Anti-Obama Rage Justified. When do we Kill and Eat the rich?

Barack Obama was pissed.

Did you see him, yesterday afternoon? There he was: finger waging, lectern thumping, with grim, angry looks all around defending his decision to strike a deal with the GOP that would grant a tax break to the richest of the Richie Rich Regressive Randian Rascals out there and extend the Bush tax cuts.

Obama lashed out at Republicans for worshipping at the altar of Trickle Down Economics and liberals for being “sanctimonious” to a fault.

This is a decision so unpopular with the American people who it may very well mean the end of his relevancy as a President (as Rachel Maddow suggested), or that it may guarantee that he sees a Primary challenge from the left in 2012 (as Robert Kuttner recently reported).

And while the lone socialist talking head, Larry O’donnel, took the position that Obama struck the best possible deal he could get, the debate amongst Politician, analyzed by professional pundits has little or nothing to do with how the majority of Americans feel about this issue.

Consider a few statistics from a recent CBS news poll:
Only 26 percent of Americans support the GOP’s proposal to extend the cuts for all Americans. 70% of Democrats want to extend the cuts only on incomes below $250,000.
Even among Republicans, support for extending all the cuts is less than half at 46 percent.

What is in play here is so obvious and only bears mentioning to reframe this debate: elected officials do not even pretend to be accountable to their constituents. They are accountable to the interests of the richest 1% or less in this country. This may have always been true, but the recent Citizen United Supreme Court ruling created a new monster this past election cycle, the Super PAC: granting the super wealthy even more influence and an even greater voice in the political process than ever before.

When lobbying for a more just and equitable world, your letter to your Congresswoman or man or Senator will likely have about the same effect as a sandcastle trying to stop a Tsunami.

What the overwhelming majority of American need is some leverage. Think of it another way. When the United States of America negotiates secretly with – Iran for example, do you think the USA takes the nuclear option off the table? No. That is the leverage we have. My question then is, how far off is the day when the American people, negotiating openly with the super wealthy class via their proxy pawns in Congress and the White House say something like: do we, the unwashed masses want to kill and eat the rich? Well, lets just say that all options are on the table. The negotiating table, and the dinning room table. And yes, pun intended you hyper capitalist trickle down bastard.

As I watch Obama play at negotiating with this lame duck Congress the words that more often than not dancing in my head in reference to that duck are the immortal words of Arlo Guthrie from his protest song Alice’s Restaurant:

“I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.”

If one of does that well they might think we was crazy and just ignore it. If two people, can you imagine, two people ranting and raving like that –well they might think they was faggots and file us under Don’t ask Don’t Tell.

But if three, can you imagine if three, or fifty or hundreds of people a day getting so visibly angry, well they might think it was a movement the Kill and Eat the Rich Movement.
And then maybe we would get more Politicians sounding like Bernie Sanders and less sounding like Barack Obama.

Palin Chides Obama Over Gulf Oil Spill: ‘Give Me A Call’

by Davis Fleetwood

The former Miss Wassilla 1984 wants Barack Obama to pick up the phone and call her so that she can leverage her extensive executive experience and help the President navigate the increasingly murky waters of the BP OIL disaster.

I kid you not. I’ve got another idea; Obama should be calling in the Gambino family to deal with this mess.

Palin wrote that Obama’s comments amount to “further proof that it bodes well to have some sort of executive experience before occupying the Oval Office,” and added that the president should call experts who lived through the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska – including herself.

“Based on my experience working with oil execs as an oil regulator and then as a Governor, you must verify what the oil companies claim – because their perception of circumstances and situations dealing with public resources and public trust is not necessarily shared by those who own America’s public resources and trust.”

Okay, I will not waste time absolving Obama here. Despite his recent claims that he is going to whoop some ass, delivered in the same polite tone one might use to deliver an elementary school commencement speech- the white house is to intertwined with wall street and big business to do anything meaningful on the ass kicking front.

However, if Palin is going to suggest that any involvement she- or any other executive in Alaska- had a relationship with Exxon that resulted in anything other than a rape – on so many levels- a casebook study in how corporations violate the citizens of this country while our elected officials stand impotently on the sidelines, then a quick review as some basic facts is required:

Sarah Palin: ‘We’re All Arizonans Now’

Calls for an economic boycott of Arizona continue to heat up, and the latest group to boycott the state is a girl’s high school basketball team from Chicago. They are refusing to attend a girls’ basketball tournament in Arizona because of concerns over the new law.

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Why Elana Kagan?

by Davis Fleetwood

Pop quiz: Elana Kagan will be the next Supreme Court Justice because
A) Clinton & Obama like and trust her, and most liberals like and trust Clinton & Obama.
B) Republicans will not put up a fight during confirmation hearings because they know Kagan will move the court to the right.
C) She has no judicial experience
D) She stands for nothing

The White House announced today that that President Obama has nominated good friend and White House solicitor general Elana Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens. Her nomination process appears to be without a significant obstacle. Which brings us back to today’s pop quiz.

Why will Kagan be the next Supreme Court Justice? Is it

A) because Clinton & Obama like and trust her, and most liberals like and trust Clinton & Obama?

That could be it. Progressives were asked to sell their souls- if you like religious metaphors- prior to the 2008 election. The mantra was “get Obama elected firsts, and then hold his feet to the fire in pursuit of a progressive agenda.” Remember? Even Progressive champions like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Wolfe converted many progressives through their preaching so that Obama could then preach to the converted.  Now that Obama is in the White House, part two of the master plan (pursue a progressive agenda) has taken a back seat to “shut the fuck up you crazy hippie pie in the sky faggot basterd communists this is the real world and there is no room for you here”.

The left has moved center, taking many self described liberals with it and left the progressive agenda dangling by its fingernails at the high end of an unevenly weighted seesaw.

Teachable Moments — But Where’s the Teacher-in-Chief?

Written by Robert Kuttner. Originally posted on The Huffington Post (purchase books by Robert Kuttner)

This has been a providential month for teachable moments. They have included the details of the government’s civil fraud case against Goldman Sachs; the gruesome and needless corporate murder of miners in West Virginia; the BP oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico; and then to complete the circle, the stock market going berserk because a technical error caused a domino effect of computerized automatic selling.

What do these events have in common? Every one of them demonstrates why the private profit motive cannot be relied upon without some steering or harnessing mechanism by government. A president committed to rallying public opinion to the cause of a more balanced economy would be all over these teachable moments, connecting the dots, rebuilding the ideology of managed capitalism, making the case for tougher government action in the public interest, and rallying the citizenry to his cause.

Let’s review how President Obama has actually done. He gave a pretty good speech in New York April 22, on the Wall Street origins of the crisis. Reform efforts in the Senate are moving in a constructive direction, mostly thanks not to the White House but to the leadership of a couple of dozen progressive senators and the fact that Wall Street is so unpopular that even some Republicans have voted for strengthening amendments.

Immigration Law: Unconstitutional, Racist, and very popular

by Davis Fleetwood
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It has been called misguided, unconstitutional and racist. And the controversial immigration law that has protesters in the streets and dominates the 24 hour news cycle took another turn for the bizarre yesterday when a conservative politician came out in favor of micro chipping illegal’s saying “I can micro-chip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I micro-chip an illegal?”

Iraqi official:“Now that the Iraqi people have been liberated, minus a million or so innocent civilians who were killed, we are just doing our best to build a democracy in the image of the United States. I have a cable package. I watch Glenn Beck. Your new Arizona law seems like a good idea for us to replicate to deal with our over infestation with zit faced American boys with guns.”

Several Countries in the European Union and the Middle East say they plan to boycott Iraq because it’s now a police state where, “breathing while undocumented” is a crime.

All of the brouhaha is a reaction mainly to three sections of the recently passed Iraqi immigration law:

The first one allows when police are engaged in “lawful contact” with someone where there is “reasonable suspicion” the person is an illegal alien, that the police shall make a “reasonable attempt” to determine the person’s immigration status. Critics of this say it amounts to racial profiling. General David Patraeus said they new law will affect all of his troops on the ground:

“What is reasonable suspicion? That I am white? That I am dressed in military combat gear? That I am brandishing U.S. government issued semi automatic machine guns? That I am driving a tank? Take away these factors and this boils down to racial profiling. It is that simple. The conservative elements of the Iraqi government are racist.”

The other provision that is causing controversy makes it a crime to be in Iraq illegally. But it’s already an international crime to enter a sovereign nation illegally. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq are already international war crimes. The new law just makes it an Iraqi crime, too. Essentially, Iraq is just pressuring the international community to enforce laws that already exist.

Responding to the charge that Iraqi police will now make random demands of American soldiers to produce their papers, the bill’s author Salam al-Maliki said simply:

“Now that the Iraqi people have been liberated, minus a million or so innocent civilians who were killed, we are just doing our best to build a democracy in the image of the United States. I have a cable package. I watch Glenn Beck. Your new Arizona law seems like a good idea for us to replicate to deal with our over infestation with zit faced American boys with guns.”

As of yesterday, anyone in Iraq who is stopped without papers will be, quote” placed on a bus and sent back to where they came from.

Apartheid, Arizona Style

This article originally appeared on the site the Cap Times. written Roberto Rodriguez

Those who think that there’s an immigration crisis in Arizona are correct; however, this is but part of the story.

The truth is, a civilizational clash is being played out in the same state in which the state legislature questions the birthplace and legitimacy of President Barack Obama and where Sen. John McCain competes with Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth to see who is the most anti-immigrant.

It is also the same state that several years ago denied a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., and that today permits virtually anyone — on the basis of trumped-up fear — to carry concealed weapons anywhere.

Welcome to Apartheid Arizona — the land of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, “states’ rights” and a desert that has claimed thousands of migrant lives. By way of the same extremist legislature, the battle here is even much larger and more profound. This civilizational clash is being waged daily here via more bills involving who belongs, what language can be spoken here and who and what can be taught in the state’s schools. This is beyond the notion of who is “legal.”

Collateral Murder in Iraq (WikiLeaks video exposes 2007 US Apache helicopter killing Spree)

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Veterans of the U.S. Military: Heroes?
by Davis Fleetwood
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It is commonplace to refer to veterans of the Vietnam War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the “war on terror”, as heroes.

Are Veterans heroes?

Consider the recently released classified US military video showing the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff and several children.

To those of you who can watch the video and still support the illegal invasion and occupation of the U.S. military in Iraq; to the Kool-Aid drinking Christian Republican conservatives out there, to the don’t tread on me, Hummer driving, steroid popping pigs amongst us, to the self congratulatory Democrats with Obama goggles so thick that you refuse to protest the Bush doctrine because it is now perpetuated by Obama- I just want to remind you that we all sprung form apes. Unfortunately you didn’t spring far enough so we’re going to have to put you back in the zoo. It’s the only safe place to observe you until you evolve.

Watching defenders of the War on Terror spin your rhetorical web is a bit like watching Planet of the Apes movies dubbed into Farsi without any English subtitles. I just can’t- given the benefits of modern life- how you people are, well, human.

It is commonplace to refer to veterans of the Vietnam War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the war on terror, as heroes.

Are Veterans heroes?

Vietnam was immoral, you Ass-hats. The domino theory of spreading communism was falsified. And our government entered the war secretly and then lied to the American people and congress to escalate the war. Gulf of Tonkin… sound familiar?

So, let’s agree that war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq are of no service to our country whatsoever.

None.

Are Veterans of those wars heroes, then?

Pilots dropping bombs over Baghdad were following orders. They were not protecting America. They are not heroes. They are victims. They signed up to serve a country they believed in, to defend democracy, or at least get some money for college and get out of their shit hole towns- and if necessary to be used as a last resort in conflict resolution. Instead, they are being used as pawns in an Armageddon chess game.

Look at the amount of unemployed in the U.S. The amount of foreclosures. The sorry state of our public education system, and other items on an ever growing list of domestic priorities and ask yourself what reasonable person can defend the expenditure of 400 million fucking dollars a day on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?

To supporters and defenders of the war on terror, to those who blindly elevate veterans to the status of heroes, please, try evolution. It’s not just for apes anymore.

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A freelance writer, Davis Fleetwood has worked as a writer/ media consultant for Dennis Kucinich’s 2008 presidential campaign and served as a contributing editorial commentator for The Uptake. His videos have been seen by over 14 million viewers. He has been called (among many other things) “one of the most prominent voices in YouTube politics.” (-You Tube News & Politics chief, Steve Grove) He was a “Best of YouTube, 2007” nomination. His book I Stay In So You Can Go Out, is due out in May from No Cure For That Press, and his first full length feature documentary, MANIFEST DESTINY’S CHILD, is due out on DVD this June.

THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a sometimes serious, sometimes satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.

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The Obama Health Care Summit: Regressives, Democrats, Where Are The Progressives?

Health Care Summit: Regressives, Democrats, Where Are The Progressives?
by Davis Fleetwood
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Watching Obama talk tough with the Regressives yesterday was invigorating, wasn’t it?

Here was the President, leading on an issue that matters so much to so many people in a transparent healthcare debate. Even if this transparency came after a year of public debate and back room dealing with big Pharma wherein Obama promised to block any Congressional efforts to bargain for lower drug prices. Even if such back room dealings insure against the highly unlikely event of any significant number in the house or senate growing a spine considering that Health Insurers and their employees have donated 2.2 million to the top 10 recipients in the House and Senate, while Drug makers gave 3.3 million to the same group since 2005. The biggest beneficiaries include regressives John McCain and Democrat Max Baucus who, as the head of the Finance Committee has a thing or two to say about health insurance reform.

So, while Obama’s Health Care Summit has pundits like Chris “I forgot he was a black man” Matthews literally frothing at the mouth and anchoring expanded 3 hour coverage of this unexpected political Superbowl between the Democrats and the Regressives one thing is for certain and two things for sure.

One: This is not a debate about health care. It is a debate about health insurance. Obama’s plan will do many things, not the least of which will be to strengthen the financial portfolios of those who are invested in health insurance stocks. It is taking taxpayer money and funneling it directly, in the form of mandates, into the pockets of insurance companies who will continue to honor their commitment to shareholders, not patients.

And two: The progressive position – single payer, Medicare for all, was never allowed to become part of the debate. Not yesterday. Not since Obama has been in office. This solution would have eliminated waste; indeed, it would have eliminated the whole organized criminal activity that makes up the health care insurance industry while covering everyone.

The regressive argument against this- and even the lame Obama plan was articulated by regressive Lamar Alexander yesterday when he said, “the federal government does not do comprehensive well we are just to big, as a country.”

So what does our States United- the federal government, do well?

We do war, isn’t that right regressives? Democrats? We are doing our darndest to ensure that when the end of days comes and the book of history is closed, that the USA is still king of the hill.

So, my fellow Americans, we can work on a state-by-state level to enact Medicare for all, as California just did. That is one option.  Or the nation can look itself honestly in the mirror and acknowledge that even if we can not muster the empathy to act on the fact that, given our current foreign policy, that the long term survival of the human race is predicated on the peaceful dismantling of the United States, perhaps the survival instincts of those of us not in the richest 1% in this country will realize, like Regressive Lamar Alexander that wherever BIG GOVERNMENT of THE USA HAS GONE it has, almost without exception, broken things beyond repair.

Look at Vietnam. Hiroshima. Iraq. Native America. And now, pressing into the 21^st century, we remain the only developed nation in the world to willfully stand by and allow our citizens to die for lack of health care.

45,000 deaths a year, according to a recent Harvard study. That is like 15 9/11’s.

The United States of America is too big for its own good.

And my fellow patriots- if you truly stand for the principles set forth in our Constitution, then you must perforce agree that our country can stand a healthy debate about whether or not it deserves to continue existing.

Empires fall. I acknowledge that the founding fathers were certainly on to something, but any close observer of the U.S. over the past several decades must come to this conclusion: it is time to hit the reset button.

Small is the new big.

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THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.

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The Supreme Court Renders Voting Obsolete

The Supreme Court Renders Voting Obsolete
by Davis Fleetwood (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com
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Corporations have been running the country for decades, now. The recent Supreme Court ruling just makes it easier, more transparent.  Now that voting is- temporarily anyway – obsolete, we can focus on more constructive activities.

“Starting today,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the dissenting opinion of the already infamous Citizens United v. the FEC, – an opinion, by the by that sometimes read like a suicide note, that “corporations with large war chests to deploy on electioneering may find democratically elected bodies becoming much more attuned to their interests.”

Understatement, they name is John Paul Stevens!

Corporations will find democratically elected bodies much more attuned to their interests? That is like saying to the residents of Hiroshima: this is just going to hurt a little bit.

Pledge Allegiance to the Flag

Consider that, in the year of hope and change, 2008, when more people where personally and financially invested in the electoral process in some way, the top 100 American corporations had 600 billion dollars in profits. If those companies divert only 1% of their profits in the next election any future election cycle, that equals 6 billion dollars, which equates to double the electoral spending of Obama. McCain and every candidate for house and senate combined.

Given this reality, will people still vote in 2012? 2016? Contribute a hundred bucks to a campaign?

One must dig to the conclusion of the dissenting opinion of Justice Stevens to absorb the impact of that the Supreme Court just did:

“The Court’s approach to the First Amendment…  will undoubtedly cripple the ability of ordinary citizens, Congress, and the States to adopt even limited measures to protect against corporate domination of the electoral process.”

If you are An American Citizen without access to a fortune 100 companies treasury, you are currently being raped.

So what to do?

First of all, when talking to friends and family or writing letters to the editor on this issue, do not mix metaphor’s or employ hyperbolic statements such as “If you are An American Citizen without access to a fortune 100 companies treasury, you are currently being raped.”

I am a trained stunt driver on a closed course and you should not attempt this in public. While it is a happy accident in art that lies often tell a greater truth, hyperbole around the Sunday dinner table will only get you taken off the guest list for next years Secret Santa.

So, you should put down the brick you were about to throw through a Starbucks window (but save it, one never knows when one will need it) and visit FreeSpeechForpeople.org Educate yourself. Then sign the petition.

Share it with everyone you know.

Just do it.

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THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.

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Also. read Davis’ daily column, THIS DAY IN THE USA
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