Dump Obama

[TheBlackList News]

By Michael Phillips ~

 

We had such great expectations when we elected Obama. He filled us with the audacity of hope. He had not only the enthusiastic support of American people, but the whole world. Obama is very intelligent, eloquent and charismatic. What good is it for the president to be very intelligent, eloquent, charismatic and black like me, but act like George Bush? Obama has been stringing us along while carrying out Republican policies. According to the Bible, “ By their fruits ye shall know them”. Well that Democratic tree has been bearing Republican fruits.

 

But despite our hopes, he has proceeded to ignore true Democrats. Republicans should be ecstatic with him. For he has continued most of the notorious George Bush atrocities and followed Republican policies which would have done McCain proud, such as:

• He has failed to end the Iraq war, with over US 50,000 troops still there and thousands of ‘private security contractors (mercenaries), whose numbers continue to increase.
• He increased troops in Afghanistan completely ignoring thousands of petitions against that escalation from an array of groups who had worked tirelessly to elect him.
• Instead of stopping wars, he has gone beyond the middle east to start war in Africa, by bombing Libya. 
• He continues to use drone aircraft to bomb civilians in much greater numbers than George Bush ever did in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and now Libya.
• He was silent as Israel heaped terror on innocent men, women and children of Gaza, by bombing schools, hospitals, homes and trying to starve them out by blockade.
• He continued George Bush’s tax breaks for the rich while the middle class faces economic meltdown
• He is knee-deep in wall street millionaires
• He intervened to keep Democratic traitor Joe Lieberman as senate chairman
• He has not intervened to stop or influence the resignation of his loyal impressive supporter Anthony van Jones as  as special adviser for green jobs for the Council on Environmental Quality
• He promised to close Guantanamo but has officially abandoned that idea
• He did not intervene to stop or influence the resignation of White House Counsel Greg Craig, described as the “hero of Guantanamo” for his pivotal role in urging the president to announce the closing of that hellhole.
• Prisoners are still held illegally( including some who are known to be innocent) in Guantanamo without trial for more than 9 years.
• Prisoners in Guantanamo will not face the justice of American courts, but will face the kangaroo courts of military tribunals.
• As a candidate, he championed the cause of government transparency, and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers, but has stripped away their protection and has used ‘nationa security leaks’ as a pretext to ruthlessly intimidate, silence and prosecute whistle-blowers. He has been using the Espionage Act this way for such prosecutions more than all previous Administrations combined.
• He did not intervene to stop the inhuman treatment of Wikileaks whistle- blower Bradley Manning, who has not been found guilty of any crime, but he has been kept in solitary confinement, often in the nude nightly and sleep deprived,  for over a year.
• He had State Department spokesman PJ Crowley fired for describing the inhuman conditions under which Bradley Manning was being held as “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.”
• He did not allow the UN to visit Bradley Manning in response to the inhumane confinement conditions report.
• He blocks every attempt to try  war criminals Bush, Cheney and others
• He refused to ban extreme rendition
• He is vague on torture or prosecuting for torture
• He opposed the return of Haiti’s legitimate president Aristide from the US imposed exile in South Africa
• He renewed the illegal embargo on Cuba
• He has signed an agreement for American troops of intimidation to occupy Columbian army bases
• He has announced that like George Bush he will not sign a treaty on global warming
• He reneged on his support for single payer healthcare plan for some convoluted plan, which though an improvement,  will be a financial bonanza for insurance companies, burden the public coffers and still leave millions uninsured.
• He forgave illegal wiretapping of American citizens
• He made no move to stop or influence the stripping of federal funds from Acorn without any real investigation of acts committed by a couple part time employees who were not representative of  that great advocate of the poor.
• Acorn was destroyed while Blackwater, charged with crimes ranging from murder, illegal arms smuggling, and child prostitution and also expelled by the Iraq government, continues to draw more than $174 million in "security services" alone in Iraq and Afghanistan and tens of millions more in "aviation services".
• He named no real progressives to his cabinet or as close advisors
• He has avoided black leaders like the plague, even those like Cornel West, who campaigned 65 times for him in his successful presidential bid.
• He has refused to sign the international treaty  banning landmines.
• His Supreme Court nominees voted for warrantless searches by police in recent Kentucky ruling.
• He refused to send a US rep to the 2009 World Conference Against Racism held in Geneva, Switzerland.

He often quoted FDR ‘elect me president and make me do it’. We liberals thought he was referring to us. We did not realize that message was intended for Republicans because they made him do their bidding. On the other hand, we liberals instead get insulted by his cronies like his Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates by calling us ‘professional left’. Even worse, his former  henchman Chief-of-Staff, Rahm Emanuel, now mayor of Chicago, referred to us as f….king retards. Nope this did not come from some Tea Party zealot, but Rahm Emanuel! I feel so betrayed.

With four more years under Obama, more wars are inevitable and medicare, social security and more civil liberties will be in grave danger. He is in the pocket of Wall Street and Republicans. Obama has betrayed Democratic principles. He does not deserve to be the Democratic nominee for president for the next election. If George Bush had done the things Obama has done, we would be outraged. Let Obama run as the Republican he is. But let us seek and nominate a real Democrat to be the next president of the USA.Let us face it, we thought we were getting Thurgood Marshall but we got Clarence Thomas instead.

Michael Phillips,
Editor, Hot Calaloo
http://www.hotcalaloo.com

Author, Boycott Money and Save Your Soul
- Launching The Goodwill Revolution".
http://www.goodwillie.org

 

"Bring Our War $$$ Home" - Codepink