05-24 10:21
We know the problem(s). We have known them as long as we've been able to hear and retain information. We can find a new doomsday scenario every five minutes via the Internet, possibly more frequently than that.

So stop wasting real or virtual ink on rehashed "crises" and instead offer solutions. "Zero tolerance" rules will fade when concerned people go to school board meetings and speak up. Does James O'Keefe affect your life in any way? Of course not. He'll get into trouble again. That's his problem.

All the editorials and political hot air on earth will not remove one drop of oil from the Gulf of Mexico. People with tools will.

The rich will always be rich. Get over it.

This editorial could have been used to offer constructive ideas instead of stating that the sky is falling and that we are helpless. It is not. We are not. And neither I, nor Mr. Cory, nor America is upside down. Unless we topple it ourselves.
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+2 # WaimeaWitch 2010-05-24 14:27
So, what do we do? How about progressives, Dems, et al organize & collaborate like the TPers and make some frickin' noise, except of course, we will be civil & actually make sense. I'd bet the farm that we'd have bigger numbers to get the message across.
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-1 # alida 2010-05-24 18:07
WTF are you doing except complaining about the best President America has had in my lifetime.. I'm 63! Would you rather have had McCain and Palin in charge? STOP YOUR WHINING AND SUPPORT YOUR PRESIDENT!
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+1 # wtf...wtf....wtf 2010-05-24 19:48
We can get what is needed, just have to get organized and do it outside of the political system. Business is down 20% at Goldman et al. due to the investigation, well lets see how low we can take it, if they can put together lame derivatives and play them to fail, then why can't we do the same to Goldman? They cannot have all the best and brightest, we need a plan to punish them ourselves and at the same time make a statement to other greedy dishonest businesses that would even think of doing the same. We can put BP in the grave, do not buy their gas, that is not hard to do, see how low we can take them, but lets wait until they have some success at cleaning things up. The internet is the tool for change, we need to use it to organize boycotts. There is now green certified lumber from Canada, why not green gas, and honest investments ? What Fun we can all have, it is like those shock collars for dog training. We just need to get organized.
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+1 # Jan Marra 2010-05-25 05:07
As some ancient wise-ass said, "There is hope, but not for us."
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+1 # coachie 2010-05-26 08:57
Frank Zappa aptly described the spew that we are all addicted to as a "mind controlling ooze coming out of your TV set". we live in a "Vegas" like fake reality of carefully crafted messages designed to keep all us "willing dupes" pouring money into corporate coffers. Have we lost our genuine sense of community and/or identity or are we in lock step taking our orders from global nationals, like Pixar's movie "Wall-E"?
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+1 # H8dogma 2010-05-26 18:58
movetoamend.org This group is attacking the core of influence in OUR government. Please support it. this is something we Can do. As far as Obama goes, he told us what he was really about when he first took office. He made a statement when he surrounded himself with the bankers that caused this mess. He was saying "more of the same."
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