Jeff Blankfort says I'm getting carried away re the left having influence with Obama. I remain optimistic, but it's good to get a reality check:
You're getting a litle carried away with the suggestion that the "left"
or anyone remotely close to what there is of it, will have a seat at
Obama's table, particularly when it comes to the Middle East. If he
selects the odious Emanuel as his chief of staff, such a blatant
pandering to Israel and its US supporters so soon, is a harbinger of
what we can expect a BO administration to look like and how we can
expect it to act.
He is also rumored to be ready to pick Larry Summers
as his Treasury Secretary which is a very important position not only
for its domestic implications but for US financial dealings with
foreign countries and at the moment Iran in particular. Summers,
another landsman, has equated anti-Zionism with anti-semitism and is
another hawk on Israel. Then there's good old Dennis Ross who already
has a seat reserved at the head table.
I watched the Emanuel
speech on Lebanon and the capturing of the Israeli soldiers and he
seemed little more than semi-literate and as loose with facts as Sarah
Palin but not nearly as good looking or as good a speaker. I was worried
about him becoming the first Jewish president but he'll need a lot of
help from the Hollywood crowd because right now he's a clod at the
podium.
Re Obama, there is no question that he is probably as
intelligent as anyone who has occupied the White House but his
abandonment of one progressive position after another during the
campaign, with hardly a whimper from his throngs of loyal supporters,
does not bode well. We need these young people who were turned on by
his charm and the promise of something better than what we've had for
decades to find the combination to the brain they locked away and build
a movement that Obama cannot ignore. Given our history, the odds are
against that happening, but as Obama said, this country has proved that
nothing is impossible. I only wish I could truly believe that.
Update. Jack Ross had the following response to Blankfort's analysis:
Neither the White House Chief of Staff
nor the Treasury Secretary has ANY mandate in foreign policy. Calm
down people. We're still looking at the dynamic trio of Richardson, Hagel, and Zinni. If I'm proven wrong there, then we'll talk.
I think Jack's overstating it re chief of staff and Treasury. But I am an optimist, too.
Maybe he's picked Emanuel knowing he's uber-Lobby, with the intention of taking them with him, rather than the other way around. Inside the tent, reluctantly pissing out, rather than outside, destructively pissing in.
That's my fall-back position, and I'm sticking to it. At least until the evidence Obamian weakness becomes so stark I have to fall back even further. I'm with Uri Avnery – you have to be an optimist.
Obama's acolytes, Phil included, are about to receive a dose of reality. As I said in another post a while back, the US is now tied completely at the hip to Israel. Both will inevitably go down together– just a matter of time. The question is the time it takes and second the amount of people that are killed in the process.
All empires lash out wildly as they are collapsing. Why should the US/ Israel behemoth be any different?
The only website that has Obama pegged right so far is Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com. Other than that, its just a bunch of eternal optimists, that are unable to face reality. Here's a prediction: this is just the first in a long march of the democratic party's version of neocons into Obama's administration.
Obama needs to exorcise the ghost of Khalidi, and he will do it in the most blatant way posible, all the while betraying his most committed constituancy, the antiwar crowd, that is, assuming his antiwar fans are not braindead enough not to know Emanuel's position on the war.
Rep. Emmanuel signed onto HCR111 the nonbinding resolution of 2003/04 calling for an independent investigation into Rachel Corrie's death.
The only hope I have about Obama is that the man grows while in office; a big part of his coming to see the truth about Palestine could be accomplished by a genuine plain-speaking lady by the name of Michelle.
For generations, the Jews have been treating the Palestinians like n-ggers who can be lynched at will. It's going to be a 'lightbulb' moment for Obama when he realizes this.
Chris Matthews said what he heard from the Obama people on cabinet picks was:
1. Bipartisan
2. Diverse
3. Young
4. No retreads
That would rule out Summers. Also ruling out Summers: who the f' would want to work with that guy? Zionism aside, he's a prickly SOB.
Tim Geithner is much more likely, although granted he's not only a tribesman, but also a Kissinger Group alumnus.
Rep. Emmanuel signed onto HCR111 the nonbinding resolution of 2003/04 calling for an independent investigation into Rachel Corrie's death.
That's encouraging.
If Rep. Emmanuel signed for investigation into Rachel Corrie's death that was meant to be as independent as the one that investigated 9/11, then it is sadly not encouraging at all…….
.."a big part of his coming to see the truth about Palestine could be accomplished by a genuine plain-speaking lady by the name of Michelle."
Posted by: cogit8
I had that same thought. She has fire in the belly and a sense of injustice. She would be the person to target to influence Obama on Palestine.
Folks thought they was voting for the 'first African-American president.' But with zionist Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, it looks like Obama may be just a shuckin' 'n jivin' front man for a retinue of court Jews who will, of course, ensure that Israel's needs come first.
With the US in deep recession, the billions per year of aid to Israel and its neighbors could be used at home. But the Lobby is still doing business at the same old stand. Gimme some 'change I can believe in' — or just some change for a cup of coffee.
I agree with Glenn Condell: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I hope that is President-Elect Obama's thinking anyway. Alas, I won't at all be surprised to see a complete sell-out. Watching his speech at AIPAC, I was struck that one could summarize his whole spiel as "I know you are uncomfortable with me because I wasn't vetted before becoming a major player. Vet me now! Vet me now! I'm yours."
Thinking more…..
Now that the repubs have destroyed themselves for the foreseeable future…and since the dems now have almost all control we have a chance to let the dems destroy themselves also….
Which really I have no doubt they will..Iraq and WS were the GOP's waterloo and I expect Israel and Afaghan to be the dems waterloo.
So we could think of it this way…in another 4 years we will be rid of both parties….Americans will at long last be ready for something really different than the two party dual monarchy that passes for democracy.
Thinking more…..
Now that the repubs have destroyed themselves for the foreseeable future…and since the dems now have almost all control we have a chance to let the dems destroy themselves also….
Which really I have no doubt they will..Iraq and WS were the GOP's waterloo and I expect Israel and Afaghan to be the dems waterloo.
So we could think of it this way…in another 4 years we will be rid of both parties….Americans will at long last be ready for something really different than the two party dual monarchy that passes for democracy.
I'll follow Glenn for now.
(But I'm going to say it was his idea if it all goes bad.)
Interesting that Haaretz refers to Emanuel as an Israeli:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034855.html
'The only website that has Obama pegged right so far is Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com. Other than that, its just a bunch of eternal optimists, that are unable to face reality'
Madrid, you obviously don't read Dennis Perrin. His cynicism about Obama makes Raimondo's take seem benign. I am closer to JR than DP, being a wait-and-see agnostic rather than froth-at-the-mouth athiest about Obama's potential to break some of the chains he seemed happy to wrap around himself during the campaign. I credit the man with the intellectual and moral wherewithal to take the Lobby (and the MI complex) on. It's not whether he can (yes he can!) make the necessary moves, but whether he will.
He is sensible enough to know his chances of success would be very low if he treated them as external enemies, licencing them to array their considerable forces against him. He I'm sure feels he is a better chance of forcing them to move their goalposts over to where he wants them if he treats them as a more or less malleable part of his empire. He will after all be their boss, and so can exercise his will with regard to their work and their public statements, which would have to have a flow on effect to other parts of the Lobby. If he ignored them and made it clear they were on the outer, it would be on for young and old, and it wouldn't be pretty.
And BTW, Emanuel probably has dual citizenship – he served in the IDF in Gulf 1.
'he is probably as intelligent as anyone who has occupied the White House but his abandonment of one progressive position after another during the campaign'
Well he's either been foxing in order to get in, or he's been telling the truth. Time will tell.
'with hardly a whimper from his throngs of loyal supporters, does not bode well'
Those supporters won't take a backslide lying down. Al Giordano, who must be the best political nose in the business after being bang on with his predictions since primary season, is part of a group who plan to keep Obama's feet to the fire:
What's Next for the Obama Movement?
The Organizing of the President
This Thursday.
In Chicago.
At 7 p.m.
Thursday, November 6th
At DePaul University
In the SAC building # 254
2320 N. Kenmore Ave.
Chicago, Illinois
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield
I'm a bit too far away to go – are you there Rupa Shah? It's in your town.
As for Summers, for crying out loud – what's wrong with Nobel laureates like Paul Krugman and Joe Stiglitz? They aren't prickly Zionists; they aren't sexists or anti-environmentalists; they don't have associations with the people America sent into Yeltsin's Russia in order to pillage it; they have never said '"the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that".
It is difficult to imagine the Lobby (or Wall St, or the MI boondoggle community) getting very excited about either Krugman and Stiglitz at the Treasury or Fed, but one can easily imagine Summers getting nods of approval from that quarter. Should he be appointed, I guess I would have to descend to the next fall back position.
And D, if it all goes pear-shaped, I'm blaming that Uri Avnery and his incorrigible optimism.
'what's wrong with Nobel laureates like Paul Krugman and Joe Stiglitz? They aren't prickly Zionists'
Another attribute Summers has over these pretenders is his famous estimate of the cost of the Iraq War – a few hundred billion, tops.
Summers replacing Paulson? Frying pan, meet fire.
Paulson's a heck of a lot better than Summers. At least, Paulson's a pragmatist, whereas Summers is through and through an ideologue.
If the US actually gets through this crisis (and I have my doubts that it will, without the Dow going down to at least 5000, and real panic taking hold of its populace), it will have been in large measure due to Paulson's pragmatic act of buying preferred shares in the bank, and in not allowing AIG to fail. The fact that he did both of those things without waiting actually may stave off another great depression, but we shall see.
Bernanke and Christopher Cox by contrast have done nothing to distinguish themselves. Bernanke has reacted too slowly at every corner, and Cox has been out to lunch from day one on the job.
With the surfacing of Emanuel,Ross,Rubin,and possibly Summers;as well as the infamous step and fetching of Obama before AIPAC…
one would think that "Marxists" in residence would finally admit that "the role of Jews as a social group in relation to ruling class politcs"…should be talked about and investigated. Or will they continue to be the left cover for the zionist clique that controls Middle East politics in Washington?
How about it Socialist Workers Party,Internatinal Socialists,Workers World Party,et al? Is it necessary to remind you that Marx wrote "On the Jewish Question"??
cogit8:
" … It's going to be a 'lightbulb' moment for Obama when he realizes this."
I find it hard to imagine that Obama's genuflecting before AIPAC etc comes from any unawareness of the facts of the Israel-Palestinian issue.
His connections to Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi would seem to preclude that possibility.
link to electronicintifada.net
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link to latimes.com
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Former President Bush (41) had many of the same neocommunists in his administration. He kept them on a (relatively) tight leash. Under his watch they didn't go start wars for Israel. Gulf War I can't be blamed on the neocommunists: they were delighted of course, but they didn't make it happen. If Obama does the same, and imposes his will, I don't see any problem with 'co-opting' them into his admin to build support for domestic policy, as long as they end up in non-foreign policy positions.
Neocons are neocons. The next batch, the neocon-lights, mostly a matter of label, will push the USA farther down the road, the road to
Israel First, and the next World War.
During the Former President Bush (41) administration, the neocons were referred to as the "crazies" and were marginalized.
In the months leading up to the Iraqi invasion (or "launch" as 2 DUI Cheney says), Bush 41 called Bush 43 and asked him why he was letting the neocons run foreign policy. Bush 43 hung up on his father.
After the 2006 elections, Bush 43 visited his parents in Kennebunkport where he asked Bush 41 who the neocons were.
Barbara Bush screamed at Bush 43 that he had destroyed their family.
Gerald Ford said in an interview withheld until after his death, that in 2004 some top tier Republicans asked him to help them get Cheney off the ticket. He told them that he did not want to get involved.
Ford was very, very angry at Bush 43 for not standing up to the Evangelicals on the abortion plank at the 2000 RNC Convention.
The plank has no exception for rape, incest or health of the mother in its prohibition of abortions.