James Petras (Dissident Voice) has an interesting article about left whoring for Barack. Two key passages:
Will the “progressives” ever play honest and publicly state: we back
Obama in “swing states” because he has “only” murdered 10,000 Afghans,
5,000 Iraqis, is starving 75 million Iranian’s via sanctions, gives $3
billion for Israeli displacement of millions of Palestinians, personally
oversees the arbitrary executions of US citizens and promises an
extended kill list … because Romney promises to be worse … Expecting
honesty from the proponents of ‘lesser evils’ is as farfetched as taking
serious their criticisms between elections.
The political damage incurred by the social movements and
US working class under the Obama presidency is unprecedented and has
laid the groundwork for further social regression and greater imperial
bellicosity.
And:
Last but not least, the Obama regime has co-opted progressive liberal
social critics via backdoor support. In the name of “opposing Romney”
the progressive pundits, like Chomsky and Ellsberg, end up in alliance
with Wall Street and Silicon Valley billionaires, Pentagon militarists,
Homeland Security boosters and Zionist ideologues (Dennis Ross) to elect
Obama. Of course, the support of the progressives will be accepted —
but hardly acknowledged — but they will have no influence on future
Obama policy after the election: they will be discarded like used
condoms.
At War Is A Crime, Sam Husseini points out:
Earlier this year President Obama signed the National Defense
Authorization Act into law. It allows for the indefinite detention
without trial for any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an
accessory to terrorism.
Some might have thought that there would
be wide-spread revolt among people who voted for Obama against legalized
indefinite detention. And there was some protest, mostly led by Chris
Hedges (who did not vote for Obama), with some legal victories against
the law.
But the political success seems to have come from the
law itself -- in favor of Obama. Instead of provoking a revolt, the
result seems to be this:
Obama is in effect telling his
supporters: "You better support me more, because I just signed this law
saying the president of the U.S. can detain anyone he wants. Now, do you
want me to have this power, or do you want Mitt Romney to have this
power?"
And so, perversely, Obama by signing a law most of his
supporters almost certainly didn't want, has actually ensured a greater
grip on them. He has in effect indefinitely detained them.
And World Can't Wait offers "12 Steps to Overcoming Addiction to Voting for the 'Lesser' of 2 Evils."
No offense meant to Petras, Husseini or Debra Sweet and the people at World Can't Wait, but they're not seen as geniuses. Smart, yes, but no one thinks they're going to figure out the cure for cancer or devise instaneous space travel tomorrow. So if they're not geniuses so far above the rest of the country, if what they rely on is the same brain power most of us do, why can they write what they write?
Because they value honesty and truth. Their brain power may be the same as the rest of us but they have a lot more bravery because they're not going to sell out what they believe in or the lives of others just because it's profitable or will help them.
Noam Chomsky has yet again sold out. Yet again. I've avoided calling him out on the issue of the Palestinians. His position is and remains appalling and ahistorical. And he should have been preparing for that. A number of us have warned him to his face that he needs to adapt. But Noam's a enius and he knows it all so no one's going to tell him anything.
But what the idiot doesn't grasp is that Palestinian-Americans are not going away and his lies and revisions that have harmed Parlestinians are not going to stay buried. Noam has very little time left. A smart person concerned about their historical impact would be seriously addressing the issue.
Instead, Noam's decided to whore for Barack.
Fixing his own record didn't matter to the genius because he really doesn't get what's coming over the next 15 years, the truth's that's going to unseat him, leave him a disgrace. he can't recongize what's not just coming but what's laready been let in the door.
By the same token, he's so stupid that he believes whoring for Barack will give him some sort of teflon coating.
Barack is not Ghandi. He's just another US president who has harmed many around the world. How fitting that Noam would choose not to get honest about the tragic conditions of the Palestinians while at the same time binding himself closer to the face of imperialism.
Were he still a young man, people would make excsues for Noam. And, for many years, they did. I like Noam. I've always felt sorry for him. But I don't have sympathy anymore. Repeatedly, he's been handed the opportunity to either show bravery or shut up. Repeatedly, he's whored his continually diminishing name. At some point, he needs to answer if it was wroth it because I don't see any justification for it.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
i hate the war
the ballet
