What lies did Obama tell us just to get the top job at the Whitehouse? These are the lies that I hope Obama told us:

• I hope that he lied about increasing the military defence spending.
  
• I hope he lied about "curbing Russian aggression"
  
• I hope he lied about sending more troops to Afghanistan.
  

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Originally posted by wage zombie:
Is this thread limited to explicit lies, or are we also counting failure to tell the truth?

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Originally posted by Jacob Two-Two:
Promises aren't going to mean a lot, for good or for ill. The next four years will be so overwhelmingly about crisis management that there will be no choice but to make policy on the fly. This will create opportunities for radical changes that wouldn't be possible in secure times.

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Obama can't govern from the left. The objective conditions facing American capitalism today don't allow it.

America may be facing the worst economic crisis since the great depression, but it isn't as bad as the 1930's, at least not yet. There are two main factors keeping the US economy out of a 1930's style depression at the moment: millitary spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (as part of the balooning millitary-industial complex); and the security industrial complex that has arisen since 9-11, and which is authorized by the Patriot Act. Remove the US from Iraq and Afghanistan, or repeal the patriot act, and America's economy tanks further, and fast.

So Obama can't tack left by Withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, and repealing the patriot act. He also can't tack left by instigating new social programs, because this could bankrupt the US, unless he withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan. But that sends the US economy into a 1930's style depression, government revenues shrink substantially, and the US still faces bankrutcy. Not to mention that Obama would lose all credibility, and voters would rush back to the Republicans in droves.

The US can't stave off total economic collapse indefinitely. The tendency in capitalism is for the average rate of profit to decline over time, unless new markets can be found for capitalism to exploit. In every previous historical period where the average rate of profit has declined, capitalism has found new markets which to exploit. Today however, there are no new markets to exploit. There may still be parts of the world that are underdeveloped, but environmental degradation and global warming are pushing our planet towards it's limit in it's ability to sustain life. I don't see the current decline in the average rate of profit being reversed.

Only a third world war could create new markets, by destroying old markets, but the US has not the money to launch a third world war.

I can't predict exactly when it will hit, and it may be a ways off yet, But I do believe that eventually, the US will find itself facing bankruptcy. At this point, two possibilities emerge. The first possibility is that the US is bailed out by the IMF, and pawns off all remaining social programs in order to try and save it's failed capitalist system. The second possibility is that the IMF itself becomes insolvent, due to no longer being funded by the US, in which case the IMF can't bail out the US, and the US goes bankrupt. At this point, any country can legally try and annex the US under international law.

Obama won't take any actions that will hasten the downfall of the US empire.

Of course, there is a third alternative that could emerge out of all of this: Socialism. The inevitable failure of American, and then global, capitalism, represents the greatest opportunity for socialists since 1917. The key will be to convince enough of our planet's citizens to make it happen. And making socialism happen may be the only thing that can save our civilization from destroying all life on earth.

[ 06 November 2008: Message edited by: Left Turn ]

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If you are incapable of mustering pride in this moment, and if you cannot appreciate how meaningful this day is for millions of black folks who stood in lines for up to seven hours to vote, then your cynicism has become such an encumbrance as to render you all but useless to the liberation movement. Indeed, those who cannot appreciate what has just transpired are so eaten up with nihilistic rage and hopelessness that I cannot but think that they are a waste of carbon, and actively thieving oxygen that could be put to better use by others.

This election does indeed matter. No, it is not the same as victory against the forces of injustice, and yes, Obama is a heavily compromised candidate, and yes, we will have to work hard to hold him accountable. But it matters nonetheless that he, and not the bloodthirsty bomber McCain, or the Christo-fascist, Palin, managed to emerge victorious.

Those who say it doesn’t matter weren’t with me on the south side of Chicago this past week, surrounded by a collection of amazing community organizers who go out and do the hard work every day of trying to help create a way out of no way for the marginalized. All of them know that an election is but a part of the solution, a tactic really, in a larger struggle of which they are a daily part; and none of them are so naive as to think that their jobs are now to become a cakewalk because of the election of Barack Obama. But all of them were looking forward to this moment. They haven’t the luxury of believing in the quixotic campaigns of Dennis Kucinich, or waiting around for the Green Party to get its act together and become something other than a pathetic caricature, symbolized by the utterly irrelevant and increasingly narcissistic presence of Ralph Nader on the electoral scene. And while Cynthia McKinney remains a pivotal figure in the struggle, the party to which she was tethered this year shows no more ability to sustain movement activity than it was eight years ago, and most everyone working in oppressed communities in this nation knows it.

(snip)

So let us be clear as to what tonight meant:

It was a defeat for the right-wing echo chamber and its rhetorical stormtroopers, foremost among them Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

It was a defeat for the crazed mobs ever-present at McCain/Palin rallies, what with their venomous libels against Obama, their hate-addled brains spewing forth one after another racist and religiously chauvinistic calumny upon his head and those of his supporters.

(snip)

It was a defeat for the demagogues who tried in so many ways to push the buttons of white racism–the old-fashioned kind, or what I call Racism 1.0–by using thinly-veiled racialized language throughout the campaign. Appeals to Joe Six-Pack, “values voters,” blue-collar voters, or hockey moms, though never explicitly racialized, were transparent to all but the most obtuse, as were terms like “terrorist” when used to describe Obama. Likewise, the attempt to race-bait the economic crisis by blaming it on loans to poor folks of color through the Community Reinvestment Act, or community activists like the folks at ACORN, failed, and this matters. No, it doesn’t mean that white America has rejected racism. Indeed, I have been quite deliberate for months about pointing out the way that racism 1.0 may be traded in only to be replaced by racism 2.0 (which allows whites to still view most folks of color negatively but carve out exceptions for those few who make us feel comfortable and who we see as “different”). And yet, that tonight was a drubbing for that 1.0 version of racism still matters.

(snip)

And so it is back to work. Oh yes, we can savor the moment for a while, for a few days, perhaps a week. But well before inauguration day we will need to be back on the job, in the community, in the streets, where democracy is made, demanding equity and justice in places where it hasn’t been seen in decades, if ever. Because for all the talk of hope and change, there is nothing–absolutely, positively nothing–about real change that is inevitable. And hope, absent real pressure and forward motion to actualize one’s dreams, is sterile and even dangerous. Hope, absent commitment is the enemy of change, capable of translating to a giving away of one’s agency, to a relinquishing of the need to do more than just show up every few years and push a button or pull a lever.

This means hooking up now with the grass roots organizations in the communities where we live, prioritizing their struggles, joining and serving with their constituents, following leaders grounded in the community who are accountable not to Barack Obama, but the people who helped elect him. Let Obama follow, while the people lead, in other words.

For we who are white it means going back into our white spaces and challenging our brothers and sisters, parents, neighbors, colleagues and friends–and ourselves–on the racial biases that still too often permeate their and our lives, and making sure they know that the success of one man of color does not equate to the eradication of systemic racial inequity.

So are we ready for the heavy lifting? This was, after all, merely the warmup exercise, somewhat akin to stretching before a really long run. Or perhaps it was the first lap, but either way, now the baton has been handed to you, to us. We must not, cannot, afford to drop it. There is too much at stake.

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So Obama can't tack left by Withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, and repealing the patriot act. He also can't tack left by instigating new social programs, because this could bankrupt the US, unless he withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan. But that sends the US economy into a 1930's style depression, government revenues shrink substantially, and the US still faces bankrutcy. Not to mention that Obama would lose all credibility, and voters would rush back to the Republicans in droves.

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Originally posted by johnpauljones:
While this is not a lie I wonder how the middle east will feel now that Rahm Emanuel will be the chief of staff. Those who thought they would get a change in approach to the middle east are mistaken.

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Originally posted by Fidel:
I imagine once his handlers explain to him how Canada's Liberal government sold us down the Mississippi with that one, Obama will put renegotiation of SHAFTA on the back burner

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NAFTA-bashing in the US is just politically correct Mexico-bashing. The vast majority of Americans were unaware that they had free trade with Canada pre-NAFTA and have no problem with it continuing.

NAFTA renegotiation for the Democrats means imposing better environmental and labour standards on the Mexicans, which is fine with me.

[ 06 November 2008: Message edited by: brookmere ]

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Originally posted by Left Turn:
There are two main factors keeping the US economy out of a 1930's style depression at the moment: millitary spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (as part of the balooning millitary-industial complex); and the security industrial complex that has arisen since 9-11, and which is authorized by the Patriot Act. Remove the US from Iraq and Afghanistan, or repeal the patriot act, and America's economy tanks further, and fast.

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Go here for details.

Back to Obama and the lies his supporters told you ...

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Early clues, however, suggest that Barack Obama’s administration will prove unlikely to alter the fundamental political machinery that has led us into war and economic turmoil. Below is a brief summary of Obama’s potential choices for a few key roles in his administration.

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Originally posted by bigcitygal:
Tim Wise on the Obama victory:

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Tim Wise goes well 'over the top' in issuing highly counterproductive and inflammatory categorical denunciations of anyone who has severe misgivings about the irrational jubilation being expressed by progressives over the election of Barack Obama, most of whose major stated policy positions as a candidate were decidedly UN-progressive.

In vindictive and self-centered denunciation of legitimate progressive viewpoints that do not happen to conform with his own, Mr. Wise graces us with such edifying thoughts as "those who cannot appreciate what has just transpired are so eaten up with nihilistic rage and hopelessness that I cannot but think that they are a waste of carbon, and actively thieving oxygen that could be put to better use by others", and he actually directly addresses these people, whom he has so narrow-mindedly pigeonholed, according to his own narrow and self-centric perspective, with the crude epithet, "Screw You". With all due respect to Mr. Wise, and the overwrought jubilation he is obviously feeling, this kind of self-important, self-serving rhetoric can only be divisive, and will only serve to inhibit our efforts, as progressives, to find the means to create ongoing organizational unity.

It is no surprise that Mr. Wise, who is identified in the brief bio that accompanies his article as an "anti-racist activist", would offer a largely race-based perspective. There is certainly no harm in that, in and of itself. I hold a great deal of respect for that perspective. But Mr. Wise feels compelled to go far beyond expressing his jubilation, to include a vindictive denunciation of anyone who is looking past this one narrow aspect of the implications of Obama's election.

If we look at what is happening from the post-racial perspective that Barack Obama himself promoted, we might see that beyond the 'victory' that some feel, in that a mixed-race African American has been elected president, Barack Obama has not represented himself as 'progressive' in the most important and defining major policy positions he has established.

In an election cycle that was almost totally focused on 'narrative', and 'character', rather than substance, Mr. Wise categorically denounces, (as nihilists, and with other inflammatory epithets, as well as his provocative "screw you"), those who have looked past the foolishly short-sighted bamboozlement of 'narrative over substance'. Anyone who is willing to maintain Reason in the face of the widespread irrational jubilation we are witnessing, anyone who is willing to look beyond narrative to the actual issues themselves, has every reason to be alarmed, and the irrational exuberance being expressed by so many comprises a significant area of concern in itself. Mr. Wise even goes so far as to castigate anyone who is not participating enthusiastically in this foolish exercise in willfully ignoring reality with his inflammatory denunciations.

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[ 06 November 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

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President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.

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The more we learn the more it appears the O-Bomb-Iran presidency was the ordained continuation of the Bush presidency

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It is a frightening notion, but it is not just the trigger-happy Bush administration discussing — if only theoretically — the possibility of military action to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

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Obama will NOT:
- help American change to renewable energy and electric cars;
- regulate dangerous and harmfull chemicals [Bisphenol A, Phthalates are in the news lately]
- end the destructive trade practices such as cotten subsidies that hurts Africa so much
- stabilise, much less reduce, greenhouse gas emissions.
- end "the occupation" of Iraq [although he will get most of the troops out of Iraq in the first year or two].

Bush seemed like a powerfull president who could and would do anything he felt like, but only because all that stuff he did was what the "elites" wanted him to do.

You are right their are those on this board who have critisized Obama but you know what this is not the only board out there.

many in the left have been fronting obama as the second coming to stop all of the evils of the USA.

It is funny how now many are suddenly against him both on the blog sphere and msm

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Originally posted by miles:
I am actually loving the commentary from the left. Suddenly many have figured out what many of us have known from day 1. Obama is nothing more that bush light

People get what they deserve. the savior, the saint the second coming of the son of the lord is a fraud

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I am actually loving this commentary from the left based on generalize psychic predictions of what the guy is going to do and some sort of generalized understanding of what the generalized left has been generally and supposedly saying about Obama, that generally and suddenly those general people 'on the left' have supposedly been figuring out now. As well I'm enjoying this generalized clubish and chumminess of those on the left who delve into this generalized self congratulatory commentating of being so much better and smarter then everyone else on the generalized left, who generally and 'supposedly' have been saying or are still supposedly and generally saying, that he's some sort of goddamn savior of the world. Which actually is a meme that came from the generalized right, not the generalized left, but then who am I to generalize peoples general comments.

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Originally posted by ElizaQ:
Generally, also, you betcha.

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Originally posted by ElizaQ:
Generally, also, you betcha.

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