Robert Scheer: Love the fetus and shun the child

to me, it's the height of bald-faced hypocrisy to rail and fulminate over abortions and then to leave vulnerable children poor and hungry while sending our young adults desperate for work to fight and die in wars that only benefit the super-rich elites... and that's not even to mention the enormous death toll of citizens of other countries the is the grim legacy of our pursuit of endless war...

from truthdig via common dreams...

The death of American liberalism as a significant moral force can be traced to the point in 1996 when President Bill Clinton signed legislation that effectively ended the main federal anti-poverty program and turned the fate of welfare recipients, 70 percent of whom were children, over to the tender mercies of the states. With a stroke of the pen, Clinton eliminated what remained of New Deal-era compassion for the poor and codified into law the “tough love” callousness that his Republican allies in the Congress, led by Newt Gingrich, had long embraced.

The ensuing wave of state-imposed eligibility restrictions was designed to replace the war on poverty with a war on welfare recipients, with the result that in this time of economic crisis the poor have nowhere to turn. It also allowed states to play in a meanness derby, cutting the welfare rolls and forcing many of the desperate to cross state lines to locales where they might survive. “My take on it was the states would push people off [the assistance lists] and not let them back on, and that’s just what they did,” said Peter B. Edelman, who resigned from the Clinton administration over this issue and who told the Times for the recent article, “It’s been even worse than I thought it would be."

Edelman, now a law professor at Georgetown University, was a close friend of the Clintons. His principled resignation was a rare exception to the cheerleading by Democrats who celebrated President Clinton’s betrayal of the poor as shrewd triangulation.

[...]

Calling the shots on spending for the most vulnerable since the Clinton revisions went into effect, the states have diverted funds for the poor to filling other holes in state budgets. Consequently, as the New York Times piece noted last week, “Just one in five poor children now receive cash aid, the lowest level in nearly 50 years.”

The response of the right-to-life Republicans has been typical—indifference to the fate of the fetus once it’s born.

the "i've got mine so screw you" mentality has not only modeled itself on cold indifference, it's morphed into a contest to see who can be more petty and just plain mean...

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A failed Obama presidency

harsh but pretty much right on...

President Obama Richly Deserves to Be Dumped

By now it should be obvious that the system, and the Democratic Party, run Obama, not the other way around. Under this arrangement, the president carries out his duties as pre-eminent party functionary—fundraising being at the top of his list of responsibilities—and defers on legislation, leaving it to corrupt Democratic barons such as Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), devoted friend of the insurance, pharmaceutical, and banking crowd, and sworn enemy of reform.

[...]

Obama’s hypocrisy in Osawatomie, Kansas, set a new standard in deception. Among other things, his speech blamed “regulators who were supposed to warn us about the dangers of all this [the unfettered sales of bundled mortgages], but looked the other way or didn’t have the authority to look at all. It was wrong. It combined the breathtaking greed of a few with irresponsibility all across the system.”

What’s truly breathtaking is the president’s gall, his stunning contempt for political history and contemporary reality. Besides neglecting to mention Democratic complicity in the debacle of 2008, he failed to point out that derivatives trading remains largely unregulated while the Securities and Exchange Commission awaits “public comment on a detailed implementation plan” for future regulation. In other words, until the banking and brokerage lobbies have had their say with John Boehner, Max Baucus, and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner. Meanwhile, the administration steadfastly opposes a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, the New Deal law that reduced outlandish speculation by separating commercial and investment banks. In 1999, it was Summers and Geithner, led by Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (much admired by Obama), who persuaded Congress to repeal this crucial impediment to Wall Street recklessness.

and, to my mind, the most damning indictment of all...

Barbara Ehrenreich, just after billionaire Michael Bloomberg and mayors of other cities cleared public spaces of Occupy Wall Street protesters [said]: “Where in all this was Obama? Why couldn’t he have picked up the phone and called the mayors of Portland and Oakland and said: ‘Go easy on these people. They represent the anger and aspirations of the majority.’ Would that have been so difficult?” Well, yes, particularly if your principal occupation is shaking down bankers and brokers for campaign donations on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

just another nudge in the direction of rocky anderson (see previous post)...

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People are outraged at what feels like a rigged game

robert reich...

The disconnect between Washington and the rest of the nation hasn’t been this wide since the late 1960s.

The two worlds are on a collision course: Americans who are losing their jobs or their pay and can’t pay their bills are growing increasingly desperate. Washington insiders, deficit hawks, regressive Republicans, diffident Democrats, well-coiffed lobbyists, and the lobbyists’ wealthy patrons on Wall Street and in corporate suites haven’t a clue or couldn’t care less.

I can’t tell you when the collision will occur but I’d guess 2012.

Look elsewhere around the world and you see a similar collision unfolding. The details differ but the larger forces are similar. You see it in Spain, Greece, and Italy, whose citizens are being squeezed by bankers insisting on austerity. You see it in Chile and Israel, whose young people are in revolt. In the Middle East, whose “Arab spring” is becoming a complex Arab fall and winter. Even in China, whose young and hourly workers are demanding more – and whose surge toward inequality in recent years has been as breathtaking as is its surge toward modern capitalism.

[...]

[In the United States], as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game – an economy that won’t respond, a democracy that won’t listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards.

Here, as elsewhere, the people are rising.

with all due respect, mr. reich, it "feels" like a rigged game because is IS a rigged game and, again, with all due respect, you and your former boss, the big dog, helped rig it...

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Obama and Web 2.0 - up until now "American politics had been dominated by rich old cranky white people"

juan cole...

I think it is more significant that Obama is the first major party candidate for president who got where he is through the current iteration of the World Wide Web, which includes the blogging world, distributed information networks, social networking, and video sites such as YouTube (i.e. Web 2.0). That is, the Iowa breakthrough was iconic of Obama's success, because youth, progressivism, metro-racialism and independent politics are all tightly interwoven with Web 2.0.

Ironically, Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992 was the first to use email extensively to shape the news cycle and contact supporters, but Hillary Clinton's people did not seem as good (or maybe as interested) in being on the vanguard of communications technology.

Among the more important capabilities bestowed by the Web 2.0 has been a new model of grassroots fundraising. American politics had been dominated by rich old cranky white people, because they had the money and they voted. They gave us all those Republican administrations and they shaped the Clinton administration as essentially neo-Eisenhowerism. Obama really does have an opportunity to accomplish some new things in American politics, and to avoid slavish adherence to Lobby politics, precisely because he has a different economic base. People younger than 65, and people for whom certain racial categories are not the most important thing in the world, might finally have a voice. In the past, the promise of the youth vote has always faltered when it comes to the November elections. If people in their 20s, 30s and 40s really want change (and with Iraq, the economy, etc., why would they not?) they have to go on organizing, canvassing, giving and above all voting. It is in your hands, O Generation of Web 2.0.

interesting thoughts... no argument here...

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Spiegel on the Clintons - "a powerful political family seeing its empire fall apart" and Hillary - "a sore loser"

as usual, it is a non-u.s. news outlet, germany's spiegel, that offers us one of the more penetrating looks at the meltdown of the clinton dynasty...

Perhaps Clinton really does believe that she still has a chance, or perhaps she is merely bluffing to drive up the price of withdrawing from the race. Meanwhile, America is fascinated by the Hillary Clinton drama, as she falters but refuses to give up. She looks pale, but still as immaculate as ever. She beams as if she could imagine nothing more appealing than this long, dirty and crippling primary campaign, which will end for the Democrats on June 3, when the last two primaries are held.

She no longer stands a chance of winning the party's nomination under her own steam. She can only hope that Obama somehow loses his cool or his campaign machine implodes. Apparently, none of her fellow Democrats can prevent Clinton from sticking it out until the party convention in August. That move would defy all reason and advice, especially now that most of the still undecided super-delegates -- senior party officials who are free to cast their votes as they please and can still determine the outcome of the race -- are leaning toward Obama.

The drama wouldn't be as compelling if it were just about Hillary Clinton. But it's also about a powerful political family seeing its empire fall apart.

[...]

Arrogance was probably the Clintons' greatest enemy. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, an old Clinton friend who defected to Obama's camp, says that they lived under the illusion that the throne was theirs to claim. This probably explains why they didn't take Barack Obama, the 46-year-old son of a Kenyan man and an American woman from Kansas, seriously.

[...]

The Clinton empire began to crumble when old friends like Richardson and Robert Reich switched sides and declared their support for Obama. Reich, a professor of political science and the labor secretary in the first Clinton administration, introduced Hillary and Bill to each other at Yale University in the 1970s. Another defector was Anthony Lake, a quiet scholar who was Bill Clinton's first national security advisor and is now part of Obama's team. Hollywood producer David Geffen was also a welcome guest at the Clinton court in the past. When he turned his back on the Clintons, he said that he did it because he was tired of their lies.

[...]

Today, Hillary Clinton is nothing but a sore loser who steps onto a stage and, like a robot, continues to spit out her rallying cries.

Silence has descended on the Clinton team. Her campaign manager, Terry McAuliffe, seems like a sad clown with a lame joke as he tests the microphone on this evening in Indianapolis: "One, two, three, President Hillary."

i've never cared for hillary... but in my wildest dreams i never thought i would end up calling both her and her husband pathetic figures... how much better it would be for both of them if they could withdraw with grace while they still have a modicum of dignity left...

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The best thing about the Hillary campaign is that it's showing us the true Bill

the more hillary attempts to claw her way to the democratic nomination through lying, character assassination and dirty tricks, the more we are forced to face the sad reality represented by the presidential administration of bill clinton, and, believe me, i ain't talking about monica or jennifer... two great examples of how the eye-scales are dropping off by the dozen are john and joe at americablog...

john...

You really can't get more shameless than Hillary Clinton.

She, like her husband, will screw over the rest of the Democratic party for her own political gain.

joe...

I think the question remaining is not whether Obama will get the nomination. That's a done deal. The question is how much damage Clinton and her minions, especially Bill, can wreak upon Obama and the Democratic party.

like john and joe, a lot of head-in-the-sand worshippers of the "big dog" are waking up to find that the halcyon days of the clinton administration were anything but... bill clinton spent a great deal of time and energy laying the groundwork for everything we're dealing with today, he just did it in a much lower-key, less in-your-face, much more schmoozable style than the current jack-booted chimpanzee that calls himself our president...

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The Clinton/McCain ticket

pathetic...



if this presidential campaign is doing anything, it's revealing hillary's (and bill's) true colors... i'd never felt quite right about either one of them, but it was more of a gut feeling than anything based on a solid awareness of what was going on... whatever complacency and intellectual and emotional distance i previously had from our country's politics was shattered by the 2000 election, and, since then, i've been acutely aware of just how much the united states was sold down the river under eight years of the clinton administration... any doubts that remained have been thoroughly dispelled over the past year...

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Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and George Bush - all robed

wtf...

US Democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have traded accusations over a photo of Mr Obama circulating on the internet.

The picture, sent to the Drudge Report website, shows Mr Obama wearing traditional Somali dress during a visit to Kenya in 2006.

The website said it was circulated by Mrs Clinton's staff but her team denied they had sanctioned its release.

The row comes as the rivals campaign for two crucial primaries next week.

Barack Obama - robed

disgraceful... just as disgraceful as these other three...


Bill Clinton - robed


Hillary Clinton - robed


George Bush - robed

(thanks to juan cole...)

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The real story of Kosovo

Kosovo in relation to Serbia

from ihc...

Following the NATO invasion of Kosovo in June of 1999, the US and its allies stood by as the Albanian mafia and gangs of criminals and paramilitaries spread out across the province and systematically cleansed Kosovo of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Romas and other ethnic minorities. They burned down houses, businesses and churches and implemented a shocking campaign to forcibly expel non-Albanians from the province. Meanwhile, the US worked closely with the Kosovo Liberation Army and backed the rise of war criminals to the highest levels of power in Kosovo. Today, Kosovo has become a hub for human trafficking, organized crime and narcosmuggling. In short, it is a mafia state. Is this the "democracy" Hillary Clinton speaks of "promoting" in "the heart" of Europe?

It didn't take long for the US to begin construction of a massive US military base, Camp Bondsteel, which conveniently is located in an area of tremendous geopolitical interest to Washington. (Among its most bizarre facilities, Bondsteel now offers classes at the Laura Bush education center, as well as massages from Thai women and all the multinational junk food you could (n)ever wish for). In November 2005, Alvaro Gil-Robles, the human rights envoy of the Council of Europe, described Bondsteel as a "smaller version of Guantanamo." Oh, and Bondsteel was constructed by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

i always wondered why serbs, macedonians, and the people of the former yugoslavia hated clinton with such a passion... an american visiting belgrade for the first time, as happened with me in 2005, before even being dropped at the hotel, is driven past the still shattered nato bombing sites which are quietly pointed out without comment... go read this article in full and weep for the seemingly never-ending horrors inflicted on the world by my country...

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My humble opinion on what's happening to Hillary

i certainly can't speak for anyone else, but, for me, the more hillary pushes forward with her campaign, the more i am reminded just how much our country was screwed over by her husband... every time she - or bill or mark penn - open their yaps, it's like my nose is being shoved into the smelly piles of shit they left lying around, while, at the same time, they're whacking me upside the head with a rolled-up newspaper, yelling, "you BETTER vote for her, dammit..."

just sayin'...

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And, yes, I DO sometimes resort to fear-mongering

Calm down now, take a Bromo...........it's Photoshop.

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Sibel Edmonds: "I have one message for the US media: If they think this is over, it's not over."

luke ryland interviews sibel...

Luke Ryland: Why has the US failed on this story so dramatically for 6 years?

Sibel Edmonds: [...] With the US media, it appears as though if there is no clear partisan angle, then there's no story. As you know, this case is spread over two administrations, and that appears to make it difficult for the reporters to cover the story. Even within one news organization you might have one journalist who wants to use the story to indict Clinton, and another who wants to use the story to bash Bush, and in the end neither of them write about the story because it doesn't fit their partisanship, their 'narrative', so they just drop it altogether.

I had such high hopes for the alternative press, and they do a lot of good work, but partisanship repeatedly gets in the way there too, on both sides.

[...]

The other major problem in the US is the focus on symptoms, rather than root causes.

[...]

I have one message for the US media: If they think this is over, it's not over. Much more will come out. They won't be able to ignore it any longer, and so I hope they get over any reluctance they might have.

sibel articulates my own view of the alternative press and the so-called "liberal," "progressive" blogosphere in both of her accusations, partisanship AND looking at symptoms rather than causes...

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Glenn Greenwald discovers the REAL Bill Clinton

and about damn time, too...

I've thought most of the criticisms of the Clintons' campaign, including the role played by Bill, have been overblown. Given the standard level of campaign rhetoric, and particularly considering the bile that will be launched towards Obama from the currently pro-Obama right-wing noise machine if he's the nominee, most of the "controversial" comments have been rather mild, standard election fare, generating interest primarily because it was coming from the Clintons.

Beyond that, it seemed most of the efforts to inject dramatic racial conflict into the contest were media-driven rather than an intentional Clinton strategy. And all of the grave concern over how Bill Clinton is sullying the majestic glory of his status as an ex-president -- all because he is, as anyone would, actively and aggressively campaigning for his spouse -- has struck me as silly and slightly pompous.

But the last few days have changed my view on those matters substantially. The Clintons' strategy has become increasingly trashy, even ugly, and yesterday's remarks by Bill Clinton -- in which he pointedly compared Obama's candidacy to Jesse Jackson's and thus implicitly (though clearly) dismissed South Carolina as a state where the "black candidate" wins, followed up by the Clinton campaign's anonymous branding of Obama as "the black candidate" -- reeked of desperation.

when bill clinton was running for his first term, i had an immediate and visceral gut reaction when he first began to appear as a strong candidate on the national scene, and it was not a positive reaction... to this day, i still can't put it into words or make real sense out of it... terms like "slick willy," and "too smooth" come to mind, but still don't really capture it... however, i was convinced by my first cousin's husband, an accomplished attorney and a southern democrat, that clinton was the man to support, and i reluctantly jumped on the bandwagon...

life during the 8 years of bill's reign was at least ok, if not great, but i remained uncomfortable and there remained a strong underlying suspicion that, at some level, the american people were being sold out just as effectively as we were under george h.w., altho', in grand democratic tradition and in contrast to the r's, there was at least no sand in the vaseline...

hindsight is a wonderful thing... as i look back on bill's tenure, i now see clearly the many ways that he took america to the cleaners, from nafta to the quiet and inexorable seizing of ever more executive power... i see how we were craftily led down the economic and financial rabbit hole, a descent that is paying its horrible dividends today... and, as if to cement my concerns, i've watched in fascinated horror at the blooming, but, i suspect, far from new, love fest between bill and george h.w...

given bill's role in his wife's campaign, and given his wife's noxious roll of national security and foreign policy advisors, to say nothing of her despicable campaign manager, mark penn, i believe the only thing worse for the united states than a hillary presidency would be another republican president... bill and hillary are a team aligned with dark forces and, as a country, we are long overdue in recognizing that fact...

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The campaign satellite tour, circa 1992

barbara bush and the big dog...

from brasscheck tv...

Behind the scenes from Propaganda USA Inc.

Footage you weren't supposed to see.

Politicians at work. Mama Bush pimping for George Sr.

Plus a Bill Clinton bonus.

btw, the big dog walked through a flood-damaged neighborhood near here in fernley yesterday, since he happened to be in the area, stumping for hillary... i don't like the man and i don't trust him as far as i can throw him, but, credit where credit is due... it was a demonstration of personal connection and compassion that i seriously believe george bush is incapable of...

Beneath a bone-chilling fog, former President Clinton wandered the muddy streets of Fernley on Sunday afternoon, surveying the damage from the Jan. 5 levee break.

It was a brief stop on the road between campaign rallies for his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton. But his mood reflected the grimness of the disaster scene before him.

With a stiff jaw, he scraped the muck from his boots before walking into the ruined home of Susan Camp.

"Sir, you don't have to wipe your feet," her son, Brad, said as the former president stood in the doorway.

"Of course I do," Clinton answered.

[...]

"I wanted to see the damage and express my support," Clinton said. "Disaster management response is one of the most important things a government can do. If you do it well, people feel that they are a part of our country--wherever they live, whatever the politics are, whatever the income is.

"And if you don't, people feel profoundly let down."

you don't think he had any particular thing in mind when he said that, do ya...? nah...

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Accountability under Hillary? Not a chance!

when i posted on this ridiculousness earlier, this major implication escaped me... robert parry sets me straight...

“The first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again,” said Bill Clinton, who has accompanied the senior Bush on international humanitarian missions over the past several years.

What was perhaps most stunning about the remark was its assumption that Americans would be impressed that the country’s two dominant political dynasties would team up in early 2009 to tidy up some of the mess created by the headstrong son of the senior dynasty, the Bush Family.

The Bushes and the Clintons – who have held pieces of the nation’s executive power for more than a quarter century dating back to George H.W. Bush’s election as Vice President in 1980 – essentially would be keeping matters within the board rooms of the Washington Establishment.

In responding to Bill Clinton’s remark, George H.W. Bush issued a statement making clear he would not join in any slap at his son’s foreign policy. That also means Hillary Clinton’s “first thing” is unthinkable if her new administration were trying to exact any accountability from George W. Bush for his wrongdoing.

So, to get the senior Bush’s cooperation on the worldwide tour, there would have to be an implicit understanding that the second Clinton administration wouldn’t investigate the younger Bush’s crimes – from authorizing torture, ordering warrantless wiretaps, exposing CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity, waging war under false pretenses and other abuses of executive powers.

yeah, it simply hadn't occurred to me that hrc was signaling that accountability wasn't on her agenda if she becomes president, but that interpretation makes perfectly good sense... when bill and george h.w. teamed up after the tsunami, i scratched my head, but chalked it up to two former presidents trying to do the right thing, but, after they kept it up and had clearly become best buds, i began to see them as cut out of the same cloth, which, i have come to understand, is absolutely the correct view...

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HRC problem solved... She can't be elected for a 3d term...

i don't want another term for EITHER of 'em...

Both Clintons are making the case that theirs was a co-presidency -- an echo of Bill Clinton's controversial statement during the 1992 campaign that voters would get "two for the price of one" if they elected him. At times, the former president has seemed to cast the current race as a referendum on his administration.

great... if they were co-presidents, then hrc has already served two 4-year terms and cannot run again... problem solved...

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Mukasey wipes out Gonzo's White House/DOJ communication free-for-all

remember when senator sheldon whitehouse introduced this, the difference between white house/department of justice communication protocol under clinton vs. george bush, back at the senate judiciary committee hearing with gonzo on april 19...?



well, mukasey is putting a stop to that crap... i'm no mukasey fan, but this is about damn time...

In a memo Wednesday to department lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that only he and his deputy attorney general can initiate conversations with the White House about civil and most criminal cases — and then only to the president's counsel and deputy counsel. Only cases deemed necessary to the president's duties can be discussed, Mukasey said.

"This limitation recognizes the president's ability to perform his constitutional obligation to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed' while ensuring that there is public confidence that the laws of the United States are administered and enforced in an impartial manner," Mukasey wrote in the two-page memo.

that's four - count 'em, four - people total in doj and the white house who can talk to each other about civil and criminal cases... eat shit, gonzo...

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If Bill is hoping to reassure us about HRC, THIS sure as hell doesn't do the job

ofercryinoutloud...

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president — Bush's son, George W. Bush.

look... let me be completely clear... i have absolutely no intention of either supporting or voting for hrc... i think her damn husband was damn near as complicit in the mess this country is in as has been george bush and his despicable father, although admittedly bill did it with a lot more grace, charisma, and schmooz-ability... but bill and george h.w. engaging in an around-the-world mission to restore america's reputation...? she-e-e-e-e-it, vern... just THINKING about it gives me the creeps... talk about sending two foxes out to repair the damage done to the henhouse... bill has REALLY got to think we're complete MORONS to buy that load of bollocks... bill AND george h.w. AND hrc can quietly but firmly place it in that unsanitary repository where the sun does not shine...

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Time for a re-post on Mark Penn, HRC's Karl Rove

as hrc seems to be taking a hard turn toward the nasty, now hurling both ridicule and accusation - mostly in obama's direction - i think it's time to repost the item i put up back at the end of this past april that provides a wee bit of detailed background on the man i increasingly think of as hrc's karl rove, mark penn...

from the wapo...

In the four months since Clinton officially became a candidate, [Mark J. Penn] has consolidated his power, according to advisers close to the campaign, taking increasing control of the operation. Armed with voluminous data that he collects through his private polling firm, Penn has become involved in virtually every move Clinton makes, with the result that the campaign reflects the chief strategist as much as the candidate.

If Clinton seems cautious, it may be because Penn has made caution a science, repeatedly testing issues to determine which ones are safe and widely agreed upon (he was part of the team that encouraged Clinton's husband to run on the issue of school uniforms in 1996).

If Clinton sounds middle-of-the-road, it may be because Penn is a longtime pollster for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council whose clients have included Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).

If Clinton resembles a Washington insider with close ties to the party's biggest donors, it may be because her lead strategist is a wealthy chief executive who heads a giant public relations firm, where he personally hones Microsoft's image in Washington.

And if some opponents see Clinton as arrogant, her campaign a coronation rather than a grass-roots movement, it may be because of the numbers wizard guiding her campaign and the PowerPoint presentations he likes to give on the inevitability of his candidate.

markos, atrios, david sirota, and many other bloggers working feverishly for the grassroots/netroots/unwashed masses have cited case after case of the stupendously arrogant, elitist, inside-the-beltway, dlc-anointed, democratic campaign consultants that are so pathetically out of touch with the real democratic/progressive base... today's wapo offers up the quintessential profile of one of those very folks, and then tries to make it look like hillary is passively acquiescent while he calls all the shots... i say bullshit... he's there because she wants him there... the first part of the article talks about how gore fired him from his 2000 campaign for all of the same reasons hillary apparently wants him...

fine, hillary,,, you're the candidate... you're the one that wants to be president... you choose the campaign staff you want... just don't come calling on me to vote for you...

p.s. penn's firm, penn, schoen & burland, is owned by burson-marsteller, and guess who's burson's ceo...? and guess what's featured on burson's home page...?

Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn discusses the Internet's affect on U.S. campaign politics on Council of PR Firms' podcast [mp3]

from penn's burson-marsteller bio...

Mark Penn is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and President of Penn, Schoen and Berland. As CEO of Burson-Marsteller, Mr. Penn oversees a global network of 94 offices and 1600 employees that brings world-class public relations to companies around the world. As President of PSB, a position he has held since 1975 when he was an undergraduate at Harvard, Mr. Penn focuses on providing research-based communications strategy to political figures, corporations and crisis situations.

Mr. Penn has been called "Master of the Message" by Time Magazine; "The king of polls" by the London Times; and an "incandescent intellect" by the New York Times. On his wall are notes saying "you were brilliant" from Tony Blair after his historic third win and "thanks" from Bill Clinton after his impeachment acquittal along with photos of Penn working with CEOs including Bill Gates and Bill Ford, Jr. The Washington Post, in "Politics and Policy by the Numbers" summed up his influence in the White House and the corporate boardroom as a "unique vantage point: adviser to the preeminent innovator of the past decade in the realm of politics, Bill Clinton, and the preeminent innovator in the realm of business and technology, Bill Gates."

just the kind of guy to be advising hillary about how to relate to the electorate in the 2008 campaign, the most critical presidential election in the history of the united states...

hrc sold her soul a very long time ago... whether mark penn holds the marker is immaterial... she has a person like mark penn working for her because she's that kind of person herself... period...

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David Sirota and The Who on Hillary - "Meet the new boss..."

there's no way our country can afford to be fooled again...

from david sirota via daily kos...



i have to confess... i supported nafta, and, in fact, used the nafta debate that was happening at the time as the basis for a negotiation simulation in a class i was teaching in international management... it's just a perfect example of how, as every single year passes, i look back on the previous year and marvel at how much i have learned and grown...

what i supported about nafta was precisely what it was NOT intended to accomplish, which was, in my naive world view of the time, to help blur artificial national boundaries and bring people closer together... i find it amazing that, in hindsight, i couldn't see it for the naked ploy it was, a scheme for the rich to get richer on the backs of everyone else, regardless of race, creed, color, religious belief, or nationality...

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