Posts Tagged ‘Barack Obama’

Obama – November 4th, 2008

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

History moved tonight.   It is not given us to feel many such moments in our lives.   The assassination of John F. Kennedy, Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon, the fall of South African Apartheid are some of the ones that have touched me.

Tonight I watched Barack Obama give his victory speech and I felt something I haven’t felt in some time – hope.   And I was deeply moved.

The world has been moving into darker and darker spaces for some time now.   Profits over people, production over conservation, greed over common sense.   A parade of stupidity to take your breath away and to make you fear for all of our futures.

I think this man sees all of that and sincerely wants to deal with it.   And he has secured the most powerful office in the world to work from.   The fact that he’s won?   It’s not the answer, it’s not the solution, and it’s not necessarily the way out of the mess we’re in.   But it is the best thing that could have happened at this time in history.

I pray that the desire for change that elected Obama President will begin to loosen the grip that materialism, short-sightedness, greed, fundamentalism and disrespect for nature have had on the United States.

We’ve dug ourselves into a very deep hole with respect to our economy and with respect to the environment.  And it will take a very large amount of effort and focus to dig our way out again.   But at least someone I can believe in seems to have stepped up to the plate.

God’s speed, Barack Obama.

How deep is the power of Corporations?

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

– A friend of mine sent me a copy of Obama’s most recent speech on the economy which was given on October 13th in Toledo, Ohio.    It’s an excellent speech with a lot of good ideas and moving rhetoric in it.  I like Obama and I think he’s going to make a good president – maybe even a great one since, if there was ever an opportunity to be a great president, this is the time.   The problems requiring new thinking and new approaches are everywhere he’s going to be going.

– But, I scoured  his speech looking for some recognition, some acknowledgment of the role multinational corporations have had in America’s decline – and I found none.

– I find it plausible that ideologues cannot see the role corporations are playing in the world today, but I do expect more from real intellectuals and thinkers.   And, I have to believe Obama *is* one of these.    He’s jut too good at what he does for it to be reasonable that he’s running on ideological auto-pilot.

– But, he doesn’t acknowledge, that I’ve seen, that he understands the place corporations occupy in the mess that America’s in.   And this, to me, is the best indication of just how very powerful and intractable the power of multinational corporations are – even in the highest levels of political power in the world.

– I believe he knows and I believe that he cannot say.    It would be political suicide for him.

– So, when he talks about creating American jobs and about how hard-working American workers are, he’s ignoring the huge back-drop that colors and underlies all of this.   And that is the fact that corporations, for the benefit of their shareholders, have utterly no compunctions about sending American jobs overseas.

– America’s manufacturing has largely gone to foreign shores.   America’s intellectual work has largely gone to foreign shores.   As Globalism has become a major thread in the economies of the world and in the strategies employed by multinationals, America has gone from being a wealthy nation of hard working producers generating profit for the country to a nation of consumers who sate themselves on cheap throw-away goods from China and other countries while borrowing ever more and sending our wealth overseas at ever increasing rates.

– What I want to know is just what America is going to use to rebuild itself?

– All the politicians talk about us ‘buckling down to work‘ and recreating America the strong, the prosperous, the productive.   Just what are we going to use to do this?   We are becoming a cardboard store-front nation.   We look good, we talk some bad jive but behind the scenes, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot left.   And what’s left, our growing negative balance of trade and deep consumerist obsessions are combining to  spew into the coffers of other countries and multinationals.

– And Obama and the other politicians tell us that we can overcome all of this – if we all just pull together and work hard.   Yeah, right.   That’s  like tell the band on the Titanic that they can prevent the sinking if they just play louder.

– Take a look through his speech here: and see if you can see any acknowledgment in his remarks of the place corporations and globalism are playing in the downfall of America.

– Folks, there is a very large elephant in the room that all of the politicians are afraid to mention.   But, until we take a square look at it, our economies, our global environments and our futures are going to be evermore in doubt.

– Research Thanks to Hans D.

Buckley’s Son: ‘Sorry Dad, I’m Voting for Obama’

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

The son of William F. Buckley has decided—shock!—to vote for a Democrat.

Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance.

Or would they? But let’s get that part out of the way. The only reason my vote would be of any interest to anyone is that my last name happens to be Buckley—a name I inherited. So in the event anyone notices or cares, the headline will be: “William F. Buckley’s Son Says He Is Pro-Obama.” I know, I know: It lacks the throw-weight of “Ron Reagan Jr. to Address Democratic Convention,” but it’ll have to do.

Dear Pup once said to me, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.”

I am—drum roll, please, cue trumpets—making this announcement in the cyberpages of The Daily Beast (what joy to be writing for a publication so named!) rather than in the pages of National Review, where I write the back-page column. For a reason: My colleague, the superb and very dishy Kathleen Parker, recently wrote in National Review Online a column stating what John Cleese as Basil Fawlty would call “the bleeding obvious”: namely, that Sarah Palin is an embarrassment, and a dangerous one at that. She’s not exactly alone. New York Times columnist David Brooks, who began his career at NR, just called Governor Palin “a cancer on the Republican Party.”

More (fun)…

61 Nobel Laureates favor science and Obama

Friday, October 10th, 2008

– Respect for science under Republican administrations these last decades has, to put it bluntly, gone to hell.

– Here’s an open letter to the American public from 61 Nobel Laureates saying that they favor Barack Obama and why.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

To the letter…

Obama’s In Control: No More Lobbyist Contributions To Democratic Party

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

… since he crossed the delegate threshold to become the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama’s mark on the party is already being felt.

On Good Morning America Thursday, ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos reported “the Democratic National Committee will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists, will no longer take contributions from PACs” in keeping with Obama’s well-publicized policy.

UPDATE: DNC issues a statement:

“The DNC and the Obama Campaign are unified and working together to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Our presumptive nominee has pledged not to take donations from Washington lobbyists and from today going forward the DNC makes that pledge as well,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. “Senator Obama has promised to change the way things are done in Washington and this step is a sure sign of his commitment. The American people’s priorities will set the agenda in an Obama Administration, not the special interests.”

To the original on the Huffingtonpost: