Guest Editorial by Ernest A. Canning
Sorry, Mr. Gibbs, but your description of a “professional left” whose critiques of your boss, President Barack Obama, should be disregarded as the “crazy” musings of “people who ought to be drug tested” reflects that you are both authoritarian and out-of-touch.
The vast majority of citizens who supported the President in 2008 favor positions on policies that are far more progressive than anything which has emerged from either the corporate-controlled Democratic “leadership” in Congress or the Obama White House. The majority of Americans are by no means obligated to ignore the “democracy deficit” or the betrayal of the President’s promise to bring “change we can believe in.”
While one can readily agree that many of the Obama administration’s policies are an improvement over those which are advanced by the reactionary fascist billionaires, and their mindless “Tea Party” followers, there are many instances in which the policies of the current administration threaten more harm than those of its predecessor. E.g,, those documented by a recent ACLU report (see Democracy Now video below) in which the current administration has created policies that may “enshrine permanently within the law policies and practices that were widely considered extreme and unlawful during the Bush administration.”
Perhaps most disturbing is that the President’s zeal to please his true constituency — corporate America, Wall Street and the military-industrial complex — comes from the same Presidential candidate whose soaring and lofty, yet deceptive campaign rhetoric gave rise to hope in so many that Election Day 2008 would mark a return to economic fairness, transparency, a restoration of the rule of law, an end to the fear-driven perpetual “war on terror,” and a restoration of nature’s ecological balance.
The title of Studs Turkel’s powerful book is Hope Dies Last.
Even during the darkest days of the Bush/Cheney cabal, there was the hope that the foundering American ship of state could be righted by way of the electoral process. By raising the hopes of the American people during the course of the 2008 campaign, only to dash those hopes by betraying his own rhetoric, President Obama has, in some measure, caused more harm than the Bush/Cheney regime…
Professional Right; Educated Left
Gibbs’ reference to “the professional left” would be amusing if the reality of information dominance by corporate wealth and power were not so compelling.
As Professors Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky observed in the 2002 edition of their seminal work, Manufacturing Consent, of “the nine giants that now dominate the media universe, all but General Electric have extensively conglomerated within the media, and are important in both producing content and distributing it. Four of them — Disney, AOL Time Warner, Viacom and News Corporation — produce movies, books, magazines, newspapers, TV programs, music, videos, toys, and theme parks…; and they have extensive distribution facilities via broadcasting and cable ownership, retail stores and movie-theater chains.â€
GE, the parent company of NBC & MSNBC, is heavily invested in the military-industrial complex.
The impact, Bill Moyers observes, is that
On the far Right, there is Fox “News,” subsidiary of News Corp., whose chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has so been so successful in amassing an international media Empire that by 2007 Forbes listed Murdoch as the 33rd wealthiest American with a networth of $8.8 billion. In August 2007 Murdoch added Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal to his media Empire, which already included some “175 other newspapers as well as the Fox Television network, 21st Century Fox film studios, several satellite networks, MySpace.com, [and] Harper Collins.”
While Robert Greenwald forcefully demonstrated in Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism that Fox is but the propaganda arm of the forces of reaction within the Republican Party, Fox is but one component of the billionaire funded, hard-right noise machine/echo chamber that also consists of publications, think tanks, and media pundits, including the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Andrew Breitbart.
These “professional” hard-right propagandists may lead the charge, but time and again, as in the run up to the war in Iraq and as forcefully demonstrate here by Brad Friedman in the smearing of a benevolent community organization — ACORN — the so-called “mainstream media” has willfully carried the buckets of hard-right slime.
There is nothing and no one on the educated Left that can begin to match the power and noise of these “professional” hard-right propagandists. Programs like Democracy Now, Pacific Radio, and blogs like this one, whose journalistic concerns center on a search for the truth as opposed to ideological purity, are dependent upon viewer, listener and reader voluntary contributions. They cannot look to a benefactor like Richard Mellon Scaife, the principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, whose Foundations have channeled in excess of $340 million to right-wing echo chamber over the last thirty year.
The American Left’s true source of inspiration and ability to persuade comes primarily from its willingness to speak truth to power.
Litany of Betrayal
It is interesting that Gibbs would disparage Canadian health care. It’s as if Gibbs doesn’t realize that the World Health Organization ranks Canada’s system above our own; that Physicians for a National Health Program debunked the many insurance lobby myths about the Canadian system; that when his boss was a state Senator in Illinois, he supported a single-payer system, or that polls revealed that 60% of Americans favor a single-payer system.
In his televised response to Gibbs, Keith Olbermann complained about Obama’s “willingness to give the ‘professional right’ all the seats at the table.” As I noted in Wing-Nut Mobs Provide Cover for Obama/Baucus Health Care Betrayal: A FOLLOW-UP, quoting Ralph Nader, health care provided a classic example:
You can see this emerging over the last few months. President Obama has met with the heads of the drug companies and the health insurance companies. Some executives have met with President Obama four to five times in the White House in the last few months. He has never met with the longtime leaders of the “Full Medicare for Everybody†movement…
The end result of what Gibbs now touts as an achievement was in fact a “legislative obscenity that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and a former vice president of WellPoint spent months preparing — an insurance carrier wish-list that contains no public option, no means for controlling costs or abuse; a measure that does not merely protect but expands the already obscene wealth of the few by mandating that every citizen purchase insurance, with massive subsidies flowing into carrier coffers.”
In We Must be Insane and again in Obama’s Continuing ‘Terror War’ Policies, Failure to Deal with Torturers Raise Growing Concerns I dissected the Orwellian speeches the President used not only to escalate the war in Afghanistan but to justify a perpetual war against an ephemeral enemy who is anywhere and everywhere. I pointed to John Pilger’s assessment, perhaps more harsh than my own, that Obama was a sort of Manchurian candidate with possible CIA connections dating back to 1983.
Whether or not there is evidence to support Pilger’s past CIA-connection claim, it is difficult to argue with Pilger’s description of Obama as a corporate media “marketing creation” or to take issue with Chris Hedges, whom Pilger quoted as stating:
In the “Continuing ‘Terror War'” piece, I added:
And in Plumbing the Depths of Lawless Executive Depravity I not only addressed the failure of the Obama administration to uphold the rule of law by prosecuting the previous administration for war crimes, especially torture, but noted that the Obama administration has moved beyond the Bush/Cheney cabal’s assertion of unchecked Executive lawlessness in the form of extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention and torture. The Obama administration has now not only asserted a right to assassinate anyone that the Executive branch labels a terrorist, including U.S. citizens, but has gone so far as to place lawyers in legal jeopardy should they seek a court order to block an extrajudicial execution unless the executive branch grants the lawyer permission to do so.
The administration’s role in this abominable practice only scratches the surface of a litany of inexcusable postures in the national security/civil liberties field that the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer touched upon during his Aug. 12 appearance on Democracy Now (video below).
And for this you want our blind support, Mr. Gibbs?
Jameel Jaffer’s Aug. 12 appearance on Democracy Now …
Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968).
Nice
While one can readily agree that many of the Obama administration’s policies are an improvement over those which are advanced by the reactionary fascist billionaires, and their mindless “Tea Party” followers, there are many instances in which the policies of the current administration threaten more harm than those of its predecessor. E.g,, those documented by a recent ACLU report (see Democracy Now video below) in which the current administration has created policies that may “enshrine permanently within the law policies and practices that were widely considered extreme and unlawful during the Bush administration.”
Yep. Under Bush/Cheney, only Republicans bought into fascism. Under Obama, Republicans AND Democrats are buying in to fascism. That makes Obama roughly twice as bad as Bush. It’s quantifiable.
Most excellent, Mr C!
{Ed Note: Commercial spam comment deleted. – BF}
pitch perfect! thank you for saying it all to well…
gibbs, (in turn obama’s) smugness makes everything about this that much worse. it’s like pouring salt on the wound. rahm, says i am sexually retarded and now gibbs with this.. why?
makes it hard to have that hope, huh?
Very well stated Mr.Canning
The Obama administration is accomplishing the further disenfranchising of the left; who may decide to stay home this November.
Again Mr Canning this is an awesome article…I suggest that all you like it hit the ‘digg’ button.
For close to a year I considered the state the nation was left in after the 8 year Bush/Cheney reign and the party of no and cut Obama considerable slack. However, after a year and a half it is becoming increasingly difficult to see the candidate of hope as champion of the people.
He has surrounded himself with the bought and paid for hucksters of Wall Street and seems much more concerned with the welfare of Wall Street that the people who elected him. Another disappointing politician – color me surprised.
1. was not blinded by his hopey/changey bullshit, have thought of saint obama as a power elite wannabe from the get-go; he only confirms it with each choice he makes… (i voted mckinney)
2. …*and* am intrigued by the connections of his family to known sea eye ehh cover gruppes (USAID), etc; his world travels in his twenties are not only VERY suspicious given his modest means, VERY suspicious as to the places (particularly at that time), and VERY suspicious with some of the known (and suspected) players he was befriended by; but also VERY in keeping with the SAME type of actions taken by a young billy goat cliton (et al)…
not to mention a certain lone nutter; ALL exhibiting similar world travels and other connections which were strongly associated with how the sea eye ehh typically grooms and selects new blood for various nefarious purposes…
3. his subtle eliding of the job he had with the shadowy bankers-related firm, is what makes *that* little power-elite toady job interesting… (BIC? IBC? something like that…)
IF it was no big deal, seemed he would have given a more complete accounting…
again, he has LITERALLY been working for power elites since college…
(community activist shit ? i think that was just a planned ‘cover story’/ruse for this power elite plant to establish some bona fides…)
4. what is MOST important about whether any of the above potential associations with the sea eye ehh (or whichever alphabet soup spook agency), is not necessarily what specific actions he took at their behest, but that he (AND cliton, and ?) are quite possibly (since there every action confirms it) essentially ‘manchurian candidates’ of ‘our’ OWN (sic) spook elites…
geez, wonder if that would have some teeny, tiny, eensy, weensy implications…
hee hee hee
ho ho ho
ha ha ha
ak ak ak
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
artguerrilla@windstream.net
eof
What a fantastic post! A well-thought, point-by-point discussion of why this administration has not gone far enough with its legislation and why their (baffling) strategy to alienate the base will backfire in 2010.
We all understand that the Democratic Establishment hates liberals, but when it starts to alienate its longtime, bedrock, middle-of-the-road base, it’s playing with fire.
My father is one such person. A lifelong Democrat and military veteran, he’s thinking of taking a “drug holiday” on election day.
http://thedonkeyedge.com/2010/08/14/my-father-is-pissed/
Forget Cronkite: this administration has just lost my father.
Excellent post…
Obama the candidate was brilliant and politically astute. Where is that person now?
I think he is being held hostage by the clintons…the recent talk of Joe Biden going to the state dept and hill being vice pres. gives me the shivers.
Of course, to believe my hypothesis , you would also have to believe that we are no longer a democracy.
hill did her best to steal the nomination and I don’t think she has given up her hope to be in the WH. Hope she and her “group” have at least come to the realization that the clintons are not so trusted now. Going the election route will not work.When she had clearly lost in the primaries and was refusing to concede , it did look like she had some reality orientation probs.
Gee, I wasn’t aware there was a “professional” left – or that I (apparently) am a a member of it. Does this mean I will start getting paid for it? Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, author of THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE (www.stuartbramhall.com)
Ernest,
I like it. I like it a lot.
I confess to not reading long articles all the way through in general, even (I am sorry to say), some of yours on occasion.
This one I read all the way through. While a pleasure to read due to the quality of the writing, every point you made was spot-on.
Now if only some of the REAL “professional left” would read it and take it to heart. If they can look past their corporate-colored glasses, that is.
Sorry for the length, Lora. Sometimes, as here, it is necessary to make the response to Gibbs “thoughtful.”
BlueHawk, I appreciate the thought but staying home is not the answer.
In the primaries, there is the opportunity to replace corporate Dems with true progressives, such as those backed by the PDA. There are no doubt occasions when a choice between a Republican and a corporate Dem is a choice between crazy and corrupt vs. just plain corrupt. But there are third parties, and in my state, CA, there are a host of ballot measures often foisted on an unsuspecting public by corporate wealth. If the educated Left stays home, corporate wealth wins.
Oh, and let me add that I sincerely appreciate the kind words from those who have posted comments to this piece.
I would hope that those who find value in what appears on the pages of this blog, especially Brad’s tireless coverage of election integrity, and can afford to do so, donate to The BRAD BLOG.
Thanks.
I donated a $100 to bradblog recently (thanking him for helping make it a better world for my now 4-month-old baby). Humble, I know, but I certainly didn’t sacrifice even a cent for shameful trash like New York Times.
Thank you, too, Ernest.
Adam, with Brad on the road, I wish to take the opportunity on behalf of The BRAD BLOG to sincerely thank you and all others who have provided such generous support both monetarily and in the thoughtful comments you provide towards our mutual goal to “make [this] a better world” for our children and grandchildren.
Nice post!
This comment from Gibbs really pushed a button with me. I’m very upset.
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Mr. Canning,
Yours is excellent writing of conclusive points, IMO.
However …
There is NOT any one individual’s writing, or blog, or confederated consortium of blogs which can shine the light of truth on corrupted powermongers / peel scales from eyes / galvanize voter-group action in unison / direct us (humankind) ‘back to’ (if we ever were in) the ways of righteousness we fancy ourselves doing/having/knowing. Not since the advent of massmind synchronized through broadcasting.
[For instance, regarding your mention of Murdoch’s enlarged influence, or ‘control’ or ‘mind control’; and specifically his recent parlay of one million dollars — really a modest sum these days, done more for appearance than effect; that is, to demonstrate he can and may do so with impunity — to the coordinators of the group of rightwing Governors wannabes; so consider this: The million dollars (and more) of Murdoch’s was and is obtained from cable TV subscribers. Do you pay for TV (cable or dish)? If so, then you pay Murdoch.
Now, move people to BOYCOTT Cable TV. A successful BOYCOTT (about 5% cancellations among 100 million subscribers) can bankrupt the business (model of pay TV). And to bankrupt that business is to smash the State.]
Further, if one could move the masses by eloquent truth, (like in the pre-TV days) written or spoken of and to power, then that ‘one’ is swatted dead as a housefly under the edict of selective domestic assassinations.
We canNOT ‘vote’ or ‘elect’ our way out of this ‘WalledUSA’ which incarcerates us. NOT while rigged computer programs cast and count our ‘votes’ for us.
So … free thinking here … move to dissolve the Union. Melt the Wall. All 50 States secede, approximately simultaneously. The ‘Lower 48’ is too extensive; WashDC is too far removed from towns and farms and the lives of those residents who ‘elect’ (WashDC) powermongers — in geography and goings-on too far removed for constituents to keep oversight.
Each State so sovereign-made can be seated in the UN. Unbound States can combine to be sovereign ‘district’- or ‘region’-sovereign (perhaps a half-dozen ‘combines’ coast-to-coast) and those ‘State-combines’ can be seated as nations in the UN.
Instantly, one hopes, every institution with the title ‘Federal’ or ‘National’ or ‘US’ (or to such an effect) can cease to exist, and be dissolved. (Including ‘national’ Congress, Executive, Supreme Court, bureaucracy, military, et al., etc.) Most especially the CIA (controlling massmedia / ‘news’ / ‘entertainments’) and its shadowy look-alikes or act-alikes of unknown names and designations, whatever they are (such as NSA), de-institutionalized and de-funded in absence of ‘federal income tax’ — since and because the corruption has gotten systemic. Now it is impossible to piecemeal prosecute or remove ‘bad’ elements and restore or replace ‘good’ elements, and thereby return to, and ‘move on’ in, the ‘good ol’ USA’ condition. Whoever would preside in a ‘bad’ Establishment would be ‘bad.’
Heck, California is more land area and more population than Iraq, or another nation. Accordingly, California is as worthy of a UN seat as are others already seated.
Who says we can’t devise a US Consti2tion? Yes we can.
Thinking globally: Secede locally.
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