Friday, June 8, 2012
Facing Facts in Wisconsin » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
Facing Facts in Wisconsin » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"Obama not only didn’t put in a single visit to Wisconsin during this long recall campaign; he went out of his way to steer well clear of the state, not even dropping in during a visit to Minneapolis a week before the vote, when he was 15 miles from Wisconsin, less than 100 miles from Eau Claire, and less than 300 miles from the capital of Madison, the epicenter of the recall battle.
When asked at a press conference why the president had not weighed in on this epic battle for one of his key constituencies — the labor movement, and in particular the public employee unions — his press secretary lamely said that the president “hoped” that Walker’s Democratic opponent for governor, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, would “prevail.” The president’s other only effort (if it can even be called that) on behalf of the recall campaign was a limp Tweet that didn’t even mention the recall itself or the threat Walker posed to workers. In full, it said, “”It’s Election Day in Wisconsin tomorrow, and I’m standing by Tom Barrett. He’d make an outstanding governor. -bo”
Twitter may have helped to ignite the Arab Spring revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere, but if those Arab Spring Tweets had read like that one, I’m sure Mubarak would still be pulling the fingernails off of and killing dissidents, instead of sitting in a prison hospital cell himself.
"As for the Democratic Party, it did exactly nothing to help progressives and labor unions in Wisconsin in this fight. Sure, the Democratic National Committee will claim that it send money to Wisconsin, but that was money that was equally budgeted to every state for the national election season, not extra money designated to fight the recall battle.
The Obama campaign and the DNC decided long ago that they did not want to get involved in the Walker recall. Partly, they didn’t want to risk being in support of a losing effort. More importantly, they did not want to be identified with union activists. The truth is that the big money supporting both the DNC and the president’s campaign is corporate money, and those people simply don’t like unions. Also, the Obama “brain trust,” if you can really call these people smart after three and a half years of disastrous White House policies favoring the rich and the powerful, has decided that the way to a second term is by ignoring the poor, ignoring minorities, ignoring labor unions, ignoring working people, and instead focusing on “independent” and “undecided” voters." see link above for full article
"Obama not only didn’t put in a single visit to Wisconsin during this long recall campaign; he went out of his way to steer well clear of the state, not even dropping in during a visit to Minneapolis a week before the vote, when he was 15 miles from Wisconsin, less than 100 miles from Eau Claire, and less than 300 miles from the capital of Madison, the epicenter of the recall battle.
When asked at a press conference why the president had not weighed in on this epic battle for one of his key constituencies — the labor movement, and in particular the public employee unions — his press secretary lamely said that the president “hoped” that Walker’s Democratic opponent for governor, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, would “prevail.” The president’s other only effort (if it can even be called that) on behalf of the recall campaign was a limp Tweet that didn’t even mention the recall itself or the threat Walker posed to workers. In full, it said, “”It’s Election Day in Wisconsin tomorrow, and I’m standing by Tom Barrett. He’d make an outstanding governor. -bo”
Twitter may have helped to ignite the Arab Spring revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere, but if those Arab Spring Tweets had read like that one, I’m sure Mubarak would still be pulling the fingernails off of and killing dissidents, instead of sitting in a prison hospital cell himself.
"As for the Democratic Party, it did exactly nothing to help progressives and labor unions in Wisconsin in this fight. Sure, the Democratic National Committee will claim that it send money to Wisconsin, but that was money that was equally budgeted to every state for the national election season, not extra money designated to fight the recall battle.
The Obama campaign and the DNC decided long ago that they did not want to get involved in the Walker recall. Partly, they didn’t want to risk being in support of a losing effort. More importantly, they did not want to be identified with union activists. The truth is that the big money supporting both the DNC and the president’s campaign is corporate money, and those people simply don’t like unions. Also, the Obama “brain trust,” if you can really call these people smart after three and a half years of disastrous White House policies favoring the rich and the powerful, has decided that the way to a second term is by ignoring the poor, ignoring minorities, ignoring labor unions, ignoring working people, and instead focusing on “independent” and “undecided” voters." see link above for full article
Vermont’s Military Mafia » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
Vermont’s Military Mafia » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
by THOMAS H. NAYLOR
Who could have ever imagined that tiny Vermont, the home of “socialist” Bernie Sanders and once considered to be the most left-leaning state in the United States, would now find itself under the political control of five hard-core military superhawks committed to transforming Vermont into the Pentagon’s flagship state for reinvigorating and expanding the military’s presence in the Northeast. But that is exactly what has happened in the Green Mountain State. Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, Congressman Peter Welch, Governor Peter Shumlin, and Adjutant General Michael Dubie have teamed up to form what is effectively a defacto Vermont Military Mafia for promoting increased defense spending in Vermont and the rest of the Northeast.
by THOMAS H. NAYLOR
Who could have ever imagined that tiny Vermont, the home of “socialist” Bernie Sanders and once considered to be the most left-leaning state in the United States, would now find itself under the political control of five hard-core military superhawks committed to transforming Vermont into the Pentagon’s flagship state for reinvigorating and expanding the military’s presence in the Northeast. But that is exactly what has happened in the Green Mountain State. Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, Congressman Peter Welch, Governor Peter Shumlin, and Adjutant General Michael Dubie have teamed up to form what is effectively a defacto Vermont Military Mafia for promoting increased defense spending in Vermont and the rest of the Northeast.
Wisconsin and the Left » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
Wisconsin and the Left » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"Emma Goldman had it right when she stated, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” Labor and the left in Wisconsin committed suicide when it demobilized a legitimate grassroots movement and turned it into an electoral campaign. It has been a long, slow death.
Grassroots activists with righteous indignation gave up their agency to do that which was deemed “acceptable” to the powers that be, namely the “Union Bosses” and the Democratic Party apparatchiks. Why was a general strike never considered? Why not creative tactics to “kill the bill,” Act 10, the reason for the “Uprising” and recall to begin with? How’d this all morph into what it’s morphed into?
In the main, the left has failed to understand that what populist right-wing activists hate more than anything else is the Democratic Party and unions, two pillars of what Hedges defines as the “Liberal Class.” Their hatred is justified, given that, as Hedges points out, these institutions abandoned working class people long ago. Thus, the left confused real grassroots power with the Liberal Class and are now paying the consequences." Steven Horn
"Emma Goldman had it right when she stated, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” Labor and the left in Wisconsin committed suicide when it demobilized a legitimate grassroots movement and turned it into an electoral campaign. It has been a long, slow death.
Grassroots activists with righteous indignation gave up their agency to do that which was deemed “acceptable” to the powers that be, namely the “Union Bosses” and the Democratic Party apparatchiks. Why was a general strike never considered? Why not creative tactics to “kill the bill,” Act 10, the reason for the “Uprising” and recall to begin with? How’d this all morph into what it’s morphed into?
In the main, the left has failed to understand that what populist right-wing activists hate more than anything else is the Democratic Party and unions, two pillars of what Hedges defines as the “Liberal Class.” Their hatred is justified, given that, as Hedges points out, these institutions abandoned working class people long ago. Thus, the left confused real grassroots power with the Liberal Class and are now paying the consequences." Steven Horn
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