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@ DRichards, if Obama is surrounding himself with these guys, what does that say about the people in Washington that are available.
Though I suppose Obama's greatest strength in his campaign was to be as vague as possible, and on top of that, to have the political knack of ignoring campaign promises as the issue may warrant.
I figure that Obama's strongest desire is to be PResident, no matter what. However, he seems to be doing a piss poor job at pleasing his base. Complaining that the base doesn't support you, says more about you're PResidency than it does about the base though. Playing your supporters for fools, then getting frustrated when they turn on you (or basically just don't bother to support you anymore, not necessarily working against you) is "retarded" (as Rahm would say).
N
@Maxrot- Chernobyl burning- that is a scary thought.....
Gibbs gots to go! Thx for keeping this story alive. I am tired of being told I am mentally retarded and a drug user. I put hours and hours and hours of volunteer time on the Obama campaign. My cat even sat at home with a nasty foxglove behind her eye while I finished my phone bank duty one particular day. [We originally thought the cat had an infection and so were tending to it, but had the scheduling with the vet-- oh its complicated]. I spent my own money promoting him. I educated persons, I was on the phone calling around the nation the night of the election up to 40 minutes before the polls closed. No one from the Obama camp ever even came on progressive radio to thank us. They certainly used us though when they needed to get their campaigns started. This is our chance to unify as the class war we are really having. It is all of us against the 'leadership' inside the golden belt way. We have brilliance on our side, educated, persons. We should not be so disrespected. Love Howard Dean- could not agree with Thom more here.
Re: Gibbs
So, if Obama is surrounding himself with these kind of people, what does that say about Obama?
I guess Tom did not pass the NEW DEM/drug test!
OK Russia is ablaze, literally the whole western section of it is in a record breaking heat wave and experiencing thousands (Yeah, no flurking schnit, THOUSANDS) of wild fires. I'm only hearing snips and pieces on the radio about it, and I listen to progressive radio throughout most of the work day. What the hell, why is this story not getting traction (good lord can't be the lack of pretty pictures of fire, the Internet is littered with good video), can't be the lack of major imminent danger, areas of Chernobyl are burning and releasing radioactive particulates into the air, can't be lack of death, several have died already. So why, why is there nothing on programs like this one talking about it. Seems to be a catastrophe in proportion that compares to the Gulf Oil Spew, and for much the same reason, lack of following standard regulations (on a grand scale). Moscow looks like geralds' fantasies of hell, even their subway systems are inundated with smoke.
Anyone else here aware of this, and so, is it just me, or does it seem like there is no coverage of this?
N
Dear Thom,
August 11, 2010
I will start this open letter for you and at some point I will dovetail it into words for your listeners.
We should not pray to be successful; we should pray to be faithful in what we are called to do. – Father Frank
Thom, you have been very successful as the number one progressive radio show host in the world. But, you have been unfaithful in what you have been called to do. You hesitate to lay all the facts on the table regarding Obama. Thom, I voted for Obama and he has brought me frustration and pain. It hurts me to say that he is not a leader. I see him as a weak person who lacks the moral courage to do what is right.
Thom, I sense your anguish whenever you must criticize Obama. You believe in him and you are reluctant to be critical of him. By not being critical you are not being true to your listeners. I can accept that possibility. But, Thom you must be true to yourself. There is a saying, “To Thy Own Self Be True.” Please do not remain dishonest with yourself!
To your listeners I will share an experience. I was listening to Catholic television and the head of the office that reviews the files on possible sainthood candidates was asked the question, “Why are so few Americans not considered for sainthood?” His answer was that Americans have the good life and they do not know a difficult life. When I was on retreat, the retreat master said that The Vatican does not understand America and Americans and the lives they endure in the United States. Let me share with you American Life. We live in a morass of shit that needs to be shaken from our bodies on an hourly basis. We live in an environment where filth and garbage are thrown at us every hour from the media that attempts to contaminate our minds with nonsense. We also live in an environment where mortal sin is a constant sin in our lives because every hour we commit mortal sins by breaking the fifth, seventh, eighth, and tenth commandments. We live a heartbeat away from eternal damnation in hell. And, The Vatican says Americans have the good life. Presently, Americans are living in a natural hell as preparation for the supernatural hell that awaits them. I am not seeing average Americans leading a good life with jobs, a livable wage, a decent home, good health care, and a safe environment. Americans are living in a hell hole called the United States of Hell. Any American who remains true to his God is a saint.
Sincerely, Gerald
T. Boone Pickens branched out to build a pipeline from his ranch to Dallas, TX. The pipe is big enough to drive a small car through. The line is intended to carry water.
Can anyone envision and hear a sucking sound as with a straw at the bottom of a glass? The "law of the biggest pump" will have serious implications for everyone who depends upon aquifers such as the Oglala.
The rich will never suffer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/us/politics/11tax.html?_r=2
In our name!
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1008b.asp
As Will Rodgers once said... "I am a member of no organized party, I'm a Democrat." Lately I’ve been feeling that way more then ever. It’s not clear who Mr. Gibbs had in mind the other day when he denounced President Obama's critics in “the professional left." Frankly, the term sounds about as oxymoronic to me as "jumbo shrimp" or "military intelligence." It is a nonsensical signifier for a nonexistent category.
What I do know is that the oldest rule in politics is that you are supposed to “dance with the one who brung you." For Mr. Obama that would be his progressive base, who are after all the ones who went out there and walked the precincts, made the phone calls, and pooled our Saturday night fun money to get him elected. Unfortunately, it seems that Mr. Obama never got that memo about how to fill his dance card once he got to D.C.
Since the election, we progressives have watched our president dance with everyone in Washington except us. Obama has danced with the Wall Street bankers and the wealthy tax shirkers. He's danced with big pharma and the insurance companies. He's danced with the military contractors, profiteers and war criminals. He's danced with the planet wrecking oil, gas and coal industries. And he's even danced with the gay haters and race baiters of the rightwing media.
Now, after ignoring us for the past year and a half, Mr. Obama and the Democrats are coming back to their progressive base to demand that we feed the election juke box with some more of our hard earned coin so that they can go on dancing with their new friends and suitors. If that were not nervy enough, then Mr. Gibbs has the gall to come over to the dark corner where his boss parked us at the start of the dance and slap us in the face just to make sure that we progressives know just how low we are regarded by the "leadership" of our party.
It really makes me wonder, how do these guys think they are going to get reelected? They don’t seem to think that they need us that’s for sure.
DancingBear
(aka Ed in Redondo Beach)
Ex-wife and Newt!
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/08/10/marianne_gingrich_on_newt_gingrich&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20
Amen!
THE COST OF LIVING SINCE 1973 HAS INCREASED QUITE A BIT, COMBINE THAT WITH LOWER INCOME AND WAGES AND THE PICTURE IS EVEN WORSE THAN JUST THE NUMBERS. MORE is LESS....and War is Peace!
I have been reluctant to criticize Israel because she is a Jewish state and as a Christian I have Judeo-Christian roots. But, Israel has been on a long path toward genocide of the Arab and Muslim people in the Middle East. Israel is part of the triad of evil that includes America and England. All three nations are evil, vile, and wicked.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/focus-u-s-a/focus-u-s-a-will-israel-really-attack-iran-within-a-year-1.307211
Hi Thom,
since you brought up India here, I wanted to bring to your attention that the anti-India narrative regarding jobs is unsupported by evidence, and it is highly unfair towards India and the Indian people.
The reason being that, unlike our China trade (also, see "China" link @BEA) which has been highly unbalanced for over 15 years and continues to get more and more unbalanced with each year, US' trade with India (in both good and services, see "India" entry at the BEA link above for good, services and combined trade numbers, or this excel file for services trade stats alone) is quite small and fairly balanced.
And US direct investment (USDI) in India is a tiny 0.5% of total USDI abroad, while a part of that investment is returned to the US by Indian FDI flow into the US (0.2% of total FDI.)
Further, a recent investigation by a U. of Maryland professor details many concrete and quantitative ways in which the economic relationship between India and the US is one in which the US benefits significantly as well. For example:
--- Between 2004 and 2009, US exports to India grew 269 per cent, while India's exports to that country grew 136 per cent. US exports to India have grown faster than exports to all other countries.
--- Indian immigrant entrepreneurs have founded more engineering and technology companies during 1995-2005 than immigrants from Britain, China, Japan, and Taiwan combined.
Another recent study by a Harvard professor (w/ a co-author) found that Indians contributed a far larger (about 5x-10x) share of US domestic technology patents than their population in the US (which, has been in the 0.5% to 1% range during the period studied) over the last 30 years.
You will find links to those studies as well as several charts and extensive data sources (US government sources used: census.gov and bea.gov) at this site: IAFN
Please go over it and feel free to give me some feedback in comments here or by email (at the address associated with this account at your site).
Thanks and keep up your good work. I am an Indian-American progressive Democrat. I've been following your writings on and off for a few years. Like you, I also wanted to see Al Gore run for President in 2008. Although Obama was my second choice after Gore, the last 19 months make it very clear that Al would have made a far better President (for example, since 2002, Gore supported single payer, and Obama took single payer off the table from the get go, and later cut a deal with HC lobbyists to gut even a weak version of the public option!), proving us right.
Best regards.
Who is destroying the dollar?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137973
Good paying, unionized manufacturing jobs were great in the 50's and 60's when the US was the only manufacturing entity still operating after WWII. It is time to admit that that environment is no longer valid, and with global competition, it is a matter of living standards reaching an equilibrium.
www.pahrumplife.org writes re Google: In a way, if they get their way, Google and Verizon will have conquered the world. Corporatocracy (privateers and their enabling governments) will get what they want if they “pay” enough “homage” to the King. Could this be the end of all our favorite URLs? Or could it be the beginning of a technological revolution?
Regarding Gibb's remarks about the professional left,
Well the Obama administration is afraid of white people, http://open.salon.com//blog/rogershuler/2010/08/03/obama_administration_seems_terrified_of_white_people
So there!
You are laying a lot on Pres. Obama as well as the Democratic leadership.
He is key to the whole process, but he needs to be backed up; every time I hear Democrats threatening to vote against or not vote for the party or president, I think of the province of Ontario a number of years back.
A relatively progressive Premier (= Governor) Bob Ray, tangled with some unions over contracts etc.. The Unions organized and pulled a lot of votes away from him in the next election.
The result; in came the Conservative party.. boy, they really showed him, didn't they?
Don't cut off your head to spite your butt, even if it's lodged firmly in there..
How about some work on your voting machines before it's too late, again? Tom, any news on that stuff? Also, when do you get to gerrymander things back to a reasonable map?
Good luck,
Rick
Re: If Obama stood up to Royalty, they would crucify him.
I think the same could have been said to Roosevelt. I think that if Obama were to stand up, the people would overwhelmingly stand behind him.
Proper term for the Bush tax cuts and no estate tax; Billionaire Bailouts..
Bush's bank bailout qualifies too.
Rick
More doubts on Obama!!!
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/barack_obama/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/08/09/veterans_for_obama_have_doubts&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29
Thom in criticizing the Obama administration was hard for him to do but he has shown growth in knowing our frustrations toward Obama. As for me Obama has not shown leadership!!!