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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Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party

when this story first surfaced yesterday, i read it and shrugged... today, i took a closer look...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

here's what the justice party says it's all about...

The Justice Party seeks governing authority at the local, state, Congressional and national levels, beginning in the 2012 election cycle. The Justice Party is being created as a new 21st -century political vehicle to allow all citizens to work together to bring innovative results-oriented, justice-based solutions to the political debate as soon as possible.

Rocky Anderson, the former Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, delivered an address explaining why the Justice Party is needed at this critical juncture in U.S. history to rapidly achieve economic, social, and environmental justice.

and more...

Courageous Americans are joining together to create the Justice Party. Our intention is for the Justice Party to serve as a major new political party that will shape American politics in the public interest for decades to come. We seek governing authority at the local, state, Congressional, and national levels, starting in 2012 Election. We believe in the following core principles, namely:

• We are patriots. We believe in the greatness of America’s national ideals. We believe America has an indispensable purpose in the World: to demonstrate, by example, the power of peace, freedom, equal opportunity, and justice for all;
  
• We are dedicated to bringing integrity to the intentions of founding documents of our nation: including the Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We are dedicated to advancing justice, peace, and freedom. America was founded in freedom—freedom to speak, to worship, to choose whatever path to happiness suits us best—but that freedom comes an equal responsibility to country, community, family, and the World.
  
• We believe that justice-based values are what enable a free and just society to regain its strength. These values are: pragmatism tied to principle, honest and integrity, hard work and personal initiative, self-sacrifice and self-discipline, fairness and compassion, competitive striving and fair play, and a desire to serve the nation and advance justice in solidarity with the rest of the World.
  
• We believe that we should measure the nation’s progress by whether every citizen has a fair shot. We believe that all citizens should have the opportunity to advance on the basis of talent and merit, and by the degree to which we promote the common success of all of our citizens. Additionally, we believe that we should measure the nation’s progress towards addressing complex global challenges, including disease, illiteracy, climate change, poverty, and strategic insecurities as central priorities towards advancing America’s moral leadership.
  
• We believe that we should measure a citizen’s worth by contribution to country and community, not by wealth or power—that those whom America has benefited most should contribute in proportion to their good fortune—and that serving others should be esteemed more highly than serving self.

i have to confess... even the mere hint of a viable alternative to our present completely corrupted, dysfunctional two-party system captures my attention...

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Neglected cities? Damaged cities? Who else but George Bush...

something i didn't realize, partially as a result of not watching any of the presidential candidate debates, but also because i am not focused at all on urban issues, is that those issues, to date, have not been addressed in any of the debates... the drum major institute in cooperation with the nation magazine, i found out thanks to alternet, has done a video survey of ten big-city mayors in an attempt to address that gap... here's salt lake city's rocky anderson, as posted on mayor.tv...



there's a full article about the project in the 14 december edition of the nyt...

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