OIL FLOW STOPS FOR NOW - WORKERS IN GULF STILL SCREWED
Angry woman in Louisiana appeals to Obama to defend working people in the Gulf of Mexico region who are getting slammed.
Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....
The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. @BruceKGagnon
Angry woman in Louisiana appeals to Obama to defend working people in the Gulf of Mexico region who are getting slammed.
It would be nice though if Kerry would lead the fight to stop funding the war in Afghanistan. So far he has proven to be quite weak when it comes to really ending the mess.
Support for the Afghanistan war is declining even faster in key NATO countries which will mean only more trouble for Obama. In Canada 59% of voters disagree with their current participation in the war. In Britain 55% oppose their participation. About 300 British soldiers have died so far in Afghanistan.
61 per cent of respondents think Australia should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, up 11 points since March 2009.
With support for Obama's "good war" fast declining in the U.S. and around the world, and the global economy worsening, the Democrats are going to have to begin to take on their president if they wish to win back voter support.
We all know there will be no economic recovery as long as we are pissing away nearly $12 billion a month in Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan on wars that are unwinnable. The voters obviously are increasingly making the connections between economic collapse here at home and our wasteful and immoral wars.
Just as Lyndon Johnson was driven from the White House in the 1968 election over the Vietnam War, Obama could face a similar fate before the 2012 national election unless he turns this sinking ship around quickly. I frankly don't see him having the guts to do it.
Just yesterday Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) was quoted by Raw Story saying, “I think that this war, if it goes on and if it escalates, has the potential to destroy this presidency and to destroy the Democratic majorities in Congress."
It is obvious that the Obama magic is wearing thin. I spoke with well-known peace activist Kathy Kelly on the phone yesterday and asked her if she was hearing people defend the president anymore at her speaking engagements. She replied that virtually no one is doing that anymore.
If the Democrats are smart they will jettison their Republican-lite president and his corporate war policies. If they hang onto his sinking ship they very likely will be going down with him as he falls to the bottom of the oily sea.
Speaking of Polls: The latest from Time Magazine
Social Security - 86% opposed to cuts
Medicare - 82% opposed to cuts
Wars - 41% opposed to cuts, 55% approve of cuts
Education - 63% opposed to cuts
Health care - 68% opposed to cuts
Medicaid - 77% opposed to cuts
Non-war Defense - 50% opposed to cuts, 46% approve of cuts
Put that in your pipe and smoke it awhile........who says the American people are conservatives?
We went to Waterville, Maine yesterday to the opening of an art show at Colby College that is called Lunchtime by Sharon Lockhart. It features workers at Bath Iron Works and their lunch pails. Our friend Mark Roman, a wood worker from Solon, was hired by the Colby art museum to build the platforms that much of the art work was displayed on. The artist also had a wonderful half-hour film about workers in Maine featuring many different work venues across the state.
In the evening we went to the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville and saw two films. The first was a 1930's film called The Silent Enemy about an Ojibwas tribe from upper Ontario...this silent film gave a remarkable view of their struggle to survive in a winter of famine.
The second film was called Do It Again about a Boston Globe writer (Geoff Edgers) who goes on a crusade to bring my favorite band, The Kinks, back together. The song above from their last album called Phobia (1993) was in a way prophetic as the two brothers (Ray and Dave Davies) finally broke the band up after years of celebrated conflict over control of the group and the music. It's really a wonderful film as Edgers travels far and wide attempting to interview other rock stars about their love for The Kinks and each time he seeks to have them sing a Kinks song with him. One great scene was when Sting humbly shares his admiration for the Davies brothers and plays You Really Got Me with Edgers.
A really touching moment in the film comes at the end when Edgars finally gets an interview with one of the brothers. He meets with Dave, who was recovering from a stroke, and in that exchange they sing one of Dave's songs called Strangers - one of the few that Ray allowed him to put on one of their records. Ray never agreed to be interviewed for the film - always an enigma.