Barack Needs to Give Merchandising a Rest
The Obama team, as brilliant in the field of marketing as they are, need to stop it with all the merchandising. A couple of days ago, I got a package from the Inauguration committee with an “official invitation” — heavy stock, embossed lettering, presidential seal. But in reality it was a direct mail pitch to buy a bunch of Barack crap to help pay for the event. Sure, this is history, but come on …
Class Warfare
Lev Davidovich Wuerffel 
Politics 
Bill Clinton, Cannibalism, Cheney, Republican Douchebaggery, Unions, WOne trend I’ve loved in the last eight years has been watching Repubs scream “class warfare!” any time regular folk (or the very rare politician) criticizes the absurd tax breaks and other financial advantages given to the wealthy in this country. The irony is so palpable it’s like a 16-ton-weight falling on the speaker from the sky as in one of the old Monty Python bits. Repubs scream about welfare, despite that program’s being nearly gutted (beginning under Clinton, I might add), and always find a way to suggest that the problems of our country come from the bottom up, particularly from Black people who live in cities, while simultaneously paying fake homage to the hypocritical pieties of rural, small-town white folk. Their ability to derail any honest discussion of class-based inequities in our society has kept many middle-class (and lower) Americans from noting that the GOP hasn’t been putting forward policies that help them.
Our latest evidence is the (so-far) unattributed memo sent to Senate Repubs urging them to vote down the auto bailout package. It contained three bulleted suggestions, including this one:
This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.
If there was any doubt among any sentient beings that the decision the Repubs made has no relation to what’s best for the country, this memo eliminates it. Their vote was purely based on an effort to take a shot at unions and hurt a key Democratic constituency. Union-bashing works for the GOP in many places, of course, where non-union people have allowed attention to the (sadly, real) corruption in some of the very biggest unions (UAW, SEIU) to lead them to ignore the VERY NECESSARY protections and comforts offered to workers by unions. The auto companies helped the Repubs by not fighting the nonsense “Auto union workers make $73/hour! They need a pay cut!” arguments they levied against line workers, not explaining that that number included their retirement, health benefits, and group pool payments into one big number and then divided it by the number of workers. Given that kind of calculation, the assistant manager at your local Burger King makes $35/hour. It’s bullshit, and they know it.
The Bushies’ efforts to gut worker safety and other OSHA provisions, coupled with the Repubs’ desperate fight against card check and any other methods of organizing that give workers a better chance of coming together to protect their rights and pay, show that class warfare is always alive and well in this country, but it’s almost always the upper class making war on everyone else. Try it in the reverse direction and you’re a SOCIALIST (not a designation this author, obviously, would resent, but which still amazingly carries a taint in our mentally ill society).
Using tax money to rescue automakers from their ridiculously bad business models disgusts me, but the alternative (potentially up to three million lost jobs, the collapse of the economy in many of the Rust Belt states, bands of cannibal Michigan State fans howling through the woods of the Upper Peninsula) is certainly worse. How ironic that W. and Dick see the need to do this bailout, recognizing that whatever shred of a chance they have to not be seen as the men who completely ruined this great country rests on their ability to get this bailout done.
Obama’s Dream Team
GoneGator Politics Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel, Tim GeithnerNot since Magic, Larry and Michael suited up for the original Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics have we so eagerly awaited the announcement of a national starting lineup.
Such is the nature of Barack Obama’s selections for Cabinet posts and his White House inner circle.
At point guard … Rahm Emanuel, the wizard of the Dems’ political turnaround since 2004.
At small forward … Tim Geithner, the wunderkind head of the New York Fed, taking over Treasury.
At power forward … Larry Summers, former Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, now Obama’s bulldog designate as the incoming Director of the National Economic Council.
At shooting guard (heh, heh) … Bob Gates, staying on at Defense as a (token?) Republican holdover.
And at center, the woman in the middle, the one who could have been No. 44 but is still No. 1 in your hearts … Hillary Clinton, who certainly is extending the drama over her selection as Secretary of State.
Obama and his crew unquestionably are bringing together some of the best minds in the country to make swift progress on the economic and diplomatic challenges we face.
But just as pundits on both sides of the political spectrum were generally praising Obama’s picks, Joe Lieberman had to get a word in edgewise and call Obama’s picks to date “about perfect” :
Everything that President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect, both in terms of a tone and also in terms of the strength of the names that have either been announced or are being discussed to fill his administration.
Obama is certain to enjoy a long honeymoon as he proposes what I anticipate will be nothing short of a “new New Deal.” Look for reams of transformational legislation to be passed within 30 days of his inauguration — and independent liberal Lieberman knows he could play a key role by caucusing with the Dems in the Senate.
Americans can be assured that all this Obama goodwill will extend overseas, particularly in Europe. As with the Dream Team in 1992, the world is rooting for the U.S.
The difference now is the world not only expects a U.S. victory.
It needs a U.S. victory.
Fuck Joe Lieberman
Like all good lefties, I’m pretty pissed off that Joe the Turncoat Senator will get to keep his cushy chair of the Homeland Security Committee. Still, I understand that the Dems are nearing the 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority, causing their loins to engorge with blood that rushes from their brains, as happens in rutting elks. Hence, they couldn’t help themselves from bringing Lieberman back into their caucus, lest he go fully Republican, instead of continuing to be a stealth Republican.
Also, Barry the Uniter needed to not have his party going all tribal and stringing up dissidents, so I’m sure his public two cents suggesting no punishment for Lieberman mattered. But Barry came from Chicago’s hard-core political scene: I can assure you that he has Lieberman firmly by the short and curly hairs, and Joe knows it. The next time Barry needs something from that committee, I bet he gets it. The evidence was all in Joe’s fawning and thankful comments about Barry, and his mewling apology for the things he said about him on the campaign trail.
My First Disagreement with Obama
I kind of sat on this major policy difference I have with the now president-elect while I was canvassing for him and supporting him in the 24 hours from when he presented it and when we all made him our new king, but now that he’s in this has to be put on the table: Barack HUSSEIN (I’m just sayin’) Obama has declared his support for an eight-team NCAA playoff in college football.
I’m still one of those ancient holdouts who doesn’t really mind the current system that much. I’m not fully against the idea of a playoff if indeed a way is found to do it that maintains some lower bowl structure and fairly includes the truly best teams (not as easy as it sounds). But you’d have a hard time convincing me that the best team didn’t come out on top in the last five years. The last time a team that had no business winning got over was probably Ohio State in 2001, and even then the problem wasn’t that they were in the game but that the ref boned the ‘Canes with his late bullshit interference call. Anyway, when Barry starts pushing for the playoff, I’ll be standing athwart him for the first time.
Barack Obama’s election night photos
For those who haven’t see Barack Obama’s election night photos on Flickr, it’s worth five minutes of your time.
Now the real work begins for Barack Obama, the nation’s Community Organizer in Chief
A couple of days before Election Day, I noted the irony of a community organizer ending the Republican hold on the White House, given how Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin had mocked Barack Obama’s background to the cheers of thousands at the Republican convention.
Here’s a video reminder:
Obama won the presidency precisely because of his experience as a grass-roots organizer. His campaign harnessed the power of the people — and the Internet, the most democratic medium ever conceived — to inspire a nation and build a populist political machine.
This represents nothing short of a sea change in American politics and hopefully in how the nation governs itself. I think Obama realizes that he is now the nation’s Community Organizer in Chief.
From his victory speech:
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
The campaign does not end here — it only shifts its focus to fulfilling the promise of change.
To the hundreds of thousands of volunteers, including myself and many friends who pounded the pavement in the closing days: Don’t stop now. Stay active. Organize. Call and write your Congressional representatives as Obama pushes legislation to effect changes we desperately need.
Obama needs our help now more than ever.
Revenge of the community organizer
Remember during the GOP convension when a smarmy Rudy Giuliani and smug Sarah Palin mocked Barack Obama’s background as a community organizer? What a delicious irony that that very experience likely will power Obama to victory over the out-of-touch Republicans.
Gators win in landslide; Obama next?
Congratulations to the Florida Gators, who yesterday avenged Georgia’s insulting 2007 on-field team celebration by spanking the Bulldogs in a 49-10 beat-down in Jacksonville.
The Gators’ landslide included quarterback Tim Tebow’s school record-breaking 37th career touchdown run and three interceptions of future NFL top draft pick Matthew Stafford. Florida held a 49-3 fourth-quarter lead in an unmistakable landslide victory.
Now it’s Barack’s turn. He’s making an aggressive push in Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina and other traditional GOP states in his pursuit of electoral votes. Obama doesn’t just want to win — he wants to secure a mandate. And we’re not talking about the “mandate” W claimed in 2000 when the Supreme Court handed him a victory in an election Al Gore won at the polls.
Yesterday I canvassed for Obama, speaking with dozens of undecided voters. (The majority said they will be voting for Obama.) Today I’ll be making calls to more undecided voters.
What can you do to help Obama to victory Tuesday?
Don’t be a hater
Received four GOP flyers in the mail this week, all fear mongering about Barack Obama. Only one of the four mentioned a McCain position. On the other hand, the one flyer I got from the Obama camp encouraged me to exercise my American right to vote and asked for my support — with nary a negative word or a mention of McCain. That, to me, says it all about these two men. I suspect that one day, McCain will look back and feel extremely ashamed of all that has transpired.
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