The American people deserve a reckoning!
We barely managed to make it through the 8 disastrous years of Bush/Cheney and we want a reckoning! We want a reckoning for an illegal, immoral war in Iraq that has cost us almost 5,000 lives of our bravest and best. We want a reckoning for the trillions of dollars poured down a hole in the sand for the benefit of Big Oil. We want a reckoning for the war profiteers that drained our treasury and wasted our hard-earned dollars while delivering faulty wiring and contaminated water to our troops. We want a reckoning for extraordinary renditions and secret “black” prisons in foreign lands. We want a reckoning for Blackwater’s killing of innocent civilians. We want a reckoning for the torture of prisoners, done in our names!
We want a reckoning for the Wall Street crooks that stole our retirement funds with their illegal schemes. We want a reckoning for tax breaks for the richest among us while the rest of us struggle to put food on the table for our families. We want a reckoning for the massive increases in the cost of health care insurance while their CEOs collect obscene bonuses and deny us the care we need. We want a reckoning for the cronies that watched while New Orleans drowned. We want a reckoning for tax breaks to companies that ship our jobs overseas for cheap labor and off-shore their profits to avoid taxes. We want a reckoning for the crooked politicians that take lobbyist money and then make our laws without regard for the American people.
Will President Obama give us this reckoning? THAT is the change I voted for…I guess it remains to be seen!
Holy crap, …I posted that link to my poetry and everybody evaporated here! OMG,..they hate it and don’t know what to say!…LIE, LIE!….LMAO~
I have to head out the door, now, but I am very interested and will definitely read and lie/and/or honestly comment later!
LMAO~…No worries, sound…That was an attempt at humor…..
I just notice your comment and now need to find the link to your poetry! I write some too. Why not post some here?
I wanted to share something with all of you that I did as a collaborative effort with another artist. We are both members of OvationTV (I don
Really beautiful and insightful work, TRP. And beautifully presented. I don’t read much poetry, but write songs myself, and I appreciate your imagery, meter and the natralness and economy of the language.
Or, I COULD lie and say it’s crap….
LOL…Thanks for taking a look and NOT lying…haha~
Rarest– Impermanence is my favorite so far–
“Within our bony hollows beat the hearts of kings, peasants and the dead.
We are a clever bunch, we slippery shaved-smooth apes.
The first to look within…and know.”
Gorgeous.
I loved writing that one. It was a little jab at the anti-Darwin crowd and a reminder to all of us how little time we have here. One of my favs, too.
Thank you for reading them,…means a lot. I know poetry is a particular niche some like to read, and others hate…LOL~
Rarest– no, thank YOU! True–poetry is not for everyone, and it was only about a dozen years of so that I even read any poetry, let alone write them. Now I am a member of a poetry cooperative that published a periodical called “On the Bus.”
Changed my life.
Rarest– just found it– DUH!
Dennis Kucinich would have pushed hard and fearlessly for that reckoning as president. Which is why he never stood a chance, and the MSM wasted no time in reducing him to a UFO gawking joke who was out of touch with mainstream Americans. That was THEIR story, not the truth, but in this day and age the Media is the Message. A good two thirds of the nation felt exactly as you do now, if not more. The two party system in America has become so self serving its almost Orwellian.
Sorry. Denny LET himself be painted a UFO gawker.
He got hit by a truck and it is all his own fault.
If the MSM decides that they don’t want you to win, because you will actually challenge the power structure of which they are a key component, they will find some way to smear you, and we all have foibles to be ridiculed. It wasn’t the UFO he saw, but the threat he represents, that brought on the pillorying.
In this day, it’s not so much a lie, as a damning characterization, that gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to tie its shoes.
Thank you, javez for the kindness. I really do not have any idea what my path is in life at this stage. Anyone have a garage, basement or driveway I can use to stay off the streets? LOL~ (wish I were kidding)
BTW, I wish everyone here would take a look at this website and it’s presentation. It’s a little long, like 15 minutes, but it’s interestingly dismal and something I think we should all post everywhere for people to see.
http://storyofstuff.com/
The story of stuff….I remember taking a trip years ago and passing shopping mall after shopping mall of stuff. I kept wondering, how did they expect to sell, lets say, all the sheets and towels that were in these stores all across America? But lately I feel like my question was answered….they’re not. Macy’s, Mervyns and many other big stores have closed. I’ve always been dismayed at the stuff this country produces, like the stupid little toys in cereal boxes and mc donald happy meals, etc etc etc.
This keeping up with the jones thing got out of hand.
Am I too off topic? Well let me go a little further.
TRP, I’m in your boat…I’ve been staying on my 36 year old’s couch, going on 4 months now, I don’t see an end in sight, although it may just be around the corner.
They want to release my son from the hospital today, but he has no where to go.
My son I’m with is pissed, but he will let him stay here while he recuperates, but boy do I feel like I failed as the parent right now.
It’s a small 1 bedroom cabin, my older son is feeling pushed out.
My daughter and a couple of friends have decided they need to form a partnership and pool their resources to get into a household…kinda reminds of the farm you mentioned earlier with a modern spin on it.
Coming together to help each other is one way to combat these tuff times, but I’m sure you feel the same isolation I do.
When you can’t spend money in the town, you don’t have the feeling you’re part of the community or that anyone has any use for you. I am homeless even though I have 4 walls around me. This past year I have just been existing, not living, it wears ya down.
What part of the states are you in?
Hope I didn’t ramble on too much.
You didn’t ramble, and I’m very sorry to hear about your predicament.
Bito left a reference for you yesterday to get help.
I’ll try to find it.
Thanks I missed it.
I just want to say, one of the things that kept me going back to “that other place”, was the new ease of being able to track comments and responses.
There’s no way to do there here is there?
I’m getting used to this and figured that if I am responding, it helps to put the person’s name up in the top of your reply. But if you’re not here to catch it, it just drifts away.
I know, Hope..I really, really know what you’re saying. Not only do I feel that I failed as a parent and am no longer a ‘contributor’ to society, I just feel miserable, trapped and at the end of my tether. I talk a good game, but make no mistake…I’m in bug trouble and terrified. I keep telling myself that all I need is a job. Then I can rent a place and do the ‘right’ things in the ‘right’ order to get back into the good graces of society and not be some homeless, toothless doomsayer on the street corner. I feel no self worth. It does wear you down.
Ya’ know…when I was younger I thought of communes and hippie’s as weird, smelly pot smoking losers that couldn’t make it in the ‘real world’. The older I got the more respect I started to have for their independence from ‘the man’ and how they did shit their own way. Now I feel like one of them. There almost NEEDS to be a place where all of us…displaced or disadvantaged people could gather and just …live. Forget heading to WalMart for another flat screen, socks, steak, toys and Chinese apparel and just …live. I grow so very weary…
I wish there was something that I could say or offer some sage advice for you and Hope.
The thoughts are appreciated. (hug)
and kisses
That weariness thing is the hardest to overcome, sometimes your brain can just freeze up and I can’t think of what to do except keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving on.
But I do, and I am moving forward, but talking about the toothless thing, that’s my thing, I smashed my face up pretty bad in a bicycle accident and knocked my 10 front teeth!! 2 in the front are missing the rest need to be removed, but after losing my job because of the accident, my insurance was cut off after they removed those 2, but finding a job when you have a toothless grin, well people just don’t take you serious and literally treat me as if I was a stupid drug addict
With no job and no state funds for dental work, I was losing out, FORTUNATELY, a friend of my signed me up for a dental plan for only $11 a month (Safe Guard) and said she would pay that and make my co pays until I can get on my feet. She told me this a couple of days ago, so I’ll swallow what ever pride I have left and take the hand that is reaching out.
In many respects I am truly blessed.
What a beautiful friend.
You could say she’s an angel.
Oh geez, Hope! God, that had to have hurt something fierce! I was playing baseball once and was catching. The batter fouled a ball off his bat right into my mouth. It hurt worse than I can probably recall…knocked out 2 front teeth and I walked around all week talking like MushMouth from Fat Albert.
So good to hear you’ve got some good support there. You are blessed to have someone right there for you. And yes, I know about the swallowing your pride thing.
And I’ll tell you this much, too. I am trying to keep my predicament to myself as much as possible because it seems once you let people know your situation, they fade away. Over at HP those who I thought were friends just bailed on me. I know it’s unsavory to cozy up to misery, but damn….Really hits you where you….well…live.
Ok, about the misery thing, the reason we need to stick together and discuss the what fors and how tos, is because it’s too close for comfort for the people that are still(just barely) holding it together, and unless you’re here, in it, you can’t really understand the pit falls we are navigating. It gets hard to be with my friends that have money cuz I can’t go out unless someone’s paying for me and we just don’t have the same things to talk about anymore. We scare them a bit.
But sometimes I find if you don’t let anyone know where you’re at, how will they know if they might have the help you need, it’s a fine line.
Yep. Agreed.
But after pouring my heart out for months just looking for work or temporary shelter, I am still where I am. Jesus, ya’ know…I’ve donated a CAR to charity a couple years back, who does that? I did. I’ve written and published 2 books! I have experience in a few fields and still can’t gain any ground. I am humiliated and shamed and feel as though I don’t deserve my situation. I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk! I walk around this house just grabbing at my life’s history and hoping I get to keep it! It’s crazy and I need help, but…poor me right? That’s how people treat you when you’re wounded. I hope my angel comes along soon…~smile~
Hopington, That’s a really tough situation you’re in. I feel for you! I hope things work out.
They will, I’m determined and intelligent. I still have great faith in myself and only momentary moments of complete failure.
I actually started commenting on HuffnPuff because I also had split my upper lip all the through up to my nose and my bottom lip also and I’ve had to learn to use my mouth again.
I love to do me some talkin and I found I needed an outlet where I wasn’t spitin all over people when I spoke nor looking at me like I was an idiot…glad it all led me here…see good comes from the bad!!!Positive.
Lively up yourself is my motto. My friend just bought me a tshirt with Bob Marley picture with that on it. While it is a small group, I do have folks that love me still!!
TRP — I have seen the Story of Stuff. It’s excellent.
TRP,
What can we do to help? This is not the time to suck it up guy. If you don’t want to put all of it out there, please send me an email, jgammello@sbcglobal.net
I mailed u.
TRP… me too
hopeington@yahoo.com
I mailed you, too.
Are Americans Too Broken for the Truth to Set Us Free?
http://www.counterpunch.org/levine12042009.html
I posted this the other day, but it so fits this conversation and because I got no sleep I’m not so sure I should let my brain do the talking today, I thought I’d put it out there again.
It really backs up a lot of what The Rarest was saying.
Just finished that article from Levine.
wow,…that was 2 years ago!
At least it’s not just me seeing this dis-ease.
So many I talk to (open minded, intelligent people anyway…not the Sister Sarah followers) feel this way as well. They see something coming….
Yes and as hard as it is to think some times, it’s up to us to take control, for all the talking these politicians do, you rarely hear them talking about the people that are living below the middle class and what are we going to do for them. Once again we don’t contribute in cash to keep this economy going, we’re only going to cost everyone more in subsidies or “hand outs’, and yet there are so many us us, the invisible and unmentionable society.
I keep telling my kids, you have to think outside the box right now if you want to get ahead.
My oldest son did just that and bought the store he was managing and at the moment is doing a booming business in the hydroponic and organic gardening supplies business.
There’s a “goldrush” of sorts here in CA, and he brilliantly made the call, that just like the real gold rush, the folks that made the most money were the ones legally supplying the tools to do the job.
I don’t suppose your eldest has an opening at the store does he? LOL~
I’m sure he would have placed you if he had, right?
He has a business partner, they’ve both been working 24/7. They recently hired a weekend employee because they also have a huge sound business they run and are quite well known for.
He’s worked every weekend since Burning Man in Sept.
He can’t hire me cuz I don’t have the knowledge of growing anything indoors, which is quite a science.
I’m more of an outdoor fruit, veggie and flower kinda girl.
LOL…Understood.
Yeah, I sort of got into the whole Hydroponics thing back in the early 90s when I was tired of buying expensive pot and wanted to grow my own in a closet. LMAO~
Seems everybody and their uncle is growing these days, that’s why I thought he was so smart to go in to this side of the biz. It’s a safer bet, but I do wonder what will happen if they legalize it. I think his business might suffer then and he might have to be watching when the right time is to fold up before the loss starts effecting him.
Oh, but I’m a seamstress and he is going to let me set up my workshop in one of the empty offices in the bldg he leases. It’s a pretty nice set up. And it will get me and some of my stuff out of his small house.
Here’s what I do
http://abagahope.etsy.com
I also sew for a business, that my friend owns, on the wharf called Made in Santa Cruz.
I’m under employed, making less than $1000 a month but I am working.
Great stuff!
See, all I need is a space about the size of a 2 car garage to set up my photo studio. But no one in this area is buying portrait packages AT ALL. Had to close up shop. Gotta’ find a better metro area…
Wow! What a read that is! It’s chilling.
I think part of it has to do with the ascendancy of the entertainment industry. People in colonial America and Bourbon France had more time and less distractions. Nowadays, people move from day to day with shows to watch, music to listen to and teams to root for. And then all of those things to talk with friends about. It’s like Huxley’s “Brave New World”, where the masses have been lulled into inactivity. Not with a bang, with a remote control.
Just downloaded Brave New World yesterday for a re-read. Good points!
I just finished re-reading it. It’s extraordinary how spot on it is in some aspects. And there’s always John Lennon:
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
and you think you’re so clever and classless and free
but you’re still f***ing peasants as far as I can see
Yep, …we’re all Working Class Hereos….well…most of the people are.
I don’t talk about this much, and am not sure many would agree with me, but I truly think it’s downright weird how much time people spend simply being entertained! It defies, and probably thwarts, our evolution as a species. When you hear someone talking about not a television SHOW, but a COMMERCIAL they found entertaining, you know we’re in trouble!
Agreed.
Yet, now that commercials seem like they ARE the majority of television programming on the air. AND given the quality of actual programming, maybe the ads ARE better tan the shows….LOL~
Hope, I missed this when you posted it the other day, so I’m so glad you took the time to put it out there one more time. I bookmarked this article. It is so lucid and so well written, it really is a must-read.
One of my history professors in college once said that revolutions often occur–oddly enough–just after conditions in any given society start to IMPROVE. This is really counter-intuitive, of course. But he said that when things are at their worst, people tend to lack the energy to do more than just bare-bones-survival activities. But once they sense a lessening of their burdens–a hint of improvement, they get a spark of hope. And, of course, hope is deadly stuff to an oppressor.
No wonder the right wing in America is so threatened by Barack Obama, no?
Isn’t it an international law that one country can’t topple another sovereign country? Isn’t that what Bush ordered in Iraq? The destruction of a sovereign nation? I don’t get how that is legal at all.
It is illegal. And most of us out here just see example after example of how the rich get richer, the wealthy are entitled to special treatment for a myriad of treats and those in power seem to skate away from criminal activities unscathed where if it were you or me, we would be sent away to serve a sentence. We the rabble, in order to be indentured in a horribly less than perfect Union…yada, yada…..
Who was it who said, “It’s not illegal if the president does it.” Was that Nixon?
Yes it was and Condoleeza Rice said something similar about Bush Jr.
Nixon said – “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvyDn1TPr8
And Condi said – “If Bush Ordered It, It Wasn’t Illegal”
I started thinking very intensely yesterday when I received a notice in the mail letting me know that in addition to facing homelessness after losing my career, that my health insurance benefits will now expire on Jan. 1st.
I began thinking about the endgame. After reading the original post here this morning I just keep shaking my head.
What IS the purpose of a government keeping it’s citizens from good healthcare? Or why do corporate CEOs and failed bank officials still collect and hand out bonuses after our bailout to them? Talk about a ‘fuck you in your face’ kinda’ action! (my apologies for the heated language) Why does every Administration allow these lobbyists to continue destroying America? I mean, I’m no genius, yet I called the housing crisis a year and a half before it collapsed! So, that tells me smarter people than I in high places saw it, too. In turn, that tells me a load of these people stood to gain from the whole credit default swap bundling thievery.
Let’s just say I’ve been thinking about ALL of the evil we see in our Government and Wall Street and Insurance, etc, etc….
So, …coming full circle I again think….What is the endgame? If a nation destroys it’s middle class, it’s manufacturing base, and it lessens it’s ability to function without a Chinese credit line, it’s dependence on fossil fuels, and an ever expanding and very organized, vocal group of Christian thought-killers that worship ignorance, fear and hate….among SO many other issues,…what is the endgame?
It can’t ALL be greed. Really….this seems to be engineered. We all know the President only has limited power. Most decisions are made four doors down between those that CAN and those that CAN PAY. There is a machine in place. A ‘too big to fail’ kind of machine. But I still can’t help but think, surely the powers that be realize sooner or later we the people will rise up against this tyranny, right? Sooner or later…
Jesus, we once had a group of people turning Boston Harbor into a VERY large British biscuit dunk for a helluva’ lot LESS than what we see today! When Bush suspended Habeas Corpus, I thought this nation would explode….nothing…When we were torturing prisoners, I thought the same thing. Nothing.
Now I see that there is a real possibility of the GOP taking back a majority next year and I wonder,…can we as a nation afford for these truly evil human beings to start making decisions for us again? And they are gonna’ eat it up and punish the Libs at every opportunity.
So I will end my rant here and still I wonder…what is their endgame? I’m not a huge conspiracy nut or anything, I just can’t figure out why a nation would knowingly enrage the masses by nearly destroying us all.
Deep down I feel a massive event in the offing. Something maybe global. Something….big.
I feel it way, way down….
TRP — You are not only surrounded but dealing with a lot of turmoil too. I feel for you! My own situation is pretty precarious too. I try to keep busy so I don’t sit around worrying all the time.
I think most of the people in this country are complacent because it’s too much work not to be. Most people have their basic needs met and as long as that is the case, there will not be any radical change. Now if they had skipped the bailouts last fall and the systems had collapsed, we would have been in a position for drastic changes.
It’s almost like the enabling spouse of a drunk. The enabler continues to clean up the messes and make excuses because they don’t want the drunk to crash. That drunk will continue being a drunk as long as the price isn’t too high, as long as the enabler is there to clean up. The only real way to get that drunk to change is to let him fall in the gutter, break his nose, get arrested for vagrancy, lose his family, house, job, car — lose everything. When there’s no other choice, the drunk will take the extremely difficult measures necessary to sober up.
But those are heavy losses and I am glad we avoided them last fall — even though if we hadn’t, Obama would probably be able to write his own agenda.
Agreed.
Shoot, I used to clean up after my dad and I wasn’t even the spouse. I was only 11.
And yes, I wish my mother had had the cajonnes to say “enough is enough…me and the kids are out of here.” It was as if her feet were cemented to the floor; I’m sure it was from fear.
TRP, on a personal note, let me just say first off that I sincerely hope that things turn around for you in the very near future. There are very few of us who are not just one lay-off and/or one illness away from being exactly where you are right now. This is not good–for anyone.
This whole situation ties in with AdLib’s very true statement: “There are no morals to capitalism.”
Did you ever know someone who bought a car–not necessarily a clunker, but a nice, decent car–and then refused to put anything into maintaining it? Their philosophy seemed to be “drive it till it breaks, then leave it by the roadside and walk away.” Don’t change the oil, let the tires go bald, never tune it up, ignore the smoke coming out the tailpipe.
I think that’s how capitalist view us–the various nations of the planet and the people, too. Resources to be used up. Any corporate executive who would indulge the remnants of a conscience and–say–pay workers something close to what they’re worth would crash and burn in a nano-second. What a fool! Doesn’t he know the spoils go to the most vicious predator?
The problem with that is–it is possible to hunt something to extinction. It is possible to push people to the breaking point–even to death. It is possible to use ALL of a finite resource. But capitalists don’t want to think about that because the first one who blinks (faces reality), loses. They’re driving 100 miles an hour toward the cliff and none of them want to be the first to apply the brakes.
So, your feeling that something big is afoot is probably right. What will remain “apres le deluge” however is hard to guess. But I would suspect that people who have learned how to live successfully in co-operative communities will have an edge.
Hmmm…I live near the Amish. I better start making nice. LOL~
Thanks, Kesmarn…yes I am in a helluva predicament. I have no options or opportunities. Cant’ catch a break anywhere. Luckily, I’ve only got a little farther to fall before true bottom.
Yes, I have known those people you talk about. Yet, briefly in their defense I’d like to add to a comment I made a few days ago about a majority of Americans seem to be suffering from some sort of PTSD. I mean, whenever I have car issues, I think, ..”well…here we go again with an unreliable vehicle that is built to break”…I’m not a mechanic so they could tell me anything and I’d still have to pay it to get my ride back. This applies to everything, appliances, cars, etc, ….there is a planned obsolescence factor built into everything for the purpose of consumerism and capitalism.
Example: Craftsman replaces or repairs all of their stuff if it breaks. Sold exclusively through Sears. Guess who might not survive next year? Sears. Black and Decker have no problem selling dodgy stuff because they’ll just make and sell more.
We as a people have bought the mantra of, ‘..well,..what do you expect for that small price?’…You get what you pay for. They’ve taught us all to expect to replace EVERYTHING in a few months or years. And we all just nod our heads.
So yes, there are a ton of consumers out there that just let their crap fall apart, but then again…we’ve been brainwashed to get that NEW model or version every year or two. Gotta’ keep up…gotta’ be the poser who has the latest or you’ll be ridiculed or embarrassed. And in today’s society, isn’t that the most horrible thing to have happen?
BTW, has everyone noticed how astoundingly ‘defensive’ everyone seems to be anymore? You can’t seem to have differences today without being totally dismissed, ridiculed or written off.
This one thing concerns me greatly.
Absolutely with you, TRP, on the impermanence of things.
And, by extension, my point was that this is how corporations treat humans. “Drive them till they break.”
Not good.
Oh yeah, and your Amish neighbors will weather all this just fine…you’re right! Make sure you stay on good terms!
Kemarn,
Agreed.
And if the Amish cast me out, there’s a weird, but thriving hippie commune not far fro, here..LOL~
Seriously, these hippies were the group that left Haight Ashbury in the 60s and traveled east. They stopped here and haven’t left. They even have a website…www.thefarm.org
Excellent, TRP, and very well said.
I, too, often wonder what is the end game.
I also agree with kesmarn in stating that people, except for the wealthy, are expendable commodities.
When manufacturing jobs were being exported and that has been going on since the mid-70s, I wondered back then how the corporations would survive when Americans were losing their jobs and could not buy their products.
They were and are shooting themselves in the foot, yet they still do not see it.
Or if they do, what is their end game?
Saw an interview on David Letterman with the so-called father of global warming or climate change, and while listening to him, I wondered again about the end game.
Never before had I understood the corporations control of the world.
Are any of them capable of figuring out if they kill off the working stiffs, who’s going to do their dirty work so they can continue making money?
If they destroy the world, who will remain?
And if only the wealthy survive, who’s going to scrub their toilets?
On a personal note, I wish you the best of luck, TRP, and hope that things improve for you soon.
Seems to me that they have managed to stay very quiet and fly under the radar until they act. If I were the war criminals, their silence would be scaring the hell out of me.
That was meant as a reply to Emerald1943. Oops.
Got it, Janus! 🙂
My thanks to the administrator for replacing that picture that was first posted showing a hand-lettered sign “IMPEACH NOW”. The current one is much more appropriate! 🙂
Sorry you didn’t like the first photo, Emerald1943. I like the new one better, too. I was looking for photos of Bush protests, and there were slim pickings.
When you don’t like a photo — just post to your article what you’d rather see. Someone will gladly change it out.
That’s because someone has cleaned out the cache. If one can’t find evidence, it never happened.
All of Bush’s tax cuts expire after next year. I am sure that many of the middle class ones will remain, but the ones targeted at the rich will go away. I think this country is in for a reckoning, but it’s of a different kind. It will be about our massive debt, or declining standard of living, and the lack of employment opportunites in the future.
Thanks, Obama2008, for your reply. But your point about the massive debt, declining standard of living, and the lack of employment opportunities is exactly my point. Without the war, we would have much less debt. Without the war criminals’ profiteering, we certainly would see a better bottom line in our Treasury, not to mention the Wall Street firms that received hundreds of billions that could have been better spent for the good of the people. The lack of employment opportunities might be better if companies were not rewarded with a nice big tax break for closing our manufacturing plants and sending the jobs overseas.
These are all issues that President Obama should pay close attention to, IMHO. He did, after all, campaign on fairness for “Main Street”.
Obama2008, I thought I read yesterday that they are not going to let those tax breaks for the wealthy expire. They are going to keep them in place, some crazy reasoning that times are too tuff be burden anyone with more taxes. I’ll have to look for that link, I’m fairly certain I saw the story over at HuffnPuff.
I hear you, but Barack Obama didn’t run on the promise of a reckoning. That is not the change he campaigned on.
I don’t know if we’ll ever see the previous administration held accountable. When Pelosi took impeachment off the table — that’s when I made my peace with that possibility.
Thanks, Nellie, for your perspective. You are right that he didn’t run on the promise of a reckoning, but some things were implied.
For example, my hopes soared when, during his first week in office, President Obama stated that if war crimes had been committed, they would be prosecuted. That would cover much of what I wrote about.
As for the domestic issues, he did talk about repealing the Bush tax cuts, cracking down on off-shoring profits by corporations, and getting lobbying money out of the government for starters.
I agree with you on all those points. On war crimes, I don’t know what Holder’s going to do. He’s a tough guy to read.
On the other issues, it’s still early. We’re going to see the Bush tax cuts expire rather than be repealed. There’s a lot being done about lobbyists right now.
I think health care is taking up all the oxygen at the moment. I haven’t given up on the broader agenda yet.
You’re correct about Holder. I still have not gotten a handle on him. He did come out late last summer and announce that he was appointing a Special Prosecutor…but then, silence. I have not seen or heard a word about it since that time.
DOJ is supposed to be completely independent from the White House. I wonder how much influence the President has in setting their agenda.
I am still trying to come to grips with the opinion of many people, myself included, that there are two sets of laws in this country…one for them, and another for us!
Nellie, that’s perfectly said about health care taking up all the oxygen right now. I doubt that Bushco will be prosecuted though. I’m betting they will not want to set a precedent of one administration prosecuting a previous administration.
nellie, Have you ever wondered why she did?
I think it’s because she knew it would’ve been a political bloodbath and I think she didn’t have the stomach for it. She may of been afraid of Democrats self-destructing their new-found majority in Congress. I’m not bashing Pelosi. It would’ve been a political bloodbath. I personally think it would’ve been worth it.