ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>Unknown&nbsp;News | Helen & Harry's cranky weblog of news and opinion | unknownnews@inbox.com &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</title> <META content="abuse of authority, alternative news, anarchist news, anti-bush news, anti-cheney news, anti-republican news, bad cops, bush news, cheney news, civil rights, corrupt cops news, crooked cops, freedom news, liberal news, libertarian news, maniac cops, minarchist news, police blotter, police brutality, police corruption news, police misconduct, progressive news, rumsfeld news"name=KEYWORDS> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; 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// End --> </script></A> </TD></TR></TABLE></td></tr></table> <table width="980" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="830" align="center" valign="top" bgcolor=white class="font14"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="4" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="center" WIDTH="32%" BGcolor="#dddddd" class="fonty"> <B>Commentary by Herb Ruhs, MD</B> </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="68%" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonty">&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/"><B>Home</B></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/about.html">About us</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/contact.html">Contact us</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/!workfiles.html"><FONT COLOR=black>|</FONT></A>&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/faq.html">FAQ</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">Mystery links</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/stickers.html">Stickers</A> &amp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/forsale.html">stuff</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|<BR> </TD></TR></TABLE></td><td width="150" align=center valign="center" bgcolor="#eeeeee" class="font15"><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/stickers.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/buyabumpersticker.jpg" border="0" width="138" height="23"></A> </td></tr></table><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="980" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="830" BGcolor="#dddddd" class="fonty"> <iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/frames-new.html" height="32" width="830" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="center" WIDTH="150" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonty"><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/donations.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/makeadonation.jpg" border="0" width="138" height="23"></A> </TD></TR></TABLE><!-- end uniform header--> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="980" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="10" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="10" BGcolor=white class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="630" BGcolor=white class="fonty"> <A NAME=HR></A><BR><BIG><B>It's not the economy stupid, it's the system.</B></BIG><BR><BR>by <B>Herb Ruhs, MD</B> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Saturday, August 30, 2008 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #dddddd" class="font11">&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0808-30HR.html"><FONT COLOR=blue>PERMANENT&nbsp;LINK</FONT></A>&nbsp;&nbsp;</SPAN><BR><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="215" class="fonty"> <img src="http://www.unknownnews.org/DrHerb.jpg" border="1" width="200" height="200"> </TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" class="fonty"> I accidentally tuned into Barack Obama's acceptance speech. I unthinkingly (excuse: feeling rotten, clouded sensorium) tried to tune into the <A HREF="http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?show=8"><B>KPFA Evening News</B></A> and ended up listening to the speech instead.<BR><BR>It was a good speech. Very classy. It touched on just about every symptom of rot expressing itself in our society. However, the speech was long on domestic social suffering and short on the perils of a foreign policy that threatens the entire world with destruction. I remind myself the speech was targeted on the coming election, not on telling the truth.<BR><BR>The one thing Obama pointedly did not call people's attention to </TD></TR></TABLE> was the long-standing US foreign policy of aggressive militarism. To me, Obama comes off as a militarist in the mold of every US president since WWII. He seems to be advising carrying a really, <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="50%" class="fonty"> really big stick and mumbling empty phrases about diplomacy. I end up thinking that if he is allowed to take office that there may very well be some reforms that help some folks a little, but that the basic system of plutocracy will be unchallenged and encouraged to grow yet stronger.<BR><BR>Beware of the physician that promises to help you with your symptoms, but is disinterested in identifying your underlying disease. We do need symptomatic treatment. We need better health care, better education, more economic and legal justice for ordinary people. But if we settle only for symptomatic treatment, the underlying disease will progress and eventually no amount of symptomatic care will help.<BR><BR>We have devolved an extremely primitive political system where might and wealth make right and democratic principles and basic social justice concerns are only given lip service. Democracy means bottom-up power, but we increasingly experience top down rule. We are a failed democracy.<BR><BR> The only effective rule of distribution of power in the US is that the profits of the obscenely wealthy matter more than anything else. That is the disease that no prominent politician dare name, much less confront. Even Congressman Dennis Kucinich was forced to pull his punches in exchange for the opportunity to pretend to be part of the Democratic Party.<BR><BR>Who knows? Maybe events will conspire to cause the people to rise up and put the plutocrats in their place and cure our disease. </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="1%" class="fonty"> </TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="center" WIDTH="49%" class="fonty"> <img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/Obama-silhouette.jpg" border="1" width="305" height="281"><BR><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="2" WIDTH=100% border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH=100% BGcolor="#BBBBBB" class="fonty"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="2" WIDTH=100% border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH=100% BGcolor="#CCCCCC" class="fonty"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="2" WIDTH=100% border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH=100% BGcolor="#DDDDDD" class="fonty"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH=100% border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH=100% BGcolor="#EEEEEE" class="fontpq"><B> To me, Obama comes off as a militarist in the mold of every US president since WWII.<BR><BR>He seems to be advising carrying a really, really big stick and mumbling empty phrases about diplomacy.<BR><BR>I end up thinking that if he is allowed to take office that there may very well be some reforms that help some folks a little, but that the basic system of plutocracy will be unchallenged and encouraged to grow yet stronger. </B></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE> </TD></TR></TABLE>Stranger things have happened. In the meantime, though, I am not encouraged by all the talk about "change" coming from the top. It just sounds like shuck and jive to me. I am still planning to vote for Ralph Nader. <DIV align="right"><BR><i>Herb Ruhs, MD</i></div><!-- REPLY --><BR><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/grayline.jpg" border="0" width="630" height="3"><BR> <BR><BR><center>© 2008 by the author.<center><BR> </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="5" BGcolor=white class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="5" BGcolor="#ffffff" class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="305" BGcolor="#ffffff" class="font14"><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="4" CELLSPACING="4" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="17%" BGcolor="#ffffff" class="font13">&nbsp;</TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="66%" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="font14"> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/about.html"><B><I>Unknown News</I></B><BR> This is who we are,<BR>what we do, and why we do it</A>. </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="17%" BGcolor="#ffffff" class="font13">&nbsp;</TD></TR></TABLE> <!-- Translation--><CENTER> <form action="http://www.google.com/translate" ><script language="JavaScript"> <!-- document.write ("<input name=u value="+location.href+" type=hidden>") // --></script> <input name="hl" value="en" type="hidden"> <input name="ie" value="UTF8" type="hidden"> <input name="langpair" value="" type="hidden"> <input name="langpair2" value="en|ar" title="Arabic" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagArab.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23" /> <input name="langpair" value="en|zh-CN" title="Chinese" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagChina.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|fr" title="French" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagFrance.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|de" title="German" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagGermany.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|it" title="Italian" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagItaly.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|ja" title="Japanese" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagJapan.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|ko" title="Korean" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagKorea.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|pt" title="Portuguese" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagPortugal.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|es" title="Spanish" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagSpain.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> </form></CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonty"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" BGCOLOR="#eeeeee" WIDTH="100%" class="font15"><BR> <!-- =today= =and make sure there's no target= --><b>Commentary from <I>Unknown News</I></B> <BR><! match anchor date><I><B>Saturday, August 30, 2008</b></i><BR><BR> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0808-30.html#JRM"><font color=blue><b>Remember, McCain relishes<BR>jokes regarding women</b></font></A> <nobr>by&nbsp;JR Mooneyham</nobr><BR> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0808-30HR.html"><font color=blue><b>It's not the economy stupid, it's the system.</b></font></A> <nobr>by&nbsp;Herb Ruhs, MD</nobr><BR> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0808-30.html#SB"><font color=blue><b>They ALL have issues</b></font></A> <nobr>by&nbsp;Sherri B.</nobr><BR> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0808-30.html#PC"><font color=blue><b>Obama's best line</b></font></A> <nobr>by&nbsp;Pavel C.</nobr><BR> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0808-30.html#CM"><font color=blue><b>We smart ... throw rocks</b></font></A> <nobr>by&nbsp;Chris M.</nobr><BR> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0808-30.html#KF"><font color=blue><b>Gas a tiny bit lower...<BR>big deal!</b></font></A> <nobr>by&nbsp;Kathy Fisher</nobr><BR> <center><BR><B>Email:</B> &nbsp;<A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com"><B>unknownnews at inbox.com</B></A></center><BR> </TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <A NAME=archive></A> <TABLE CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="300" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%" BGcolor=black class="fonty"><TABLE CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%" BGcolor=white class="fonty"> <center><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/archive-DrRuhs.html" width="295" height="666" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0"></iframe></center> </TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <center><!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup"startspan ALT="Site Meter"--> <script type="text/javascript"language="JavaScript">var site="sm4unknownnews"</script> <script type="text/javascript"language="JavaScript1.2" src="http://sm4.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=sm4unknownnews"> </script> <noscript> <A HREF="http://sm4.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=sm4unknownnews"target=_top> <img src="http://sm4.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=sm4unknownnews&refer=&hours=8&minutes=53&rtype=4"border=0 title="Site Meter" height="10" width="10"></A></noscript> <!-Copyright (c)2000 Site Meter --><!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup"Endspan --></CENTER><BR> </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="10" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> </TR></TABLE> </body> </html>