How many times does Obama have to bend the truth (there was no support for single payer; Lincoln built the transcontinental railroad during the civil war, etc.) before the public decides he isn’t honest?

This unfolding event is disgusting, sickening, revolting, horrifying, you name it.

I would like to see this guy Obama come out and say point blank, he was wrong. Just do it, don’t hide behind someone else. say it now.

just admit it, and scrap offshore drilling. forever.

These people are zombies. These people, never, ever give up. nothing, absolutely nothing matters to them, other than their own wealth.

He’s only listening to his advisors, who explained in no uncertain terms who actually runs this country. It’s not him.

I’m beginning to think of him as the Democrat’s Michael Steele. Just dance around the issues and pacify our corporate masters, why don’tcha?

And Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, who signed off on the Administration’s plans, will now introduce legislation calling for a moratorium.

Yes, smart move, a big oil spill would do much harm to Florida’s Vacation industry.

The earth or somebody really seems to be trying to get our president’s attention. There’s this huge disaster hard on the heels of one policy; the sudden threat of Goldman Sachs vanishing into a sinkhole not long after he graced them and their colleagues with the never-to-be-forgotten sobriquet “savvy businessmen;” I’m sure if I rifle a few files I can come up with one or two more. Since he’s got the helm I sure hope he’s listening.

(Was this what we were supposed to be hoping for?)

oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills

Ah! You don’t understand. Oil rigs don’t cause spills. Damage to or accidents on oil rigs cause spills.

Yeah and how many of you drove to work today? Used an electric light or watched TV last night? Recently ate food driven to your local grocer by a truck and grown by a farmer using a tractor? Drank water pumped into your city by electricity? Give us a viable alternative other than to freeze and starve in the dark, and we’ll probably take it. Until then, we need oil.

I’m so tired of Obama and his b.s. It hurts to get up in the morning and see what betrayal the day will bring.

How much wildlife is going to die? How much ocean life? And BP will get off scott free. The disregard for our environment shown by the O administration is enough to get their stinking assess voted out. They make me retch.

I’m so pissed off that I want to ask him, to his face, do you not have one ounce of self respect?

Yeah because McCain and Plain would have been so much better right?

Oil rigs don’t cause spills.

The petroleum lobby is cribbing from the NRA: rigs don’t cause spills, people cause spills ; )

So that’s why we don’t need background checks or waiting periods on people who drill wells… or something like that ; )

Electoral politics, possibly especially so in the U.S., is a winner-take-all cutthroat competition in shameless self-promotion.

Just what kind of people should we expect to rise through the ranks, and be exalted to high-office, given those realities?

Want to quit being lead around by the nose by unrepentant narcissists? Abolish elected representatives as decision makers. They should be nothing more than functionaries, and the rest of us the “deciders.”

Clearly, you already live in the dark. Don’t let the rest of us disturb your slumber.

Not one commenter has suggested we don’t currently need oil, our objection is the lack of planning for a future built on sustainable energy combined with real anger at a government unwilling to properly regulate (and enforce regulations) on an industry content to lay waste to the planet and all life (including their own workforce) upon it.

Now, I’m a forgiving man. If the President wants to peddle right-wing myths to prop up an untenable decision, he’s perfectly within his rights to do so.

And as long as people keep being “forgiving” and letting him get away with it, he’ll keep doing it.

It’s just like a child/President/Middle Eastern dependency acting out: they’re unconsciously asking for the parent/voters/funding state to set and hold some real boundaries.

Not doing so and simply forgiving and coddling those acting out is a failure on the part of the parent/public/U.S., and guarantees the problem will only get worse.

The issue is not the choice between cancer or polio (thanks Bob D). So O is justified in betraying close to everyone who voted for him (corporations just give money at this point) because Palin/McCain might have been worse?

If that’s the way you justify what he does, well, hell, Lucifer would have been worse also…so f’n what?

Obama had probably best about-face fast on his drilling plans. He’s going to be on the wrong side of the issue very soon if he doesn’t.

Drilling offshore in the US won’t make a significant difference to our dependence on foreign oil. Even T. Boone Pickens understands that.

My comment from the last thread seems reasonable to repeat.

O’s response seems just as emotionally inappropriate to this as W’s was to Katrina, but in a different way. W was supercilious (nothing could be haughtier than a flyover), and O seems emotionally dead.

How disappointing it is when President Obama sells out to the Fossil Fuel Cartel.

But we have to do more. We need to make continued investments in clean coal technologies and advanced biofuels. A few weeks ago, I announced loan guarantees to break ground on America’s first new nuclear facility in three decades, a project that will create thousands of jobs. And in the short term, as we transition to cleaner energy sources, we’ll have to make tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development in ways that protect communities and coastlines.

I will have to fight against the government policies that allow corporate rape of the air, land, and water. Mr. President, during the campaign, why did you not tell us you care nothing for environmental issues.

So today we’re announcing the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration – but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect America’s natural resources. Under the leadership of Secretary Salazar, we’ll employ new technologies that reduce the impact of oil exploration. We’ll protect areas vital to tourism, the environment, and our national security. And we’ll be guided not by political ideology, but by scientific evidence. That’s why my administration will consider potential new areas for development in the mid and south Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, while studying and protecting sensitive areas in the Arctic. That’s why we’ll continue to support development of leased areas off the North Slope of Alaska, while protecting Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

This policy is totally wrong. It totally gives everything to the Fossil Fuel Barons. The President deceived us with respect to polluters and how much they could pollute. They can pollute as much as they want. The tired debate between left and right is over. The left has lost the debate as the business leaders destroy everything they touch. This may be the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina. The President and Congress fiddle as the business leaders make us burn up Saudi Arabian Oil and they pollute the Gulf of Mexico.

Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates between right and left, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place. Because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again.

And to make it clear, he is already unforgivable in my book for ever having embraced offshore drilling in the first place.

Is the country ready to run on alternative fuels? Are any of us ready to run on alternative fuels? The solution to the oil crisis is at least 20 years in the future. Until then any of us that drive cars or utilize heating fuel or use plastics should suck it up and realize that we have no other choice but to find the oil and suck it out of the ground, wherever it may lie. If all goes as planned in the middle east we’ll take over theirs and have a bit of a grace period before we all have a come to jesus moment and suffer shortages and extremely elevated pricing.

Until then, let’s keep our fingers crossed that the greatest scientific minds in this country and others are working to release us from the teat of big oil.

It’s not just Obama to focus on, either. Another figure in need of close scrutiny is Mary Landrieu.

Of course – they’re both DSM-definition sociopaths.

And that’s because they’re a reflection of the American people.

Yeah because McCain and Plain would have been so much better right?

Great bumper sticker for 2012.

Agree with your first sentence.

Strongly disagree with your second. Pols in D.C. today are about as different from the U.S. pop as they have ever been in my 3 score & 5.

And to make it clear, he is already unforgivable in my book for ever having embraced offshore drilling in the first place.

Another cowardly decision that bought him and us absolutely nothing.

Hear, hear! There is no excuse for this.

We have trillions of dollars worth of exposure in toxic “assets” which our government hasn’t seen fit to regulate to this day. We have hundreds of billions of dollars being sunk into endless wars in petroleum-producing countries. I’m sure he believes this is necessary. In fact, dramatically weaning ourselves off of petroleum is what is necessary. Why are we STILL paying lip-service to alternative energy, and betting the nation’s future on oil???

The President needs to reconsider.

Pols in D.C. today are about as different from the U.S. pop as they have ever been in my 3 score & 5.

You can easily double that.

runfastandwintroll

I’m no expert in U.S. history, but I’ll take your word for it.

He tends to hide the moneyed embrace of him by the oil industry behind the cloak of “enhancing national energy security” and “reducing dependency on petro-dictatorships”, and there is some truth to the argument, but you can’t drill your way to freedom.

Far more odious is Mary Landrieu, who attempted to hider her petro-donations and susceptibility to industry lobbying efforts in “environmentalism”. She has personally been part of the charge to ward of Federal safety regulations in offshore drilling. Landrieu’s career in office should assuredly be a victim of this catastrophe.

At least, the American voter…

The endemic problems of race and status have never been addressed in a comprehensive way. When there are tens of millions of voters impressed by the likes of Palin, it becomes painfully evident how many Americans lack even rudimentary reasoning skills when it comes to some issues.

Decades ago it was “My country right or wrong.” Sorry. Being wrong has gone on long enough. It’s time to be RIGHT for a change.

Oil rigs DO cause spills.

Your “argument” as such is silly. Not expanding offshore oil drilling does not equate to “no oil available for energy” nor does ending the expansion of offshore oil drilling threaten to turn off the lights.

Of course – they’re both DSM-definition sociopaths.

And that’s because they’re a reflection of the American people.

Agree with your first sentence.

Strongly disagree with your second.

You keep wanting to do this. I’ll keep trying to help you see it.

What we see in the world is a reflection of us. It doesn’t matter whether that thing we see is a politician, or our government, or our lover, or our boss. It’s just a mirror for us.

If it were happy and easy to accept that whatever it is we don’t like is part of us, well we probably would have seen and accepted it already. That we have such a reaction to it (positive or negative) is exactly why we project it out onto the world. When we project it out there we can see it and have all of our reactions and judgement about it, but we’re safely insulated from the world-shaking truth that what we’re reacting to is just ourselves, like an animal cowering from or snarling at its reflection in the mirror.

The problem with safely living in a world, either personal or global, where it’s always the other person’s fault and never mine is that then I’m simply a helpless victim and the other person has all the power (and this is exactly why in working with “victims” of whatever flavor the real healing happens when they can see how they played some role in creating whatever happened).

“Power” and “responsibility” are synonyms.

As long as the American people – that’s us – act like it (whatever it is, oil spills, killing innocent children with drones, everything) somebody else’s problem, and dissociate from the effect it has on the injured party (and that’s sociopathy), then that’s exactly the kind of government we’ll manifest.

We change things by accepting responsibility for them.

See what we want to change in the world, change it in ourselves.

When there are tens of millions of voters impressed by the likes of Palin Obama, it becomes painfully evident how many Americans lack even rudimentary reasoning skills when it comes to some issues.

ftfy

Another cowardly decision that bought him and us absolutely nothing

I’m willing to bet that it brought him SOMETHING — if only a postponement of “Remember Dallas, 1963?”.

He tends to hide the moneyed embrace of him by the oil industry behind the cloak of “enhancing national energy security” and “reducing dependency on petro-dictatorships”,

Those empty phrases used to fool the public and hide his slavishness to his campaign contributors.

Ironically, I received an email from the Obama administration asking if I’d like to design software, or manage an IT group. For some of the positions, enthusiastic support of the policies of the administration is desired.

They could use my services, and I could use the income. I even donated to the man’s campaign. Yet, I cannot work for them. It’s things like this that upset me enough, I’d be jawing with the staff about it…

This is wrong. So was rejecting HR676 in favor of what became the Health Insurer’s Guaranteed Customer Act.

We’re still in Iraq. We’ve expanded in Afghanistan. We’re using robots to kill people in Pakistan. We’re drilling offshore. We’re handing out billions to scam artists masquerading as bankers.

What’s wrong with this picture?

There is a difference between the corp and the human. D.C. pols reflect the former, not the later.

LOL!

They are both corporate stooges. So is virtually the entire Senate and most of the House. So what else is new?

To effect change, the politicians need their feet kept to the fire. Obama is hardly the exception. In fact, he fits the rule.

She’s a freaking idiot.

Well, if you’d just PAY them better, maybe they’d listen to you, too. For crying out loud… HOW on EARTH can a politician POSSIBLY survive without handouts from the WEALTHIEST CORPORATIONS ON THE PLANET????

Show them the money and they are your bestest friends in the whole wide world!

Otherwise, GET OFF THE DAMN LAWN!!!!

oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills.

And nuclear reactors don’t generally melt down either.
But when they do: Chernobyl.

we need oil for now, but the hot air obama spends defending his indefensible positions could be spent announcing increased fervor and support for renewables. oh, and it might not hurt to have regulations at least as good as other countries who plan for and prepare for the potential for accidents with oil. how much are you going to love louisianna, mississippi, alabama and florida getting trashed with oil slick? i’m supposing some might even find it’s way over to texas and mexico.

Yeah, poor of the world unite (with a small % of the wealth of corps) and outspend the corps to bribe pols. That’ll do it.

The irony of this is where the oil would go from these platforms. If they expect to turn a profit, this oil will be sold internationally. It’s profits for the likes of BP, once quaintly referred to as BRITISH Petroleum.

This isn’t necessary, and hardly sufficient, to keep the lights on. It’s desired for profit by some of the owners of America, and it’s new citizens: MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS.

This just makes me sick.

what are you drinking. you said what i said later at 43, only i liked yours better. drink’s on the house.

he’s like the manchurian candidate.

And in the short term, as we transition to cleaner energy sources, we’ll have to make tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development in ways that protect communities and coastlines….Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates between right and left, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place.

Pompous stupid asshole.

Ah, if only it were that easy then all of the efforts we have made over the years would have had better results. This country is run by narcissistic thieves. Most of the people who live under the rule of these crooks are not crooks themselves.

You think we have more power than we do. That doesn’t make us victims it just means we have to work harder.

On taking immigration reform off the table:

“I don’t want us to do something just for the sake of politics that doesn’t solve the problem.”

Pompous stupid asshole.

Yeah, well, target practice seems a tad barbaric, just yet.

Not so much. I just read Paul Street’s book on O, published before the election. Everything Street identified in that book has come to pass. There was nothing hidden about O, if you paid attention to his record, but he was marketed in a way that allowed voters to write their hopes and dreams on him. And you can hardly fault the voters for falling for it, considering their PTSD from the W admin.

Amen!!!!!

Consider the outrage over what Arizona’s legislature passed, and their governor signed into law. Even the Arizona brand iced tea people are begging for mercy.

Occasionally ACTIVISM WORKS!!!!!!!

Perhaps we can get the President’s attention, now that there is an ecological disaster in the making, thanks to one of those oil rigs that never leak.

Nah, I can entirely fault the voters, because it didn’t require paying attention, it just required being barely conscious.

There is a difference between the corp and the human. D.C. pols reflect the former, not the later.

Literally yes, but not symbolically or systemically. Consciousness is self-similar, it doesn’t matter the scale at which it’s observed.

So if “you” have cancer, does that mean the cells in your body which aren’t in an identifiable tumor get to pretend they’re healthy and safe? That the problem is only those bad cancer cells over there?

No, that’s ridiculous (more accurately, that’s sociopathy at the cellular level). You, the person, have cancer. The symptom may manifest somewhere, but it’s a reflection of the whole system.

I suppose you could argue (and live) that the pols don’t reflect you. But then in order to be consistent and not just arbitrarily rationalizing you’d have to give every pol/boss/authority figure/man in the world the benefit of the doubt, because they’re not any of the people who have hurt you, and and you’d have to deeply and honestly believe they’re all good until they act otherwise.

That’s the beauty of it, actually. You either have to accept and forgive all them, or you have to accept and forgive yourself.

Of course, they’re both just parts of the same thing.

(In case it’s not obvious, and it might not be from in there, I’m not simply trying to have a discussion about politics with you. There’s something much more personally important up, and I understand what a big deal it is. I know it’s not easy.)

I’m still in the problem identification and analysis phase. Can’t take action until you know what the problem is. I suspect that the solution phase will require a lot more suppression of the population before their disperse interests will cause them to unite enough to be effective. I’m thinking about the beginning of the union movement in response to the Gilded Age as one example. But I don’t know enough of that history to form intelligent judgments.

Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain?Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain?Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain?Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain? Obama or McCain?

mmmmmmmmm. Who should I vote for?

Your approach seems irrelevant to me. Don’t understand your cancer analogy at all. Are you saying that if you just feel strongly enough you can defeat cancer?

Oprah was crying. There is no power on earth greater than Oprah crying. Your book be damned, OPRAH was CRYING, sir!

He meant a lot to a lot of people, regardless of who he was or how he was marketed. He wasn’t Bush. What people are now realizing is, he was never the anti-Bush.

He’s a corporate man.

According to articles on physorg.com, no. But you can using nanobots!!!!

What were we discussing, again?

But where does all of this mirroring stop and start.

Oprah’s part of the same corp world as O. (Just thought I’d state the obvious.)

Given what’s happened? Nader.

Yep.

I’m beginning to suspect that Cosby-Jello connection was more than met the eye…

Obama or McCain? …

mmmmmmmmm. Who should I vote for?

Clinton and Obama were the very best Democrats we could find? McCain was in the Democratic Primary?

By the time it got to the choice you presented, it was already over. Just write in, “Me, Myself, and I.”

Isn’t it interesting that a handful of rich black men are the only black men who lecture the rest of them? Seems a tad self-serving. But then, I was on Wall St., and it was common for Wall Steeters to blame the rest for their shortcomings, so perhaps I’m too sensitive to the phenomenon. (You might have noticed the syndrome recently).

I liked Kucinich, myself. I still do.

The problem is rampant corporatism, which, thankfully, this spelling checker recognizes as a word. Corporatism, that is.

We need 5 impeachments: Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy. Perhaps they’d all kindly retire, or all move to their corporate benefactors’ off-shore tax havens.

And who would you have voted for? And how would that have worked out? Hillary? Edwards? McF*kain?

Yeah right Obama in the same way lies, manipulation, and disinformation represent change, transparency, and accountability in government.

For the third consecutive election I wrote in a combination of Sanders/Feingold.

I don’t blame the voters for voting, because their votes don’t really matter. They’ll never be presented with an option in the end that even remotely represents them. I blame them for pinning their HOPE™ for CHANGE™ onto a Pepsi-Cola caricature who was nothing more than a row of straight white teeth dripping satisfying platitudes that weren’t remotely backed up by evidence.

I don’t have any trouble agreeing with that!

Most of the people who live under the rule of these crooks are not crooks themselves.

That’s the logical failure. The people elected the crooks, but somehow we aren’t then responsible for them?

That’s the old “I didn’t kill him – the bullets did!” mistake.

(It is literally true, mind you, as I just mentioned to eCAHNonmics. But you can see how it being literally true misses the more important and more powerful way of understanding it.)

In a very pretty way, you’re illustrating my point very well.

The politicians don’t think they’re crooks, either – and that’s truly what they believe. They also argue they’re powerless to change the system.

So you’re being the perfect example of what I’m trying to get people to see and accept (so they can change it). The parts reflect each other.

You think we have more power than we do.

I dunno, there’s 300+ million of us and a few thousand of them. I’d say we have far more power than we know.

Our beliefs determine what we see and manifest in the world. There are things I can change, and things I can’t possibly change, but almost everything falls in the middle where it could go either way.

I’ll be able to positively affect far more of them if I choose to believe that I can than if I choose to believe I can’t.

So, since I completely support your goal of working harder, you (and all of us) will have far, far more success if that hard work rests on a foundation of belief that we have the power to do what we’re trying to do. Working harder but secretly harboring the belief (or hope) we don’t have a lot of power means that at each moment we’ll unconsciously undercut our actions, probably just enough so we’re not successful, so we can cling to our belief that we simply need to work harder but we also confirm our belief/need we’re not powerful enough.

Believing one doesn’t have power is a great way to abdicate responsibility for how it is wielded.

Far better then to accept I do have power and wield it poorly and unwisely, accept responsibility for my actions, ask forgiveness from those I’ve hurt, and learn how to do it all better.

You can probably see that that’s exactly the behavior we’d want from our politicians.

And now we’re full circle. :-)

A tad sweeping in your indictment.

We wanted a fighter. We got a negotiator. It’s not like he didn’t telegraph his politics. People were so sick of Bush, Jeffery Dahmer could have won with a slick enough ad campaign.

“Let me take a bite out of taxes!”

I believe quite a few people expressed the “Anyone but Bush” sentiment. We have our anyone!

Maybe you can help me out a little? Crowd Sourcing Legal Research: What are Your State’s Citizen’s Arrest Laws?

It would be nice, but then what? Seriously, even IF we could get rid of those criminals on the SCOTUS, it’s too late now. We are home and hosed. And clearly, everyone in Wash DC is emulating one of their masters, Dick Cheney, by effectively saying to us retarded bleeding heart liberals: SO???????????????

We’re effed. Totally. Get used to it.

I can’t totally blame all the voters. I had a lot of skepticism about BHO, but boyohboy, what a totally cynical campaign that way. Think BHO has created a new low, which is, in itself, pretty amazing. UGH.

OK, let me see how we’d implement this 300+ million approach.

First, let’s surround every corporate headquarters. I’d suggest not doing or saying a thing for about an hour. That ought to creep them out.

Second, let’s build stocks in the center of Wall Street. Oh, not the sort one usually buys and sells. The type you stick ******.

Third, let’s ban corporate money from Washington in the only practical way we can. Let’s nationalize them. You accepted money in the bailout? We own you. You lobby against regulations? We own you. Don’t like it? We own you.

Call it the Hugo Chavez approach to disagreeable corporations.

Own them.

Mod note: ******* No suggestions of violence. Thank you.

Call it the Hugo Chavez approach to disagreeable corporations.

Own them.

We’ve already done this. The problem is we have disagreeable, unaccountable leadership managing it in our stead.

Not exactly. The corporations aren’t wholly owned by the people.

I’m not suggesting this crowd would do anything to truly shake the status quo. They’re still admiring themselves in the mirror. I’m suggesting if the people want to end this charade, the people can do it.

The most interesting question is, where will the true populist leader come from? Not the Republicans, for they are the system. Not Democrats, for they admire the system. Not tea party nitwits, for they are the walking Fox brainwashed drooling over the snowbilly. All of the third parties seem marginalized, and even major party candidates (see Kucinich) get the debate plug pulled on them, even while they are viable candidates.

Perhaps storming the Bastille is the only alternative, after all.

I’m aware it’s a cliche by now, but once someone has lost credibility to this extent it’s pretty much over. And what would Democrats (me included) be saying if Bush were still President and he implemented some of the same policies as O’Dumbo?

I agree with you about the government, but a lot more than one commentator has suggested we don’t drill for any more oil.

I am not justifying anything, I am just saying you have to be practical about these things, push him where he needs to be pushed, and praise him where he needs to be praised, but don’t lose sight of the fact that the alternative is far far worse and don’t do anything that actively or passively has the effect of bringing the alternative about. Make sense?

Actually I despise Republicans and have voted a straight Democratic ticket all my life. I assure you I am not a troll. Just old I guess.

LOL! Not exactly.

You should study what Chavez did. No violence necessary. It’s an activist approach. Own them.

And, if the status quo is so horribly broken, eventually something has to give. With corporations now enshrined as citizens, it isn’t difficult to imagine the extreme measures they will go to to enforce their profit mechanisms – and they don’t include the hiring of American workers for anything beyond management, running prisons, “recruiting” prisoners, and military work (most of which cannot be outsourced).

OK. Maybe the stocks was a bit harsh. Can we nerf them all before we arrest their butts?

You’re never too old!

Except for gymnastics, where you’re washed up at 8.

Your approach seems irrelevant to me. Don’t understand your cancer analogy at all. Are you saying that if you just feel strongly enough you can defeat cancer?

No problem, seeing this is sort of like me trying to get you to see the other side of one of those picture puzzles where the old hag is also the young woman – except we’re doing it in text in these little comment boxes. ;-)

(I’d also want a little clarification of what you mean by “your approach.” That could mean one small analogy or the whole idea.)

About the cancer analogy, specifically: I’m saying that it’s easy to see (though perhaps not, since not seeing this is exactly why some people do get cancer!) that saying “only some of my cells have cancer, but the rest of me is fine,” or from an individual cell’s point of view “the disease is simply the fault of those bad cells over there” is simplistic, if not flat-out wrong a damned good approximation of it, and most importantly doesn’t lead to healing.

Cancer, like any other disease, is systemic – it’s a reflection of the health of the entire body. And even the cancer is just a messenger – the cancer is the result of the prior behavior of the entire body. Trying to see it as simply the fault of a few cells can ameliorate the symptoms for a while, but because it doesn’t address the cause never truly heals.

So, since you and I and the politicians are all cells in the national body, it doesn’t make good sense and it certainly doesn’t lead to meaningful, lasting change to blame our national illness only on those bad cells/politicians over there.

Now, just like in a body, there may be some cells that manifest the problem to a greater degree than others.

The balancing trick is to be able to evaluate and act understanding we’re both simultaneously the same and different.

(And that’s why this is a discussion not just about politics but consciousness.)

The reason it’s so necessary to accept we’re personally responsible for whatever the effect du jour is that without that willingness my ability to see is totally warped – if I can’t accept that it might be my fault and go hunting for it, then I won’t be able to recognize it when it really is the most true, and then I won’t be able to react to it.

(It turns out that there’s always some degree to which I’m doing whatever it is that I’m seeing – otherwise I’d not only not see it, I’d have no ability to see it at all. Thus the helpful hint that it’s best to just start from the understanding and belief that I’m doing some analog of whatever it is I’m seeing and reacting to.)

So the way to heal cancer is to both address the specific symptoms (hey, these cells here have a problem) but also look at the rest of the body (what is it about the rest of the body that had the problem land over there?) and most of all what was the behavior of the entire body that had cancer (or any disease, it’s all the same) show up in the first place?

And the way to deal with politics is the same, because it’s fundamentally the same system.

The reason I go on and on about changing oneself first is that it’s far easier to change oneself than some far-off politician (that doesn’t necessarily make it easy, though!), and if I’m not willing to change myself then I know, again because all the parts reflect each other, that the far-off politician will be off in their world unwilling to change themselves too.

Think of it as quantum entanglement at the personal level (and again, it’s just consciousness manifesting at different scales, one subatomic, one human). :-)

And if one were to “feel” strongly enough, if we define “feel” as open to feeling what the disease is trying to tell me about myself, then yes, absolutely, if one “feels” strongly enough then one can cure cancer. The cancer’s just the messenger. The question is whether I can receive the message.

Is this making any more sense yet?

Meditation, asceticism or and guilt internalization will not change corrupt leaders or the power of money one bit. Those responsible should be held accountable, not powerless peons. In fact, the failure to correctly place the blame or responsibility encourages more of the same behavior.

I wonder how much your pop psychology books like the “power of positive thinking” and “your thoughts create your realty” will get you for return at half price books?

Obama and the Democrats are Blue Dog status quo corporatists. Obama thought he could open vast ocean tracts to oil exploration and not only not pay any price but garner more corporate contributions. Unfortunately, reality didn’t play along and blindsided him.

A. It’s time to scrap the “Progressive” banner.
B. Liberals need to open formal negotiations with the Immigration Reform movement. We need foot soldiers.
C. Virtually every seating Democrat must go.
D. The left must draft a slate of USSCJ that is our litmus test.
E. We must bring back to the front burner the environmental movement.
F. We need to replace workers’ unions leadership across the board.
G. We will run a primary challenger to Obama in 2012. Let’s begin a search, now.

Meditation, asceticism or and guilt internalization will not change corrupt leaders or the power of money one bit.

I’d agree they don’t seem to have worked in your personality.

Perhaps it’s because that in addition to being corrupt and driven by money you’re simply not very good at meditating, asceticism or accepting guilt?

No honey, I didn’t create this gulf oil spill, and neither did anyone here. In fact progressives abhor it.
Now, go back to your “Course in Miracles.”

Maybe we should consider going ahead with all the oil drilling the Gulf can stand and wait for the Gulf-state senators to get down on their knees to beg for it to stop.

But, that’s just a thought.

The sensible thing to do is investigate what happened and hold off on new drilling until we’ve got some facts.

Beg here. Beg now!

Embracing domestic drilling (and coal & gas) was pretty much impossible to avoid. If he had tried to bypass that the Republicans would have dominated the debate and won. By doing it this way Dems control the debate, ride the wave and see where it leads. It seems inevitable (with this recent event) that it leads to everything but oil on water and nuclear melt-downs and coal smoke. But, as we’re always reminded, the change will be slow. Best to have Dems in charge along the way to ensure the change happens.

I’d love to see a ‘use it or lose it’ law which takes any domestic energy technology if the owner doesn’t develop it. It’s too important to let oil companies hold battery technology or bio-diesel technology instead of developing it.

We’re still in Iraq. We’ve expanded in Afghanistan. We’re using robots to kill people in Pakistan. We’re drilling offshore. We’re handing out billions to scam artists masquerading as bankers.

What’s wrong with this picture?

My mental image of giant man-like robots with long arms & legs grabbing people and ripping them up while everybody screams in horror.

Yea, that’s what’s wrong with my mental image.

I guess handing out money to scam artists is the real problem.

I think that’s a somewhat superficial view, but not unreasonable, of what is happening. Dems need to lead the country to a new clean domestic energy and the only way there is from where we are. We use those things, so he embraced them as part of a package which includes clean Green technological developments.

If some of the older technologies can be cleaned up (like CO2 sequestration from coal) then all the better, but in any event we need to develop new technologies and energy conservation and more efficient use of energy.

Now, with the oil spill the politicians will have to recoil in horror and watch the public closely to see if this shuts off the whole ‘Gulf oil drilling’ idea. If it does, then it will just shift more of the energy for change to new technologies.

So, it’s a little more complicated than “Obama is a corporate sell-out.”

It’s all about campaign finance reform. We need publicly funded elections and draconian enforcement. Don’t know how get around court rulings that equate wealth with speech/expression, but everything else hangs on politicians free of corporate sponsors to vote policy on merit rather than electoral fortunes.

We need publicly funded elections and draconian enforcement. Don’t know how get around court rulings that equate wealth with speech/expression

Clean Money (link here and here) is a public funding approach that gets around the Supreme Court rulings because it is a voluntary program. I’m all for it.

That said, the results reflect the will of the people, which is not necessarily progressive.For example, Arizona has Clean Money campaigns for statewide offices. As you know, Arizona just passed its HIP bill, i.e., you risk arrest for being Hispanic In Public. But that’s what you get in a conservative state. I’m willing to live with what the majority of the people want even if its not what I want, as long as its Constitutional.

I don’t think it will have any effect. I half gave up on him with his FISA vote, the joke of the dems HCR bill shoveled more dirt on them and it was O and Emanuel who eliminated single payer advocates from their phony discussion table, I expect him to deep six net neutrality all the while sincerely telling us how good it is for us in this time of constant warfare (well who is continuing it???). The drone bombings make me sick.

I’m sick of him and his b.s., I’m sick of having the media determine who will be candidates etc., etc., etc.,

HIP bill? Isn’t it against Federal law to not have, in your possession, at all times, your “status papers”, if you are not a citizen of this country? All Arizona law says is because the Feds won’t enforce the law, they will.

You sound like you are familiar with the sentiments of those who attend the TEA PARTY RALLIES. WELCOME

Read the 1st amendment. It’s quite clear. The Federal Government is EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN from “infringing on the freedom of speech”. (There are exceptions to these general protection, including the Miller test for obscenity, child pornography laws, speech that incites imminent danger, and regulation of commercial speech such as advertising.)(from wiki)There are no exceptions for political speech. Nor, in my opinion, should the Feds ever attempt to curtail speech of a political nature, regardless of the social status of the individual.

This type of gaffe is Sarah Palin territory!

Nice one, Obama! Anything to appease the right.

Just wondering if the UNITED STATES has any oil rigs in the gulf? Aren’t they mostly, if not entirely, foreign owned?

You’d think Obama bit the fuckin pipe off.

You fools are worried about those rigs when billions of barrels pass into the gulf in tankers to feed the refineries that refine the oil to fill your cars.

Just off Texas, Which is on the Gulf, there is often many tankers at anchor waiting to unload.

One major Hurricane and it could sink those tankers in one fell swoop and make this spill look like You pissing in the Gulf.

It’s ignorance that makes us need the oil, ignorance that keeps us from getting off it, and ignorance to the real danger that is in the same area.

Stopping drilling sounds great, but how many of You will give up oil because of it. You want Your cake and eat it to, and that makes You like a bunch of dumb little kids. Grow up and quit bitching unless You are willing to address the problem.

Did anyone catch the videos today of the SWAT Tactical guys being called out to protect the ‘O’ yesterday in Quincy, IL.

What a laugh. The SWAT guys themselves looked embarrassed. Word had it that some of the O’s people wanted the citizens gathered out in front of the place he was speaking at moved back. (they were singing songs like the Star Spangled Banner)

So the local SWAT team arrived on scene, marched into the location (military style), took up positions and asked the folks there to move. What a laugh. Grandmas against the SWAT team.

Not the focus of my original statement, but I’ll respond to your nitpick.

The Wall Street Journal, owned by that famous liberal Rupert Murdoch, concludes the HIP law is unconstitutional.

“The Arizona law appears to be “facially unconstitutional,” Manheim said. “States have no power to pass immigration laws because it’s an attribute of foreign affairs. Just as states can’t have their own foreign policies or enter into treaties, they can’t have their own immigration laws either.”

I’m guessing you are white and never lived in the USSR or a NAZI controlled territory where the authorities regularly demanded, “Show me your papers!” What’s next? Microchip IDs?

What’s next? Microchip IDs?

Yep, It’s in Our Friend Harry’s proposed Immigration Reform, Biometric ID’s

Actually, I am a proud black man. A little bit of Choctaw. And I live in the San Francisco area of Calif. Are you familiar with the oath law enforcement officers take? It is to enforce all laws of this country. And what Arizona has done is tell the Feds: If you won’t enforce the law, we will. After all, Arizona bears the brunt of the violence and other illegal activity associated with the border regions. They live the problem. I think they are just a little fed up with having to live with a problem the feds should be taking care of.

I guess that blows your sides conspiracy theories about Murdock, huh? He let one of his papers actually print something you agree with.

Why is the O always on the road? Does he ever spend any time at the office?

Why is the O always on the road?

I know, just thinking that myself that last couple of weeks (and it seems a few other times in the last year too). These events appear to be political events, not POTUS events so that annoys me. It’s not like his plate is empty (well maybe it is, but he could put a few things on it)

created by the ultimate oily, david rockefeller, and his myrmidons[think henry kissinger].

your progressive blackamoor.

just another gangster in greasepaint.

That’s what the no drama Obama thing is about. It’s not admirable self-control, it’s a man completely out of touch with his emotions and unwilling to make acquaintance.

I have to disagree with you somewhat here, patrickhenrypress. The people that a President surrounds himself with strongly indicate what he’s made of, and Obama’s no exception.

Why should both our coasts be made into gigantic oil-slicks? They shouldn’t, imho.

How is your job going? I hear the Heritage Foundation pays you guys 10 cents a post.

“…does show a willingness to include new facts in their analysis…”

I think it shows an awareness of the fact that they’re about to get their political asses handed to them.

And, speaking as someone who voted for Obama with great enthusiasm, it couldn’t happen to a nicer adminstration.