President Barack Obama's unfortunate decision to stand behind his ethically-challenged selections for key cabinet positions raises serious questions about whether or not the agent of change elected by reform-starved voters is true to his word.
Obama's steadfast support of health and human services nominee Tom Daschle following revelations that the longtime Senator failed to pay taxes on perks from fatcat supporters is the kind of stubborn, ethics-and-rules-be-damned defiance that former President George W. Bush showed whenever one of his own got into trouble.
The new President of the United States appears more interested in protecting the status quo of the power structure in Washington than on delivering his promises of reform and change in the way our government works.
If his actions on the growing Daschle debacle were the sole examples it might not send up warning flags but a growing list of actions by Obama suggests he can't shake off the old ways of doing things in the nation's capital.
During his historical campaign for President, Obama said no lobbyist would have a role in his administration but he has appointed lobbyists to key positions. He promised his nominees would be held to a higher standard but we have a tax scofflaw running Treasury, another one proposed for Health & Human Services and his first choice for Commerce pulled out because the FBI was closing in on that nominee's influence peddling.
The Democratic stimulus plan passed by the House of Representatives last week by a purely partisan margin is packed with pet projects that have nothing to do with saving the economy. Obama promised to put an end to such things yet he endorsed the bill.
Obama has paid a lot of lip service to reform and change. He goes to Capitol Hill and meets with both Democrats and Republicans. He announced sweeping changes to ethics rules surrounding White House employees. He shirtsleeve style in the Oval Office is a welcome change to the stuffiness of the Bush Administration.
But his efforts at change and reform are destroyed through his support of ethically-flawed nominees like Daschle. Daschle is a product of old-school Washington, the place where power and influence are bartered to the highest bidder.
So far, Obama is talking the talk but he's a long way from walking the walk.
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Unfortunately, I have to agree. Obama's choices have been less than stellar and is giving ammunition to the right-wing talk show hosts.
http://www.augustreview.com/news_commentary/trilat...
"The Obama presidency is a disingenuous fraud."
All through the election we warned them, stay away from the mainstream candidates, both Republican and Democrats serve the same international masters. Perhaps after Obama fails to save them once again they will listen, but I doubt it. We're doomed to watch it all unfold exactly as we warned, and powerless to do anything about it short of a new Boston Tea Party or some such lawlessness, which would only play into the NWO's hands and enable them enact martial law.
Woody, you are so right, but I don't think anyone will ever get it.
Included in the stimulus bill passed by the House, is the computerized medical records law. This means everyone will be in a centralized data base.Medical privacy is gone. Those personal discussions with your doctor you thought was confidential? Think again. Obama asked for this. So much for looking out for the masses.
Sherry,
That is one of the items which bothers me the most. Having worked in the medical and health insurance industry, I can see all kinds of problems with this. Health care in the USA and Insurance are two of the biggest scams foisted on the USA citizens by law. Health care in this country is non-existent. It's just a big $ scam these days. We're the cattle with the dollars, they're the giant corporations just sucking the life out of our country, all with government consent and cooperation. That's the truth.
Great site. I visit often.
Simple logic: If it's change you want, don't vote for the establishment.
The Republican/Democrat establishment has no benefit in any kind of really significant change. If you want change find a 3rd party (Libertarian, Liberal, Green, Conservative, Constitution, ...) and support it. Only when significant numbers of people stop voting R or D and start voting something else will see real change.
Thanks Almandine...
Great link material. It leaves one somewhat hushed in terms of the enormity of Tri-Lat influence on U.S. politics. Although I and no doubt others focus on Bilderberg and the CFR's, I often forget about the third leg of their tripod; ie., the Tri-Lats. Thanks... : )
Carl Nemo **==
Carl and Griff, please point me toward more information on that of which you speak. I'd like to read more about it.
I did post (on another site last week) this website which I think you will find interesting also:
http://www.truthout.org/013009T
The article is "What Cooked the World's Economy?" Long, but informative read.
Hi Ladywolf55,
The referenced link is found within the second post to this CHB article and was supplied by Almandine. There's quite a few imbedded links within that August review to further information concerning the Tri-Lateral Commission etc.
The link is a new one for myself, but evidently Griff visits the site with some frequency.
Carl Nemo **==
I meant to thankyou LadyWolf55 for the absolutely superb link article, "What Cooked the World's Economy". Hopefully many of our readers will take the time to both read and digest the enormity of this global financial disaster that's still in operation and like a black hole will virtually digest the financial assets of everyone on planet earth.
Based on the article it seems that all the bailouts and stimulus package plans are for naught unless the 650 plus trillion dollars of unregulated derivatives are systematically unwound then outlawed permanently with new draconian legislation concerning such activities. Also the perps who sold such "protection" with proven criminal intent need to be prosecuted and sent away for a long time with all their ill-gotten lucre seized under RICO statute provisions.
This isn't an example of the free marketplace at work, but "pirate capitalists" doing what they do best; ie., steal money from a financial system who's regulators are operating with "eyes wide shut" and all with the approval of the Executive Branch and our Congressional politburo...! : |
Carl Nemo **==
You're welcome, Carl. I've tried to post it on as many sites as I can, as the people need to be informed of the real truth as much as possible.
I found the information on the Trilateral Commission and interesting but worrisome read. Seems we live in a very evil world these days. I fear there will be many undeserved deaths before the real culprits can be brought to justice, if ever they are.
Loren Bliss
The true outrage in the Daschle affair is not what Big Business/Big Lie media is focusing on: that he's a tax dodger. The outrage -- and it proves beyond a scintilla of doubt that "change we can believe in" is no change at all -- is that Daschle works for the Sultans of Sickness: the health insurance barons whose $37 billion in annual profit is the main reason for the U.S. health care crisis. More outrageous still, this is the man Obama wants to lead "health care reform," which tells us two things immediately: (1)-- that the primary purpose of any "reform" will be protection of that $37 billion annual ripoff (and everybody but the super-rich be damned); and (2)-- there will be no change whatsoever in the Final Solution to the problems of poverty, disability and old age: the unwritten policy of euthanasia by neglect and abandonment that has governed Medicare and Medicaid since the Reagan years.
Looks like you have convicted the President and Tom Daschle before the Senator is confirmed. Maybe his relationship to the insurance industry will be an asset as he probably has some insight as to the workings of the evil industry. I am a service disabled Vietnam veteran. I don't pay taxes on my SSDI until year end due to the fact that I want to keep my money until the last second. I guess I'll be condemned to hell for all eternity...You do cast the first stone...
I particularly love the way the media is presenting this issue. They call Daschle's tax problem a "$128,000 error". If that same type of "error" had been made by me or another run-of-the-mill citizen...we'd be busted by the IRS for tax evasion.
I've never been a Daschle fan per se, but he did seem to be a thorn in Bush's endeavors to seat Federal Judges.
I recently read that Daschle's wife is starting her own lobbyists company related to transportation. According to the Washington Post, "Linda Hall Daschle, who is a registered lobbyist with the Washington firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. Although she does not have health care industry clients, the company does represent numerous health interests. (Roll Call and The Post are reporting that Linda Daschle is set to leave the firm and open her own shop focusing on transportation in January 2009."
I guess it's nice to have a lobbyist in the family.
If anybody knows how Washington works...Obama does. He knows that the nurturing blood of Washington isn't going to be turned off overnight. I just don't believe that Obama is powerful enough to intervene in a deep, deep relationship between elected officials, beaureacrat chiefs and a group of corporations (who own these officials and chiefs).
I think Obama's eyes are just too big for his stomach. He may have bitten off more than he can chew.
As woody stated above, the many people that tried to convince our fellow citizens of the fraud that is Barack Obama were drowned out by a cocophony of hero worship. We were called racists, haters and worse - Republicans.
Sadly, we fall for the same foolish production every four years.
Mr Thompson:
You castigate Mr. Obama for allowing the inclusion of "pork" in this bill that just passed the House. I don't like pork barrel expenditures as a general rule, but in the big scheme of things the amount of money in pork is small bacon. And in this case, putting money to work to stimulate jobs and the economy is paramount, far more important than the exact nature of the expenditure.
I also question whether the two appointees with tax problems are guilty of anything more than expensive errors. I seem to recall that Geithner's accountant OKed his tax return. If you cannot trust your accountant whom can you trust? And Daschle says he didn't know a car and driver were to be included in his income. I wouldn't have known that and apparently the people providing the benefit didn't know because they didn't give him a 1099. And it is clearly their responsibility under the law to do so.
And when Richardson was revealed as having "problems" Obama dumped him, NOT because the FBI was "closing" in on him but simply because he was under investigation. There is a qualitative difference, as I'm sure as a journalist you understand. Sort of like when my mother, God rest her soul, wrote an article many decades ago referring to associates of a politician in Alexandria VA as "cronies." She knew it was pejorative but was so addicted to yellow journalism that she could not resist the urge to editorialize on the front page.
I really think we ought to give Obama a tad more than two weeks in office before we start throwing brickbats at him.
Oh how our words reveal our thoughts. Give it up Gazelle... there ain't no stimulus except that which has you all a'twitter.
As a state tax professional I can tell you that the rules for this are that *you* and only you are responsible for your income tax. You cannot smile and say "my accountant must have made a mistake". That does not wash with the IRS or with any state taxing authority either. Just because an accountant or tax lawyer prepares your tax return does not mean that you are not responsible to know what is on the form and what it ultimately means. Your accountant (or other popular nationwide tax firm) may tell you that they will accompany you if you are audited by the IRS or state tax people, but when the chips fall, even if they made the mistake that caused you to have to pay extra penalty and interest, you are responsible and they do not have to pay for that mistake. Do not assume because an accountant did it, that it is correct, because it is your ass on the line when you sign the form, and the court has said that the responsibility is yours, and yours only.
That doesn't make it fair, just, and right, though, does it? It just makes it another crappy US law designed to line the pockets of our dishonest government while they steal from the citizens.
The tax law wasn't meant to be fair, just to benefit the rich and big bidness. You and I? We're ultimately meant to be screwed by the tax laws. Why do you think Warren Buffet points out that his secretary pays a higher percentage of payroll tax at her income level than he does at his?
True.... and I guess it will stop when the citizens of the USA finally revolt and take themselves OUT OF THE SYSTEM. Living off the grid, off the land, and using the barter system is the only way I see out of the hole we've dug ourselves into, because the Gov't has tied up all the rest of the loopholes.
Loren Bliss in response to AustinRanter:
I think it's more as if the electorate's eyes were not jaundiced enough to recognize what Obama was swallowing: the fact his campaign received unprecedented support from Big Businessmen and Big Banksters. No political candidate in U.S. history -- Republican or Democrat -- has ever received such corporate largesse.
While I voted for Obama, I did so -- as I explained at the time and have often repeated since -- with full recognition that in the context of the collapsing economy, my vote was nothing more than the equivalent of a drowning shipwreck victim clutching at any flotsam that might serve as a life preserver. I also voted with the profound skepticism born of a journalism career that has spanned a little more than half a century: my growing realization that the sole purpose of post-New Deal U.S. governance, whether by Republicrat or Demopublican, is the preservation and expansion of capitalism by whatever means the boardroom barony deems necessary: think Vietnam, Chile, Bhopal, Exxon Valdez, Iraq, post-Katrina New Orleans and Enron ad infinitum ad nauseum.
Thus while I never embraced the imbecility of hope (and surely never joined the mesmerized Moron Nation minions in their cultoid chanting of Obama's name and slogans), I was nevertheless willing to gamble my vote on the possibility Obama might engender perhaps one or two of the vital reforms -- say for example better health care access and expanded public transport -- his most devoutly entranced followers had convinced themselves he would facilitate. (And why not gamble a vote? On 22 November 1963 all our ballots were rendered worthless as Confederate currency, and they have clearly remained so ever since.)
Obviously though what I thought was flotsam has turned out to be the dorsal fin of a shark.
Officially retired, I nevertheless still report on socioeconomic issues for a small local advocacy journal, and precisely because of what Obama has NOT done, I am all too painfully aware his only two objectives in health care “reform” are to preserve capitalist profits (hence the de facto enslavement of us all in a mandatory insurance scheme) and, simultaneously, to obscure the fact the entire U.S. health “care” system -- like U.S. society in general -- operates on the principle of euthanasia by neglect and abandonment: elimination of the unprofitable (that is, those of us who are elderly, disabled or chronically impoverished) by service denials structured to shift the blame onto the victims. (Thus for example Medicare: a huge bonus to the rich, but thrust hopelessly beyond the reach of the poor by cash-in-advance copayments of at least 50 percent.) The same pattern of deception -- services that look effective on paper but are either fictional or deftly structured to serve only the wealthy -- is evident everywhere you look (federal, state or local) at government in the United States. It is U.S. equivalent of the Final Solution -- the euphemistic extermination of capitalism’s rejects and discards -- and it the most successfully diabolical form of oppression the human mind has ever devised.
As to Obama’s stance toward my other signature issue, mass transit, I am sadly drifting toward the realization -- as are many other transit advocates -- that despite Obama’s urban roots he is as wedded as any petroleum plutocrat to preserving our peculiar institution of one-car-per-person, one-person-per-car enslavement to Big Automotive and Big Oil. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) has already characterized Obama as surprisingly indifferent to mass transit, but the bitter truth is that Obama is emerging as yet another transit enemy. Even with so-called “recovery” funds, his 2009 mass-transit budget is hardly larger than Bush’s 2008 version.
The one great superlative of Obama’s administration to date is that it was born of the most daringly successful, most ruthlessly Machiavellian strategy ever employed by a U.S. politician. He played upon the U.S. voter’s steadily intensifying and coldly rational economic terror -- the recognition, however unlearned, that the economy is fulfilling the Marxian prophecy of final-stage collapse but instead of triggering revolution is back-flipping into a New Dark Age of corporate feudalism -- and he soothed this unprecedented climate of fear not by proposing another New Deal but by invoking the racist assumption that African-American genes include a predisposition toward leftist (or at least left-liberal) political and economic solutions. Thus an infinitely brilliant campaign: vacuous slogans (“Hope” etc.) with absolutely no substance, the remainder accomplished by psycholinguistic association. Thus too the emergent reality: an administration scarcely different from any of the others that have taken office since that pivotal day in November 1963, the only truly discernable “change we can believe in” the fact capitalism’s global empire is no longer figure-headed by a notorious dunce.
As to what will happen when the Left becomes aware of the magnitude of its (self-inflicted) betrayal, I offer the following prediction: chiefly via Attorney General Halder and a few like-minded allies in Congress (especially California’s Waxman), Obama will placate his increasingly outraged critics by imposing New York City-type forcible disarmament on the entire nation. And of course it will work: the U.S. Left is mostly a pseudo-Left, viciously anti-intellectual, utterly indifferent to class-struggle economics and thus motivated only by cosmetic issues (“at least we’re getting the guns off the streets”), even as the (tiny) real Left -- organized labor -- (which was marginalized by the class hatreds of the Vietnam era and has remained powerless ever since) -- is (again) isolated by the fact a substantial majority of the nation’s civilian firearms owners are union members. Precisely as Machiavelli said, “divide et impera."
Loren,
Your posting is poetry in motion. Thank you for commenting. Don’t ever completely retire. You have too much to contribute.
I too voted for Obama. I might add that he is the first Democratic presidential candidate that I've ever cast vote for in my 40 sum-odd-years of marking ballots.
However, I ceased supporting the Republican Party in 2000. I admit that it was a struggle for me to escape a long, long indoctrination of a party that no longer served the ideologies that aroused my interest as young man. I just knew that it was time for me to re-evaluate "me".
In both 2000 and 2004 elections I did something that I have preached against for most of my voting life...I spent my votes with the Libertarian Party “out of protest". It surely wasn’t rocket science that both the Democrat and Republican Parties were self-will-run-riot. Both parties fell from grace in such a monumental way. These parties couldn’t even muster up the pretense that they held some form of shame for being blatantly owned by special interest.
Being a native Texan, I had to endure Bush's reign as Governor. Let me just say that Governor Bush "broke me from sucking eggs". As a result of Bush’s run for president during the 2000 election, I went into a state of presentiment. Given the choices in 2004, I had an even a greater sense of impending doom.
Now, with all of the above being said, in this forum, I’ve frequently voiced my skepticism and criticism of Obama since his announcement to run. But, I do believe that I gave equal time to McCain. I hold no love for parties. So, I didn’t voice my concerns because of any party alliance. I have no remarkable tendencies to engage in, or support, racism…or geriatricism, if you will. I guess my concerns revolved around a lack of history about Obama and too much history about McCain.
By the way, I don’t consider my vote for Obama as a “protest” vote. I compare my ballot in this past election to be something equally as bad as a protest vote…it was cast in the vein of “lesser of the two evils”.
Now, on to my point:
Two years ago, at the beginning of the election campaign, there was no possible way for McCain, a well seasoned politician, or Obama, a wet-behind-the-ears politician, to have foreseen such a majestic market crash crouching and waiting to pounce in the nearby future. Neither could have even begun to evaluate the social implications and complexities resulting from such a crash. Nor could either imagined having to engage a Congress, which has been virtually breast fed by corporations over the few past decades, to do its job as commanded by the Constitution, which includes protecting the general welfare of the citizens of our nation.
Much like the Marketeers didn’t think about the word “default” when they began their “Credit Default Swap and Derivatives scheme…Congress didn’t realize that a crash in the market place (domestic and global) would reveal the membership’s true colors. Out of indebtedness to all of the Marketeers, our Congressional members have no choice but to stand step-lock with big business in a crash situation. Congress has been forced to step out their double lives into plain sight and expose their primary allegiance to Corporations over the Electorates. We are all aware of the serious infringements by Marketeers on the general welfare of all citizens by jeopardizing and/or gambling away their life savings, pensions, and investments. All such infringements were made legal in the market place by our Congress and yes, the Executive Branch. The Marketeers paid our Congress and Executive Branch for the right to rape, pillage, and rob people around the world…without ever having to be held accountable or having to experience severe consequences.
The comments that I made in my previous posting regarding Obama’s lack of power to intervene in Congress’ business…and that he is completely aware of the inner workings of Washington wasn’t said to debase President Obama. I think he is a smart man. But the sheer nature of the problems…which requires Obama to take on an already beholding Congress is going to be an almost impossible task, not for just him personally, but any person standing as president today. Congress owes it soul to the Company Store…period. I feel certain that McCain would have already folded under the pressure of today’s serious problems. Obama already knows that he’ll be force to placate to Congress in ways that he stated that he would be diametrically opposed to his campaign promises.
Like most parasites…our government appears to be willing to kill its host at the expense of its own life.
Respectfully,
Gregg
Thanks lorenbliss for your nicely written, spot-on analysis of our collective situation... : )
"Obviously though what I thought was flotsam has turned out to be the dorsal fin of a shark."...extract from your post
Myself and no doubt millions of others are beginning to hear the slow, but ever building crescendo of the attack theme from "Jaws" in our subconscious too... :-&
Carl Nemo **==
I totally concur Doug Thompson with your reservations about our new president and his lack of follow through concerning his feelgood campaign promises.
The majority of his stimulus package is going to be frittered away no differently the first 350 billion of the Bush/Paulson/Bernanke initiated TARP plan with minimal economic benefit to show for this astronomical expenditure of more tax-debt dollars.
I predict by the end of 2009 we'll see a DOW 5,000 or less, to near zero growth in the GDP along with 15-20 percent unemployment while our leaders continue to flop about in the economic tarpit of our national demise, still scheming on how to steal more debt dollars to continue their ongoing adventuristic, unwinnable wars both on terrorists and drugs along with never-ending, unaccountable perks for Washington's insiders and their corporate sponsors.
Our leaders have no serious plans to stem the tide of corruption and to pass stiff new legislation to turn things about on Wall Street, the banking sector or corporate America. It's still business as usual.
President Obama simply scolding Wall Street on their abuse of pay for CEO's and bonuses has no teeth. George W. Bush did the same thing, lecturing businessmen post the tech wreck along with the exposure of Enron, Worldcom, Qwest and a host of other companies that went down due to fraud at the highest levels of those corporations.
America is headed for "blood in the streets" all the while its citizens thinking that the situation is going to get better due to so-called stimulus packages ad nauseam ad infinitum...NOT! : |
Carl Nemo **==
Hmmmmmmmmmm, so President Obama hasn't parted the waters of big government and the old ways of doing business and led all the thirsty and disgruntled Democrats, independents and others who have been seeking change, to the promised land yet. Now he's a "shark", a "fraud", the black version of "big brother", the "establishment" guy all over, blah, blah, blah.
Maybe President Obama should have had someone gather up a few White Pages directories, closed his eyes, opened to a random page and pointed to a name and say "This is going to be my Sec'y of HHS". Then pick again from another directory and say "This is going to be my new Federal Reserve Chairman" and on and on and on.
Too many cynics ready to pounce and feast on the slightest of disappointments to their political paradigm.
Obama made the fall worse for himself with his ethics talk. He even had the nerve to lecture US Senate oldtimers about it.
This confirms my suspicions that Obama is a smooth talking dreamer type. That type is the worst. Once they are in the real world the "Messiah" shine comes off quickly.
I would rather have the Hillary type, the horse trader who would do his/her best but not over promise and not get lost in lofty talk. The dreamer type, you see, are prone to get particularly ruthless when they are in power and they finally realize how everything works.
This site is suffering from extreme schizophrenia. One week, Barak Obama's the best thing since sliced bread, the next, he's a fraud.
Actually it is a sign of a good thing. The more lame suppositions that fly from your deluded keyboards the more I know you really have no clue what you bunch pontificate about. Admit it. You're guessing. Another week will go by and we'll discover yet again the majority of you are just talking out of your collective asses.
At least the cynics here are consistently paranoid about everything. Keep a firm grip on that AK-47, they may come knocking any minute.
Yo texasmike...
I thought I'd give your post some gravitas by suffering a reply.
I'm blessed with a steel trap memory and am familiar with "all" the handles that post on CHB. This is the first time I've read anything from you.
So we're schizophrenics, cynics, paranoid and totin' AK-47's either figuratively or literally at least in your opinion.
We're none of the above! We're simply a bunch of questioning folks that are unwilling to take whatever we're fed as the gospel truth. CHB happens to be a watering hole for such shared opinions, nothing more, nothing less. It's simple as that!
Since you hail from Texas, then quite possibly the Crawford Ranch is just a piece down the road and you feel kinship with the criminally disposed mattoid that just vacated the Whitehouse, leaving our nation in a terminal situation; not even on sound financial life support as yet.
Dubya and possibly yerself shorly don't like no questionin' minds! If you be questionin' or turn tail on yer leader then ye must be a terrist; ie., either with us or agin us...no?! /:|
Carl Nemo **==