Obama and the Future

[bbmac]

Amongst the soaring rhetoric of the recent U.s election came one memorable phrase from an email sent by a viewer to the ITV Local news programme here in London, Uk. It said;

'..Rosa parks sat, for Martin Luther-King to walk, for Obama to run, and now the rest of us can fly...'

inspiring stuff.

The ITN coverage of election night was patchy at best but picked up as the nigh progressed (lightweight guests/over-excitable anchor [alistair stewart]) The best moments on the BBc covergage with Dimbleby were the interview with the thoroughly irrascible Gore Vidal and the ubiquitously grumpy neo-con John Bolton, who accused the BBc (again) of biaised coverage toward Obama. (!)

The best point of the night in Uk coverage however came from John irvine (N.American correspondent-ITN) who commented that Obama's victory and scale was an emphatic repudiation of the Bush/Cheney era.

So what next, well you read it here first (lol)...This new president understands the limit of military force, you can defeat an army, but not a people and particularly if a defacto guerilla war suceeds a military victory (How silly Bush's 'mission accomplished' looks then and now.) Like the Iraqi's want, he will withdraw orderly from iraq and some kind of negotiation/accomodation with the Taliban via the Tribal leaders sympathetic to them will take place in Afghanistan backed up by more troops there to leverage the negotiation.

Russia will be engaged diplomatically, as will pakistan re the growing fundamentalism finding and consolidating it's base on the afghan/pakistan border. Israel/palestine will reach a solution in the next 8years, (palestine are not going to walk away from 98.5% of what they want, if offered for a 3rd time surely?) Iran ...well I have no idea, this is a real variable.

Expectations are high, and some are bound to be dashed. Hope it seems, has trumped the hyperbole of fear driven and used to excuse the Bush/Cheney policies. Global Goodwill extends beyond that afforded to any new U.s president since Kennedy. The world senses that we may see a change for the better.....we will see.
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As for the Bush legacy, Paxman (BBc2 Newsnight) commented to a talking head last night that he began as president as a so-called small govt social conservative and leaves with a big govt as a conservative socialist (lol)...He has doubled the size of the national debt in 8years, turned budget suprpluses to huge defecits, over-seeing a near meltdown in the financial economy underpinning the real economy and has actually increased not diminished the the threat of terrorism, and hugley damaged the standing of the U.s around the world. -Or- you could say, Iraq is neutered and a despotic dictator is gone, similarly in Afghanistan a terrible regime was ousted, Lebanon is similarly neutered and Libya fell into the line and N.Korea situation is looking better Whatever viewpoint the one true achivement of bush's time weas his commitment and support to assis in erradicating/conrolling the the aids epedemic in Africa, and for this he should be applauded.

 

[Pat494]

It will be interesting to see if Obama can resist getting dragged into the Congo disaster.
Hopefully he wont want to spread alien ideology ( western consumerism , democracy etc. ) to another 3rd world country, like that idiot Bush; but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[jeffsmith]

India has hailed the election of Barack Obama as the next U.S. president on as inspiration. Personally also I hope India and US can further foster their relationship with his elction.I guess tho India has got a problem with the Obama thesis in the simplistic trade-off it sets up between Kashmir and Afghanistan.

 

[BSD]

Expectations are high, and some are bound to be dashed. Hope it seems, has trumped the hyperbole of fear driven and used to excuse the Bush/Cheney policies. Global Goodwill extends beyond that afforded to any new U.s president since Kennedy. The world senses that we may see a change for the better.....we will see.
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That is so true, alas sky high expectations are also the greatest danger, the huge unsolved problems he inherits from lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over to the towering debt alongside with an enormous financial crisis will really need expectations and timeframes for solutions to impact to be aligned with those harsh realities, I am extremely hopeful as well, but don't expect any short term miracles.

 

[Gumping]

YouTube - Bill Hicks - American Politics

 

[fibonelli]

Foreign Policy Brain Trusts: Obama's Advisers
:help:



F U B A R

 

[Pat494]

Looks like we will all be hearing and seeing a lot from Barack Obama so why not save some finger tapping on the computer keys and re-christen him Bob ?

 

[JTrader]

Obama will deliver about as much CHANGE as a poundland assistant accepting a £1 coin as payment for a tub of vaseline.

 

[Tenapenny]

Obama will deliver about as much CHANGE as a poundland assistant accepting a £1 coin as payment for a tub of vaseline.

We may need the vaseline if we're going to be shafted again! :-0

 

[JTrader]

We may need the vaseline if we're going to be shafted again! :-0

EXACTLY!

HE MAY DELIVER NEGATIVE FREEDOM & LIBERTY ERODING CHANGE, BUT OBAMA WILL CERTAINLY NOT DELIVER POSITVE FREEDOM & LIBERTY ENHANCING CHANGE.

 

[BSD]

Err, lets be a bit more optimistic guys what ;-)

I mean we create our lives, so if we think we can, we can, if we think we can't, we can't.

Even if one doesn't believe that we create all aspects of our universes we still make lives easier for ourselves by believing in positive outcomes,and not saying from the outset, it's not gonna work yo.



Give the guy a chance at least what.

Time will tell soon enough.

But everbody deserves a chance, no ?

 

[JTrader]

Err, lets be a bit more optimistic guys what ;-)

I mean we create our lives, so if we think we can, we can, if we think we can't, we can't.

Even if one doesn't believe that we create all aspects of our universes we still make lives easier for ourselves by believing in positive outcomes,and not saying from the outset, it's not gonna work yo.



Give the guy a chance at least what.

Time will tell soon enough.

But everbody deserves a chance, no ?

I hope i am wrong, but -

I for one have not been fooled into believing that the 2 party system (both of which are bought and paid for by the military industrial financial complex) can offer a real choice.

Do you really think obama is some maverick normal guy out of the street who the US & worlds military industrial financial complex are just going to allow to be brought into power to do whatever he sees as fit, in the name of democracy.

The president is a puppet, the public face of the government. But the real power is hidden in the shadows - the shadow government - which are self serving banking cartels etc. etc.

Its a romantic notion that obama is some fresh, maverick, record breaking half balck man who is going to use his unique situation & perspective to make the world a better place, but sadly i dont think that is possible. Look at Kennedy......the guy wanted to get rid of the CIA as he thought it had too much power, then...........

And the Kennedys are/were one of -
The 13 Illuminati Satanic Bloodlines

 

[JTrader]

Mind you, i was led into belieiving that $200 a barrell oil was the bilderberg plan to destroy the middle classes. Looked on for a while when it hit $150, now its back at $58!
...Who knows, perhaps it will still reach $200 some time soon!

 

[Pat494]

Poor bloke deserves a bit of sympathy I reckon.
He's just fought a bruising and costly campaign to have the worst job in the world !
If you have accepted millions to fight an election you can't just do as you wish. So that means paying off the " Jewish " lobby and all the other donors. Jack Kennedy was in hock to the Mafia ( to win the election ) and as stated above look what happened to him when he didn't see things their way !

 

[Splitlink]

When you think of the articles that some European states have got for Heads of State, it makes me wonder how he can do much worse.

At least, he cannot be worse than Silvio Berlusconi who, if it was not for being rich, I would call a stupid idiot. Let me simply call him an arrogant upstart who, because he is a powerful businessman, thinks that he can say what he likes as a politician.

He can apologise as much as he likes but what he said will not be forgotten by Americans anymore than what Zapatero did at a military march past in Madrid. He refused to stand up for US troops and made a fool himself and Spanish-American relations have not been the same, since. -

 

[BSD]

Good points guys.

I also agree that the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower famously warned about in his farewell adress is pretty influential, and that some of those goons wouldn't stop at anything to further their own aims that usually stand diametrically opposed to the greater long term good of the nation.

CNN Cold War - Historical Documents: Eisenhower's 'Millitary-Industrial Complex' Speech

That said I still believe that optimism is a better way to live life than to always expect the worst.

One thing Obama has going for him is that he won a very clear national mandate, unlike most others apart from maybe Reagan.

Kennedy didn't have that, meaning that if he was killed by the establishment which at the very least I don't believe is totally impossible then they may have thought that the outcry about the death of a fringe president as he was per his tiny electoral majority over Nixon would be an acceptable collateral damage.

But having a guy killed who has such an enormous national mandate ?

In this day and age ?

I dunno guys.

Anything is possible, but I am sure that sufficient numbers in the US realize that they have reached a critical junction, that doing business the old way is no longer an option, that change is the only way forward.

The military (those suffering through the actual consequences) itself and which is quite distinct from the industrial complex would, after the disastrous experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan be the very first to balk and mutiny at the very idea of an other ill-advised adventure in say Iran, as would those in charge of the nations completely empty money coffers. (Iraq alone costs 400 million A DAY !!!)

Sometimes, I do believe, everything aligns itself in the best possible way for all involved, and to the greater good of all.

I am not saying that is the case now.

All I am saying is that the opportunity is here.

What becomes of that is then really up to all of us I'd say.

I honestly believe that Obama is a good, decent and honest guy with some of the right ideas for these times, he was, lets not forget, one of the very few at the time who had not only the judgement, but, equally importantly, also the courage, to vote against the Iraq farce that was concocted on nothing but spin, lies and deceit, while most of his spineless, cowardly colleagues in the Congress and Senate bowed to the almost dictatorial pressures from the White House to toe the line.

And lets also not forget, We together ARE the people to whom our countries belong, nobody can govern against us if we live our immanent rights and stand united and without fear and speak our voice.

Think of the peaceful revolution a mere 20 years ago in most former East bloc states that came about when the people finally realised that their countries belong to them, and nobody else.

Maybe this time now is another critical juncture in history like that illustrious time of two decades ago, a time where we can either go boom or go bust.

And imo everything is now aligned in a way that at the very least the chances of US the people turning this into a boom aren't that bad.

But I am an optimist guys.

 

[JTrader]

Alex Jones' Prison Planet: The truth will set you free!

Obama’s Treasury Candidates: Old Guard Of The Corporate Elite

Globalist enthusiasts and architects of the financial meltdown do NOT represent change

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Thursday, Nov 6, 2008

All of the leading candidates for the position of Treasury Secretary under president elect Barack Obama directly represent the old guard of the corporate elite system that has used the American economy as it’s engine to drive their march toward a global empire for decades.

Under the banner of “change” whichever of these candidates is appointed to the Treasury will continue to rapidly expand the empowerment of the Federal Reserve monetary system and institute the very policies that have led us to the brink of financial ruin to move the economies of the world toward a centralized global banking system.

The Leading candidate for Obama’s Treasury Secretary is current Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Tim Geithner.

In 2001, after leaving Bill Clinton’s Treasury, Geithner joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Fellow in the International Economics department. He then worked for the International Monetary Fund as the director of the Policy Development and Review Department until moving to the Fed in October 2003. In 2006 he became a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, Group of Thirty, which was founded in 1978 at the initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Back in June of this year after attending the annual Bilderberg power brokers conference in Virginia, Geithner penned an article in the Financial Times in which he called for a worldwide financial overhaul and the implementation of a globalized banking system.

Geithner stated that the US Federal Reserve should play a “central role” in the new regulatory framework, working closely with supervisors in the US and round the world.

“At present the Fed has broad responsibility for financial stability not matched by direct authority and the consequences of the actions we have taken in this crisis make it more important that we close that gap,” Geithner wrote.

How can Geithner represent real change when he is a long time servant of the very entities that created the conditions for and perpetuated financial meltdown for years?

Geithner represents an entrenched central banking system that has killed the free market, built up a power monopoly over the money and credit system, consistently followed an intrinsically detrimental path of ceaseless borrowing and presided over the fundamentally damaging process of printing of money out of thin air, leading to the devaluation of the US dollar which now has a global reputation on a par with if not worse than that of George W. Bush.

Geithner represents a critically bloated ******* entity of government and private wealth that has manipulated interest rates and falsely inflated bubbles that have fostered an economy of moral hazard and driven the world straight into a financial black hole.

In what way does this man offer any possibility of “change”?

He now advocates the implementation of measures of predatory globalism to solve the very crisis those policies have created. And he will have the tools to do it after the recent bailout bill passed granting the Treasury virtual dictatorial powers over economic policy.

Geithner is likely to get the nod as Treasury Secretary because he best fits the appearance of change, even though he does not represent any significant change.

Consider the following from a recent New York Times article:

[...] one senior adviser said it would be important to send a message of change at a time of economic crisis. “You can expect a fresh face instead of a recycled face” at the Treasury, the adviser said. He said that would include the boyish-looking Mr. Geithner, 47, who worked at the Treasury under Mr. Clinton and his Republican predecessors and has generally gotten high marks for his role in shaping the government response to the current crisis.

These traits symbolize Obama’s presidency to the tee, he appears to offer change on the surface, but underneath he offers as little real change from the entrenched elitist system in Washington as a McCain presidency would have or if George W. Bush had simply announced he was going to serve a third term.

(Article continues below)



The other candidates for Treasury secretary are likely to pursue exactly the same path as Geithner. Those candidates are:

Paul A. Volcker

The former Federal Reserve chief was a key figure in the decision to suspend gold convertibility in 1971, which resulted in the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Volcker’s policies and continued high interest rates contributed to the significant recession the US economy experienced in the early 1980s, which included the highest unemployment levels since the Great Depression.

After leaving the Fed he became chairman of J. Rothschild, Wolfensohn & Co, the prominent New York investment banking firm run by former president of the World Bank and prominent Bilderberger James D. Wolfensohn.

Volcker was also a founding member of the Trilateral Commission along with David Rockefeller, whom he has also worked with at Chase Bank and through membership of the Trust Committee of Rockefeller Group, Inc.

As of October 2006, he is the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Rockerfeller-founded Group of Thirty.

Robert E. Rubin

Former Treasury Secretary during the first and second Clinton administrations.

Rubin is as much to blame for the creation of the current financial crisis as Alan Greenspan is, as both men ignored the advice of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and strongly opposed the regulation of derivatives. Over-exposure to credit derivatives of mortgage-backed securities - or credit default swaps (CDS) was a key reason for the failure of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, American International Group, and Washington Mutual in 2008.

On November 4, 2007, Rubin became the Chairman of Citigroup and is currently co-chairman of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rubin is also a member of the Group of Thirty.

Lawrence H. Summers

Former chief Economist for the World Bank (1991–1993) and Secretary of the Treasury for the last year and a half of the Clinton administration. Also served as the 27th President of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006.

Summers has been persistently criticized as an ardent proponent of globalization.

He has been involved in scandal several times, but perhaps the most notable was in December 1991 while at the World Bank. Summers signed a memo, which was subsequently leaked to the press, stating that developed countries ought to export more pollution to developing countries because these countries would incur the lowest cost in terms of lost wages of people made ill or killed. An aside to the memo stated that “the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that”.

Summers is also a member of the Group of Thirty, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

So there you have it, choose your poison. Although they all have different labels they originate from the same bottle. These people do not represent change, they represent a continuation of the same elitist system that has no allegiance to the US and has been driving the American economy into the ground as part of its maniacal agenda for decades.

 

[chilltrader]

Barack Obama - A truly global president.

Congratulations to Americans for electing him!

Hope he makes right all the wrongs which that scumbag Bush did to the world and especially in fooling Britain (i.e Tony Blair).

 

[BSD]

Good points guys.

I also agree that the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower famously warned about in his farewell adress is pretty influential, and that some of those goons wouldn't stop at anything to further their own aims that usually stand diametrically opposed to the greater long term good of the nation.

CNN Cold War - Historical Documents: Eisenhower's 'Millitary-Industrial Complex' Speech

That said I still believe that optimism is a better way to live life than to always expect the worst.

One thing Obama has going for him is that he won a very clear national mandate, unlike most others apart from maybe Reagan.

Kennedy didn't have that, meaning that if he was killed by the establishment which at the very least I don't believe is totally impossible then they may have thought that the outcry about the death of a fringe president as he was per his tiny electoral majority over Nixon would be an acceptable collateral damage.

But having a guy killed who has such an enormous national mandate ?

In this day and age ?

I dunno guys.

Anything is possible, but I am sure that sufficient numbers in the US realize that they have reached a critical junction, that doing business the old way is no longer an option, that change is the only way forward.

The military (those suffering through the actual consequences) itself and which is quite distinct from the industrial complex would, after the disastrous experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan be the very first to balk and mutiny at the very idea of an other ill-advised adventure in say Iran, as would those in charge of the nations completely empty money coffers. (Iraq alone costs 400 million A DAY !!!)

Sometimes, I do believe, everything aligns itself in the best possible way for all involved, and to the greater good of all.

I am not saying that is the case now.

All I am saying is that the opportunity is here.

What becomes of that is then really up to all of us I'd say.

I honestly believe that Obama is a good, decent and honest guy with some of the right ideas for these times, he was, lets not forget, one of the very few at the time who had not only the judgement, but, equally importantly, also the courage, to vote against the Iraq farce that was concocted on nothing but spin, lies and deceit, while most of his spineless, cowardly colleagues in the Congress and Senate bowed to the almost dictatorial pressures from the White House to toe the line.

And lets also not forget, We together ARE the people to whom our countries belong, nobody can govern against us if we live our immanent rights and stand united and without fear and speak our voice.

Think of the peaceful revolution a mere 20 years ago in most former East bloc states that came about when the people finally realised that their countries belong to them, and nobody else.

Maybe this time now is another critical juncture in history like that illustrious time of two decades ago, a time where we can either go boom or go bust.

And imo everything is now aligned in a way that at the very least the chances of US the people turning this into a boom aren't that bad.

But I am an optimist guys.

Also his wife was initially against him running, as he not only faces the usual dangers from the usual nutters that believe its a good idea to take a potshot at the POTUS of the day, but on top of that he's got the usual racist suspects to contend with as well.

Meaning, you don't really enter a race for such a comparatively badly paid job with the enormous problems you're inheriting if you don't have a very real agenda to actually go out there and try and achieve something and add some real value added.

What the outcome will be, as we all don't have a crystal ball, only time can tell.

But one thing to keep in mind is that naysaying doesn't achieve anything, negativity never builds, it only destroys.

Love it, change it, or leave it.

And that choice, to be agents of change or instead sustainers and enablers of an unpleasant status quo we strongly dislike, is absolutely in our power.

It IS our life, and these ARE OUR countries, and the direction we want us to take ARE within our powers to form.

 

[yacarob1]

There has been much talk of possible assassination attempts on Obama's life.

What would be the constitutional position if he were to be bumped off prior to his inauguration ?

Would Biden take over, would Bush stay in power and start a new war or would there be a new election ?

Whatever, there would be widespread pandemonium and chaos.

God forbid this to happen although I see it as a real possibility.