Chris Hedges: "Liberals Are Going Nowhere With Obama". I don't know if this has been posted yet....

[grahamhgreen]

Posted on Aug 10, 2009

Ralph Nader waits for his turn to speak at a news conference during the run-up to the 2008 campaign.

By Chris Hedges

"The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of citizens. It will not push through significant environmental reform, regulate Wall Street or end our relationship with private contractors that provide mercenary armies to fight our imperial wars and produce useless and costly weapons systems. "


http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090810_nader_was_right_liberals_are_going_nowhere_with_obama/

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Sadly but strongly recommended.

[sharp_stick]

2. No it hasn't been posted yet

unfortunately now it has.

[sandnsea]

3. Naderites - still crazy after all these years n/t

[Winterblues]

23. Was there something he said that was untrue?

While I did not vote for the man I have listened to him and often agree with what he has to say. Maybe you should give listening a try sometime. It often helps to inform..

[sandnsea]

26. All of it is untrue

As is usually the case with Nader. Iraq has changed significantly in the last 6 months. The focus in Afghanistan has shifted tremendously, with much more emphasis on humanitarian aid. Fixing an economic meltdown requires putting money in the private sector, I'm sure Nader would have called FDR's methods corporate bail-outs too. If people like Nader would stop contributing to the lies about health care, we'd have a lot better opportunity to get universal care. The first place I heard the ridiculous rumor that they were going to cut health care to seniors was HERE.

I'm not the one who needs to listen more, not by a long damn shot.

[grahamhgreen]

30. The fact remains that putting money into war instead of healthcare helps war profiteers, not

the American people.

"Putting money into the private sector", is not necessarily a bad idea, but much of the money went to foreign investors/gamblers to cover their gambling debts in derivatives, so I don't see how that helped anyone here. Smoe of it may be stolen. Some of it may be in the private sector, the truth is we don't know! In fact, no one will tell us where the 9 trillion went.....


Rep. Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it went: http://wallstreetblips.dailyradar.com/video/is_anyone_minding_the_store_at_the_federal_reserve/

Please listen to that clip and see if it doesn't shock you!

[polichick]

4. I wish there was more to argue with here - I'm still holding out hope for the environment. nt

[babylonsister]

5. "I knew Chris Hedges was crazy as a shithouse rat"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6286726

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. "Change"

x(

[BlooInBloo]

7. If it's anti-Obama, I'm sure it has been posted. 10 times.

[depakid]

8. The funny thing is- no matter how often or how far Obama panders to the right

Like Clinton- he's never going get a break from the majority of the corporate media or the Republican party. He'll always be a Socialist, a Marxist or a fill in the blank ___________.

[polichick]

11. Pandering to the right has gotten him absolutely nothing - he's pissing away...

...the opportunity of a lifetime ~ or of a whole generation. I hope he wakes up while we still have time to turn some things around.

[glitch]

12. Perhaps several generations. Or worse -- considering the state of our planet. nt

[nightrain]

9. knr, #2 Sadly, Nader and Hedges make some accurate points....

[alarimer]

10. Unfortunately he is correct.

Liberals are always supposed to fall in line behind whatever corporate piece of shit the Dems nominate. They promise the moon but then pull the same fucking crap once elected. They need our votes but once they get in office, they tell us to go to hell.

Obama is simply the same warmed-over spineless weasel we have always had. Clinton sold us Nafta and sold out labor.

[cali]

13. It's sad. Chris Hedges once had something valuable to say.

Now he just spouts mindless broadbrush rhetoric.

[ncteechur]

14. Hedges is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[grahamhgreen]

15. What is the solution?

[frylock]

17. more bipartisanship and compromise..

of course. bohica.

[grahamhgreen]

18. Compromise is pointless if the other side refuses to ever move in your direction. We tried. Now

Let's do the right thing.

Universal health care.
End rendition and torture - bring torturers to justice.
Stop the wars for profit in the Mideast.
Start a financial crimes prosecution task force.
Out of NAFTA, GATT, WTO.
Break up the banks and walmart, etc..
Free education through PHD.
End poverty.
End homelessness.

Bring hope and change home to the American people - it is inevitible.

No time for Pansy politics as usual by caving in to the corrupted minds of the selfish.

A deal with the Devil is never a wise choice.

[grahamhgreen]

20. It is best to negotiate around an immovable object rather than with it.

[Echo In Light]

25. ?

:wtf:

Care to elaborate?

[damntexdem]

16. We knew that Obama was not a left liberal from the start.

That was not what the excitement was about -- it was about just getting back to moderate Democratic rule. Obama has been a disappointment on such things as rendition and refusal to really investigate and then try human-rights criminals in the prior administration. But much else we knew from the start -- e.g., that he wanted to increase troops in Afghanistan.

It's time for liberals to stop feeling betrayed and get back to what we know how to do. or at least once did -- put pressure on, and selectively oppose, moderate Dem presidents and Congresses.

[LWolf]

22. "We knew that Obama was not a left liberal from the start. "

Which is why I was not only never "excited" about anything, I was appalled.

I knew that the left had lost the effort in January of '08.

I didn't stop "putting pressure on," of course. Not that it's had a positive effect, that I can tell. I do selectively oppose centrist and corporate (which is a hell of a lot different than moderate, imo,) presidents and Congress members.

I won't quit.

Perhaps, when enough of the left, and a few liberal and progressives as well, join in opposing the centrists and corporatists, some gains will be made.

I don't see that happening any time soon, but one can always hope for positive change, I suppose.

[ProSense]

19. .

:rofl:

[Vidar]

21. K&R

[Echo In Light]

24. Rec 10

[grahamhgreen]

28. Hey - somebody unrec'd, what do you know...

[Karmadillo]

27. "Our task is to build movements that can act as a counterweight to the corporate rape of America."

nt

[krabigirl]

29. Yep.