The Guerrilla Campaign

By Sheila Samples March 22, 2010 Change is the process by which the future invades our lives - Alvin Toffler, "Future Shock" Each time it appears that Republicans can't get any nastier, any more bereft of morality, they wrap themselves in the flag, grab their guns and Bibles, and manage once again to hit the bottom of the ethical barrel. A good example is Ben Smith's recent startling revelation in Politico.com, which exposed the dirty tricks Republican National Committee (RNC) operatives were planning to play, not only on Democrats in the upcoming elections -- but on their own donors. Smith writes... "Manipulating donors with crude caricatures and playing on their fears is hardly unique to Republicans or to the RNC -- Democrats raised millions off George W. Bush in similar terms -- but rarely is it practiced in such cartoonish terms." One page, headed “The Evil Empire,” pictures Obama as the Joker from Batman, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate...

By Mary Pitt March 21, 2010 　 The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Toward the end of the reign of the Bush regime, Mr. Bush began to consider the "legacy" of his presidency, setting up a library to hold his papers and to assure that this nation would never forget his term in office. However, there is no way that the real legacy of his two-term rule would ever be memorialized in any facility bought and paid for by his political machine. He has made a mark on our American soul that will remain a very long time; like a large scar from an almost-fatal wound. On September 11, 2001, the whole nation saw the awesome destruction of the World Trade Center. If not actually on the site, we saw it live on television or played and re-played on the news. The actual deed, followed by the speeches by President Bush and his followers and assistants, drove the knife of that legacy deep into the hearts of Americans everywhere. That legacy was a paralyzing fea...

Seven years ago, yesterday, the war criminal bush launched the US invasion of Iraq. Today, there is no doubt, or denying, that his administration knew that there was no justification, in neither US law, or international law, for the invasion. Today, there is no doubt, or denying, that the US war criminals will not be prosecuted for their crimes. In fact, the bushistas are busily rewriting the history, and are being assisted in this by the CCMA*. By giving prominent media exposure to the architects and apologists of the past 10 years is to condone and regularize the crimes they committed. The corporatists are protecting their own. Instead of the ridicule and the contempt that they deserve, they are feted and treated with utmost respect. If we want to retain even a modicum of self-respect and freedom, we need to resist and stop this last attempt to break America to the Corporate Will. Who is suffering in this economy? The corporatistas are doing quite well. It’s not them. We read of scho...

by Mary Pitt March 15, 2010 As the Liberals in Congress struggle against the Party-of-No Republicans and the Blue Dog DINOs, the people in the lower economic level are being picked of the last flesh on their living bones by the circling vultures. After they have lost almost everything they possess by the too-big-to-fail banks and investment companies, bled by the co-payments for essential medical care for their children, and either lost their homes in foreclosure or have trouble paying their rent, the vultures have gathered for the last pickings. One cannot long watch television without the realization of precisely what the aims are of the remaining ghouls that dog their tracks. First and foremost are the "easy credit" advertisements by which they are bombarded. If you get a paycheck, you can get money quick to last until then. It only costs you a "little" more than you borrow, (only an APR of a hundred or two), and you can spend on anything you want. If you own a c...

by Mary Pitt March 10, 2010 　 While our president is involved in dealing with the many emergencies in which our nation is now foundering, he fails to see the most urgent one. The dead numbered 137,000 per year through the years of 2000 to 2006, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science and, as the depression continues to worsen, the numbers will climb even higher on an annual basis. The problem? Simply a lack of health insurance and the inability to obtain the needed care on an individual basis! Granted, these people are the working poor and, thus, are "The Others". We all know who "The Others" are. They are the people who are not in "our neighborhood", the unseen people who keep our streets, our clothing, and our children clean, who cook and serve our food, who do the myriad of tasks that we are too busy to do or too comfortable to do for ourselves. They people our back rooms, out of sight, except on the streets where we ha...

to 'Tired Out and Staying Home' by Joseph Palermo Published on Monday, March 8, 2010 by Huffington Post http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/08-4 There's been a lot of commentary about President Barack Obama's failure to construct a winning "narrative" for the elections of 2010. In 2008, there were millions of people "fired up and ready to go." But after a year plus of the Beltway-Rahm Emanuel strategy of never exposing oneself to political risk the grassroots energy of the campaign has been allowed simply to dissipate. Robert Reich argues that "if there was ever a time to connect the dots and make the case for government as a means of protecting the public from [corporate] forces. It is now." But at this point, about seven months before the midterms, transforming Americans' view of government is a tall task, especially when many of the George W. Bush policies have clearly prevailed. The problem with Obama's "narrative...

A Brief Imperial Tour d'Horizon Written By Chris Floyd Tuesday, 02 March 2010 14:24 http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1936-chilly-scenes-of-winter-a-brief-imperial-tour-dhorizon.html 1. Occupational Hazards As'ad AbuKhalil's headline on his brief post says it al l: "Tragic accidents happen – every single day." He is referring to the latest killing of civilians by American occupation troops – not in Afghanistan this time, but in the now-forgotten war in Iraq, where death, corruption, repression and blowback are still raging. 2. Tony Blair: Liar, No. 876 It turns out that Tony Blair was told years before the Iraq invasion – in fact, even before the 9/11 attacks "that changed the world" and "made everything different" – that invading Iraq would be illegal (i.e., a Nuremberg-level war crime), as well as costly, destablizing and ineffective. This is revealed in documents from 2000 which the Independent has obtain...

1 March 2010 Patrick Martin http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pers-m01.shtml Inaction by the US Senate last week will result in the cutoff of extended unemployment benefits and COBRA health care coverage to more than one million workers. The cutoff, which began to take effect Sunday night, demonstrates the unbridgeable social gulf between the working class and the denizens of Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans. The bill to extend unemployment benefits and COBRA coverage was blocked by Republican Senator Jim Bunning, an arch-reactionary from Kentucky who took advantage of a Senate rule requiring unanimous consent to bring the legislation to a vote before the weekend. Bunning, who is not running for reelection, was contemptuous of the suffering that he was helping inflict on more than one million workers, including an estimated 60,000 from his home state. He demanded that Senate Democrats agree to pay for the extended benefits without creating new debt, and declared tha...