More of the Same You Can Believe In *Update*

So let's do a quick rundown of the Obama appointments I can remember off the top of my head:

Hildog, State
Timothy Geithner, Treasury
Eric Holder, AG
Janet Napolitano, Securing the Homeland
Bill Richardson, Commerce
Bobby Gates, undisputed Defense champion of the world
Larry Summers, Council of Economic Whatevers Chair
Rahm Emmanuel, Chiefin' the Staff

So let's see here. One of these people IS a Clinton. Two of them served in the Clinton cabinet. Two of them were appointed US Attorneys by Clinton. One of them was appointed to the Fed by him, another was on his staff. The only non-Clinton alum is in the Bush Cabinet. Am I the only person compelled to ask: how is this change?

The message of Obama's campaign was that wispy, indistinct word change. Clearly people wanted a change from Bush, but the resolution we could gather from the primary season was that people wanted a changed Democratic Party as well. The neoliberal, triangulating, poll smoking and nihilistic pandering of the Clinton years was rejected and the public sought out someone with some sort of progressive vision rooted in leftish principles. Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but there were plenty of options for people to choose from if they wanted Clintinismo to come back--not just Clinton herself but Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and a whole host of others offered this. Obama seemed to be selling a different set of goods and the public bought them.

Now, however, he puts into power some of the key architects and acolytes of the "pro-business" Democracy offered up by Clinton (Summers, Geithner), the man behind the Elian debacle who served in the same department that massacred the Branch Davidians (Holder), as well as frothing at the mouth Zionists and liberal internationalist true believers (Emmanuel, HRC, Richardson). Just about the only bright spot is perhaps Janet Napolitano. It is an open secret in Arizona that she is a gay woman and if she comes out she'll be the first openly gay person to serve in the US Cabinet. There are questions as to whether her one-time client Anita Hill's shocking presumption in standing up for herself in the face of a man bully might give Napolitano's confirmation some trouble. If the Anita Hill flare-up is still an issue then Iran-Contra--in which Robert Gates was involved--should be too and the traitor Gates should be rejected for renomination. But it is the word on the street that he is "widely respected on both sides of the aisle." I'm reminded of George Carlin's observation that whenever he hears of an effort or proposal receiving bipartisan support he knows that an even more excpetional level of evil than normal is going down. Obama rose to prominence with his purity in regards to the Iraq War. Now he has chosen to keep the military in the hands of one of its handmaidens. Change indeed.

Obama has been the president-elect for three weeks now and in that time he has done absolutely nothing to indicate that he will chart a course different in any meaningful way from the Clinton era, a time which was not much different (IMHO) than the Bush eras that bookended it. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong, but the sources of the agitation among the American people are a neoliberal economic framework, a liberal internationalist/neoconservative foreign policy (they differ primarily in their targets, not in their inanity or destructiveness) and government that says one thing and does another. Obama is keeping in tune with each of these perogatives and the weepy orgiastics of his disciples are quickly being made to look even more pathetic than before.

*Update*
Susan Rice is expected to be his UN Ambassador. From Wikipedia:

Rice served in the Clinton administration in various capacities: At the National Security Council from 1993 to 1997, as Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping from 1993 to 1995 and as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs from 1995 to 1997. In 1997, she became Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, serving in that capacity until Clinton left office on January 20, 2001.

So, um, ditto with what I said above.

Not Fit for the Inauguration

In high school I once fancied myself a poet. That lasted until I went back and read the verse I'd composed and realized how truly awful it was. It is perhaps a teenage smart kid rite of passage to try one's hand at poetry, and I failed. That being said I've been reading some Auden recently and last night I put together a piece I feel like putting up. Here goes:

Hope
Change and
Unity
Yes We Can!
For the first time in forever it seems
the button lies under a blackish hand.

Expectations rise to a fevered pitch
The fabric torn mended with a skinny stitch.

Nooses
Rumors
Slanders and
hushed fears abound
What in herd instinct we lost
In a new fangled shepherd is supposed to be found.

Absolute power is expected not to corrupt.
A new day dawns, its dusk feared to be abrupt.

War
Law and
Order
New boss same as old
Heat without light from fatted rubbing hands
Grabbing at goodies to stave away the cold.

Follow the money defined our just past age.
A forgetful ethic blinds each televised sage.

Barack
Hussein
Obama
A fearsome name indeed.
At the trough of power poisoned by conceit
the lowing public is called to feed.

Where great hope is gathered festers the rot of resent.
The bleeding past and gasping future give way to a tripping present.

Palin Puts It In Some Haters' Faces

Since it became clear that Obama would be president, even several weeks before the election, I have been saying that he'll most likely be a two-termer because I doubt that Mitt Romney could beat him and I've been more or less confident that Romney would be the 2012 GOP nominee. You see, the Republicans don't do mystery when it comes to their nominating process. Sure, the media and even GOP politicians themselves act like there is some kind of real contest, but at the end of the day the GOP crowns its heir apparant. McCain, Bush (who had all the money and the family name), Dole (it was finally his turn), etc. Not since 1964 has there been any mystery and that year there was no real crown prince for the party. Romney was second in line this year, he was pretty much every party faction's second choice and he made the money guys who run the party very very happy. QED: Romney for Pres 2012.

Now I'm not so sure. If you didn't see this scene from earlier this week then you really should. It points out how terribly the McCain camp really did manage Palin. She takes questions and is not only poised and sharp, she looks like the GOP boss. The only thing bad about it is my own vile governor Rick Perry grinning like the asshole he is right next to her and playing handler over the Killa from Wasilla.

What I'm getting at is that Palin, by virtue of the VP slot that I think many assumed would go Romney's way and by virtue of her capacity for "history making" (among other assets) is perhaps now the bona fide next in line for the GOP. And if that is the case Obama (who is likely to face a series of headaches, some resistant to any attempts at treatment from the White House) has his work cut out for him.

Oh, and I know what you're thinking and I absolutely agree: why in Christ's name are we already talking about 2012? Probably the same reason Vegas is already taking bets on NEXT year's Series. It's what we do...

The Dark Side of the Obama Victory

Anyone who doensn't keep up with the Southern Poverty Law Center's blog Hatewatch is doing themselves a disfavor. The Alabama-based nonprofit has built up a large budget over the years by suing hate groups that kill or injure people and using the winnings to shut down the organizations and fund their own. It is brilliant. Their magazine Intelligence Report will keep you abreast with what our nation's fascist underground is up to at any given time. Plus, you gotta love non-state surrveillance of the bad guys. It belies arguments that we HAVE TO HAVE cops.

Upon Obama's victory they made some important observations following up on recent intelligence they've published:

In all the euphoria after the election of Barack Obama, it is tempting to see the era of overt racism in the United States as past, a dead letter that has no relevance in a country that has finally overcome its ugly history. But sadly, that would be a mistake. Obama’s election reflects the fact that the country has made enormous progress in the area of race relations and is likely to propel it to even greater heights. But progress is never a straight line. There is always the danger of a backlash.

Even before the campaign was over, racial rage, clearly driven by fear of a black man in the White House, began to break out around the country. Effigies of Obama appeared hanging from nooses on university campuses. Angry supporters of John McCain and Sarah Palin shouted “Kill him!” at a campaign rally and even screamed “nigger” at a black cameraman, telling him, “Sit down, boy!” The head of the Hillsborough County, Fla., Republican Party sent an E-mail warning members of “the threat” of “carloads of black Obama supporters coming from the inner city to cast their votes.” A reporter who has covered every presidential election since 1980 told me he had never seen such fury. Similar scenes were reported nationwide.

Naturally, the rage also engulfed the radical right. Thom Robb, an Arkansas Klan leader, described for a reporter the “race war” he sees developing “between our people, who I see as the rightful owners and leaders of this great country, and their people, the blacks.” In Tennessee, two neo-Nazi skinheads went further, allegedly planning to murder black schoolchildren, shoot and behead other African Americans, and assassinate Obama. They were arrested two weeks before the election.

(...)

“Historically, when times get tough in our nation, that’s how movements like ours gain a foothold,” Jeff Schoep, the leader of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group with 73 chapters in 34 states, told USA Today. “When the economy suffers, people are looking for answers. … We are the answer for white people.”

Unfortunately, Schoep is right. And the economic meltdown set in motion by the subprime crisis is not the only reason. Indeed, there seems to be a kind of perfect storm brewing of factors favoring the growth of hate and hate groups.

(...)

David Duke, the former Klan leader and convicted felon who is the closest thing the radical right has to an intellectual leader these days, believes this could all work to his benefit. In an essay this summer, the neo-Nazi ideologue argued that an Obama victory would serve as a “visual aid” to white Americans, provoking a backlash that Duke believes will “result in a dramatic increase in our ranks.”

An observation the group has yet to make is a parallel to the early and mid 90s. You will remember (if you have an historical memory longer than the last news cycle, almost unheard of in our postmodern dystopia) that in 1992 the right and far right raised questions about Bill Clinton's patriotism, suggesting that his Rhodes Scholar-era trip to the Soviet Union was actually based on his recruitment to the KGB. I suppose they were all proven right when Clinton transitioned the country to Marxist-Leninism, eh comrades, eh? They also painted him as a hippie flower child leftist who would take away everyone's guns, throw open the prison doors and outlaw straight sex. They worked themselves up into a lather.

The right wing ignored what actually happened--Clinton did all of the things Reagan and Bush wanted to do but could never get away with: ending welfare, gutting our financial regulatory apparatus, passing the Effective Death Penalty Act, etc. They ignored it and further stoked their fevered followers until right wing true believers across the country were organizing militias, stockpiling arms and preparing for partisan warfare. The climax of this inanity was the tragedy of Oklahoma City when 168 people were killed by men who believed they were doing the righteous work of liberty--a belief fertilized by Clinton hate and the right wing media circus that shat it out.

Now we have a Black man with a funny name on his way to the White House, and for months the right wing has suggested that he is a "secret Muslim" dedicated to the most dangerous political interpretations of that faith. They also believe him to be a Marxist, a traitor and an election theif (all the malarkey about ACORN suggests this). All this to say that the rhetoric surrounding Obama makes that against Clinton seem rather tepid. Add his race to the mix, and the far right will have even hotter flames firing than those that led to OKC in 1995.

Finally, many of the retrogrades who went away for 10-15 years in the aftermath of that conglagration for criminal conspiracy, weapons violations and other such charges are getting out of prison. They are leaving their cages more bitter, more organized and with internet communications that have proven to be invaluable to terrorist and revolutionary organizations around the globe.

All this to say, we are entering a dangerous time. Clinton only made things worse by massacring the Branch Davidians, creating gun-toting martyrs and a casus belli for the far right. Obama is unlikely to be presented with an opportunity for such a crime, and I frankly believe that his temperament would make such a repeat less likely. But the elevation of a Black man to the White House could be enough in its own right. I fear that Oklahoma City will be seen at the end of Obama's years in office as only the first in a series of spectacular tin-pot fascist crimes. Here's hoping the SPLC and I are both way off base.

On Rahm Emmanuel for Chief of Staff

It'd be nice to think that the fascist Jerome Corsi and his ilk would finally be shamed into silence by Emmanuel's appointment, but I'm sure we'll be hearing right wing conspiracy theories about Obama's treasonous support for Islamism for some time (four to eight years, at the very least).

But it is ominous that no one seems to be questioning the appointment to so powerful a position of a man who fought in a foreign country's military (the IDF) and who has long been suspected of being an agent for a foreign country's intelligence service (Mossad). Is this because the media consider Israel little more than the 51st state? Any hope that a president who once honored Rashid Khalidi and who was acquainted with the legendary Edward Said might introduce a more reasonable policy towards Israel/Palestine seems to have been dashed for the moment.

But seriously... if Emmanuel were a Latin American (as opposed to a Jewish person) who had fought in, say, the Venezuelan military and who was suspected with cause of having been an intelligence asset of the DISIP (the Venezuelan intelligence agency) how much would we be hearing about this? Chances are he wouldn't have even been elected to Congress. And--unlike Israel--Venezuela has never bombed a US Naval ship and up until Chavez's recent buddying up with FARC goons they have never invaded neighboring countries, they are not in gross and persistent violation of fundamental international law and they are not flagrant violators of international arms treaties (though admittedly Israel is not a NPT signatory, their aggression is among the root causes of the dreaded Iranian nuclear program).

In a reasonable world such a development would mean that the US Zionist crowd would shut up about mythical liberal, media or national bias against Israel. I mean, the most powerful job in the White House outside of the president himself is held by a citizen, veteran and rumored spy for the country and nobody objects. But I'm sure they'll keep up their victimization act--and along with Christians, conservatives and other gluttons for dominance they'll continue reaping tremendous rewards.

Sorry!

I haven't posted much lately. I think I'm going to start putting up quick one-off speculations to fill out the time between my rambling essays. I am also considering a switch to another host... I don't like having to put up an entire 3,000 word (or more) post without being able to put the body behind a quote. Also, it'd be nice to have more graphic elements, etc. Either way, get ready for changes!