"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
|
"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
With Obama, a little uncertainty by JR Mooneyham Wednesday, July 30, 2008 PERMANENT LINK You may not like the article below, but it does make some decent points. Even if some of them make McCain look good, and Obama look iffy. I must admit the only thing I too know about Obama doing that I admire, was give a spectacular speech once. He even made me believe he was anti-war. But all the points he scored with me there he has since lost with his FISA betrayal, and his talk that he will continue to war-monger and throw infinite cash at the Pentagon much the same as Bush or McCain after elected. And he might not do much towards universal healthcare, either.
Obama's problem is many progressives like me — the bedrock of Democratic support — have had Obama puncture our hopes of him like a child's balloon, since getting the nomination. We're no longer as enthusiastic and willing to talk him up as before. When we go to the polls, we'll be hanging our heads and muttering "Goddamn it, I wish I had somebody better to vote for." That feeling could easily translate into lots of voters switching to a third party candidate (as helped Bush win in 2000). Or simply not showing up at the polls at all (as may also have helped Bush in 2000). One of the strategies Republicans love most to use in elections is to dampen down voter enthusiasm for Democratic candidates, in order to reduce Democratic turnout. Since capturing the nomination, Obama has been doing that all on his own. To me, that seems awfully stupid of him. But maybe he's really smart, like some say. In that case, maybe it's not stupidity on his part, but plain old arrogance or egotism instead. Whichever it is, the end result could be the same: a Republican win in 2008. Obama the Unknown by Richard Cohen, WASHINGTON POST
Here's a rebuttal to "Obama the Unknown" by Chris Edelson, THE SEMINAL Like most Americans with lives, I paid only passing attention to the nomination campaigns or political ads and news. So I still have a fairly sketchy idea of who Obama is at present. Mostly consisting of what I said before. I was actually surprised by how little of substance the rebuttal writer could list. He also fails to mention how Obama has seemed to renege on (or at least heavily hedge) his previous anti-war stance, since winning the nomination. And already officially broken his pledge on FISA — before even winning the office of the Presidency. JR Mooneyham (www.jrmooneyham.com/) I'm really not looking for someone to admire. Admiring Obama (or any candidate) isn't a prerequisite for voting for him, and if it was I don't think I'd have voted yet in my life. I'd also ask, what has Richard Cohen of the WASHINGTON POST done that anyone admires? I've been seeing Cohen's byline for years and I've never yet been tempted to descend past the third paragraph of anything he's written. Helen & Harry Economy hitting the elderly especially hard
You know, if someone forced the US government to own up to the true rate of inflation compared to their fudged statistics of past decades, and pay today's retirees according to the real inflation adjustments due them both from now on, and from past years, that would automatically fix lots of the elderly's economic problems. Lots of retirees would probably be amazed at what a difference it would make! And if you forced the government to go beyond that to pay INTEREST on all the money they wrongfully withheld from retirees with those crooked numbers over decades...we're talking Christmas all year round for the shuffleboard crowd! But apparently most retirees don't have a clue about those hundreds of billions of dollars stolen from them by crooked inflation numbers. Which seems especially weird, since you know there's got to be some smart ex-accountants among them somewhere! Do most accountants just die young? Or did all of them succeed at making fortunes before retirement, so that they don't care about this history-making theft from their Social Security? Or maybe whenever one starts to get the issue some credible public attention, he goes quiet again after getting sufficient hush money from some vested interest in that vast treasure trove... Holy cow! As unhappy as most men seem to be, you gals are even more so? That's awful!
I've been describing such 'smart' surveillance gear coming online since maybe 1995 or so in my timeline:
Future Privacy VS Security: a primer for governments, corporations, and individuals The Signposts Timeline of Future Technology and Social Change 2026 AD-2049 AD JR Mooneyham (www.jrmooneyham.com/) |
|
