Written by Richard Kane   

President Obama is frequently condemned. He is accused of not listening to the American people and listening to instead the entrenched elites, and violating the promises he made back during the election season. Back then Bush, later McCain, warned that getting out of Iraq would make the ethnic bloodbath there far worse. Back then, looking toward the present wouldn't look so bad, (so far) no more tit-for-tat ethnic bloodbaths, no Americans dying, the US providing slowly diminishing back up troops waiting around for the Iraqi government to call upon in an emergency wouldn't translate into a betrayal. During primary season people feared a new assault on civil liberties with each new terror incident. Today some protesters are admiring Ron Paul and Denise Kucinich together as they call upon a far-left far-right alliance to end the war and restore all our civil liberties.

Since some also accuse Obama of being the master of presenting half a loaf, which makes Obama's so-called "betrayal" on single payer health care that much more intense. Subsidizing the insurance companies, which constantly increase their rates, while providing spotty coverage for those in need, according to protesters may be worse then leaving things alone.

Wait a minute! Ron Paul and his son were relentlessly fighting single payer health care. Please clink on his blog concerning health care, ronpaulnews.net/2009/08/single-payer-groceries-anyone.html He is truly determined on that issue. While Sarah Palin was making statements for her supporters to cheer, Ron Paul and his son were effectively rallying new people. Single-payer, is what he called the worst example of socialized medicine. I once made a donation to Ron Paul and his son has been mailing hysterics on health care and haven't seen a thing about war and peace lately. Somehow no health care supporters seem to click on to healthcare in his website, if they did so they would know that it was Dr. Paul's most personal issue. Meanwhile Sarah Palin cares so much about the issue that she and what she claim's, her Tea Party, is supporting Ron Paul's opponent in the upcoming Republican Primary.

So it makes some sense to call Obama a betrayer of the Denise Kucinich-Ron Paul alliance on the war peace-civil liberties issue, but it is suicidal for any social justice activist to confuse this with their causes.

There are some other strange coincidences, the Daniel Pearl Foundation is generally considered a peace group with it's annual peace concerts around the world. Daniel Pearl was a Wall Street Journal correspondent who was lured to Pakistan and tortured into confessing that he was part of evil conspiracy, then he was, on Internet TV, beheaded for his alleged crimes. Because of stickiness over the foundation's stated goals, Daniel Pearl's relatives are casually referring to their position in the foundation as they relentlessly campaign for no public civilian trials for terrorists in order not to give them a soap box, sroblog.com/2009/11/14/daniel-pearls-family-opposes-justice-decision-to-try-ksm-in-federal-court-the-hill/ danielpearl.org/about_us/dialogue.html ....Those complaining about a conspiracy, against liberty, are silent against Daniel Pearl's relative's effective lobbying on this issue.

The Feminist Majority has systematically supported complete health care and single payer, while being accused of sponsoring unfunded mandates. It is an effective lobbying organization. It is also pushing for women's rights in places like Afghanistan. Some have been crying out against betraying the Afghan Women in the name of peace. Many of the politicians it gives money to are for setting an iron clad end of funding date to the Afghan War, creating not an unfunded mandate but an anti-funded mandate, thenation.com/blogs/edcut/454218/a_better_way_for_afghan_women_than_war To be fair to them, the only place Afghan Women are free not to wear burkas, without being free to be raped is downtown Kabul. Or on a US military installation. In all of Afghanistan, a Taliban court conviction to be whipped for not wearing the veil is not their biggest worry.

Events in Greece and Europe show what happens, when politicians argue about a bail out and when they finally agree to drastic measures, they discover they are too late, the crisis is even bigger than it was when they first started arguing and have to go back to the drawing boards to argue about even more drastic measures, in contrast Obama must be doing something right.

There is a problem however. Since Obama doesn't believe in corruption, he has created no traditional gravy train. One gets no personal benefit in joining the Obama revolution. Under Obama, it's mostly the squeaky wheel that gets most of the geese. Those who held out the longest against Obamacare but relented in the end got their own pet projects covered. It is to be seen how many will continue to cheer Obama making a better and better world knowing that their place in the better world will continue to slip a little as long as they unquestionably praise and support Obama.

Richard Kane, a retiree in Philadelphia who is still learning the ropes of the internet
RichardKane.blogspot.com