We Halve a Dream
On this holiday in the era of “Hoping for Change”, Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has not been realized and I’d venture that far fewer than half of changes King proposed for a more equitable society are even on the table for consideration. King did not just want a country where people of different ethic backgrounds would treat each other kindly, he wanted Justice. He knew that integration alone would not solve the gross inequalities he saw all around. He wanted a country where the playing field was truly level and the benefits of society could be enjoyed by all and not just a privileged few. He wanted a country where the poor were not used as fodder for the war machine which robs us all of our means of sustenance and our basic human decency. He wanted a country where the people didn’t simply defer to the leaders who sought to perpetuate inequalities, but stood up on their hind legs and challenged them through disobedience .
So while we may have elected – and I say “may” because who really knows who has won any election in recent years when the votes are cast on machines whose results can’t be verified – the first black president of this country, this president has used his great power to continue shoveling the wealth of a nation to the same wealthy, predominately white oligarchs who have enjoyed the fruits of others’ labor for generations.
End the wars in the Middle East? Still have more to start first Obama tells us.
Justice for those in the previous administration who left the Constitution in tatters? Better to move on Obama tells us.
A national health care plan that covers everybody equally? Just not possible in this country Obama tells us.
Aid to the poor and downtrodden? Not until we’ve taken care of the bankers first and that’s going to take some time Obama tells us.
If I have to hear this man on the TV later tonight invoking the name of Martin Luther King Jr. for any reason whatsoever I think I’m going to puke.
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CEPHALOBLOG 
Missed this one when it first came out. Here’s Helen Thomas having the temerity to actually ask our leaders “Why do they hate us?”.
She didn’t get an answer, but on a related note, maybe, just maybe, things like this are why. I was a bit incredulous when reading that piece that Obama would really task W and Bubba with bringing aid to Haiti since the two of them and Poppy had done so much to make sure democracy would not take hold in that nation. Looked around a little bit and yup, it’s true.
Brings to mind the quote I saw from Malcolm X in this Chris Hedges piece on MLK today – Turning King’s Dream Into a Nightmare.
Except that’s exactly what the US is trying to do in Haiti and in so many other places where the US is “helping”. And yet so many still wonder why they hate us.
The Harper’s subscribers among our vast readership may have already seen this piece about Aafia Siddiqui who is facing attempted murder charges in conjunction with the war on terra, but Counterpunch has reprinted it today as Siddiqui’s trial begins this week and I think it bears repeating. This is truly one of the most bizarre stories I have seen in quite some time and you have to read the whole thing to really get the flavor of it. There are so many contradictory accounts that nobody seems to know exactly what happened to this woman or where she’s been or whether she ever pulled a gun on anyone, or if they do they aren’t talking. This snippet sums the story up well:
Hmm. Rachel Maddow is stealing my comments for her show ideas again – on Hatian debt today.
I’ve warned her aobut this a couple times now.
Ha! Maddow and I are tight. She signed a book for me once. I’ll see what I can do :P
Oh, this is good. I love Taibbi.
Wow. Wow.
Awesome Taibbitude there. He slayed Brooks and rightly so.
That was sweet. Thanks for starting the morning off with a chuckle.
Here’s some more funny stuff in case anyone missed it. Hadn’t been following the details of the Mass special senate election except to see that Coakley was falling behind. Jon Stewart gave some details last night and then ripped the Dems a new one.
Really????? She didn’t know Curt Schilling was a Red Sox player and thought he was a Yankee? The guy who pitched probably the most famous game in the Boston area in the last 100 fucking years????? And her campaign can’t even spell the name of the state right in her own TV ads????!?!?!?!
Stewart was hilarious. “Lower the bar for Democrats? How about if we just lay it on the ground so you can trip over it?”
I thought the most telling quote from Coakley was when she said what do expect me to do? Stand outside Fenway park in the rain and shake hands?
Yeah, dumbshit, and if need be twirl a baton, wear a chicken suit, sing happy birthday. Sounds like she really deserves to lose, although probably not as much as Brown. I still would love to see her win just to jam it in the faces of all these pundits.
From Stewart’s clip at least it sounds like she’s barely interested in running. Having been to Fenway on numerous occasions, it’s not as if it’s just a bunch of drunken locals hanging around outside – people love the Red Sox and EVERYBODY goes to those games, not just from all over the state but from all over New England and beyond. The new ownership has gone to great lengths to advertise the team and has practically gift wrapped Fenway as the perfect place for any politician from the area who might be looking to do a little meet and greet. Dumbshit indeed.
Nice post. Obama did make a speech and not only invoked MLK but compared himself to him, chastising those who would want more change than he was able to give, just like the kumquats chastising some people for wanting their pony. Obama tried to wrap himself in a flag of humility and humanity with his ever eloquent words, but compared to the actions, many noted in your post, they are ever empty rhetoric.
I’ve been out of commission with illness for a few days and I have to go out for the next few days and earn my keep. I’ll check in when I can. Thanks for posting a new one.
Figures. All these clowns who conveniently forget what the man actually said still like to wrap themselves up in a little MLK once a year.
Sounds like Obama and the demotards may have another excuse to throw at people who thought we might have some changes after that special election in Mass today.
Glad to hear you’re feeling better.
This article caught my eye for a couple reasons.
First in touches on the jellyfish population expanding due to global warming which is something that’s been documented for a while but you don’t really hear much about.
Second, it brings up one more attempt by our leadership to sell us down the river regarding an amendment vote coming up this week.
Have to keep an eye out to see how this one goes. But considering the ineptitude of the Dems, I suspect this amendment which Reid was probably not even required to allow a vote on will pass with the help of the Blue Dog types.
More lawlessness – FBI broke law for years in phone record searches.
So they broke the law and the Justice Department knows it. What are they going to do about it? Read a little further and we get the obligatory “9-11 changed everything” reference to make sure people know that although laws were broken it was for their own good, and then later there’s a vague assurance that the FBI isn’t doing the bad stuff anymore.
That being the case, my guess is that nobody is going to do jack about holding the lawbreakers to account.
Here something interesting about symbiosis – researchers have found that fig trees seem to “punish” wasps who lay eggs on the plant without pollinating it.
Pretty fascinating although the article doesn’t mention whether fig trees also drop unpollinated fruit that does not contain wasp larvae. Seems like having that info would give a better idea whether dropping fruit which kills a wasp is actually “deliberate” on the fig’s part. Checked at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute website too and it didn’t mention that either.
Jeebus H Sniper Rifling Xrist! – U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes.
Uh, pretty sure it is against the law there Tommy Boy. Not to mention the fact that I don’t remember any references in that Bible of yours about whose heads Jeebus wanted to have blown off.
This could be a big one. Remember those Guantanamo prisoners who supposedly hung themselves in their cells just to make Uncle Sugar look bad a few years ago? Turns out that really wasn’t the case. Probably doesn’t come as too much of surprise in and of itself, now Scott Horton has written a report documenting the episode complete with many named sources (imagine that!) who worked at Gitmo and were eyewitnesses to part of the events that occurred on the night of the deaths. Harper’s is making this story available online a month before the issue it will appear in goes to print so evidently they wanted to make sure the word got out.
Looks like these prisoners were murdered at Gitmo in a previously unknown “black site” located there and then the military brass went to work covering it up. Not only did they concoct the suicide story but when the bodies were delivered to the men’s families they were not in such hot shape. Because their throats had been cut out.
Some of the guards came forward to report what they’d seen and eventually one got a lawyer and took his story to the Justice Dept. Justice thanked them for not going to the media first and then proceeded with the whitewash.
Now it’s in the media. I hope every last one of the motherfuckers who are named in this article who ordered the torture of men who were likely innocent and caused their deaths suffers tenfold for every bit of damage they have done. These people truly are monsters.
More from Horton on these revelations including a pretty good smackdown of one of the colonels who is trying to deny all of it and a video from his appearance on Maddow’s show.
Martha Croakley.
Dkos darling Jim Webb: Suspend the Senate until Brown is seated. Hell why stop there Jim? Why not just suspend it until there is a GOP majority of 51? That’s all it takes for Republican rule, since Webb, Reid and all the other pussies won’t raise any fuss.
Funny, I don’t remember Webb being so concerned when it took months to get Al Franken seated due to republican obstruction. And in that case the results were verified by a hand-counted recount.
Seems like Coakley could barely wait to concede this race. She caved in before 10:00 PM before all the precincts had even reported and this despite the fact that the election was far from a landslide, was held on bullshit machines, and Coakley’s own campaign had reported ballots being pre-marked for Smith earlier in the day.
And of course,there were no exit polls.
So who really won the election? We’ll never know and Coakley doesn’t seem to care.
Ain’t democracy just grand?
I saw that!!! It was as if she was happy to concede. A big Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on that noise. What is it with these Dems? No fight in them what-so-ever. I said, hey, pull a Coleman, why the hell not? But, noooo. Capitulation is the order of the day.
More dithering. Barney Frank also wants to respect “the democratic process” and doesn’t want to be in a rush to pass any health care legislation.
Now I really don’t want the monstrosity these clowns have concocted to pass, but hiding behind the “democratic process” is beyond the pale. If these idiots had any respect for “the democratic process” they wouldn’t have allowed the election to have happened with no way to verify the results in the first place. Not to mention the fact that Obama promised that any hearings would be made public and then went and met with health insurance industry people behind closed doors. And now we’re supposed to believe that Frank and Webb and the rest care about the “democratic process”. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Howard Dean throws a shot across the bow saying that there were other ways the Dems could have passed reform without whining about 60 votes – Bush would have had healthcare a long time ago.
I almost didn’t go to bed last night. Somebody on the internet was wrong, you see and I had the temerity to suggest that progressive voters were disenfranchised by policies that were not progressive rather than any kind of “loose lips sink ships” blather written on a blog. What the hell is wrong with me????
Ha! I just ran across something similar written by a reformed Jeebus guy who’s seen the light and now wants to stop the republicans he helped for so many years. Can’t tell if it’s supposed to be sarcastic or not, but it sure seems like he’s blaming the “liberal purists” for Smith’s “win” yesterday. I guess the complete (and predictable) ineptness of the Democrats had nothing to do with it.
This guy has it about right if you ask me – Obama Finally Gets His Victory For Bipartisanship.
I want Howard Dean. Especially if he gets off his ass and breaks from the Democrats. Can’t be any worse than what we’ve already got.
Some sanity from Glenn greenwald regarding those who are trying to blame oh-so-powerful left (who haven’t gotten a goddamned thing they wanted in decades) for Coakley’s loss.
The more I read about all this today, it almost seems as if the Democrats purposefully booted this campaign so they could have an excuse for moving further towards the republicans, which is what so many of them wanted to begin with. I’d much rather watch “Paint Your Wagon” or something. That sort of ridiculous theatre is much more entertaining.
And a little more from Chris Floyd weighing in on yesterday’s election.
To me, this is the crux of the issue that Democratic party apologists fail to realize – we cannot simply keep supporting one corrupt party which supports the oligarchy with a wink and a nod just because the other party looks more corrupt when they exchange the winks for a sneer. Either way, we are approaching the point where people have nothing left to lose, and when that happens history shows us that people get violent. Or to put it in the words of somebody the apologists are familiar with, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” Right now it’s the Democrats who are failing to heed the words of JFK and making peaceful change impossible. If it continues it will not end well for anybody.
Ah, what exquisite timing: Black flag hoisted at dkos!
Note the typical idiocy of dovsomethingorother and upraters that don’t or won’t recognize the difference between anarchy and chaos. This is your “progressive” movement with no historical memory.
Nevermore? The Poe Toaster is a no-show.
Think I’ve gotten the railing against the overall stupidity of our political process out of my system for today :) So here’s some levity via Pharyngula. Bwaaaahahahahaha!!
Before you go:
Obama abdicates, appoints Beefcake Brown head of caretaker government
What a fucking turkey Obama is. He expects someone to support him, when he won’t even support himself? Nice knowin ya Barack.
Aaaaaaaarrrrrgh! Don’t know what else to do except laugh when I read things like this:
Too bad he can’t bring himself to tell us which parts are true and which aren’t. Pretty sure the part about requiring people to buy corporate insurance which will inevitably get even more expensive since there are no cost controls would be the “fear mongering” that is in fact true. Of course if he bothered to debunk the claims of socialism which aren’t true he would then kinda have to admit that he’s doing a favor for the plutocrats at the expense of the rest of us.
Only question left is can he sing it as well as Robert Plant.
Good one posted at naked capitalism today. The author points out that while Obama and his supporters may liken him to FDR trying to turn the country around, FDR he ain’t – He’s Hoover.
Pirates get paid.
And I thought the Greeks were all out of drachmas…