Change Spreads in the African and Arab World, While America Continues On With Out It.

As I write this, disenfranchised youth are protesting and spreading a Democratic Revolution thought out the African and Arab world.

The beginning of these movements lie in the democratic life and death struggles in places like Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast, and with the death of Mohamed Bouaziz in Tunisia, an impoverished street vendor who was beaten by police after they stole his wares, and beaten again after he bravely went to the police station to demand his property. He then went to the Governor's Office to complain and was rudely turned away. Mohamed Bouaziz's last act was to set himself afire in the government square of the town Sidi Bousiz where he struggled to support his family in dignity.

Mohamed Bouaziz's self sacrifice was not in vain. Increasingly violent and relentless
protests forced the autocratic and corrupt President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country. When Ben Ali's cabinet members assumed other positions of power in the government, they too were driven from office as well. Now protests have spread to Egypt where the dictator Hosni Mubarak has ruled since 1981 using his warm relationship with America and the weak threat of the Muslim Brother Hood to propel his autocratic and corrupt regime. But the Muslim Brotherhood ( who have now joined behind the youth movement ) admitted that their efforts over the years to bring down Mubarak have been futile compared to those who have now taken to the streets. Egyptian Lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed El Baradei who attempted change, from within the system to oppose Mubarak, has also jumped onto the growing bad wagon.

Mubarak continues to use his brutal security apparatus to crush the demonstrations, but the protests have only intensified. Yesterday Mubarak closed down the Internet in an attempt to cut communication between the protesters. Seeing his control sleeping away, Mubarak then ordered all his ministers to resign, but is still fighting to keep his position in power.
Now Al Jazeera radio and TV with their constant and aggressive coverage, are adding fuel to the fire.
Protests have now been sparked in Yemen and Jordan.

But in America nothing has changed. And the tragedy is that
President Obama had it easier than those students dying to reform the countries above. President Obama had the mandate to step into the smoldering wreck of the American economy, (and before all of America and especially those who voted for change), grab up by the scruff of it's neck for all to see, the near dead body politic of the parasitic corporate greed and self aggrandizement that destroyed our economy. Then President Obama could have charted and forged a new America. I don't think it was a question of President Obama not being brave enough. I simply think real change wasn't what motivated him . I think he knew that it motivated us to vote for him so he assumed that identity, to get elected. But once elected Obama stepped over the prone bodies of suffering Americans and pumped trillions of dollars to resurrect the old order of greed and corruption. And Americans by and large are silent, except for the Tea Party Movement of course.

President Obama sends yet another Bold Pro Oligarchy Message/ Frankenstein's Bank.

I fought hard to hold my tongue about President Obama appointing William Daley as his chief of staff.  Daley (the former Commerce Secretary under Bill Clinton) who the New York Times labeled a "Washington outsider", merges the art of Tammy Hall big city corruption and the  voracious greed of American multi national banking conglomerates, into a human.


William Daley not just headed JP Morgan, but also directed it's "office of corporate responsibility", a term of Orwellian duality suggesting charity but in reality is charged to use  any means necessary to safeguard and increase the profits for JP Morgan's shareholders.  His appointment was less a signal but more of a strategic acquisition along side with  Timothy Geithner ( Goldman Sachs) to insure the complete rise of  the U.S. Multi National Banking Oligarchical Hegemony out of the ashes and dust of the ruined American economy.  This new era is now being being solidified by the Obama Administration.

Now, President Obama after bailing out General Electric ( G.E) to the tune of  16 billion dollars has appointed it's CEO Jeffrey R Immelt to head President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

Jeffrey Immelt represents the way  American corporations will operate under the arm of hegemony of The United State's Multi National American Banking Oligarchy. As G.E. CEO,  Immelt shut down 15 factories in Ohio  and sent the jobs to China. While President Obama preaches more decent wage green job growth for Americans, All of G.E's energy efficient light bulbs are now made in China. Not only does the low wages paid to Chinese workers by G.E. increase shareholder profits, but China's lax environmental laws are an added boom for G.E. shareholders.
GE also accepted a late under bid to produce wind turbines by a Chinese company. Then G.E. canceled an agreed upon order for wind turbines to be produced by an American company, ATI Casting Service, of LaPort Indiana, after ATI spent 30 million dollars to renovate a factory in Michigan( that has the highest unemployment rate in American) to produce the turbines.

Seems like the only thing being built in America these day is Frankenstein's Bank, a Multi National American Oligarchy Bank that is not about rebuilding main street, but exploiting day to day fluctuations in the global market, to  make a select few billionaires even richer, but as we have seen is ruinous to the majority of America

Opiate for Liberals-Obama's Speech on Civility\ Martin Luther King-Where Do We Go From Here

Cornel West frequently points out the inherent pitfalls of American Optimism because it's rooted in exceptionalism, which  makes us overly susceptible to shallow "good news" fluff instead of honestly dealing with the harsh realities that plague America and it's people.


A tragi-comic example of this is the wave after wave of baseless, mind- numbing euphoria that has overtaken liberals after Obama's speech calling for a "New Era of Civility in U.S. Politics.  
New York Times columnist, Gail Collins actually gushed in her Op Ed entitled "Obama Brings it Home" Jan 12, 2011 ,  "President Obama was saving the magic for a time when we really needed it." 


It's  clear that Ms. Collins has vastly different needs than most of America. And the only thing Obama brought home was hopeful but utterly impossible obfuscation, in short, opiate for liberals.

Meanwhile, the Tea Party/right wing( funded by an ever- emboldend,  ever- richer Corporate Empire)  after taking over The United State's House of Representatives has no intention of playing along.  And of course,  this Corporate Empire grows even richer and powerful under the Obama Administration.

Two weeks after Obama's speech, liberals are still singing Kum Bah Ya. But The Republican leadership ( and their troops) march on.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell via a spokesperson, called President Obama a hypocrite. One of the Tea Party's founders, Judson Phillip laid all the blame on Obama's followers. And Sarah Palin evoked the term "blood libel" to describe herself ( and other conservatives) as  victims of liberal persecution. The term "blood libel"  itself has historic roots as an accusation against Jews accused of murdering Christian children to use their blood in baking Passover Matzo.

The shooting in Arizona could have been a wake up call for liberals (to turn progressive) and finally say to President Obama that we've had it with his melodious words. And demand that he use his bully pulpit to make a critical speech about the real poisonous political climate, where six percent of the population controls 80 percent of the wealth and what this means to American. What we need is for Obama to make a speech about the fact that the banks who continue to make more profit than ever before are still refusing to bail out America.  Telling the truth about America would have been a far more fitting and lasting tribute to nine year old  Christina Taylor Green who's remarkable intellectual curiosity about how our Government actually works, lead her to that fateful journey to visit with Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords, where she was shot and killed.


The fact is that the Tea Party Movement are the storm troopers for the most dangerous movement since the South took back the country after American Reconstruction needs to be the topic of conversation, not  an impossible call for civility at a time when we need to be sounding the alarm. Today, as some of us  celebrate  Martin Luther King's birthday, I am reminded of how Dr.King not only gave us  melodious words but used them to capture what was real  going on in America. I am reminded of the truth telling of Dr. King's speech "Where Do We Go From Here" where  Dr. King talks about honestly addressing our short comings: 

Now, in order to answer the question, "Where do we go from here?" which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was 60 percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is 50 percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population. 

In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. One twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, 75 percent hold menial jobs. 

Obama on the other hand gives nothing but platitudes. Until we demand that Obama start telling the real truth about America our country will continue to take on water in these ever increasing seas. And judging from our expectation of him, this will not be likely.