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Departments Election Issues The State of Obama's 2008 Promises Obama's commitment to de-escalation in Iraq was questionable, and his commitment to complete withdrawal nonexistent. He supported the idea of launching attacks on Pakistan and Syria. He said he wanted more troops in Afghanistan and wanted them there for a long, long time. Three times in three debates McCain proposed cutting military spending and Obama avoided the topic. Obama proposed significantly enlarging the largest military the world had ever seen. Obama refused to forswear the use of aggressive war or even first-strike nuclear attacks. He claimed that Bush and Cheney had not committed any crimes that he was aware of. Yet, Obama gave speech after speech promising that ending the war in Iraq would be his first act in office: "I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." What candidate Obama explained in corporate media interviews was a little different. He said repeatedly that he would begin a withdrawal his first month in office, pull out one to two brigades per month and be done in 16 months. That did not happen. On Afghanistan, Obama's withdrawal promises have been made and broken during his presidency. Plenty of pre-election promises have been discarded as well. Candidate Obama swore he would not rewrite laws with signing statements. He promised huge advances in transparency and openness. He promised support for whistleblowers. He would fix NAFTA, not duplicate it in more countries. The Bush tax cuts would end. A President Obama would not launch a war without Congress. Obama Version .08 was a horrible, horrible candidate, and yet he made dozens of promises that have been tossed aside, making him now even worse -- unless one chooses to accept as credible the same promises again. None of this is to suggest that the Republicans can't nominate someone even worse than the actual Obama. Of course they can and will. The point is to recognize that focusing activist energy on elections should not come at the expense of the real work of building a movement to change this country. Making the rational lesser-evil choice every four years and failing to focus on real work for nonviolent radical change consistently presents us four years later with two choices who are both worse than last time. And those choices are, each time, candidates for a more powerful, more tyrannical office. Obama has not just failed to "close Guantanamo," whether one means by that the symbolism of moving one of our smaller lawless prisons to Illinois or actually ending the practice of imprisoning people without trail worldwide. Obama has formalized, codified, and normalized, the presidential power to imprison, rendition, torture, murder, bomb, and invade at will. Obama Version .12 will compete with the "racist candidate" for those powers. I put "racist" in quotes, not because the Republicans aren't racists (although even Romney's racism could be phony), but because were it not for racism our nation would not be doing the things it is currently doing to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, etc., etc. Obama is about to promise us more government activism. I can think of several countries that could do with a bit less of his style of government activism. And one of them is ours. Campaign promises don't touch every detail, but when Obama's Department of Agriculture recently approved Monsanto GE corn with Agent-Orange herbicide after receiving 45,000 negative comments and 23 positive, was that the change you could believe it? Obama is working night and day to protect mega-banks from responsibility for mortgage fraud. He will speak in his State of the Union about equality before the law. Obamapologists will tell you about good intentions and Republican resistance in Congress, and yet Obama came in with a large Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, and a Democratic leadership in the Senate willing to circumvent the filibuster-everything-60-vote-requirement when and only when it chose to, and chose to do what Obama instructed. Obama met in secret with the health insurance big whigs and insisted that the healthcare bill not include even a token pretense of a movement away from their control. Now who's getting "taken to the bank"? By September 2009 it was clear enough, even pre-Peace Prize, where President Obama was heading. I then wrote an article called "Bush's Third Term." It still accurately describes the state of the promise of Obama and of Obama's forgotten promises. David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online activist organization http://rootsaction.org |
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Recent Election Issues Articles Story notes For television producer Shonda Rhimes Timeline 2004 – One more look at the Ohio election Dysfunction at Maricopa County Elections department disenfranchises tens of thousands SWING STATE: How the Fix was Nixed in Ohio Romney may have lost, but the voting system is still broken OPINION: Your vote got counted. Here's why Matrix of Deceit: Forcing Pre-election and Exit polls to Match Fraudulent Vote Counts Bifani rap on the state of the elections in the USA An America Yet To Be Born Voter Supression In Center City Allentown PA An Election Protection Agenda for 2016 Vote totals for Obama and Romney inexplicably decreasing in three Ohio counties Opening of polls in Franklin County on Election Day Fitrakis returns from federal court hearing on Ohio voting machine software patch Good news for OSU students trying to vote Video of vote flipping in Pennsylvania Bob Fitrakis from the hearing today Reports from election observers and voters: Broken scanners and too many provisionals Nearly 1000 voters forced to vote provisional in a single Franklin county precinct Breaking News: Judge denies request to stop illegal software patches Election watch report from Columbus Ohio Action at the Driving Park polling site The Battleground States: True Vote Sensitivity Analysis Woman not allowed to vote Breaking News: Results of today’s hearing in state court on the uncertified and untested software Election Protection News Conference - Pt. 1 Election Protection News Conference - Pt. 2 Another Husted dirty trick in Ohio: Secretary of State's Office admits direct reporting function of untested election software OHIO – VOTE HEIST 2012? Invoices prove Romney-related voting company Hart InterCivic does maintenance on Cincinnati voting machines Columbus Free Press Editor and Publisher files suit in federal court to stop suspicious software November 5 Press Conference: FEDERAL E-VOTING LAWSUIT FILED VS. OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN HUSTED GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL AND CONGRESSIONAL NOMINEES REVEAL DETAILS The electronic architecture of voter suppression As Ohio Faces vote-rigging lawsuit, are dems, liberals, election officials ready to safeguard votes? Busting election theft attempts Will Your Vote Even Get Counted? The Free Press confirms installation, secret justification of uncertified last minute election tabulation reporting software in Ohio Will "experimental" software patches affect the Ohio vote? Why we fight to prevent stolen elections in 2012 and beyond Mike Connell: Man in the Middle Gripping documentary exposes voter suppression and election rigging in the 2004 presidential election Thom Pintello: I Just Want My Vote to Count" Why Romney has already won this electronic election, unless… Partisan lies about the security of Hart e-voting machines continue to flow from Hamilton County Romney family and friends will help tabulate the vote count in Cincinnati: Hart Intercivic holds maintenance contracts on their own machines Election software company Scytl on the run from the Free Press, from one fake address to the next The case for irrational voting Why are legal scholars dismissing election fraud?: Manufactured skepticism and exit polls Jamia Shepard: Advocate for Voter Rights Does the Romney family now own your e-vote? Secretary of State’s directive allowing early voting during three days before Election Day long overdue: Lawsuits and voter confusion could have been avoided “It’s Ok to leave your abuser,” says Green Party VP candidate Will H.I.G.-owned e-voting machines give Romney the White House? Ignore debate zingers, focus on issues Bob Fitrakis speaks at Neighborhood House candidate forum Last three days before election early voting reinstated in Ohio...sort of Book Review: A Must Read for All U.S. Citizens Vote counting company tied to Romney Will 9 GOP governors electronically flip Romney into the White House? Ohio Elections Commission finds probable cause that anti-Issue 2 ad is misleading Who owns Scytl? George Soros isn’t in the voting machines, but the intelligence community is Will the GOP steal America's 2012 election? Pragmatic Racism Four ways the Ohio GOP is already stealing the 2012 election Gubernatorial Recall Ballots Saved from Destruction in Waukesha County, WI - For Now... What Paul Ryan has and Obama wants Playing field is tilted against voters Colonels in mirrored sunglasses The new Jim Crow: Massive disenfranchisement returns Mishandled Redistricting disenfranchises 3,000 voters Corporate vote theft and the future of American democracy PART ONE New certifications, planned expansion Progressive morality Was the election stolen in Wisconsin - what are the odds? Columbus Free Press in the news: A million voters purged Wisconsin: New year, same stench Republican retreat - Ohio House Republicans defeat their own voter suppression bill Elections: What are they good for? The peace movement needs Kucinich, with or without Congress Ron Paul, "Progressive" for who? Do We Approve of Murder Based on Political Party? Pollsters Don't Want You to Know The State of Obama's 2008 Promises The election we should be following Booing the Golden Rule Six Problems with New Hampshire Elections The hollow democracy Read Election Issues Articles by Year: |
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