Emanuel Is Bad on More Than Just Palestine

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel is a member of the so-called New Democrat Coalition (NDC), of group of center-right pro-business Congressional Democrats affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Conference, which is dedicated to moving the Democratic Party away from its more liberal and progressive base. Numbering only 58 members out of 236 Democrats in the current House of Representatives, the NDC has worked closely with its Republican colleagues in pushing through and passing such legislation as those providing President Bush with "fast-track" trade authority in order to bypass efforts by labor, environmentalists and other public interest groups to promote fairer trade policy.

Emanuel began his political career as a senior adviser and chief fundraiser for the successful 1989 Chicago mayoral campaign of Richard M. Daley to seize back City Hall from reformists who had challenged the corrupt political machine of this father, Richard J. Daley. Emanuel later became a senior adviser to Bill Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998, serving as Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy, and was credited with playing a major role in shifting the Clinton administration's foreign and domestic policy agenda to the right. Emanuel was the single most important official involved in pushing through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the bill ending Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and Clinton's draconian crime bill, among other legislation.

Source: AlterNet

We might be more relevant if we stopped honing in only ONE issue, and formulated arguments about why this man is bad on so many more levels than just Palestine. It isn't just about our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. It's about our millions of neighbors who have been left "barely" living as a result of NAFTA and bad AFDC legislation. When will we see that?

"Good American?"

So...have you seen this? I just had to post it...sheesh...seriously? Racist much?

The One Thing Clinton & Obama Agree On

Obama's first first foreign policy speech of the general election campaign entailed him "whoring" himself out to AIPAC this morning. Sad, right? On the bright side, at least we now know for sure that Clinton and him agree on one thing: ensuring the Palestinian people continue to suffer under iron fist of Apartheid Israel.

Hillary Clinton:
"It has been an honor to contest these primaries with him. It is an honor to call him my friend. And let me be very clear: I know that Sen. Obama will be a good friend to [apartheid] Israel."

Barack Obama:
Rumors have been circulating at least since last year that Obama is a Muslim and does not support the Jewish state. He is a Christian and said at the conference he is a "true friend of [apartheid] Israel," earning applause.

Source: Obama Addresses Rumors at pro-[Apartheid] Israel Conference

American apathy - a license to kill

This article is somewhat demotivating, but it's also a good reality check and offers some important insight into the psyche of the 'elite' yet uninformed American. Excerpts below:

You would think that showing maps clearly delineating the truncated, obviously non-viable area available for a possible Palestinian state and showing pictures that define Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories would have some kind of impact on an audience of astute but, on this issue, generally uninformed Americans.

We have shown maps and pictures like these myriad times before, but have never been received with quite such disinterest. Here was a group of mostly retired U.S. government officials, academics, journalists, and business executives, as well as a few still-working professionals -- all ranging in political orientation from center right to center left, the cream of informed, educated America, the exemplar of elite mainstream opinion in the United States.

The first person to comment when our presentation concluded, identifying herself as Jewish, said she had "never heard a more one-sided presentation" and labeled us "beyond anti-Semitic" -- which presumably is somewhat worse than plain-and-simple anti-Semitic.

Our brief conversation with this woman progressed in an interesting fashion. We tried to engage her in a discussion about what exactly was one-sided in our depiction of the situation on the ground and what she would have liked to see to make it "two-sided." She did not answer but indicated that she thought whatever Israel did must be justified by Palestinian actions.

Why is this interesting to anyone but us? Because this in-depth discussion with a small but representative group of intelligent, thinking Americans is indicative of a broad range of U.S. public opinion on foreign policy issues, and their level of disinterest in the consequences of U.S. policies is quite disturbing. The self-absorption evident during this meeting, the general "don't-rock-the-boat" posture, the overwhelming lack of concern for the victims of Israeli and U.S. power amount to a license to kill for the U.S. and its allies.

...and a "Happy Blue Year" to all

While I don't share Michael Moore's enthusiasm towards the Democrats, I must admit the results of the Iowa caucus were a very welcomed surprise (we need more of those!). Below are excerpt's from Moore's thoughts sent out on his mailing list:

January 3, 2007

Friends,

There was no doubt about it. The message from Iowa tonight was
simple, but deafening:

If you're a candidate for President, and you voted for the war, you
lose. And if you voted and voted and voted for the war -- and never
once showed any remorse -- you really lose.

What an amazing night, not just for Barack Obama, but for America. I
know that Senator Obama is so much more than simply the color of his
skin, but all of us must acknowledge -- and celebrate -- the fact that
one of the whitest states in the U.S. just voted for a black man to be
our next president. Thank you, Iowa, for this historic moment. Thank
you for at least letting us believe that we are better than what we
often seem to be. And to have so many young people come out and vote
-- and vote for Obama -- this is a proud moment.

With all due respect to Senator Obama's victory, the most important
news out of the caucus this evening was the whopping, room-busting
turnout of Democrats. 239,000 people showed up to vote Democratic
tonight (93% more than in '04, which was a record year), while only
115,000 showed up to vote Republican. And this is a red state!

Bottom line: People have had it. Iowa will go blue (Happy Blue Year, Hawkeyes!).

Sheehan vs. Pelosi

Like I said earlier, I respect Cindy Sheehan even more now that she figured out the real deal with the Democrats and is not willing to play their game.

Cindy Sheehan "Resigns"

FORT WORTH, Texas - Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who galvanized an anti-war movement with her month-long protest outside President Bush's ranch, said Tuesday she's done being the public face of the movement.

"I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," Sheehan told The Associated Press while driving from her property in Crawford to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California.

"I'm going home for awhile to try and be normal," she said.

In what she described as a "resignation letter," Sheehan wrote in her online diary on the Daily Kos blog: "Good-bye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it.

"It's up to you now."

Sheehan began a grass roots peace movement in August 2005 when she camped outside Bush's Crawford ranch for 26 days, demanding to talk with the president about her son's death. Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was 24 when he was killed in an ambush in Baghdad in 2004.
. . .
When Sheehan first took on Bush, she was a darling of the liberal left. "However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used," she wrote in the diary.

She said she sacrificed a 29-year marriage and endured threats to put all her energy into stopping the war. What she found, she wrote, was a movement "that often puts personal egos above peace and human life."

She said the most devastating conclusion she had reached "was that Casey did indeed die for nothing ... killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think."

Read the full story at: Yahoo News