FEBRUARY-MARCH 2008

My beloved Pale Sister Amy... your response made me laugh to keep from crying. "Use my influence..."??? LOL Yeah right. You got jokes.  But I have Hopes.  I also have Faith that a Change is gonna come.  Further, I believe in my spirit that Obama is going to be an important agent of that change... one way or another. I doubt that it will come as we expect it.    I know that one mortal man no matter the color of his skin can in 4 yrs undo what it has taken centuries of environmental damage &  socio-economic oppression to create.  Obama is not saying that he can.  It is unfair to expect him or anyone else to do so.  What the Hon. Senator Obama is saying is that with our help positive changes can be a reality.  What he is promising to do is to put his own life in jeopardy and use his office with our activist assistance & his sincere efforts to fight against the MultiNational & Political GateKeepers still protecting the Statusquo &  enforcing an age old System that refuses to change therefore corrupting or destroying every elected official that dares aspire to make a significant  difference to include Bill Clinton & every President of the United States.   Those martyrs that dared buck the System (to include John & Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr., Malcolm X, Jimmy Carter, Bill & Hillary Clinton were brought down  by hook or crooked bullet.  When I saw President Carter age horrifically almost overnight early in his Presidency I knew that he was an honorable man and the Gatekeepers were beating the living daylights out of him. We had such high hopes for Bill & Hillary yet we watched in horror as she was defanged by White Water (which still hangs over her head) and Bill was lambasted & successfully put into check as a result of his affectionate nature & adulterous ways.  So what makes folks think that Hillary is going to fare any better this time?   None of the candidates you mentioned will fare any better w/o the American people putting aside our irrelevant differences long enuf to band together in a series of battles of change for the common good. The Bush Administration still clandestinely  ruled by the GodFather, Papa Bush, still secretly head of the CIA, Bush Mafia, & Tory Party betraying America for the sake of the New World Order & Western Empires Stock Portfolios has no intention of relinquishing power... or having their favorite nepotistic puppet son Pinocchio Bush, ogre Cheney & friends deposed/impeached.    Don't you realize that the terrorism, bombs (OK & NYC), elite exposes, prosecutions, & anthrax threats, plus several plane crashes, suicides &other mysterious deaths were used to terrorize, & paralyze our entire Congress &  Senate?  Each, to include Cynthia McKinney (the martyr that originally led the Anti-War Protest Movement Against Iraq) was successfully trumped & silenced.   McKinney's weakness like mine during the last day of my copyright infringement trial against MJ & Sony, was the sin of vanity. At first, we both got a lot of positive Press for daring to buck the ruthless System (in my case the ruthless Music Industry).  It was David vs Goliath they said. Then without warning, when we let our righteous guards down deciding to listen to those supportive voices saying, "Girl, I am so proud of you.  But have you seen how dowdy you look on TV.  You're a star now so you should look like one.  Don't let those evil people punk & upstage you.  You've got to come in & let me do something about your hair, makeup & wardrobe."  Ah yes, the sin of vanity will derail us every time.   The previously modest Cynthia McKinney had an ethnocentric makeover that left her looking like Patti LaBelle and got arrested for trying to go thru Capital Security w/o her badge. Why?  The Security Guards no longer recognized her. On the day that Michael Jackson came to town to testify I decided that I would not be upstaged & dressed like the entertainer I was by wearing the same black leather costume (dress & jacket) worn in my Dangerous video being played everyday on the TV  news.  My faux paux? Cleavage! Suddenly, both Rep. McKinney & myself (both Black women activists) were deactivated, humiliated, villified & consequently rendered toothless.  From humble David fighting Goliath we were branded Jezebel & hungry reporters  devoured our reputations like the rabid dogs devoured poor Jezebel in the streets of Jerusalem. Caught up in the ensuing feeding frenzy of the global main stream media DISTRACTION ...No one noticed that copyright law was thrown right out the window & a grave injustice was allowed to go unpunished.   My point is... if they cannot turn him... they will destroy him. The Gatekeepers are going to do everything possible to castrate & villify Barack Obama.  They are just waiting for the right mistake, weakness & moment in time.  Same goes for any elected official that tries to buck the System... no matter how" Green" & environmentally & socially conscious he or she is.   I must interject that as I watched Michelle Obama speak tonight on the Larry King Show my heart nearly burst with pride & I was brought to tears of joy & sadness.  Joy that this beautiful, eloquent & elegant Nubian Queen might actually become the deserving First Lady of this nation... and sad because deep in my heart I know what she is most likely going to end up sacrificing.  Her loss is going to crush me as well.   Amy, I admire, love & respect you very much for many many reasons .I agree with you 99% of the time about what matters. I am grateful & honored to know such a dedicated social activist like yourself. That is why I give you free rein in my name in my online groups. But, the fact remains that you are a white Jew & I am a Black woman. Hence our perspectives, (esp regarding Obama &/or whomever becomes the first Black man to become President of America) will always differ.  Most socio-economic issues are a matter of perspective.  It is the greedy lack of respect &  intolerance for differing perspectives that is destroying us.   You cannot imagine what compelled me to write a fantasy novel 10 yrs ago about a Black Man, immortal & reincarnated wise King Solomon, protected by immortal supernatural Earthbound Angels as he becomes the first Black President of the United States and successfully brokers peace in the Middle East.  Nor can you imagine my awe & astonishment as I watch my fantasy prophecy unfold in reality before my very eyes during my lifetime.  Like my Dad, I am highly pleased beyond measure  I cannot speak for every Black person, Muslim or Christian, anymore than you can speak for every Caucasian, Wican, Arab or Jew. But I can share with you what is in my heart & mind.  Just as you so sweetly share what is in thine. Together, we always find common ground because our God by any other name is Love. Thus united we are sisters. This type of bonding as opposed to political polarization is what Obama proposes.   Further,  I also know how cynical & jaded we can become as a result of our frustrated efforts to make a significant positive difference. Its an occupational hazard suffered by every activist, educator, parent, clergyman, elected official, etc...The humiliating pain of failure & helplessness is the price we pay for caring, sharing & trying to do the right thing. Hence, we must learn to wisely pick our battles, do our best, standfast in our convictions despite disappointment, have faith & roll with the punches.  As a child, I studied the martial arts.  The first thing I had to learn was how to fall when being thrown to the ground.   It is not going to be easy nor glamorous to cleanup the mire of feces that rule the White House & Halls of Congress & State Capitals of our Nation, State Houses, Palaces & sewers around the globe.  But, we have to take comfort in the fact that we are not alone in our struggles.  Around the world & in every home, human beings are fed up, rising up & ready to die for positive change.  The revolution against elitism & injustice is global.   George Washington did not win the American Revolution by himself.  Abraham Lincoln did not end slavery alone. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did not change Jim Crow by walking the streets in protest by himself. In each case, it took the masses of little people willing to fight & die for our freedoms to affect change for all people. And so it shall again as the screw turns another series of pages in the history of Man.   This is the fundamental truth & vision shared by Presidential Candidate Barack & Michelle Obama. And as a Black social activist I am proud & honored to support & be led into a new era by such an astute/wise Black man of vision & principle. That is my perspective of Barack Obama. That is why this humble Earth Mother is a happy, fat Black Obama Mama. LOL Sorry. I just had to say it. Peace!

February 25, 2008

The Meet the Press Transcript FROM COUNTERPUNCH

Why I'm Running

By RALPH NADER

The following is a transcript of Ralph Nader's appearance on Meet the Press on Feb. 24, 2008.

MR. RUSSERT: Will you run for president as an independent in 2008?

MR. NADER: Let me put it in context, to make it a little more palatable to people who have closed minds. Twenty-four percent of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country, according to Gallup. That's about the lowest ranking ever. Sixty-one percent think both major parties are failing. And, according to Frank Luntz's poll, a Republican, 80 percent would consider voting for a independent this year. Now, you take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut, shut out, marginalized, disrespected and you go from Iraq to Palestine/Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through, and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? And the--all, all the candidates--McCain, Obama and Clinton--are against single payer Health insurance, full Medicare for all. I'm for it, as well as millions of Americans and 59 percent of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April. People don't like Pentagon waste, a bloated military budget, all the reports in the press and in the GAO reports. A wasteful defense is a weak defense. It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That's off the table to Obama and Clinton and McCain.

The issue of labor law reform, repealing the notorious Taft-Hartley Act that keeps workers who are now more defenseless than ever against corporate globalization from organizing to defend their interests. Cracking down on corporate crime. The media--the mainstream media repeatedly indicating how trillions of dollars have been drained and fleeced and looted from millions of workers and investors who don't have many rights these days, and pensioners. You know, when you see the paralysis of the government, when you see Washington, D.C., be corporate-occupied territory, every department agency controlled by overwhelming presence of corporate lobbyists, corporate executives in high government positions, turning the government against its own people, you--one feels an obligation, Tim, to try to open the doorways, to try to get better ballot access, to respect dissent in America in the terms of third parties and, and independent candidates; to recognize historically that great is sues have come in our history against slavery and women rights to vote and worker and farmer progressives, through little parties that never ran--won any national election. Dissent is the mother of ascent. And in that context, I have decided to run for president.

MR. RUSSERT: As you know, Ralph Nader, they'll be Democrats all across the country who are going to find this very disturbing news, and they'll point again to 2000. This was the vote count. Al Gore winning the popular vote, but you've got 2.7 percent, nearly three million votes, in 2000. Then Florida, Florida, Florida. As you remember, George Bush won Florida by 537 votes. You've got 97,488. Democrat after Democrat says to this day, Ralph Nader, if your name had not been on that ballot, Al Gore would've carried Florida. Exit polls show he would've carried Nader voters 2-to-1. Gore would've been president and not George Bush. You, Ralph Nader are responsible for what has happened the last seven years.

MR. NADER: Not, not George Bush? Not the Democrats in Congress? Not the voters who voted for George Bush? But there were Democrats in Florida, 250,000 of them. You know, I wish we'd have Al Gore on this program someday Tim and ask him, "Why did you not become president in 2000?" And I think what he's going to tell you is he thought he did win Florida, but it was taken from him before, during and after the election from Tallahassee. Katherine Bush--you know the secretary of the state ...

MR. RUSSERT: Katherine Harris.

MR. NADER: Harris, rather, and Jeb Bush, all the way to that terribly politicized Supreme Court decision. But the, the political bigotry that's involved here is that we shouldn't enter the electoral arena? We, all of us who, who, who think that the country needs an infusion of freedom, democracy, choice, dissent should just sit on the sidelines and watch the two parties own all the voters and turn the government over to big business? What's really important here is, if you want to look at it analytically, is there--Mr. Gore would, would tell you if he won Tennessee, anything else being equal, he would've been president. It's his home state. If he won Arkansas, everything else being equal, he would've been president. The mayor of Miami sabotaged the Democrats because of a grudge, didn't bring thousands of votes out. Quarter of a million Democrats voted for Bush in Florida. There is all kinds of thievery in Florida.

So why do they blame the Greens? Why do they blame the people all over the country who are trying to have a progressive platform, not just the environment. What was their crime? Why, why, why isn't there tolerance for candidates' rights the way there is a building tolerance over the last 50 years for voter rights? Because without voter rights, candidate rights don't mean much. And without candidate rights--more voices and choices--voter rights don't mean much. I--I'm amazed at the liberal intelligencia here. They are analytic and they deal with all kinds of variables, but when it comes to 2000 election, it's just one variable.

And I might add that Solon Simmons and other scholars--he teaches at George Mason--have shown that by pushing Gore to take more progressive stands, he got more votes than the votes he allegedly--were withdrawn from for the Green party. Twenty-five percent of my vote, according to a Democratic pollster, exit poll, would've gone to Bush. Thirty-nine percent would've gone to Gore and the rest would've stayed home. Every major--every third party in Florida got more votes than the 537 vote gap. So let's get over it and try to have a diverse multiple choice, multiple party democracy the way they have in Western Europe and Canada. This bit of, of spoiler is really very astonishing. These are the two parties who've spoiled our electoral system, money, they can't even count the votes, they steal--the Republicans steal the votes, and the Democrats knock third party candidates off the ballot. That's their specialty these days.

MR. RUSSERT: Barack Obama was asked about your announcement ...

MR. NADER: Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT: ... which you're going to--just made this morning on MEET THE PRESS and yesterday.

MR. NADER: Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT: This is what Obama had to say. Let's watch.

(Videotape)

SEN. OBAMA: He had called me, and I think reached out to my campaign--it--my sense is that Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don't listen and adopt all of his policies, things are not substantive. He seems to have a, a pretty high opinion of, of his, his own work. In many ways, he is a heroic figure, and I don't mean to diminish him. But I do think there's a sense now that, you know, if, if somebody's not hewing to the Ralph Nader agenda, then you, you must be lacking in some way.

(End videotape)

MR. NADER: Well, first of all, compare my Web site, votenader.org, and all the issues that Mr. Obama and Senator Clinton and Mr. McCain are not addressing that are supported by a majority of the American people. A majority of the American people support these issues. They want foreign and military policy not to just be an aggressive military situation.

But Senator Obama is a person of substance. He's also the first liberal evangelist in a long time. He's run a brilliant tactical campaign. But his better instincts and his knowledge have been censored by himself. And I give you the example, the Palestinian-Israeli issue, which is a real off the table issue for the candidates. So don't touch that, even though it's central to our security and to, to the situation in the Middle East. He was pro-Palestinian when he was in Illinois before he ran for the state Senate, during he ran--during the state Senate. Now he's, he's supporting the Israeli destruction of the tiny section called Gaza with a million and a half people. He doesn't have any sympathy for a civilian death ratio of about 300-to-1; 300 Palestinians to one Israeli. He's not taking a leadership position in supporting the Israeli peace movement, which represents former Cabinet ministers, people in the Knesset, former generals, former security officials, in addition to mayors and leading intellectuals. One would think he would at least say, "Let's have a hearing for the Israeli peace movement in the Congress," so we don't just have a monotone support of the Israeli government's attitude toward the Palestinians and their illegal occupation of Palestine.

MR. RUSSERT: But would you prefer, as an American citizen, to have Barack Obama or John McCain as president?

MR. NADER: What I prefer as an American citizen?

MR. RUSSERT: Yes.

MR. NADER: You're asking me? I'm running for president, for heaven's sake.

MR. RUSSERT: But as a citizen.

MR. NADER: I would prefer that the American people organize, that whoever is in president--is president, they give that person backbone.

MR. RUSSERT: How would you feel, however, if Ralph Nader's presence on the ballot tilted Florida or Ohio to John McCain and McCain became president, and Barack Obama, the first African-American who had been nominated by the Democratic Party--this is hypothetical--did not become a president and people turned to you and said, "Nader, you've done it again"?

MR. NADER: Not a chance. If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form. You think the American people are going to vote for a pro-war John McCain who almost gives an indication that he's the candidate of perpetual war, perpetual intervention overseas? You think they're going to vote for a Republican like McCain, who allies himself with the criminal, recidivistic regime of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the most multipliable impeachable presidency in American history? Many leading members of the bar, including the former head of the American Bar Association, Michael Greco, absolutely dismayed over the violations of the Constitution, our federal laws, the criminal, illegal war in Iraq and the occupation? There's no way. That's why we have to take this opportunity to have a much broader debate on the issues that relate to the American people, as, as, as a fellow in Long Island said recently, M . Sloane, he said, "These parties aren't speaking to me. They're not speaking to my problems, to my family's problems."

MR. RUSSERT: But you do see differences between Barack Obama and John McCain on the war, on tax cuts, on the environment, on a lot of issues?

MR. NADER: Yeah. There are differences, obviously. The question is not whether their differences verbally or what they put on their Web site, the question is what is their record? Senator Obama's record has not been a challenging one. He's not been a Senator Wellstone or Senator Abourezk or Senator Metzenbaum by any means. He has leaned, if anything, more toward the pro-corporate side of, of policymaking. The issue is, do they have the moral courage? Do they have the fortitude to stand up against the corporate powers and get things done? Yes, get things done for the American people?

1950, President Truman proposed universal health care. We still don't have it. We have the worst tax system, perverse incentives that rewards the speculators on Wall Street. Why aren't we taxing speculation on Wall Street instead of heavily taxing human labor and sales taxing necessities like food and appliances and furniture and clothing? There's no debate on this. William Hartung, the independent military analyst, wrote an article the other day saying there's no debate on the bloated military budget, on how best to defend this country without breaking the federal budget and putting huge deficits on the backs of our children and their grandchildren. We need to shift the power from the few to the many. And always in American history, every social justice movement was a shift of power from the few to the many. Maybe the slogan should be "Power to the babies."

MR. RUSSERT: On Wednesday it's your birthday. Happy birthday.

MR. NADER: Thank you.

MR. RUSSERT: You'll be 74 years old. You would be the oldest man ever elected president of the United States. You're older than John McCain.

MR. NADER: Thank you very much, Tim. I really like that.

MR. RUSSERT: It's an issue that has been discussed about John McCain, and I'm presenting it to you.

MR. NADER: First of all, I thought David Letterman was very unfair in the way he made fun of John McCain's age. Very, very--I mean, really overboard. I mean, humor has no limits, obviously. But second, someone once said the only true aging is the erosion of one's ideals, and I want the people out there just to look at our Web site and see how exciting it's going to be. I've been assured by my computer/Internet literate associates--I grew up in the Underwood typewriter age, you know--that this is going to be the most exciting, informative, participatory Web site of any presidential campaign, votenader.org. And on that Web site now, Tim, is a declaration that we will receive no money from commercial interests, no money from political action committees, only from individuals. And I'll take it from any individuals--Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, independent, Green party. And, and we are very frugal. They've labeled me Mr. Frugal, my, my associates. We know how to use it. None of this huge waste on political consultants who have really messed up Hillary Clinton's campaign.

MR. RUSSERT: You heard Barack Obama say that in many ways, you're a heroic figure. You were first on MEET THE PRESS in 1966, you said that you would never run for elective office back then. This is your third run for the presidency. Are you concerned now, when people look back at Ralph Nader, they'll consider him the Wendell Willkie of his generation, someone who kept running and running for president with no chance of winning, which will diminish the legacy that you tried to carve out as a consumer advocate.

MR. NADER: No, Tim. My concern doesn't proceed from that. I came to Washington over 40 years ago to help improve my country and, and started a lot of citizen groups who did that. That was a time you had a hearing in Congress, regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration would be more responsive--Auto Safety Agency, EPA. That's a time Nixon, because he heard the rumble of the people, and he was the last president to really fear liberals enough to change his position, signed OSHA, signed EPA, had a health plan that he didn't really believe in, had a minimum income plan to abolish poverty, and then it started. Around 1979, the doors started closing on the citizen groups. So my concern, Tim, comes from, to give you statistics quickly, 58,000 workers who die every year from work-related diseases and trauma on the job; 65,000 people according to EPA who die from air pollution; over 100,000 people who die from adverse effects of medicines; 250 people a day who die from hospital-induced infections; and all the fraud, waste and abuse that's eating at the heart of the family budget, aggravating them. They can't get answers to their questions. They're thrown into huge debt. Now they're losing their houses while White House--while Wall Street speculators laugh all the way to the bank. That's where my concern comes from. And I hope it's shared by a lot of people around the country. I hope a lot of people will be gathered around the country to establish Congress watchdogs in every district, a thousand people--we want to hear from very congressional district--to show the American people how easy it is to turn the Congress around if people are organized. Fifteen hundred corporations get their way by--from a majority of 535 members of Congress. We're millions of people out there, and we simply have to, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and the state of our nation in the world, we have to mobilize in that manner, and that's what that, that Web site is all about. It's not just a Web site. It's a gathering center, votenader.org.

MR. RUSSERT: Ralph Nader, we thank you very much for joining us, making your announcement and sharing your views.

MR. NADER: Thank you very much, Tim. Thank you.
from COUNTERPUNCH FEB 25TH.2008

hope in the air as young people vote

http://zinjabeelah.blogspot.com

On my way home last night, I heard a ruckus from a block away of the corner of Wisconsin and M streets in Georgetown. There were so many horns honking, and the traffic gridlock was worse than usual. It was hard to squeeze through a milling crowd as I struggled toward the intersection. I figured there had been yet another fender-bender there. Two nights ago, I watched as a young blonde guy pulled away from his parking spot in an angry rush, and ran his little black BMW
sports car right into the side of a passing truck. That backed up traffic for a while, as exasperated drivers, each alone in his or her little closed capsule of steel and glass, bristled with anger and
impatience while trying to get past one another and on their way.

But once I got to the corner, I saw that the cause of this cacophony and crush of people was the presence, on all four corners of the intersection, of a group of about 40 young people holding up signs, some homemade, encouraging DC-area voters to select Barak Obama when they go to the polls in the "Chesapeake" primary next week.

They looked so happy and enlivened, even more so because nearly every car that passed honked energetically. People of all ages and colors were slowing down to roll down their windows and give the "thumbs-up" sign. I felt a rush of excitement and joy, and realized that nothing on the American political landscape had sparked these emotions in me in many years.

Earlier in the day, I'd gone out to the back patio at my office to take a phone call. As I was listening to a doctor's assistant trying to find a time for my regular yearly check-up, I noted with delight that crocuses and daffodils were pushing up through the embankment above the patio, and that small, delicate, violet blossoms were peeking out from a vine snaking through the barren bushes. Was it spring already? Have we turned the corner to spring and escaped another wearying winter?

Two weeks ago, photographs of tens of thousands of Palestinians breaking through walls and cutting through fences to express their will to live and breathe like normal people had given me the first sense of hope and optimism about my area of professional concern and engagement. For the last eight years, the political landscape at home, and in the Middle East, my second home, has been so gloomy that at times I felt I was ready to throw in the towel on any sort of political engagement. Why post essays, op eds, haikus, and satire pieces to The Electronic Intifada alternative news site, which I co-founded with friends with great excitement and hope for political transformations seven years ago this month? Why write letters to the editor about the precipitous slide into fascism in the US? No one seemed to care, or worse: people had given up on caring and hoping out of a profound sense of powerlessness and exhaustion.

I've often felt, these last two years, like a visitor from another planet. Returning to the US after six years living abroad in Canada and Spain was like being slapped across the face with a stinking,
slimy dead fish. We are living through the very worst period in US history. We have lived under the most venal, arrogant, and ignorant presidency in America's history. The Constitution is being shredded,
the Democratic majority in Congress is useless, an absurd and horrifying war is eating our young people and billions of dollars a week, yet turn on TV news and you get breathless updates on Britney Spears' psychiatric condition.

Maybe next week the snow and ice will kill those tender green shoots behind my office. But I cling to the hope that we have turned a corner into a political spring and the resurgence of small, but bright, blossoms of hope and creativity on our dark global horizon. It's comforting to hear sounds of honking horns that signify not the breaking of glass, but the breaking of silence and apathy at the
intersection of hope and despair, change and resignation.
From Laurie

A Message From The American Corporate Plutocracy ?

By Paul  Street
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2008-02/04street.cfm
February 04, 2008

I could swear this happened last night (I am writing on the morning of Thursday, January 31st), but it may be my addled, anxious, and overworked mind playing tricks on me. 

I was watching "American Idol" and trying to balance my checkbook.

I was thinking I should try out for "Idol." I was also thinking about the gap between my income and my irreducible life expenditures. 

A commercial for a drug that promised to make me happy and relaxed flashed across the television. I reached for the clicker to hit "mute." 

But before I could turn off the sound, the ad was interrupted by the image of a sixty-something businessmen sitting behind a giant desk in a plush corporate office. 

A message ran across the bottom of the screen. It said: "A Message from the American Corporate Plutocracy."

The businessman was wearing a pinstripe suit. Behind him hung pictures of J.P. Morgan, Ronald Reagan, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton.

He looked very serious. He read the following speech:

"American subjects, we are interrupting this important pharmaceutical advertisement to tell you of the special satisfaction we feel at learning that John Edwards has dropped out of the Democratic presidential campaign."

"Edwards was on the cover of Newsweek a little more than a month ago. He was charismatic, handsome, and very effective on the campaign trail and in debates. He had star quality and many millions of dollars."

"In the last big match-up survey taken before the Iowa Caucus, he polled as the most electable candidate in the presidential race. He was the only Democratic contender who defeated all of the likely Republican presidential candidates - even John McCain, who defeated Hillary Clinton and tied Barack Obama." 

"Democratic Party primaries have been held in just four small states and he's already done."

"We are very pleased to hear of his early surrender, in which we played our usual quiet but powerful role. It is we who made sure that Edwards' more explicitly corporate and centrist opponents could outspend him by a wide margin." 

"It is we who pushed him to the margins of the all-powerful media system we own and manage in your interest - and ours."

"We've already voted John Edwards off the presidential version of 'American Idol'" - so you don't have to. 

"We've winnowed the presidential field to four (4) officially elect-able and corporate-friendly candidates and the election is more than ten months away!"

"It's all about he hidden primary of the rich and powerful operating behind the scenes, in the hidden corridors of power under the benevolent reign of Empire and Inequality, Inc. We are the Simon Cowells of American presidential politics. We love it and you should too."

"We do it for you, to save you the effort and heartbreak of 'democracy,' for which you lack the time, skill, energy, and resources." 

"Take note, would-be critics of our caring rule! The spectrum of permissible debate grows narrower with each quadrennial election extravaganza we stage."

"Do not misunderstand us, American subjects.  John Edwards was no radical threat to the corporate system we have crafted in response to our need for spectacular wealth and your inability to construct a better social order. Edwards said repeatedly that be believed in what he called 'a market economy' - what we and you should understand as a heavily state-managed system of private profit and class rule."

"He followed our counsel when he wrapped his call for universal health insurance in a plan that continued - beneath all his anti-corporate bluster - to protect the very insurance and pharmaceutical companies that have done so much to create your health care crisis."

"He made it clear again and again that he supported the broader global framework of the splendid imperial order and the related military-industrial complex we have built for the good of the world - and our own profit".

"He agreed to never to mention the overseas victims of our clumsy oaf George W. Bush's foreign policies, including the 1 million Iraqis killed by 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' - an action that continues to generate considerable profits for us." 

"He remains ridiculously wealthy (like us) and never really challenged the core inequalities inherent in the workings of the 'market economy.' "

"He stood to the right of those malevolent radical mischief-makers Ralph Nader and - to mention another presidential candidate we recently liquidated - Dennis Kucinich."

"But that's all part of what makes Edwards' early defeat all the more delightful and rewarding for us. The magnificent march of our munificent reign has progressed so far that even John Edwards is defined as too radical to make a serious run at the White House."

"He may not have fundamentally questioned the corporate-imperial system that all of us enjoy, but he did develop some very nasty habits that displeased us. He spoke insistently about and against endemic U.S. poverty and related it to oppressive economic inequality and the supposedly 'exorbitant' wealth of the 'privileged few.' He won Nader's approval by speaking against our 'plutocratic' control of government and politics as if that rule isn't a good and necessary thing!"

"He insisted on praising the labor movement, which he repeatedly referred to as 'the single greatest anti-poverty program in American history.'"

"He also connected his obnoxious and inherently dysfunctional and dangerous 'populist' appeal to very specific and detailed policy issues and agendas."

"American subjects, we are certain you found this foolish issues and policy obsession as irritating as we did! As we hope you appreciate, we kindly cater to your limited capacities and sensibilities by framing elections around trivial and childish matters of candidate image, identity, and personality."

"We don't want you to tax your limited and overwrought minds with difficult matters of policy and governance. We want to help you vote for the right kind of politicians you find most likeable, pleasant and fun - kind of like the 'American Idol' show to which you shall momentarily be returned."  

"As part of this mission, we employ an army of marketers, researchers, data-miners, publicists, and image consultants to help you understand which one of the presidential 'Idols' makes you feel best about yourselves and your glorious, business-run Nation State."

"We, the surviving four 'Idols' - Mitt, John (McCain that is), Hillary, and Barack - and the people around them (most of which we provide) will handle all the issues and the policies. We and they will give you all the 'hope' and 'change' and 'unity' you need." 

"Get ready for a long and tedious exercise in delusion and identity politics that may well guarantee the White House to our favorite party - the arch-plutocratic, messianic-militarist GOP."

"We do it all for you, America. We are here to take and keep the last risks out of your 'democracy.' The nation is in good hands."

"Thank you for your attention.  We return you now to your previously scheduled anti-depressant commercial and to the rest of the countless advertisements and programs on this and any of the other 154 stations we have generously created for your endless diversion, brainwashing, marketing, and indoctrination."

"Yours in Eternal Thought Control,"

"The American Corporate Plutocracy"

 

Paul Street (paulstreet99@yahoo.com) is a writer and activist in Iowa City, IA.  His latest book is Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).  His latest print magazine article is "Largely About Oil: Reflections on Empire, Petroleum, Democracy Failure, and the Occupation of Iraq," Z Magazine (January 2008), read at http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/16105