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Strategic Ideas Dept: The Case for a Popular Front vs. Finance Capital

September 8th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in financial crisis, pushing obama, rightwing

The Great American Stickup:

How the Political Class Mugged America

and Handed the Money Over to Wall St.

With so much opportunity, why has Obama presided over such an economic disaster?

By Amy Goodman and Robert Scheer

Progressive America Rising via Democracy Now

September 7, 2010  

Goodman: As we continue our discussion on the state of the economy, we’re by veteran journalist and Truthdig.com editor Robert Scheer. His book is just out; it’s called The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street. What is wrong with the economy today? And how did we get here?  

Scheer: Well, you know, you say a longtime journalist. I worked for the Los Angeles Times as a national reporter, and I covered these hearings in Washington when the Clinton Administration in the '90s basically fulfilled the promise of the Reagan Revolution. Reagan was not able to reverse the sensible regulations of the New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt designed to prevent us from getting into another depression. And those regulations of Glass-Steagall, which Feingold was against -- was for keeping and against reversing, said that investment banks playing with supposedly rich people's money should not be allowed to merge with commercial banks that were using the deposits of people that were insured by the taxpayers and that these were different activities. And Reagan could never pull off that kind of deregulation. In fact, because of the savings and loan scandal at the end of his term, he actually had to sign off on increased financial regulation. But when Clinton came in, he brought in one of the big players on Wall Street, Robert Rubin, who has been head of Goldman Sachs, and basically turned to him and said, "You know, what do I need to do to get Wall Street on my side?" And they said, reverse what they considered to be onerous financial regulation. And Clinton delivered on that. He brought in Rubin then to be his Treasury secretary, who was followed by Lawrence Summers, who’s now the top economics adviser in the Obama White House.

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Vietnam and Agent Orange: Olberman Misses The Main Point

September 4th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in antiwar, pushing obama

Keith Olbermann's White Blindspot

by Clay Claiborne

Agent Orange, the toxic defoliate which America dumped on Vietnam to kill the growth of plants that were used as cover by the Vietcong. 19 million gallons of defoliates were sprayed on Vietnam, mostly Agent Orange, near Vietnam's borders north of Saigon and near the Mangroves lining Saigon's shipping channels, meaning it was not just killing trees, it was being breathed in by American soldiers who did not know exposure could later lead to potentially fatal conditions such as Hodgkin's disease, soft tissue cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

So said Keith Olbermann in Segment #4 GOP Vets "Not Helping" of last night's Countdown. This story focused on the effects on humans of Agent Orange and the need of many of our Vietnam veterans for treatment and compensation.  It was a good segment as far as it went. The problem I had with it was that it didn't go far enough. Keith, Agent Orange was sprayed on the Vietnamese too, and you neglected to mention that. Even today, Vietnam has to care for about 3 million victims of Agent Orange. They range from their now aging war vets to the deformed babies still in the womb. What are they Keith? Chopped liver? Here's a scene from Vietnam: American Holocaust This is rough cut when I narrate. Martin Sheen narrates the DVD.

In Tuesday's diary about Glenn Beck's Tea party on the mall, I said it was a characteristic of that crowd to ignore the victims of our war policies. I said it stemmed from the insipid racism that saw these people of color as not even worth an 'honorable' mention, but Keith, I expect better from you. How do you justify your continuing participation in a media conspiracy of silence with regards to the effect of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese? If my "conspiracy theory" is wrong here, please point me to all the MSM coverage of the effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese that I have missed. Effects that are today suffered by Vietnamese vets that fought on both sides of the conflict. Effects that are well known in Vietnam and recognized around the world but never reported here. And if you are not a participate in this conspiracy of silence, please explain your silence about the suffering of the Vietnamese last night since you were talking about Agent Orange anyway.

Not just our veterans but also our victims must be compensated for the crime of unleashing Agent Orange on humanity. America must recognize what we have done to the Vietnamese and start making it right by helping to clean up the toxic sites we left behind, for example. These sites will continue to add to the number of children killed by the U.S. in the Vietnam War until they are clean. Beck's show was a sham and a farce, but fixing this really is a question of restoring honor.

Resources on Agent Orange effects on Americans and Vietnamese:

Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign

This project is supported by Veterans for Peace, here is a speech by VFP member David Cline who died in 2007:

Agent Orange - A Continuing Legacy of the US War in Vietnam



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Al Gore: Time for Tens of Thousands in the Streets Over Climate Crisis

August 18th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Green Energy, pushing obama

Gore calls for major protests

on climate change inaction

By Russell Berman

The Hill

08/17/10 - Former Vice President Gore is calling for major rallies to protest congressional inaction on climate change.

In a post on his personal blog headlined “The Movement We Need,” Gore linked to and quoted from an Australian wire service report that “tens of thousands of protesters … have taken to the streets across Australia to urge the major political parties to take action on climate change.”

“Across the world, when politicians fail to take action to solve the climate crisis, people are taking action,” Gore wrote.

He added after excerpting the news report: “It is my hope we see activism like this here in the United States.”

Gore noted he trained activists in Australia to deliver the slideshow that formed the basis for the documentary film that won him an Academy Award. A representative of Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection addressed the rally in Sydney.

Gore has in recent weeks stepped up his criticism of the Senate for its inability to pass a comprehensive energy and climate bill that would put a price on carbon. In a conference call with environmental activists last week, he reportedly said “the United States government in its entirety, largely because of the opposition in the United States Senate to taking action on clean energy and a solution to the climate crisis, has failed us.”

Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/114717-al-gore-calls-for-us-protests-on-climate-change-inaction



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Deconstructing Gringo Vanity: Oliver Stone’s ‘South of the Border’

July 6th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in latin america, pushing obama

Oliver Stone's Latin America

By Tom Hayden

Huffington Post

An intriguing and newsworthy moment in Oliver Stone's South of the Border comes as Stone describes a private meeting between presidents Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez at an April 2009 conference in Trinidad. With footage of a light-hearted Obama and Chavez on the screen, Stone narrates:

In private, so I'm told, the new man in Washington assured Chavez that under his administration there would be no further destabilization attempts or any interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela.

I first reported those Obama-Chavez private contacts in The Huffington Post on April 21, 2009. My source was a Venezuelan official. I further noted that the State Department official in charge of the US delegation, Jeffrey Davidow, was an anti-Chavez hardliner who tried to spoil any impression of a warming of US-Venezuelan relations.

In South of the Border, Stone goes further, alleging a US promise not to destabilize or interfere in Venezuela's internal affairs, which would be a sharp departure from the Bush years and the views of Davidow and Clinton-era operatives like Doug Schoen and Mark Penn. What's the truth here? Who are Stone's sources?

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Paris Interview: Obama, BP and Energy

June 19th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Green Energy, pushing obama

Entretien avec Carl Davidson, économiste “vert“

 

Carl Davidson à Paris, le 16 juin 2010

“La marée noire peut aider à faire passer la loi sur les énergies renouvelables“

Quelles sont pour vous les mesures les plus urgentes à prendre après cette catastrophe ?
Le principal problème est d’arrêter la fuite d’hydrocarbure. C’est un problème technique qu’Obama ne sait pas régler plus que moi, il est donc en train de rassembler les meilleurs scientifiques et techniciens pour y réfléchir.
Dans un second temps, il faut s’assurer que BP paiera pour le nettoyage et je pense qu’il y arrivera sans trop de problème (BP a accepté de payer le 17 juin NDLR). ....

[Full English translation follows]

What do you see as the most urgent measures to be taken by President Obama after this ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? Will the oil spill lead to better laws on renewable energy?

The main immediate problem is to stop the leakage of oil. It is a severe technical problem that Obama does not know any more than I do about how to stop it. So at this point it’s first a matter is putting together the best scientists and engineers engaged in this kind of production to think through a solution. Obama knows that will include BP employees, and others as well.


In a second step, Obama must ensure that BP will pay for the cleanup. I think he will get it verbally without too much problem (BP agreed to pay Ed June 17). Following through is another matter.

 

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Jobs and Structural Reform: The Case for Full Employment

June 9th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Jobs, pushing obama, structural reform, trade unions

It’s Time to Fight

for Full Employment!

The Progressive Path

Out of Our Crisis

A Project of the Labor Committee of CCDS

The Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

www.cc-ds.org

 

The Struggle for Full Employment:

A Strategy to Defeat the Neoliberal Assault

on the US Working Class

by Randy Shannon

Treasurer, PA 4th CD Chapter,

Progressive Democrats of America

----------------------------------------------------------------

“In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;”

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt: State of the Union Address, January 11, 1944

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.”

- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948

I. Introduction

The “Great Recession” that began in 2007 has caused the greatest percent of job losses since the Great Depression of 1929. This crisis is the end of an era of unrestrained ‘neo-liberal’ capitalism that became public policy during the Reagan administration. The crisis marks a new level of instability with the growth of a global financial elite that targeted US workers and our trade unions after World War II.

The election of President Obama reflected the growing struggle of America’s progressive majority to reverse the neo-liberal policy of war and austerity that has undermined the social advances established by the New Deal and the United Nations. It also begins a long period of readjustment for capitalism as it responds to multiple crises, struggles to maintain its system of social control, and seeks a new system of profit accumulation.

Serial Crises

During the seven decades since World War II, US workers have faced ten periods during which the economy lost jobs for over twelve months. Each successive recession in employment lasted longer than the previous downturn.

In the above chart, each line represents an employment crisis since World War II. The vertical axis shows the percent of jobs lost each month and the horizontal axis shows the duration of the crisis in months since the last peak in employment. The right end of each line is the point at which employment returned to its former high.

In the crisis of 1990 the economy lost jobs for two and one half years. Then in the 2001 recession, it was four years before job losses ended. Although these last two downturns were prolonged, and the recoveries were weak, job losses at around 2% were not enough to cause widespread protest.

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Stop Arizona’s SB 1070! Tens of of Thousands March in Phoenix

May 29th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Immigration, pushing obama

Thousands march in Phoenix to protest immigration law

May. 29, 2010 02:08 PM
The Arizona Republic

Thousands of people began a slow march from Steele Indian School Park to the State Capitol shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday to protest Arizona's new immigration-enforcement legislation.

The march, which is scheduled to wind through downtown Phoenix on its way to the Capitol, is being conducted with a heavy police presence.

As the crowd estimated at more than 10,000 left the park, the sea of protesters stretched half-a-mile along Third Street, from Indian School to Osborn roads.

Another rally - this one in support of the law - is scheduled in the evening in Tempe.

But it was opponents of the measure who dominated Phoenix Saturday morning with an event that was expected to draw a large crowd from throughout the Valley and out of state.

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The Time of Day: Getting the Big Picture of What Progressives Need To Do

May 25th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in elections, pushing obama

 

trenton

The Time of Day

 

By Jack Kurzweil

When asked what time it was, Yogi Berra responded, “You mean, right now?”

For those who are involved in politics, the question is “What’s the political time of day, like right now?”  What’s happening in this country on the large scale?  What’s the Obama Administration trying to do?  What are its internal limitations and its external constraints?  And what should progressives be trying to accomplish?

When, during the election campaign, Obama said that he admired Reagan for having captured the mood of the country and shifting the governance of the country according to that mood, I don’t believe that he was conveying his approval of the character of the changes.  Rather, I think that he was admiring the process of transformation because he envisions his administration initiating a process of change of direction of the nation as well.

Reagan’s “revolution” was to distance government on all levels from responsibility for infrastructure, corporate regulation, and social safety net while strengthening the military  industrial complex, setting the stage for globalization, breaking the unions, and initiating the most extraordinary transfer of wealth to the ruling classes that this nation had not seen since the 1880’s.  The slogan, then as now, was free markets and limited government.  And that slogan has taken hold; it now represents a deeply held feeling in this country, even among those for whom the absence of government has been crippling.

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The Democrats: Will the Center Hold, or Not?

April 24th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in elections, pushing obama

UNITED BY CHANGE, DIVIDED BY REFORM

The growing rift between Obama and his base

is a political time bomb he must face.

 

Jeffrey Feldman

Frameshop Editor-in-Chief

One year after Candidate Obama inspired the world to vote for symbolic "change," the Democratic Party is now deeply divided by two divergent, and seemingly irreconcilable, approaches to reform.  If President Obama fails to grasp soon why his idea of reform has alienated key parts of his base--and if he fails to do something to bridge the divide--the result may be much worse than acrimony from the chattering liberal classes.  He could have a full on mutiny on his hands by 2010.   

One way to describe this divide is to say that President Obama has advanced "conservative reform"--repair and improve, but maintain what we have--whereas the base of the Democratic Party wants, and has aggressively demanded, "progressive reform"--out with the old, in with the new.

It is impossible to exaggerate how much friction these contrasting approaches to reform have created in just one year.

Consider, for example, the banking crisis. Having inherited the TARP program from the previous administration, President Obama continued to advance a policy of using government funds to mend the broken financial institutions and then create new regulations to steady the markets: improve, but maintain.  The base of his party, by contrast, called for a complete overhaul of the financial industry, and a new set of legal measures that would neuter investment banks, reign in corporate power, and limit windfall profits: out with the old, in with the new.

The automotive industry bailout was the second big example of this divide. When the large American auto manufactures faced ruin, President Obama called for a sophisticated government bailout.  His idea was to use to government resources to prop up the auto industry and shepherd them through bankruptcy.  The Cash for Clunkers program then jump started the restructured manufacturers:  repair, but maintain. The base of his party, by contrast, largely called for government to allow the Detroit-centered industry to die a natural death, pushing instead for a massive investment in the fledgling, West Coast green automotive industry: out with the old, in with the new.

The health care reform debate has also spotlighted this divide.  Obama has pushed for a reformed and regulated private health insurance industry: repair, but maintain.  The base of his  party, by contrast, has called for the end of a health care system based on private health insurance, pushing instead for a non-profit, single payer system: out with the old, in with the new.  

Next up on the environment--although this fight is now being obscured by the health care argument--Obama will call for investment in new energy sources, but will also push for repairing and maintaining the oil and coal industries. The base of his party, by contrast, will call for an end to the oil and coal industries, and a total switch over to a new energy economy.

And so on, and so forth.

With each of these fights, a larger and larger portion of the issues patchwork Democratic Party base is drawn into a increasingly bitter narrative of disappointment over Obama's approach to reform. 

By 2010, just about every Democratic Party member with a stake in some issue will be saying the same thing about Obama: his policies are not a clear enough departure from the past; this is not real reform.

The collective malaise will only be compounded if Democratic losses in the midterm election are significant.

What should Obama do?  Here are five suggestions:

First, Obama needs to recognize that he gained support during his Presidential campaign because he personally symbolized a departure from the past.  His identity, his speaking style, his ability to draw young and old into politics--all of this symbolized progressive change for people.

Second, Obama needs to understand that he has not led the country in any discussion whatsoever about why a conservative approach to reform is better than a progressive approach to reform.  He may have had these discussions behind the scenes, but he has not had them on the full stage of the public debate.

Third, Obama needs to find some way over the next three to six months to deliver some kind of reform that looks and feels to his base like a clean departure from the past. 

Fourth, Obama needs to spend less energy and political capital dealing with the base of the Republican Party, and more energy and political capital reaching out and working with the base of the Democratic Party.

Fifth, Obama needs to play a more central role leading the push for reform.  The base that elected him does not know what to do when his initiatives are pushed by uncharismatic leaders in the House and Senate.  The President needs to be the voice and the face of reform, not just the beer table host. 

In other words, Obama needs to realize that he is the focus, and as such, he foments or alleviates the base's concerns over reform.  From what I can tell, the crush of crises put on his desk has led Obama to forget this crucial point

After listening to him talk on the campaign trail, expectations were very high for a President who pushed progressive reform.  The base will work with him at a more conservative level, but not until he stands up and explains why this is important.

The clock is ticking.



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Two Carbon Bills: You Can Choose Real Oats, or Some Worked Over Ones that Have Been Through a Horse

April 6th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Green Energy, pushing obama

Bringing the Heat: A Tale of Two Bills

Forget Cap-and Trade.

This is a Climate Bill

You Can Love.

 

By Bill McKibben

The New Republic, April 5, 2010

This is a tale of two bills—a tale that illuminates how policy-making may unfold under the most progressive administration, and most Democratic Congress, in a generation. And it’s not a tale with an especially happy ending.

The target of both bills is carbon. From the start, President Obama has said that climate and energy legislation would come second in his administrative batting order, only after health care reform. (Originally, he thought that would mean last fall, but health care was like a hitter who fouled off pitch after pitch. Since it took forever, we get to the next priority with the midterm elections already looming on the horizon.) The intellectual problem is relatively simple: How do you put a price on carbon so that we burn less of it, and hence prevent the potentially catastrophic heating of the atmosphere? The political problem is immense: How do you change a system that has rewarded energy companies with the greatest profits of any industry in any era, and that has shaped the American psyche and landscape by providing endless, cheap fossil fuel?

The most straightforward answer, of course, would be a simple tax on coal and gas and oil. Europe began that approach 60 years ago, and, as a result, the continent has dense and livable cities, great train systems, and half the energy use per person. But we live in a society where “tax” is a scary word, and so, from the beginning, everyone has hunted for an alternative, a tax-that-isn’t-a-tax. Both the bills I’ll describe use the same basic mechanism: a cap on the amount of carbon that the country produces, a cap that goes steadily down as the years go on. The law of supply and demand stipulates that such a cap would raise the price of fossil fuel, which, in turn, would cause us to slowly Eurofy.

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