If Michael Moore Were to Run for President

http://www.truthout.org/if-michael-moore-were-run-president56805

If Michael Moore Were to Run for President
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Robert Naiman

If Michael Moore were to run for president in 2012, it could be a game changer in American political life. For starters, it would likely shorten the war in Afghanistan by at least six months, and the American and Afghan lives that would be saved would alone justify the effort.

If Moore announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination now, and followed up that announcement with a vigorous campaign focused on the struggles of rank-and-file Democrats, it would remobilize rank-and-file Democratic activists. It's possible that he might even win; but win or lose, the campaign could arrest and reverse the current rightward, pro-corporate trajectory of our national politics, which is the predictable consequence of the failure of Team Obama to deliver on its promises from 2008, which in turn was the predictable consequence of the doomed effort to try to serve two masters: Wall Street and Main Street.

Like few people with his political views, Michael Moore needs no introduction to the Democratic primary electorate. To most rank-and-file Democrats, the name Michael Moore stands for a set of progressive populist ideas: health care for all, workers' rights, opposition to Wall Street's stranglehold on Washington, closing down the wars of empire and bringing our troops home.

In 1984 and 1988, the Jesse Jackson campaigns showed what could be accomplished running a populist, issue-based, movement campaign in the Democratic primaries and caucuses. In 1984, Jackson got more than three million votes, a fifth of the total, and won five primaries and caucuses. In 1988, he got almost seven million votes and won seven primaries and four caucuses; at one point, following his victory in the Michigan caucus, he was ahead in delegates.

Of course, the progressive Jackson campaigns had a particular starting point: their base in the African-American community.

But a Michael Moore campaign would also have a starting point: his status as an international, progressive, populist rock star. The moment that Michael Moore says, "I am a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2012," it's a live proposition. And Moore would have tools for getting out his message - videos and the Internet - that the Jackson campaign didn't have in 1988.

Like few American progressives of his prominence, Moore has the ability to connect with and mobilize working-class anger at Washington and Wall Street.

In the Jackson campaign, picket lines were campaign stops. That's the kind of campaigning that could be happening now. You get out the campaign message, but you also shine a spotlight on local struggles, nationalize them and magnify their power.

In Michael Moore's last movie, there was a long sequence about the struggle of the UE workers in Chicago. Those are the stories around the country that the Moore campaign for president would be telling to a national Democratic audience: Studs Terkel with a video camera and an RSS feed.

A Moore campaign for president announced today could be active in this Congressional election cycle: campaigning for progressive Democrats in the 2010 primaries, and thereby mobilizing the national progressive base in these contests, campaigning for progressive Democrats in the November election, building its national organization at the same time. A Moore campaign for president would compete for the endorsement of every organization of progressive Democrats, including Progressive Democrats of America, MoveOn and Democracy for America. A Moore campaign would compete for the support of labor unions, which would put the Employee Free Choice Act and fair trade right back at the top of the national agenda. And a Moore campaign would work to build the base of the endorsing organizations.

If Obama's advisers knew for certain that they would face an effective progressive challenge in the 2012 primaries and caucuses, it's likely that they would start making different political choices immediately, because everything they fail to accomplish by spring 2012 would be on the table in the primaries and caucuses: health care for all, putting America back to work, ending the war in Afghanistan. Most analysts seem to think that there was a strong correlation between Obama's announcement of July 2011 as the beginning of US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and the 2012 election cycle; but an effective primary challenge would bring that calculation forward by six months. It's likely that if Obama's advisers knew they faced a spring 2012 deadline for showing that the war was ending, they would stop undermining Afghan efforts to start peace talks. A Moore campaign could save thousands of American and Afghan lives. In contesting Democratic primaries and caucuses against Michael Moore, Obama's advisers wouldn't be able to prevail by deploying mere rhetoric, because now they're in power, and would have to answer for what they are actually doing.

In many ways, the stage is set perfectly. There will not be a crowded field; if career advancement is your goal, you generally don't run in a primary against a sitting president. When "the Democratic Party is in power" is the ideal time to mount a progressive Democratic challenge, because that's when the inability of Washington Democrats in thrall to Wall Street to deliver on progressive promises is thrown into sharp relief.

And for Michael Moore, I think it's a logical next step. He may be near the limit of what he can accomplish politically by only making movies. It's time to make a new documentary: the documentary of a campaign to rally rank-and-file Democrats to take back America from Wall Street, Wal-Mart and the military industry.

Beast of the Month - December 2008

Beast of the Month - December 2008
Al From
Democratic Leadership Council Kingpin

"I yam an anti-Christ..."
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

"His choice, basically, is whether he's going to be Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations."
Ralph Nader on Barack Obama, on election night

Anyone who is cynical about the whole Obamamania fad (and yes, that would include The Konformist itself) might as well suck it up and accept the truth: like it or not, Barky is the face of "liberalism" and "the left" for at least the next eight years. (And perhaps up to forty, if you believe the persuasive political theories of Webster Tarpley and Samuel Huntington.) So the question needs to be asked: what is the reality behind this face?

Despite all the korporate press propagandizing already proclaiming President Obama a perfect mixture of JFK, MLK, RFK, FDR, Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ even before he has taken office (an embarrassing level of delusional fawning by the establishment media not seen since... well, since George W. Bush right after 9/11) he is decidedly a transparent fraud rather than a transcendental leader in The Konformist view. This became more annoyingly obvious as the image heavy, substance non-existent campaign continued to be exposed as a front for the most noxious elements of the Democratic Party. All the repeated chantings of the mantras of "hope" and "change" couldn't hide the repellant machine behind the bizarre mixture of a New Age religious kult and a multi-level marketing scam.

Certainly Obama, a crafty politician and master manipulator, deserves much of the credit and blame for the success of his campaign, starting off with his lofty oratorical style. Indeed, his personal magnetism in speeches is so spellbinding, many suspect he intentionally uses NLP phraseology and pacing in his delivery to induce mass hypnosis on his audience. (Then again, since mass manipulation is the purpose of all political propaganda, it's hard to fault Obama on this count just because he's better at it than everyone else.)

NLP hypnosis or not, Obama didn't come up with his war plan blueprint all by his lone gunman self. His two top political advisors, chief strategist David Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe, certainly deserve much of the cheers and heckles as well. Axelrod and Plouffe are partners in AKP&D Message and Media, and the campaign they helped craft earned the prize from Advertising Age for 2008 Marketer of the Year, beating out Apple and Zappos.com. As the World Socialist Web Site would sarcastically observe, "Obama replaces last year's winner, the video game system Nintendo. The runner-up in 2007 was the insurance corporation GEICO, which features a talking lizard and a cave-man in its ads for discount insurance."

Still, even the twin David's are chump change in the Democratic Party machine, smooth spin doctor salesman rather than the policy genius. If Obama is the current Grand Theft Auto of politics, the Xbox 360 system running the software is clearly the Democratic Leadership Council, led by founder and CEO Al From, The Konformist Beast of the Month.

The DLC was founded in 1985, after the massacre of Walter Mondale by the Gipper in the '84 election. Its first major battle came in 1988, when it successfully fought against Jesse Jackson from winning the Democratic nomination. Ironically then, its first mission was blocking a smooth-talking Chicago black man from winning the White House.

The DLC's problem with Jesse wasn't that he was African-American, but that he was an economic populist, which the DLC terms as "out of touch" thinking. Instead, they support what they term "centrism" - i.e. right wing economic and foreign policy positions. Economic populism, as far as the DLC is concerned, is engaging in "class warfare" and a decided no-no. Talking populism may not be acceptable, but taking hefty dollars from oil companies, military contractors, korporate monoliths and right-wing foundations is okely dokely. Thanks to the DLC's refusal to battle the GOP talking points, they, as much as George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh and FOX News, have pushed the rightward shift in American politics over the last twenty years.

In 2003, the DLC leadership strongly backed the invasion of Iraq. Indeed, Will Marshall (besides From, the only non-elected official on the DLC founding roster) co-signed a letter written by the neocon Project for the New American Century to George W. Bush in favor of the attack before it was launched. Even as the war became increasingly unpopular, Marshall and the DLC crowd continued to mock what they termed the "looney left" critics of the war. As Marshall would put it, "Democrats need to be choosier about the political company they keep, distancing themselves from the pacifist and anti-American fringe." The DLC went after prez candidate Howard Dean over his antiwar status, who replied that he came "from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." (It's plausible the repeated playing of the "Dean Scream" was orchestrated by DLCers who wanted to destroy his campaign.) There was one guy even more hated than Dean in 2004 among the DLC: Michael Moore, whose Fahrenheit 9/11 heated up the box-office and progressive voters with his Bush-bashing documentary. As Marshall would sneer, "You know, let's let Hollywood and the Cannes Film Festival fawn all over Michael Moore. We ought to make it pretty clear that he sure doesn't speak for us when it comes to standing up for our country." From would add: "We've got to repudiate, you know, the most strident and insulting anti-American voices out there sometimes on our party's left... We can't have our party identified by Michael Moore and Hollywood as our cultural values." Four years later, Moore has been proven to be even more vindicated over what the correct position on Iraq was than Jose Canseco has been on steroids in baseball. Despite this, Marshall continues to head the Progressive Policy Institute, the DLC's think tank (Orwellian in name due to its lack of any progressive values.)

Shilling for war in Iraq isn't the only Shrubian position taken by the DLC. When Bush's illegal warrantless surveillance program was uncovered, senior fellow Marshall Wittmann dismissed opposition to it as from the "fevered imaginations of graying baby boomers and twenty-something bloggers," and added: "The Democratic Party is increasingly under the influence of modern day McGovernites." It should be noted that Wittmann is a "former" Republican, still a social conservative and neocon, and a one-time legislative director for the Christian Coalition. This, of course, is totally acceptable to the DLC, but Michael Moore is not.

The current chairman of the DLC, Blue Dog conservative Democrat Harold Ford, shows the utter cluelessness of the organization. Like Obama, Ford is a charismatic African-American who barely conceals his right-wing agenda under vague generalities. In 2006, he lost the Tennessee Senate contest after his opponent Bob Corker unveiled race-baiting commercials, race-baiting Ford refused to denounce in his attempts to portray himself as a "post-racial" politician. So now, the irony of ironies, one of the few decided Democratic losers in the 2006 election cycle is leading an organization whose purpose is to show the Democratic Party the path to victory.

Thanks to its right-wing posturing, the DLC is viewed as a four-letter word among progressives, and Hillary Clinton's membership (along with her husband Billy's, who is also a former DLC chairman) became a rally just under her Iraq War support for Daily Kos Hill-hatred. In their distaste for Hillary, they found their supposed champion in Obama.

But The Konformist smells a ringer: though he denies any ties to the DLC (just as he's denied ties to Tony Rezko and Bill Ayers) he was featured prominently on the DLC's “100 to Watch” list for 2003. Meanwhile, early last year, From gushed about Obama as the potential Democratic choice, noting: “I mean his chief economist, Austan Goolsbee, is a fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, which is our think tank.” (Goolsbee, for those keeping score, is from the University of Chicago and represents the "centrists" among Milton Friedman acolytes.) The timing of From's comment coincides with the sudden switching of loyalties in the Democratic Party establishment from Hillary to Obama.

Why did the DLC betray Hillary? Perhaps it was about Hillary not being particularly loved by the progressive crowd, meaning that she would be expected to deliver something to satisfy them. Meanwhile, Obama has come with little demands from his followers, as his kult of narcissism has substituted feel-good personality worship over policy and substance. Or perhaps it's about Hill and Bill, for all their "Third Way" and centrist leanings, are still Democrats who believe in the New Deal (having been behind crazy things like trying to provide Americans with universal health coverage) making them unpopular among the DLC crowd in their own right. Whatever the reason, the end result is that the Democratic Party now has as its standard bearer a guy who took less progressive stands on issues than either Hillary or John Edwards during the campaign, this at a time when another Great Depression may be starting and another New Deal the best remedy.

Of course, whatever the DLC may want may be trumped by reality. Sooner or later, if unemployment soars to the double digits and people keep losing their homes to banks, the masses may demand more from Obama than snuggly slogans, at the point of riots. When that happens, Obama can either finally deliver something to the public in a concrete plan or send in the National Guard. At the core of the best of politicians, the fundamental ideology is not wanting to lose, and if there is any true "hope" over Obama, it's that he doesn't want to be labeled a loser. But as shrewd betters in Las Vegas, The Konformist is guessing he's a compromised tool for the DLC establishment who is going to do too little too late, leaving an impotent Democratic Party discredited and holding the bag on Great Depression II. Go ahead, Obama, prove us wrong.

In any case, we salute Al From as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Al!!!

Beast of the Month - July 2008

Yes, I know, this is a little late, but better late than never...

Beast of the Month - July 2008
Barack Obama, Democratic Presidential Candidate

"I yam an anti-Christ..."
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.”
Barack Obama regarding Reverend Wright on March 18, 2008, giving the black community fair warning

The economy is tanking, Iraq is a fiasco, and George W. Bush is even more hated than Nixon was in the worse days of Watergate. Even more telling, in three special 2008 Congressional elections so far, Republican strongholds were lost to Democrats: in both Louisiana and Mississippi (hardly progressive areas) and the seat held by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois. Given these facts, and given John McCain has proven himself to be a clueless jackass over the last year and a half, it should be the Democratic Party's game to lose the White House in 2008. The conventional wisdom is the only way Dems can blow it is by running a stunningly incompetent campaign.

That the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson has continued to be the mainstream representative of the working class over the past century - for better (FDR's New Deal) and for worse (George Wallace's racist segregation demagoguery) - makes this pretty significant. And while The Konformist would agree claims the Democratic Party represents the common man become flimsier each election cycle, it’s also true they come way closer to feigning these concerns than the GOP ever could, especially after eight years of Shrub. At the very least, the Democratic Party gets its votes from the poor and middle class over bread and butter issues, so must provide their base something in order to quell an out and out mass rebellion. From this viewpoint, an era where Democrats control the White House tends to be better than when Republicans are in charge, a viewpoint supported by history.

At the start of the year, Hillary Clinton seemed a shoe-in to win the Democratic nomination, and, in the process, the White House. Unless some stunning surprise happens before the Democratic convention, that isn't going to be the case. And for such a stunning upset victory, Barack Obama, The Konformist Beast of the Month, deserves a lot of credit. Just as much, it says something about Obama's admittedly appealing attributes. They were on wide display four years ago in Boston during the Democratic convention, when he gave a star-making speech as keynote speaker. The last time something like that was seen was twenty years earlier by then New York Governor Mario Cuomo. But while Cuomo wasted higher office opportunities playing Hamlet, Obama decided to seize the moment and go for gold while the iron was hot. The end result is a campaign that has captivated the media, and put an African-American man in the finals for running the White House.

It's not just talking heads who have been caught up in the Obama circus. On the frivolous side, numerous celebrities have joined, including George Clooney, Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and Oprah Winfrey. (Then again, considering the last two major endorsements Oprah has done were for phony "autobiography" writer James Frey and dubious New Age scam The Secret, this may be a bad sign.) And as far as lightweight arguments go, The Konformist will take a movement that includes Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson and Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls over endorsements by Sly, Arnold and Chuck Norris. (The male Konformist editorial staff particularly appreciates Halle Berry plug for Obama, where she bluntly declared: "I'll do whatever he says to do." Of course, if she said that about one of us, it would lead to the greatest celebrity home porn video ever.) More substantive is the following he’s achieved among the young and African American communities, groups previously politically marginalized and apathetic. Whatever the hype behind Obamamania, the excitement he inspires is authentic.

That said, has there been a more shallow presidential campaign than that crafted for mass consumption by Team Obama? As Walter Mondale asked in 1984: "Where's the beef?" But beneath the empty slogan chanting of "Change" and "Hope" there really is little there there. Indeed, part of Obama's appeal is his vague, tofu-like blandness wrapped in admitted charisma, which even supporters concede has made people see in him what they want. But it seems with Obama, the public will soon be stuck with the tofu-like negatives of an inferior protein source that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

It doesn't help that media reporting has been so sycophantic during the campaign. He's already been on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine twice, which is more airtime than they've given Coldplay. (Talk about tofu-like blandness, but that's for perhaps another Beast of the Month.) The fluffy, inane coverage of Obama as a rock star makes one wish for the days of hard-hitting political analysis given by John-John's George magazine, back when "politics as celebrity worship" was at least novel. There hasn't seen this much empty "news" reporting on a man who may run the White House since, well, since George W. Bush eight years ago. Perhaps this is because Obama, like Bush before him, has become the recipient of records amount of cash from the rich and powerful, especially from Wall Street.

Despite this, he's been supported by a bizarre cheerleading by most of the progressive set. MoveOn.org, DailyKos.com, HuffingtonPost.com and BuzzFlash.com have wagged their pom poms like he's some perfect mixture of JFK, RFK and MLK - only even better! Along the way, they've joined an increasingly nasty campaign to demonize Bill and Hillary in the ugliest of fashions, practically accusing the pair of plotting to murder Obama in a political coup after Ms. Clinton invoked the RFK assassination in June 1968 to show the history of late-running campaign battles. What makes this stranger is these same outlets have long overly lionized the Clintons as the paragon of Democratic Party virtues. The conventional wisdom is Hillary's support for the Iraq War did her in, and there is some truth to that. Still, while Obama brags about his supposed strong opposition to the quagmire, opposing it while representing a primarily black Chicago state congressional district hardly showcased noble bravery. Mr. Clinton probably put it best in January while speaking at Dartmouth College:

"It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, numerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, 'Well, how could you say that, when you said in 2004 you didn't know how you would have voted on the resolution, you said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war and you took that speech you're now running on off your website in 2004 and there's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since?' Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."

Slick Willie was blasted in the media for this statement, but there isn't a single lie in it. So it seems the main raison d'etre for the Obama campaign success is an easily uncovered hoax, if only the mainstream press had done their job and actually asked Obama some basic questions. (That Bill was basically calling out the korporate media on this one may partially explain the outraged response.) And it seems the smearing of Bill & Hill have less to do with Iraq than the progressive set being seduced by a cult of personality.

Given the lack of investigation of Obama by establishment mouthpieces, and given the flimsy resume he has as a man applying for Leader of the Free World, the right wing has filled the information vacuum with its predictably ugly displays. The general talking points of this smear campaign are that he's a radical black man and a closet Muslim who secretly hates America. Oh, and by the way, did we mention his middle name is Hussein and his last name rhymes with Osama? Thanks to these attacks, Obama's negatives have crept up, and his campaign has launched a Website, with the clever title of FightTheSmears.com, to battle these attacks. The Konformist supports his fight on dishonest attacks, as it would be a shame for him to lose the White House over what he is not. But while hack jobs by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity proliferate, another picture is presented by other critics of Obama, an image of a smug, narcissistic opportunist of the worst sort. It can be found on Websites such as HillBuzz ( http://hillbuzz.blogspot.com/ ) and No Quarter ( http://noquarterusa.net/ ) - two sites, it must be noted, run not by right-wingers but rather Democrat supporters of Hillary Clinton disgusted by his campaign in the primaries.

These are not sore losers who need to "get over it" - an actual quote by Obama in a Congressional meeting over what female supporters of Hillary must do. (Charming that the Obama campaign incorporates GOP catchphrases popularized during the 2000 election swindle as their own.) They are offended in no small part by the accurately perceived sexism used by Team Obama and its supporters in the Democratic race. Any YouTube search can confirm the crude discourse presented by Obama shills such as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann & Chris Matthews. (Of particular note is Olbermann's solution to the supposed problem of Hillary refusal to end her campaign early: "Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out.") Meanwhile, NPR political editor Ken Rudin cracked on CNN that Hillary was like "Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, she's going to keep coming back, and they're not going to stop her." And then there's this lovely quote with no subliminal intent from Obama himself: "I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she’s feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal."

Beyond this criticism of Obama is the analysis of more left-wing Websites such as BlackAgendaReport.com. Tellingly, while Black Agenda Report, as its name applies, covers news and politics with a radical African-American critique, it shows little sympathy for their fellow black man in Barack. From their view, the Obama hype is a dangerous mass duping of the black community by a barely concealed fraud.

Ironically, it is African-Americans that fueled Obama over Hill. Without them, while Obama dominated the Yuppie vote, he would’ve been trounced among blue collar workers, who are more plentiful than latte-sippers among Democrats. Blacks, however, represent a sizable percentage of the Democratic vote (nearly one in five) so Team Obama began a push to take over the demographic, which Hillary was actually leading in last year (in no small part thanks to Bill, the most beloved politician in black America over the last twenty years.) They did this with a whisper campaign of race-baiting smears that would do Karl Rove proud. Tellingly, they developed a memo of talking points accusing the Clinton campaign of playing the race card, the same talking points that then began to dominate the chatter class. Meanwhile, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., an Obama campaign co-chairman and son of the previously most successful black presidential candidate ever, had this to say about Hillary's emotional outpour that helped propel her to victory in New Hampshire: "Those tears also have to be analyzed. They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina where 45 percent of African-Americans will participate in the Democratic contest, and they see real hope in Barack Obama." Bill's own "fairy tale" quote was used against him, distorted to imply some racist connotation. The end result of the sleazy strategy: Bill Clinton morphed in the mainstream media's presentation from the best friend in politics to Black America to a virtual closet Klansman, and Obama captured over ninety percent of the black vote.

The mainstream media tries to present white working class opposition to Obama merely as an issue of race (as though Yuppie liberals are above any racism in their own right.) Of course, The Konformist concedes racial dynamics among American voters can't be dismissed. But it seems what makes the Obamaheads go crazy over Barack is precisely what turns off Joe Blue Collar. Hip campaigns and repetitive slogans may satisfy those with disposable income, but those struggling want something that actually helps them survive in tough times. These voters were courted and won over by Hillary, who, like her wonky husband, actually seemed concerned about their plight and offered concrete agenda to help. Obama, meanwhile, merely sniffed they were bitter people clinging to guns and religion and went back to his vague generalities.

Any serious research of the Obama campaign proves the working class to be a shrewd judge here. Paul Krugman, the New York Times liberal economist, is one of the few mainstream voices to look under the hood at Obama’s economic agenda, and he’s responded with utter disdain. Despite his following among the progressive set, Obama's economic agenda is to the right of both Hillary and John Edwards. Two case studies are revealing, on the issues of healthcare and the subprime crisis, issues that are of highest concern to the working class base. It is telling that while both Edwards and Hill laid out plans to provide universal health coverage, Obama's would still leave fifteen million uninsured by most estimates. Meanwhile, though both Edwards and Ms. Rodham proposed a moratorium on foreclosures and a freeze on ARM loan rates, Obama offered no such help to bitter subprime victims. This shouldn’t be a surprise when one learns the leading economic advisor for the Obama campaign is Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economics professor. Though he is on the "left" side of the U of C economic school, in a department made famous by ardent free market guru Milton Friedman, this means little. Goolsbee has pushed for all the right wing economics that Obama has cheerfully embraced, and has also taken one position Obama has yet to publicly support: the privatization of Social Security. Two other often cited Obama economic advisors, Jeffrey Liebman and David Cutler, have taken the same right-wing (or as they prefer to call it, "centrist") positions. It should be no surprise that Obama also used right wing talking points to bash Edwards and Clinton's plans during the primaries. Given these positions, it’s hard to believe the African-American community would back his candidacy if he were white.

The punch line is though Obama is quick to whine victimhood of racism whenever he's in a corner, he is paradoxically the one black politician who has gone out of his way to deny racism is a problem in modern society. Indeed, a major theme behind his campaign has been his election as president would prove we live in a post-racial society, where racism is a relic of the past. In a speech at Selma, Alabama, he declared that blacks were "90 percent of the way to equality," implying his election would provide the final dime in the battle. In fact, he and his mouthpieces in the media seem to argue the only way he can lose the 2008 contest is by racism. It appears the only person Barack Obama thinks is still suffering from racism in the USA is Barack Obama himself.

This stands in stark contrast to the political careers of Jesse Jackson Sr. and Al Sharpton. Whatever their faults (and certainly both have many) they are black leaders who dedicated their lives to siding with the poor and disenfranchised. And yet, though they are often vilified in the most racist of language (often labeled as "racial pimps" in discourse) neither would claim blackness is their greatest impediment to political victory, but rather their radical message of social justice. That there is no profound message behind Obama's marketing ploy explains why he reaches for the race card, as nothing else about him is threatening to the political establishment. After all, Al Jolson in blackface is about as progressive as Obama.

That said, the election is still the Democrats to lose. Still, it’s important to note the only time Obama has won a national office, his GOP opponent was the absurd joke candidate Alan Keyes. Yuppies, blacks and the young may be enough to win the Democratic nomination, but can it win in November? There's a reason Hillary drubbed Obama's ass by 41 points in West Virginia, and no, it isn't racism. This was the message behind Thomas Frank's 2004 book What's the Matter with Kansas?, that the Democrats needs to connect with the working class poor by a populist message of economics to combat cultural conservatism demagoguery. Instead of courting the BoBos (Bourgeois Bohemians) that are Obama's base, the Democrats should be creating WoBos, working class folks who identify with Michael Moore, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen. Hillary, like her husband before her, was able to connect precisely with these voters because, for all the Clinton's "centrist" leanings, they actually believe in the ideals of the New Deal and, in the case of her husband, delivered over 22 million jobs in eight years while creating record budget surpluses. This is why every Red state the Democrats need to flip (including Ohio and Florida) Hillary won, along with California, Texas, New York and any other big state aside from Obama's home turf in Illinois. With the voters that Democrats need to win behind her and the states the Democrats need to get 270 electoral votes in her corner, it appears the Democrats have bet on the wrong horse.

And this is before the Republican slime machine has started any Swiftboating. While the Clintons have had their skeletons examined closer than any other politician after the White House years, Obama is still an untested, unknown entity. Already the public has been exposed to his controversial ties to sleazy real estate swindler Tony Rezko and his pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and his sniveling evasive response in both cases doesn't inspire confidence. Meanwhile, there are rumors of a purported video of Barack's wife Michelle ranting about "Whitey" being the cause of the world's ills in front of a group of African Americans (which, if true, shows even she doesn't believe his "post-racial" baloney.) Obama has denounced the rumors on FightTheSmears.com, but HillBuzz has already uncovered a photo of an event in June 2004 where Ms. Obama appeared with Louis Farrakhan's wife, an event that seems to jibe with the rumored tape. The rumor claims GOP operatives already have the tape, and are waiting to unleash it in October as an election surprise. Needless to say, while The Konformist may not dispute the reputed sentiments, they probably would not play too well in Middle America and would essentially hand the election to McCain.

In some ways, an Obama defeat is better than the alternative of Obama winning. Author Webster Tarpley has written a powerful expose of Obama, titled Obama - The Postmodern Coup. (A little disclosure here: yes, as Obamaheads will quickly exclaim, Tarpley is indeed a follower of Lyndon LaRouche, and perhaps that will lead some to distrust his work. Fair enough. But say what you will about LaRouche and Tarpley, they do their homework, and this book - like Tarpleys's previous unauthorized biography of George H. W. Bush - is a rigorous examination of Obama and his links that reveals what the establishment press has ignored.) Tarpley identifies the missing Mr. Big when it comes to Obama's foreign policy, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who isn't satisfied with mere war in the Middle East like the Neocons, but rather desires a Cold War sequel against Russia. And as the saying goes, sequels almost always suck. Z-man even wrote about this in a 1998 book titled The Grand Chessboard, where he outlined that control of oil in the Caspian Sea would be the major imperial power battle of the 21st century. (Guess he's been proven wrong on that one.) To support Brzezinski's strategy, already two political coups have been staged in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia, where charismatic politicians backed by millions from US financiers ran slogan heavy, substance light campaigns that caught the masses up in a political frenzy. (Sound familiar?) Both movements are now heavily unpopular in their nations, as the right-wing neoliberal economic agenda they secretly pushed via the hysteria have hurt their people's working class. Hmm...

Okay, just because the ugliest elements of the Democratic Party in both economics and foreign policy are behind Obama doesn't mean he supports their whole agenda. Maybe so, but beyond ideology, he's proven consistently over the past year when it comes to fighting about issues, "Obambi" caves when the going gets tough. His opportunism may be immense, but his spine is virtually non-existent. Quickly after wrapping up the Democratic nomination, he immediately went to work betraying the progressive base that supported him: backing Bush's notorious "faith-based" initiative, siding with the most reactionary Supreme Court justices on the death penalty issue, rejecting to limit fundraising for public finance after long promising he would. And then there's the big two: voting for a FISA bill (which he had promised not only to vote against, but filibuster) that retroactively shielded telecoms from punishment over their criminal alliance with the Bush Administration, and stating he was willing to "refine" (i.e. "reverse") his position on pulling out of Iraq. These last two even caused the Obama cult among progressives to denounce his moves and wonder if they've been hoodwinked. (Answer: yes, you have.) Meanwhile, though most of the mainstream media treated these moves as a "shift to the center" in reports, even an Obama toady like Bob Herbert of the NY Times couldn't help but call it what it was: "He’s lurching right when it suits him, and he’s zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that’s guaranteed to cause disillusion, if not whiplash."

Anyone watching Obama's handling of the Reverend Wright fiasco should've seen this coming. After all, whatever one thinks of Reverend Wright's controversial comments (and there was nothing Wright said that The Konformist could disagree with) he was Obama's pastor for 22 years, a man who married him to his wife, a man who even inspired the title to Obama's bland bestseller The Audacity of Hope with a sermon. Considering that history, Obama should have been expected to stand by Reverend Wright. In fact, Obama personally denounced Wright during his "More Perfect Union" speech in Philadelphia in March that left yuppie liberals gushing. (Here's the quote in case you missed it: "We've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.") Then, after two Wright speeches in April caused a media uproar, he completely disowned his association with the preacher, though Wright never bad-mouthed Obama in any way. Oddly, while the latte-sippers were in a hissy fit demanding the denouncement, it was conservatives who called it what it was: throwing someone from the bus.

If politics is a battlefield, going to war with a decided coward seems to guarantee political defeat in shifting the frame of debate. It seems possible an Obama presidency of duplicitous surrendering may shift the United States even farther to the right than Dubya ever could. From that standpoint, perhaps McCain clueless leadership for four years while he's pooping in his granddad diapers, followed by a Hillary victory in 2012, may be better in the long run.

In any case, we salute Barack Obama as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Barry!!!

WHAT'S THAT UP IN THE SKY?!

It's Bobby Kennedy and Greg Palast releasing the flaming hot full-color investigative comic book, STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE!
Pow! Zap! No more joking with our rights, Mr. Rove!

Get the 24-page investigative comic book by Greg Palast and Bobby Kennedy: STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE.

With the full story of the investigation you'll soon see Rolling Stone magazine - illustrated by razor-sharp pencils of Ted Rall, Lukas Ketner and Lloyd Dangle.

SIX ways they're STEALING your vote - and SEVEN ways to STEAL IT BACK.

(C'mon - 'fess up - do you really know what to do if they hand you a 'provisional' ballot?)

Make a $100 tax deductible donation at StealBackYourVote.org and we'll send you 25 to pass out to troublemakers of your choice.

And, for every $100 donation, we will give away another 400 to voters to vulnerable voters in swing states. We just sent eight cases to Santiago Juarez. Santiago's working with young Hispanic voters of New Mexico.

Can you help us send him more? Or donate $75+ and get a half dozen comix plus the DVD(signed), 'The Election Files' - my BBC reports on the vote snatchers.

Pick up 10 copies of the guide for a donation of $50. We send'm right away by priority mail.

Get five hundred copies for your local school or group for a $1000 donation at http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/print-copies-of-steal-back-your-vote.

Or give us the donation, we'll send'm to a church designated by our co-sponsor Jesse Jackson's Operation Rainbow/PUSH.

Thanks to your prior generosity, we're offering the printing plates FREE of any fee to us to any magazine or weekly that wants to insert comic. (You want to reproduce the guide on a mass scale - you got it. Contact zach (at) gregpalast.com)

Or you can download the comic for a donation of a penny or more (more, PLEASE), at StealBackYourVote.org.

Hey, radio stations: download the Willie Nelson PSA for 'Steal Back Your Vote.'

Spread this link! Pow! Zap! Take that, Katherine!

Steal Back Your Vote is a project of the not-for-profit non-partisan Palast Investigative Fund.

WHAT'S THAT UP IN THE SKY?! It's our Super Sponsors! Voto Latino, Operation Rainbow Push, Air America Radio, Juan Gonzales of Democracy Now! and other crusaders for Truth, Justice and the American Way.

Contact us at interviews@StealBackYourVote.org.

Steal Back Your Vote

Get informed. Kennedy and I are about to publish our report and put it on the airwaves. Sign up and get the notice- via RSS, MySpace, facebook or e-mail and you’ll be the first to know when the news breaks.

BROADCASTERS: Pull down our Steal Back Your Vote! video and audio PSAs from the likes of Jim Hightower, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Willie Nelson and Mimi Kennedy and add it to your podcast or radio program.

Individuals: Want to add your name to the project and help us spread the word? Make a tax-deductible donation of at least $100 to sponsor the Steal Back Your Vote site and $500 to sponsor the guide itself. We'll add your name with gratitude.

Reverend Jackson has asked me to pass on these words: "We've marched too long, worked too hard, and died too young to let them steal our vote. For Dr. King, for Mandela, for Medgar Evers, for Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner - download it and fight back!"

Respectfully,

Greg Palast

http://www.stealbackyourvote.com/

“THEY’RE STEALING YOUR VOTE… WELL, STEAL IT BACK!”
- Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson has his copy. In just days, you’ll be able to get yours, too. Sign up for updates, and we’ll let you know the moment it’s ready!

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blew the lid off the Theft of 2004 in his masterful Rolling Stone article.

Investigative reporter GREG PALAST for BBC television exposed Katherine Harris’ “felon purge” which fixed the 2000 race.

Now Kennedy and Palast have teamed up to investigate THE THEFT OF 2008. They’ve uncovered the scheme to swipe votes by the millions.

So,what are you going to do about it?

That’s easy: STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE!

How can you do that? Easy again . . .


#1. Sign up to get updates on the Steal Back Your Vote! investigation. And be the first to find out about the release of the voter Guide by Palast and Kennedy. Illustrated by graphic gonzos Ted Rall, Lukas Ketner and Troubletown’s Lloyd Dangle.

#2. Get your organization to sponsor the Steal Back Your Vote! Campaign. There’s no charge for your group to join The Progressive Magazine, Guerrilla News Network, VoterRescue, Action Point with Cynthia Black, Air America Radio’s Clout!, Progressive Democrats of America, and the Nation Institute/Puffin Foundation.

Contact StealBackYourVote@gregpalast.com. Hell, sign on yourself Donate $100 (www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org) & get your name on the guide.

#3. Get informed - sign up to get the full story on how they’re shoplifting the White House at www.StealBackYourVote.org - via RSS, myspace, facebook or e-mail.
Watch out! Coming soon - Greg Palast and Bobby Kennedy in Steal Back Your Vote! - the Film - from the pueblos of New Mexico to Karl Rove’s emails (really!), the real scoop.

“Stories so relevant they threaten to alter history.” - Chicago Tribune.
“Twisted and maniacal!” - Hon. Katherine Harris

www.StealBackYourVote.org is a project of the non-partisan, non-profit Palast Investigative Fund.

http://www.stealbackyourvote.com/steal-back-your-vote/

Steal Back Your Vote!
August 29th, 2008

Palast: One out of five Colorado voters purged from voter registration
Outcome of 2008 election likely to be skewed by unethical tactics
RealVail.com
By David O. Williams
Friday, August 29th, 2008
August 27, 2008 — Robert Kennedy Jr. had a pretty good excuse for skipping his scheduled appearance with investigative journalist Greg Palast to promote their latest project, “Steal Back Your Vote” — a report on voting irregularities and fraud in the 2008 election.

Palast, speaking at the Progressive Democrats of America gathering at a downtown Denver church during the DNC Tuesday, excused Kennedy’s absence to be with his uncle, Monday’s inspirational surprise speaker Sen. Ted Kennedy, and introduced a surprise replacement of his own, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.

Progressive investigative journalist Goodman asked a delegate to hold up a goody bag with sponsor logo from AT&T on one side and decried the influence of big corporate money on the modern American political process.

She talked about trying to get into a delegate gathering at Mile High Stadium Monday and being denied access by towering security guards. Goodman said delegates at a corporate party are in training for just how skewed by campaign contributions politics in America have become, and added that there can be no good reasons to keep the press out, only bad ones.

“When you’ve got money saturating politics, and even if you care deeply about the public good, you’ve got to see where the money is and that’s what this is about every four years,” Goodman said. “It’s about teaching (budding politicians) big-money politics.”


Goodman said AT&T’s sponsorship of the DNC is the Democrats’ reward for refusing to block a bill several weeks ago giving telecom companies retroactive immunity for facilitating domestic spying by the feds. She also urged support of independent media during both parties’ political conventions in order to limit and expose excesses by police against protesters in Denver and Minnesota.

Palast took back the microphone to talk up his project with Kennedy, which will be the subject of a feature in a major national magazine next month and which also will be released as a 24-page comic-book-style PDF illustrated by three top political cartoonists. The report will be available on the Web site www.stealbackyourvote.org.

Palast said former Colorado Secretary of State Donetta Davidson has made the state the epicenter of the rampant practice of purging voter registration lists for alleged irregularities — a tactic now even more en vogue in the wake of new legislation backed by the Bush administration.

“Now under the Help America Vote Act the entire nation is Floridated, but the champ, [former Florida Secretary of State] Katherine Harris, ain’t got nothing on Colorado,” Palast said. “We’re sitting at purge ground zero. The reason that there’s a convention here is this is a swing state where Democrats are piling in, tens of thousands of new voters in Colorado at the top of the bucket, but at the bottom of the bucket the spread sheets are going (poof).

“What’s happening? Donetta Davidson, who had been secretary of state in the state of Colorado, removed 19.4 percent — one out of five voters in the state of Colorado, she removed their names. And what happens to Davidson as a result of this? The answer is George Bush made her head of the brand new Election Assistance Commission, where she can train all 50 secretaries of state in her purging ways. In fact, President Bush, instead of calling her chairwoman of the EAC, was going to call her the Purging General.”

http://www.gregpalast.com/night-of-the-living-vote-snatchers-from-steal-back-your-vote/

Night of the Living Vote-snatchers -
from Steal Back Your Vote!
by Greg Palast

Excerpted from the Greg Palast, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Robert F. Kennedy's comic book voter guide.
See www.StealBackYourVote.org for more.

In 2002, George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act.

When a Bush tells you he’s going to “help” you vote - look out!

The result: in the 2004 presidential election, over three million votes - 3,006,080 - were cast and not counted. Like, what the !@#!?

That’s from the official data from an agency created by George Bush called the “Elections Assistance Commission.” When a Bush tells you he’s going to “assist” our elections... (well, you get it).
Three MILLION ballots disappeared - Pfft!

And not just anyone’s ballots. U.S. government experts reported, for example, that a black voter’s ballot is 900% more likely than a white voter’s ballot to get “lost” in the machine. Bush fired the experts.

Three million voters went missing in ‘04 - but that ain’t nuthin’!

Law professor and voting law expert Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warns that it’s about to get a whole lot worse. Nasty new spores of the “Help” America Vote Act went into effect since the last election that have turned the process into a vicious game of “Chutes and Ladders,” with traps and tricks between you and your vote...

Example: the Republican Secretary of State of Colorado “helped” her state vote by eliminating 19.4% of the voters from the voter rolls. That’s one in five !@#$#@ voters!

Over three million missing ballots – and now the voters themselves are disappearing by the millions. Where the hell did they go?

Quote of the Month

"I want to cut his nuts off."
Jesse Jackson on Barack Obama

"The Rainbow Coalition"

Here's a really historic speech about race and class in America...

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jessejackson1984dnc.htm

Jesse Jackson
1984 Democratic National Convention Address
"The Rainbow Coalition"
Delivered 18 July 1984, San Francisco

Thank you very much.

Tonight we come together bound by our faith in a mighty God, with genuine respect and love for our country, and inheriting the legacy of a great Party, the Democratic Party, which is the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just, and peaceful course.

This is not a perfect party. We are not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission: to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.

We are gathered here this week to nominate a candidate and adopt a platform which will expand, unify, direct, and inspire our Party and the nation to fulfill this mission. My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised. They are restless and seek relief. They have voted in record numbers. They have invested the faith, hope, and trust that they have in us. The Democratic Party must send them a signal that we care. I pledge my best not to let them down.

There is the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity. Leadership must heed the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity, for they are the key to achieving our mission. Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

No generation can choose the age or circumstance in which it is born, but through leadership it can choose to make the age in which it is born an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs, and peace, and justice. Only leadership -- that intangible combination of gifts, the discipline, information, circumstance, courage, timing, will and divine inspiration -- can lead us out of the crisis in which we find ourselves. Leadership can mitigate the misery of our nation. Leadership can part the waters and lead our nation in the direction of the Promised Land. Leadership can lift the boats stuck at the bottom.

I have had the rare opportunity to watch seven men, and then two, pour out their souls, offer their service, and heal and heed the call of duty to direct the course of our nation. There is a proper season for everything. There is a time to sow and a time to reap. There's a time to compete and a time to cooperate.

I ask for your vote on the first ballot as a vote for a new direction for this Party and this nation -- a vote of conviction, a vote of conscience. But I will be proud to support the nominee of this convention for the Presidency of the United States of America. Thank you.

I have watched the leadership of our party develop and grow. My respect for both Mr. Mondale and Mr. Hart is great. I have watched them struggle with the crosswinds and crossfires of being public servants, and I believe they will both continue to try to serve us faithfully.

I am elated by the knowledge that for the first time in our history a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, will be recommended to share our ticket.

Throughout this campaign, I've tried to offer leadership to the Democratic Party and the nation. If, in my high moments, I have done some good, offered some service, shed some light, healed some wounds, rekindled some hope, or stirred someone from apathy and indifference, or in any way along the way helped somebody, then this campaign has not been in vain.

For friends who loved and cared for me, and for a God who spared me, and for a family who understood, I am eternally grateful.

If, in my low moments, in word, deed or attitude, through some error of temper, taste, or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or revived someone's fears, that was not my truest self. If there were occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart. My head -- so limited in its finitude; my heart, which is boundless in its love for the human family. I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient: God is not finished with me yet.

This campaign has taught me much; that leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.

For leaders, the pain is often intense. But you must smile through your tears and keep moving with the faith that there is a brighter side somewhere.

I went to see Hubert Humphrey three days before he died. He had just called Richard Nixon from his dying bed, and many people wondered why. And I asked him. He said, "Jesse, from this vantage point, the sun is setting in my life, all of the speeches, the political conventions, the crowds, and the great fights are behind me now. At a time like this you are forced to deal with your irreducible essence, forced to grapple with that which is really important to you. And what I've concluded about life," Hubert Humphrey said, "When all is said and done, we must forgive each other, and redeem each other, and move on."

Our party is emerging from one of its most hard fought battles for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in our history. But our healthy competition should make us better, not bitter. We must use the insight, wisdom, and experience of the late Hubert Humphrey as a balm for the wounds in our Party, this nation, and the world. We must forgive each other, redeem each other, regroup, and move one. Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow -- red, yellow, brown, black and white -- and we're all precious in God's sight.

America is not like a blanket -- one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt.

Even in our fractured state, all of us count and fit somewhere. We have proven that we can survive without each other. But we have not proven that we can win and make progress without each other. We must come together.

From Fannie Lou Hamer in Atlantic City in 1964 to the Rainbow Coalition in San Francisco today; from the Atlantic to the Pacific, we have experienced pain but progress, as we ended American apartheid laws. We got public accommodations. We secured voting rights. We obtained open housing, as young people got the right to vote. We lost Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, Bobby, John, and Viola. The team that got us here must be expanded, not abandoned.

Twenty years ago, tears welled up in our eyes as the bodies of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were dredged from the depths of a river in Mississippi. Twenty years later, our communities, black and Jewish, are in anguish, anger, and pain. Feelings have been hurt on both sides. There is a crisis in communications. Confusion is in the air. But we cannot afford to lose our way. We may agree to agree; or agree to disagree on issues; we must bring back civility to these tensions.

We are co-partners in a long and rich religious history -- the Judeo-Christian traditions. Many blacks and Jews have a shared passion for social justice at home and peace abroad. We must seek a revival of the spirit, inspired by a new vision and new possibilities. We must return to higher ground. We are bound by Moses and Jesus, but also connected with Islam and Mohammed. These three great religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, were all born in the revered and holy city of Jerusalem.

We are bound by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Heschel, crying out from their graves for us to reach common ground. We are bound by shared blood and shared sacrifices. We are much too intelligent, much too bound by our Judeo-Christian heritage, much too victimized by racism, sexism, militarism, and anti-Semitism, much too threatened as historical scapegoats to go on divided one from another. We must turn from finger pointing to clasped hands. We must share our burdens and our joys with each other once again. We must turn to each other and not on each other and choose higher ground.

Twenty years later, we cannot be satisfied by just restoring the old coalition. Old wine skins must make room for new wine. We must heal and expand. The Rainbow Coalition is making room for Arab Americans. They, too, know the pain and hurt of racial and religious rejection. They must not continue to be made pariahs. The Rainbow Coalition is making room for Hispanic Americans who this very night are living under the threat of the Simpson-Mazzoli bill; and farm workers from Ohio who are fighting the Campbell Soup Company with a boycott to achieve legitimate workers' rights.

The Rainbow is making room for the Native American, the most exploited people of all, a people with the greatest moral claim amongst us. We support them as they seek the restoration of their ancient land and claim amongst us. We support them as they seek the restoration of land and water rights, as they seek to preserve their ancestral homeland and the beauty of a land that was once all theirs. They can never receive a fair share for all they have given us. They must finally have a fair chance to develop their great resources and to preserve their people and their culture.

The Rainbow Coalition includes Asian Americans, now being killed in our streets -- scapegoats for the failures of corporate, industrial, and economic policies.

The Rainbow is making room for the young Americans. Twenty years ago, our young people were dying in a war for which they could not even vote. Twenty years later, young America has the power to stop a war in Central America and the responsibility to vote in great numbers. Young America must be politically active in 1984. The choice is war or peace. We must make room for young America.

The Rainbow includes disabled veterans. The color scheme fits in the Rainbow. The disabled have their handicap revealed and their genius concealed; while the able-bodied have their genius revealed and their disability concealed. But ultimately, we must judge people by their values and their contribution. Don't leave anybody out. I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan on a horse.

The Rainbow is making room for small farmers. They have suffered tremendously under the Reagan regime. They will either receive 90 percent parity or 100 percent charity. We must address their concerns and make room for them. The Rainbow includes lesbians and gays. No American citizen ought be denied equal protection from the law.

We must be unusually committed and caring as we expand our family to include new members. All of us must be tolerant and understanding as the fears and anxieties of the rejected and the party leadership express themselves in many different ways. Too often what we call hate -- as if it were some deeply-rooted philosophy or strategy -- is simply ignorance, anxiety, paranoia, fear, and insecurity. To be strong leaders, we must be long-suffering as we seek to right the wrongs of our Party and our nation. We must expand our Party, heal our Party, and unify our Party. That is our mission in 1984.

We are often reminded that we live in a great nation -- and we do. But it can be greater still. The Rainbow is mandating a new definition of greatness. We must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but the manger up. Jesus said that we should not be judged by the bark we wear but by the fruit that we bear. Jesus said that we must measure greatness by how we treat the least of these.

President Reagan says the nation is in recovery. Those 90,000 corporations that made a profit last year but paid no federal taxes are recovering. The 37,000 military contractors who have benefited from Reagan's more than doubling of the military budget in peacetime, surely they are recovering. The big corporations and rich individuals who received the bulk of a three-year, multibillion tax cut from Mr. Reagan are recovering. But no such recovery is under way for the least of these.

Rising tides don't lift all boats, particularly those stuck at the bottom. For the boats stuck at the bottom there's a misery index. This Administration has made life more miserable for the poor. Its attitude has been contemptuous. Its policies and programs have been cruel and unfair to working people. They must be held accountable in November for increasing infant mortality among the poor. In Detroit one of the great cities of the western world, babies are dying at the same rate as Honduras, the most underdeveloped nation in our hemisphere. This Administration must be held accountable for policies that have contributed to the growing poverty in America. There are now 34 million people in poverty, 15 percent of our nation. 23 million are White; 11 million Black, Hispanic, Asian, and others -- mostly women and children. By the end of this year, there will be 41 million people in poverty. We cannot stand idly by. We must fight for a change now.

Under this regime we look at Social Security. The '81 budget cuts included nine permanent Social Security benefit cuts totaling 20 billion over five years. Small businesses have suffered under Reagan tax cuts. Only 18 percent of total business tax cuts went to them; 82 percent to big businesses. Health care under Mr. Reagan has already been sharply cut. Education under Mr. Reagan has been cut 25 percent. Under Mr. Reagan there are now 9.7 million female head families. They represent 16 percent of all families. Half of all of them are poor. 70 percent of all poor children live in a house headed by a woman, where there is no man. Under Mr. Reagan, the Administration has cleaned up only 6 of 546 priority toxic waste dumps. Farmers' real net income was only about half its level in 1979.

Many say that the race in November will be decided in the South. President Reagan is depending on the conservative South to return him to office. But the South, I tell you, is unnaturally conservative. The South is the poorest region in our nation and, therefore, [has] the least to conserve. In his appeal to the South, Mr. Reagan is trying to substitute flags and prayer cloths for food, and clothing, and education, health care, and housing.

Mr. Reagan will ask us to pray, and I believe in prayer. I have come to this way by the power of prayer. But then, we must watch false prophecy. He cuts energy assistance to the poor, cuts breakfast programs from children, cuts lunch programs from children, cuts job training from children, and then says to an empty table, "Let us pray." Apparently, he is not familiar with the structure of a prayer. You thank the Lord for the food that you are about to receive, not the food that just left. I think that we should pray, but don't pray for the food that left. Pray for the man that took the food to leave. We need a change. We need a change in November.

Under Mr. Reagan, the misery index has risen for the poor. The danger index has risen for everybody. Under this administration, we've lost the lives of our boys in Central America and Honduras, in Grenada, in Lebanon, in nuclear standoff in Europe. Under this Administration, one-third of our children believe they will die in a nuclear war. The danger index is increasing in this world. All the talk about the defense against Russia; the Russian submarines are closer, and their missiles are more accurate. We live in a world tonight more miserable and a world more dangerous.

While Reaganomics and Reaganism is talked about often, so often we miss the real meaning. Reaganism is a spirit, and Reaganomics represents the real economic facts of life. In 1980, Mr. George Bush, a man with reasonable access to Mr. Reagan, did an analysis of Mr. Reagan's economic plan. Mr. George Bush concluded that Reagan's plan was ''voodoo economics.'' He was right. Third-party candidate John Anderson said "a combination of military spending, tax cuts, and a balanced budget by '84 would be accomplished with blue smoke and mirrors." They were both right.

Mr. Reagan talks about a dynamic recovery. There's some measure of recovery. Three and a half years later, unemployment has inched just below where it was when he took office in 1981. There are still 8.1 million people officially unemployed; 11 million working only part-time. Inflation has come down, but let's analyze for a moment who has paid the price for this superficial economic recovery.

Mr. Reagan curbed inflation by cutting consumer demand. He cut consumer demand with conscious and callous fiscal and monetary policies. He used the Federal budget to deliberately induce unemployment and curb social spending. He then weighed and supported tight monetary policies of the Federal Reserve Board to deliberately drive up interest rates, again to curb consumer demand created through borrowing. Unemployment reached 10.7 percent. We experienced skyrocketing interest rates. Our dollar inflated abroad. There were record bank failures, record farm foreclosures, record business bankruptcies; record budget deficits, record trade deficits.

Mr. Reagan brought inflation down by destabilizing our economy and disrupting family life. He promised -- he promised in 1980 a balanced budget. But instead we now have a record 200 billion dollar budget deficit. Under Mr. Reagan, the cumulative budget deficit for his four years is more than the sum total of deficits from George Washington to Jimmy Carter combined. I tell you, we need a change.

How is he paying for these short-term jobs? Reagan's economic recovery is being financed by deficit spending -- 200 billion dollars a year. Military spending, a major cause of this deficit, is projected over the next five years to be nearly 2 trillion dollars, and will cost about 40,000 dollars for every taxpaying family. When the Government borrows 200 billion dollars annually to finance the deficit, this encourages the private sector to make its money off of interest rates as opposed to development and economic growth.

Even money abroad, we don't have enough money domestically to finance the debt, so we are now borrowing money abroad, from foreign banks, governments and financial institutions: 40 billion dollars in 1983; 70-80 billion dollars in 1984 -- 40 percent of our total; over 100 billion dollars -- 50 percent of our total -- in 1985. By 1989, it is projected that 50 percent of all individual income taxes will be going just to pay for interest on that debt. The United States used to be the largest exporter of capital, but under Mr. Reagan we will quite likely become the largest debtor nation.

About two weeks ago, on July the 4th, we celebrated our Declaration of Independence, yet every day supply-side economics is making our nation more economically dependent and less economically free. Five to six percent of our Gross National Product is now being eaten up with President Reagan's budget deficits. To depend on foreign military powers to protect our national security would be foolish, making us dependent and less secure. Yet, Reaganomics has us increasingly dependent on foreign economic sources. This consumer-led but deficit-financed recovery is unbalanced and artificial. We have a challenge as Democrats to point a way out.

Democracy guarantees opportunity, not success.

Democracy guarantees the right to participate, not a license for either a majority or a minority to dominate.

The victory for the Rainbow Coalition in the Platform debates today was not whether we won or lost, but that we raised the right issues. We could afford to lose the vote; issues are non-negotiable. We could not afford to avoid raising the right questions. Our self-respect and our moral integrity were at stake. Our heads are perhaps bloody, but not bowed. Our back is straight. We can go home and face our people. Our vision is clear.

When we think, on this journey from slave-ship to championship, that we have gone from the planks of the Boardwalk in Atlantic City in 1964 to fighting to help write the planks in the platform in San Francisco in '84, there is a deep and abiding sense of joy in our souls in spite of the tears in our eyes. Though there are missing planks, there is a solid foundation upon which to build. Our party can win, but we must provide hope which will inspire people to struggle and achieve; provide a plan that shows a way out of our dilemma and then lead the way.

In 1984, my heart is made to feel glad because I know there is a way out -- justice. The requirement for rebuilding America is justice. The linchpin of progressive politics in our nation will not come from the North; they, in fact, will come from the South. That is why I argue over and over again. We look from Virginia around to Texas, there's only one black Congressperson out of 115. Nineteen years later, we're locked out of the Congress, the Senate and the Governor's mansion. What does this large black vote mean? Why do I fight to win second primaries and fight gerrymandering and annexation and at-large [elections]. Why do we fight over that? Because I tell you, you cannot hold someone in the ditch unless you linger there with them. Unless you linger there.

If you want a change in this nation, you enforce that Voting Rights Act. We'll get 12 to 20 Black, Hispanics, female and progressive congresspersons from the South. We can save the cotton, but we've got to fight the boll weevils. We've got to make a judgment. We've got to make a judgment.

It is not enough to hope ERA will pass. How can we pass ERA? If Blacks vote in great numbers, progressive Whites win. It's the only way progressive Whites win. If Blacks vote in great numbers, Hispanics win. When Blacks, Hispanics, and progressive Whites vote, women win. When women win, children win. When women and children win, workers win. We must all come up together. We must come up together.

Thank you.

For all of our joy and excitement, we must not save the world and lose our souls. We should never short-circuit enforcing the Voting Rights Act at every level. When one of us rise[s], all of us will rise. Justice is the way out. Peace is the way out. We should not act as if nuclear weaponry is negotiable and debatable.

In this world in which we live, we dropped the bomb on Japan and felt guilty, but in 1984 other folks [have] also got bombs. This time, if we drop the bomb, six minutes later we, too, will be destroyed. It's not about dropping the bomb on somebody. It is about dropping the bomb on everybody. We must choose to develop minds over guided missiles, and think it out and not fight it out. It's time for a change.

Our foreign policy must be characterized by mutual respect, not by gunboat diplomacy, big stick diplomacy, and threats. Our nation at its best feeds the hungry. Our nation at its worst, at its worst, will mine the harbors of Nicaragua, at its worst will try to overthrow their government, at its worst will cut aid to American education and increase the aid to El Salvador; at its worst, our nation will have partnerships with South Africa. That's a moral disgrace. It's a moral disgrace. It's a moral disgrace.

We look at Africa. We cannot just focus on Apartheid in Southern Africa. We must fight for trade with Africa, and not just aid to Africa. We cannot stand idly by and say we will not relate to Nicaragua unless they have elections there, and then embrace military regimes in Africa overthrowing democratic governments in Nigeria and Liberia and Ghana. We must fight for democracy all around the world and play the game by one set of rules.

Peace in this world. Our present formula for peace in the Middle East is inadequate. It will not work. There are 22 nations in the Middle East. Our nation must be able to talk and act and influence all of them. We must build upon Camp David, and measure human rights by one yard stick. In that region we have too many interests and too few friends.

There is a way out -- jobs. Put America back to work. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, the Reverend Sample used to preach every so often a sermon relating to Jesus. And he said, "If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me." I didn't quite understand what he meant as a child growing up, but I understand a little better now. If you raise up truth, it's magnetic. It has a way of drawing people.

With all this confusion in this Convention, the bright lights and parties and big fun, we must raise up the simple proposition: If we lift up a program to feed the hungry, they'll come running; if we lift up a program to study war no more, our youth will come running; if we lift up a program to put America back to work, and an alternative to welfare and despair, they will come working.

If we cut that military budget without cutting our defense, and use that money to rebuild bridges and put steel workers back to work, and use that money and provide jobs for our cities, and use that money to build schools and pay teachers and educate our children and build hospitals and train doctors and train nurses, the whole nation will come running to us.

As I leave you now, we vote in this convention and get ready to go back across this nation in a couple of days. In this campaign, I've tried to be faithful to my promise. I lived in old barrios, ghettos, and reservations and housing projects. I have a message for our youth. I challenge them to put hope in their brains and not dope in their veins. I told them that like Jesus, I, too, was born in the slum. But just because you're born in the slum does not mean the slum is born in you, and you can rise above it if your mind is made up. I told them in every slum there are two sides. When I see a broken window -- that's the slummy side. Train some youth to become a glazier -- that's the sunny side. When I see a missing brick -- that's the slummy side. Let that child in the union and become a brick mason and build -- that's the sunny side. When I see a missing door -- that's the slummy side. Train some youth to become a carpenter -- that's the sunny side. And when I see the vulgar words and hieroglyphics of destitution on the walls -- that's the slummy side. Train some youth to become a painter, an artist -- that's the sunny side.

We leave this place looking for the sunny side because there's a brighter side somewhere. I'm more convinced than ever that we can win. We will vault up the rough side of the mountain. We can win. I just want young America to do me one favor, just one favor. Exercise the right to dream. You must face reality -- that which is. But then dream of a reality that ought to be -- that must be. Live beyond the pain of reality with the dream of a bright tomorrow. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress. Use love to motivate you and obligate you to serve the human family.

Young America, dream. Choose the human race over the nuclear race. Bury the weapons and don't burn the people. Dream -- dream of a new value system. Teachers who teach for life and not just for a living; teach because they can't help it. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship. Dream of doctors more concerned about public health than personal wealth. Dream of preachers and priests who will prophesy and not just profiteer. Preach and dream!

Our time has come. Our time has come. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not disappoint. Our time has come. Our faith, hope, and dreams will prevail. Our time has come. Weeping has endured for nights, but now joy cometh in the morning. Our time has come. No grave can hold our body down. Our time has come. No lie can live forever. Our time has come. We must leave racial battle ground and come to economic common ground and moral higher ground. America, our time has come. We come from disgrace to amazing grace. Our time has come. Give me your tired, give me your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free and come November, there will be a change because our time has come.

Voter ID scam is the real fraud

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.tucker14jan14,0,461309.story

Voter ID scam is the real fraud
Cynthia Tucker
January 14, 2008
ATLANTA

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Indiana's harsh voter ID law, as its justices seem poised to do, hundreds of thousands of black Americans should march in protest. So should hundreds of thousands of Latino Americans. Native Americans, too. Political activists from across the ethnic spectrum should convene the biggest political demonstration since the historic March on Washington in 1963.

Where is the Rev. Al Sharpton when a genuinely critical issue comes along? Where's the Rev. Jesse Jackson?

The GOP-led campaign to pass stringent voter ID laws is a greater injustice than the prosecutions of the Jena Six, more significant than the incarceration of Michael Vick, more damaging than the insulting rants of Don Imus. This is a frankly brazen effort to block the votes of thousands of people of color who might have the temerity to vote for Democrats. And it's un-American.

As happened in several states, including Georgia, the then-GOP-dominated Indiana legislature pushed through a rigid law in 2005 requiring state-sponsored photo IDs at the ballot box. While the Republican spin machine has worked mightily to portray this as an effort to curb voter fraud, it is no such thing. There has never - never - been a single case of "voter impersonation" at the ballot box, with a fake voter using an electric bill or phone bill to pretend to be a valid voter.

Earlier this month, radio journalist Warren Olney pressed Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita about the prosecution of voter impersonation cases in Indiana. "Oh, yeah. We suspect it happens all the time," Mr. Rokita said. "Suspect?" Mr. Olney countered.

"Well, are you saying you want to define whether or not there's fraud based on whether or not its prosecuted?" Mr. Rokita answered, adding, "It's a hard type of crime to catch. ... It's hard to catch one in the act."

OK, then. Got that? It's a little like the search for life on other planets. Extraterrestrials are out there, even if none has actually been spotted.

(If Republicans were interested in actual voter fraud, they would have tightened the rules for absentee ballots, since that's where most voter fraud occurs. But because Republican voters tend to favor absentee ballots, many GOP-dominated legislatures have made absentee balloting rules less stringent.)

But there is evidence aplenty of this: There are thousands of law-abiding registered voters across the land who have no government-sponsored ID - no passport, no driver's license - and who will be banned from the ballot box if the highest court upholds this highly partisan law. It is difficult for middle-class citizens to believe, I know. If you live inside the comfortable economic mainstream, where taking airplane trips and renting DVDs is a routine part of life, you can't imagine voters without a state-sponsored photo ID.

But they're out there. Just ask Mary-Jo Criswell, 71. Her ballot was thrown out when she showed up at her Indiana polling place expecting to use the same forms of ID, including a bank card with a photo, that she had used in the past. She has epilepsy, she says, so she has never had a driver's license.

Citizens like Ms. Criswell are Americans, too, and they have every right to vote. It is elitism, pure and simple, to suggest requiring them to obtain a state-sponsored photo ID is a "minor inconvenience." But that's exactly what Justice Anthony M. Kennedy called it during oral arguments, noting that the law is expected to affect only a small percentage of voters.

That's true. The GOP is aiming at a small pool of voters - mostly poor, often elderly, usually black or brown - who lack driver's licenses. As it happens, they tend to support Democrats. With so many elections decided by a margin of a few hundred votes, Republicans figure they can stay in power by blocking just a few Democratic ballots.

But the Republicans could be in for a jolt. The electorate seems much more excited about Democratic candidates this year. The Democratic presidential candidates have topped the Republicans in fundraising, and in early primary states, more Democratic ballots have been cast than Republican ones.

The way things are going, Republicans running for national office could lose by a lot of votes - not a few. So they'll need a new scam to win elections.

Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her column appears Mondays in The Sun. Her e-mail is cynthia@ajc.com.

Censored again - and proud of it

Censored again - and proud of it
GregPalast.com

The bad news is, the Palast team has won its tenth-in-a-row "Project Censored" prize. For another story that Big Media won't dare touch.

The good news is: we're broke.

Last month, for the first time in two years, we came to you begging for cash so we could keep reporting the uncomfortable truth. Your response was astonishing. We're out of debt - back to zero.

(Our crawl out of the red was also helped by The Nation Magazine's Institute - which awarded our team the $25,000 Puffin Fellowship for investigative reporting.)

I'm back with one last (I promise) desperate plea for help. Now that we've made it out of debt, the Palast Investigative Fund needs your help to pay THIS month's bills.

Please, right now, make a tax-deductible donation to the Investigative Fund and I'll send you a personalized, signed copy of the book, 'Project Censored 2008' with my exposé on Mr. Giuliani's friend - the hedge fund vulture who is swiping the debt relief meant for Africa.

Make your donation at least $125 and we'll throw in Censored 2007 which includes our exposés on Iraq and Oil, "Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools!" and, the skinny on elections theft - co-written with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

We have had to say good-bye to our two top investigators, Leni and Matt. Damn, we miss them! Our struggle now is to pay their successor, Kat, who is demanding to eat at least once a day.

And for those who really believe we've just GOT to get the word out: we are LOOKING FOR A COUPLE OF FILM PRODUCERS (twelve to be exact), so we can quickly release the broadcasts, "Greg Palast Investigates" Vol. 1 ("Election Theft for Dummies") and Vol. 2 ("The Chavez Tapes") based on our award-winning reports for BBC Television.

Become a mini-mogul by donating at least $1,000 to our fund (tax-deductible), and you'll get on-screen executive producer credit and DVD copies of the films to impress (and depress) your friends and enemies.

No joke. We're broke. But the work continues even if our pockets are bare. Want to support Raw Journalism, the real stuff? Here it is: just a $100 donation and I'll send you Project Censored 2008, or Bush Family Fortunes (the BBC film on DVD), or Live From the Armed Madhouse, or the book that took 50,000 volts from a taser and keeps on ticking: Armed Madhouse - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild.

And true, deep appreciation from myself and the investigative team for your generosity which has kept us alive and proudly censored for nearly a decade.