Breaking It Down

Sometimes a piece of art or a picture is worth a thousand words, this piece, "Peasants for Plutocracy" by Michael Dal Cerro says it all.

Nader Tries to Organize the Richest

A good interview with Ralph Nader on Democracy Now!. Nader talks about his new book which suggests a detailed strategy for real change by a small group of extremely wealthy dissatisfied progressives. It seems an unlikely scenario but given that he knows some of these folks, it's a good attempt to motivate. It's always good to hear from Nader as he is a man of rare integrity and dedication to the common good.

If Obama Can't Lead, We Must

I would like to continue to believe, like Jarvis Tyner that Obama is doing a great job and that his leadership continues to provide progressives with real opportunities. Unfortunately, I find myself feeling more in agreement with David Michael Green's position that Obama is too weak to handle the job of President at best, and a continuation of Bush at worst.

So far his administration feels to me like a replay of Clinton and it's an unpleasant deja vu. Here we have a charismatic President with a mandate and a majority in Congress and he can't even stand up to a few bellowing Repugs or a corrupt insurance industry to create a national health care system with over 70% popular support?!

During the last election and afterwords I sent a message to Obama pointing out that climate change was an issue that made all the others irrelevant. That in order to insure that there even is a US at the end of this century he needed to rebuild and modernize our national infrastructure, power grid and transportation systems. It's called adaptation and as history shows, that is the key to survival. Doing so would also create actual productive jobs which are the basis for a real economy. I pointed out that if he did not do this, it doesn't really matter what else he does because this nation and civilization will be finished.

What is to be done! We can and must exert as much pressure on the White House as possible to represent our own vital interests demanding job creation and Single Payer health care. Obama has shown us that he either doesn't have the backbone or that he is just another corporate clone and can't be relied on to be anything else. Should he completely fail to deliver and the economic crisis continue to deepen, we could be facing a right-wing fascist backlash of historic barbarity. We must take leadership in our own hands. We have no choice.