Obama’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Politics April 15, 2009
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Uncategorized.Tags: afghanistan ecalation, Afghanistan War, bailout, Barack Obama, health insurance industry, healthcare reform, iraq escalation, Iraq war, larry pinkney, obama politics, obama racism, organized labor, pakistan escalation, racism, roger hollander, Saudi Arabian “King” Abdullah, single payer, us empire, Wall Street
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Larry Pinkney
www.blackcommentator.com, April 9, 2009
Rarely had so many been hoodwinked by so few, until the installation of Barack Obama as the head of the U.S. Empire. The fact is that Barack Obama is not the fulfillment of anything but the nightmare of continuing 21st Century U.S. Empire.
Recently, even as it appeared that Barack Obama nearly broke his back, bending over in unnecessary and overly subservient obeisance to the current Saudi Arabian “King” Abdullah, economic and conditions for everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples right here in this nation have continued to significantly worsen on a daily basis.
There is an enormous difference between sovereign Heads of State exhibiting simple diplomatic respect towards each other and needlessly prostrating oneself. The symbolism of Obama’s over done and unnecessary prostration to “King” Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is telling, chilling, and deeply troubling. It is noteworthy that notwithstanding its own hypocrisy, the United States of America was brought into existence as a result of fighting a protracted and bloody war for “freedom” against a King and other monarchs and tyrants of the period. If indeed there is to be any prostration on the part of Barack Obama towards anyone then let it be (in both word and deed) to the everyday, ordinary Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow peoples of ‘America’ and the world, not Wall Street barons, banksters, kings or other such monarchs.
By now even some of the politically deaf, dumb, and blind of this land should be able to see that other than misleading rhetoric, no “change” of any real substance, is in the making. In fact, and to the contrary, Obama is busy pandering to the very same Wall Street institutions to whom his predecessors gave unceasing political and economic homage and loyalty. Nothing has changed substantively or systemically.
1. On the matters of Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama is in reality widening these wars not ending them. Moreover, his political and military destabilization policy towards Pakistan is short sighted, wrong, hypocritical and enormously dangerous for that entire region of the world. These wars are being continued by Barack Obama, while the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are butchered, not to mention the ongoing deaths of U.S. men and women in uniform who remain the canon fodder for the U.S. Empire’s war machine. In this regard also, nothing has substantively or systemically changed under Barack Obama.
2. Notwithstanding Obama’s endless rhetoric, on the matter of the absolutely criminal financial bail-out of the Wall Street barons and banksters, inclusive of the avaricious insurance companies, Barack Obama has demonstrated repeatedly that he is deep in the pocket of Wall Street, not the people. Expect no systemic change from him for it will not be forthcoming.
3. On the matter of his attempting to bully and boycott the United Nations Conference on Racism, Obama is both wrong and hypocritical. Obama’s actions in this regard have made it quite clear that he opposes serious and systemic compensation / reparations for the descendants of the trans Atlantic slave trade, though no one should be surprised by this since he serves the interests of furthering and maintaining U.S. Empire and is himself, despite his slight pigmentation, the descendant of slave holders not slaves. What better way to maintain racism and other forms of economic exploitation than to have a Barack Obama as its de facto point man?!
4. On the matter of universal single payer health care, Obama and his minions offer the deliberately misleading rhetoric of so-called “affordable health care” which is not Universal single payer health care and still serves the financial interests first and foremost of the bloated and blood sucking insurance companies and their Wall Street accomplices. Universal single payer health care for everyday people is, and must be treated as, a human right, not some capitalist market commodity from which money is to be made or profit gained. On this matter of health care Obama and both the Democrat and Republican Parties (i.e. the Republicrats) are hustling the peoples of this nation.
5. Despite his misleading rhetoric to the contrary, Obama has set out to break the back of organized labor in a way that would have made Ronald Reagan green with envy. Again, this should come as no surprise as back in 2008, Obama made his strong “admiration” for the late Ronald Reagan known. This is the same anti-union Ronald Reagan who is remembered for, among other things, despising poor and working class people and for having utilized the military to neutralize the legitimate organizing / labor rights and aspirations of U.S. civilian air traffic controllers, etc.
One should not be surprised at being bitten by the proverbial snake.
Future columns of Keeping It Real will delve into various details pertaining to the above points and much, much more.
It must be reiterated that Barack Obama is not the fulfillment of anything but the nightmare of continuing 21st Century U.S. Empire. This can and must be changed only by we the people collectively organizing, not by politicians who in reality serve the interests of the Wall Street / Military / Prison industry’s elite.
The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde politics and policies of Barack Obama are not acceptable.
Onward…
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.
Peace Candidate Obama Set to Expand Illegal, Undeclared War in Pakistan March 17, 2009
Posted by rogerhollander in About Pakistan, Pakistan, War.Tags: Bush Doctrine, cia, douglas lute, International law, Obama, pakistan, pakistan civilian casualties, pakistan escalation, pakistan missile strikes, peace, Petraeus, roger hollander, special operations commandos, Taliban, war
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Roger Hollander, March 17, 2009, www.rogerhollander.wordpress.com
An article in today’s New York Times ( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/world/asia/18terror.html?_r=1&hp) states that “President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan.”
The article cites “senior administration officials” who divulge that two high level reports that have been forwarded to White House call for “broadening the target area to reach the Taliban and other insurgent groups to a major sanctuary in and around the city of Quetta.”
Apparently the reports were generated by “groups led by both Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of American forces in the region, and Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, a top White House official on Afghanistan.” The Times article adds that “many of Mr. Obama’s advisers are also urging him to sustain orders issued last summer by President George W. Bush to continue Predator drone attacks against a wider range of targets in the tribal areas, and to conduct cross-border ground actions, using C.I.A. and Special Operations commandos.”
Almost as an afterthought, the article mentions that ”Pakistan complains that the strikes violate its sovereignty.” In previous reporting on U.S. Missile strikes into Pakistan, which since Obama was inaugurated have claimed dozens of civilian lives, it has been suggested that the Pakistani government’s complaints are for home comsumption only and that it secretly is in support of the U.S. raids. This reminds one of the disgusting old argument that the rape victim really enjoyed it.
Just as Congress and the mainstream media slept while the Bush Administration trampled the U.S. Constitution and committed blatant war crimes, no one seems to be outraged that the new Administration is openly violating the most fundamental tenet of international law with unprovoked attacks on a sovereign nation.
Many of us who voted for Obama based upon his committment to reverse the Bush Doctrine have been more than disappointed with his hawkish appointments, his defense of the “state secrets privilege,” his tacit support of the Israeli massacre in Gaza, and his non-withdrawal withdrawal speech on Iraq. However, none of these compare with his barely noted incursions into Pakistan. For Bush, the bogus “war on terror” knew no limits. To see Obama further expanding military operations into a third country and to see him doing it without public debate or Congressional approval tells us that change we could believe in has turned out to be nothing more than the kind of cheap rhetoric that, ironically, his hawkish opponents (first Clinton, then McCain) warned against.