Congratulations To Barack Obama

[Evan Burton]

AT LEAST two of Australia's largest corporate bookmakers are refusing to pay out on tens of thousands of bets laid on Barack Obama's victory - on the grounds that he may be killed before he is inaugurated.

An angry punter contacted the Herald saying he was told by a senior Sportsbet bookie that the company would not pay out until the inauguration in January in case the president-elect was shot before he took office.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/bet...5561136611.html

[Mark Stapleton]

Rahm Emanuel is an interesting character. He actually was a volunteer in the Israeli Army during the 1990s Gulf War. The Israeli press boasted today that "Israel will have its own man in the White House". Although Jews only make up 2% of the US population, they have always been a highly successful lobby group that can deliver the vote. For example, 78% of Jewish voters supported Obama in the election. To be fair to the Jews, they have always been active in the Civil Rights campaign and are natural allies of Obama.

It is claimed that Emanuel is not unlike LBJ in the way he controls Congress. On the surface, the signs are not good. However, it is possible, the appointment of Emanuel, might give Israel the confidence to agree a peace deal in the Middle East.

Emanuel is a hardline Zionist, John. His appointment merely affirms that Israel is the proud owner of US foreign policy and this is not going to change:

http://www.counterpunch.org/

Weekend Edition

November 7 / 9, 2008

CounterPunch Diary

Hail to the Chief of Staff

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

The first trumpet blast of change ushers in Rahm Emanuel as Obama’s chief of staff and gate keeper. This is the man who arranges his schedule, staffs out the agenda, includes, excludes. It’s certainly as sinister an appointment as, say, Carter’s installation of arch cold-warrior Zbigniev Brzezinski as his National Security Advisor at the dawn of his “change is here” administration in 1977.

Emanuel, as Ralph Nader points out in my interview with him below, represents the worst of the Clinton years. His profile as regards Israel is explored well on this site by lawyer John Whitbeck. He’s a former Israeli citizen, who volunteered to serve in Israel in 1991 and who made brisk millions in Wall Street. He is a super-Likudnik hawk, whose father was in the fascist Irgun in the late Forties, responsible for cold-blooded massacres of Palestinians. Dad’s unreconstructed ethnic outlook has been memorably embodied in his recent remark to the Ma’ariv newspaper that "Obviously he [Rahm] will influence the president to be pro-Israel… Why wouldn't he be [influential]? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House."

Working in the Clinton White House, Emanuel helped push through NAFTA, the crime bill, the balanced budget and welfare reform. He favored the war in Iraq, and when he was chairing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 he made great efforts to knock out antiwar Democratic candidates. On this site in October and November, 2006, John Walsh documented both the efforts and Emanuel’s role in losing the Democrats seats they would otherwise have won.

In 2006 Emanuel had just published a book with Bruce Reed called The Plan: Big Ideas for America, with one section focused on “the war on terror”. Emanuel and Reed wrote, “We need to fortify the military's ‘thin green line ‘around the world by adding to the U.S. Special Forces and the Marines, and by expanding the U.S. army by 100,000 more troops. …Finally we must protect our homeland and civil liberties by creating a new domestic counterterrorism force like Britain's MI5.” Recall that Obama has been calling throughout his recent campaign for an addition of 92,000 to the US Army and US Marine Corps.

Emanuel and Reed had fond words for the mad-dog Peter Beinart, neocon warrior theoretician for the Democrats, roosting Marty Peretz's The New Republic, and author of The Good Fight where Beinart explained why a tough new national security policy is as essential to the future of of progressive politics as a united front against totalitarianism and communism was to the New Deal and the Great Society. Emanuel and Reed also commended Anne-Marie Slaughter's proposal for "a new division of labor in which the United Nations takes on economic and social assistance and an expanded NATO takes over the burden of collective security." In other words, let NATO shoot the natives and the UN clean the floors.

Walsh took a hard look at the 2006 Democratic primary race between Christine Cegelis and Tammy Duckworth in Illinois's 6th CD, a Republican District, which had elected the disgusting Henry Hyde from time immemorial. In 2004 Cegelis, who iwas only mildly antiwar, ran as the Democrat with a grass roots campaign and polled a remarkable 44 per cent in her first run. It was not too long before Hyde decided to retire, and the field seemed to be open for Cegelis in the November poll, in 2006.

Enter Rahm Emanuel, who promptly dug up a pro-war candidate, Tammy Duckworth. Although she had both her legs blown off in Iraq, she remained committed to "staying the course" in Iraq. Duckworth had no political experience and did not live in the 6th District. Emanuel raised a million dollars for her and brought in Joe Lieberman, Barak Obama, John Kerry, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton to support her. Despite all this help and with the Cegelis campaign virtually penniless, Duckworth barely managed to eke out a primary victory by a measly four percentage points.

To win the House, the Dems had to win 15 seats from the Republicans. Walsh identified 22 candidates hand picked by Emanuel to run in open districts or districts with Republican incumbents. Of these, nine adopted a US “must win” in Iraq position and only one of Rahm's candidates was for prompt withdrawal from Iraq.

Then, after the election, Walsh assessed Rahm’s supposed brilliance in winning back the House. “Looking at all 22 candidates hand-picked by Rahm, “ Walsh wrote, “we find that 13 were defeated [including Duckworth], and only 8 won! And remember that this was the year of the Democratic tsunami and that Rahm's favorites were handsomely financed by the DCCC. The Dems have picked up 28 seats so far, maybe more. So out of that 28, Rahm's choices accounted for 8! Since the Dems only needed 15 seats to win the House, Rahm's efforts were completely unnecessary. Had the campaign rested on Rahm's choices, there would have been only 8 or 9 new seats, and the Dems would have lost. In fact, Rahm's efforts were probably counterproductive for the Dems since the great majority of voters were antiwar and they were voting primarily on the issue of the war (60 per cent according to CNN). But Rahm's candidates were not antiwar.

[Dave Greer]

AT LEAST two of Australia's largest corporate bookmakers are refusing to pay out on tens of thousands of bets laid on Barack Obama's victory - on the grounds that he may be killed before he is inaugurated.

An angry punter contacted the Herald saying he was told by a senior Sportsbet bookie that the company would not pay out until the inauguration in January in case the president-elect was shot before he took office.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/bet...5561136611.html

Contrast that with Paddy Power who paid out on Obama last month!

[Christopher Hall]

Rahm Emanuel is an interesting character. He actually was a volunteer in the Israeli Army during the 1990s Gulf War. The Israeli press boasted today that "Israel will have its own man in the White House". Although Jews only make up 2% of the US population, they have always been a highly successful lobby group that can deliver the vote. For example, 78% of Jewish voters supported Obama in the election. To be fair to the Jews, they have always been active in the Civil Rights campaign and are natural allies of Obama.

It is claimed that Emanuel is not unlike LBJ in the way he controls Congress. On the surface, the signs are not good. However, it is possible, the appointment of Emanuel, might give Israel the confidence to agree a peace deal in the Middle East.

Emanuel is a hardline Zionist, John. His appointment merely affirms that Israel is the proud owner of US foreign policy and this is not going to change:

http://www.counterpunch.org/

Weekend Edition

November 7 / 9, 2008

CounterPunch Diary

Hail to the Chief of Staff

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

The first trumpet blast of change ushers in Rahm Emanuel as Obama’s chief of staff and gate keeper. This is the man who arranges his schedule, staffs out the agenda, includes, excludes. It’s certainly as sinister an appointment as, say, Carter’s installation of arch cold-warrior Zbigniev Brzezinski as his National Security Advisor at the dawn of his “change is here” administration in 1977.

Emanuel, as Ralph Nader points out in my interview with him below, represents the worst of the Clinton years. His profile as regards Israel is explored well on this site by lawyer John Whitbeck. He’s a former Israeli citizen, who volunteered to serve in Israel in 1991 and who made brisk millions in Wall Street. He is a super-Likudnik hawk, whose father was in the fascist Irgun in the late Forties, responsible for cold-blooded massacres of Palestinians. Dad’s unreconstructed ethnic outlook has been memorably embodied in his recent remark to the Ma’ariv newspaper that "Obviously he [Rahm] will influence the president to be pro-Israel… Why wouldn't he be [influential]? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House."

Working in the Clinton White House, Emanuel helped push through NAFTA, the crime bill, the balanced budget and welfare reform. He favored the war in Iraq, and when he was chairing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 he made great efforts to knock out antiwar Democratic candidates. On this site in October and November, 2006, John Walsh documented both the efforts and Emanuel’s role in losing the Democrats seats they would otherwise have won.

In 2006 Emanuel had just published a book with Bruce Reed called The Plan: Big Ideas for America, with one section focused on “the war on terror”. Emanuel and Reed wrote, “We need to fortify the military's ‘thin green line ‘around the world by adding to the U.S. Special Forces and the Marines, and by expanding the U.S. army by 100,000 more troops. …Finally we must protect our homeland and civil liberties by creating a new domestic counterterrorism force like Britain's MI5.” Recall that Obama has been calling throughout his recent campaign for an addition of 92,000 to the US Army and US Marine Corps.

Emanuel and Reed had fond words for the mad-dog Peter Beinart, neocon warrior theoretician for the Democrats, roosting Marty Peretz's The New Republic, and author of The Good Fight where Beinart explained why a tough new national security policy is as essential to the future of of progressive politics as a united front against totalitarianism and communism was to the New Deal and the Great Society. Emanuel and Reed also commended Anne-Marie Slaughter's proposal for "a new division of labor in which the United Nations takes on economic and social assistance and an expanded NATO takes over the burden of collective security." In other words, let NATO shoot the natives and the UN clean the floors.

Walsh took a hard look at the 2006 Democratic primary race between Christine Cegelis and Tammy Duckworth in Illinois's 6th CD, a Republican District, which had elected the disgusting Henry Hyde from time immemorial. In 2004 Cegelis, who iwas only mildly antiwar, ran as the Democrat with a grass roots campaign and polled a remarkable 44 per cent in her first run. It was not too long before Hyde decided to retire, and the field seemed to be open for Cegelis in the November poll, in 2006.

Enter Rahm Emanuel, who promptly dug up a pro-war candidate, Tammy Duckworth. Although she had both her legs blown off in Iraq, she remained committed to "staying the course" in Iraq. Duckworth had no political experience and did not live in the 6th District. Emanuel raised a million dollars for her and brought in Joe Lieberman, Barak Obama, John Kerry, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton to support her. Despite all this help and with the Cegelis campaign virtually penniless, Duckworth barely managed to eke out a primary victory by a measly four percentage points.

To win the House, the Dems had to win 15 seats from the Republicans. Walsh identified 22 candidates hand picked by Emanuel to run in open districts or districts with Republican incumbents. Of these, nine adopted a US “must win” in Iraq position and only one of Rahm's candidates was for prompt withdrawal from Iraq.

Then, after the election, Walsh assessed Rahm’s supposed brilliance in winning back the House. “Looking at all 22 candidates hand-picked by Rahm, “ Walsh wrote, “we find that 13 were defeated [including Duckworth], and only 8 won! And remember that this was the year of the Democratic tsunami and that Rahm's favorites were handsomely financed by the DCCC. The Dems have picked up 28 seats so far, maybe more. So out of that 28, Rahm's choices accounted for 8! Since the Dems only needed 15 seats to win the House, Rahm's efforts were completely unnecessary. Had the campaign rested on Rahm's choices, there would have been only 8 or 9 new seats, and the Dems would have lost. In fact, Rahm's efforts were probably counterproductive for the Dems since the great majority of voters were antiwar and they were voting primarily on the issue of the war (60 per cent according to CNN). But Rahm's candidates were not antiwar.

Thanks for the info, Mark.

I see the Emanuel appointment as a message to the Jewish community that, contrary to popular suspicion, Obama is not a closet Muslim or a Muslim sypathizer.

This pick sends a huge signal of support to Israel, and it thanks the Jews in this country for voting for Obama on a 78% basis.

It will be interesting as Obama announces more appointments, but this certainly delivers a hawkish message.

[Len Colby]

Families from a shantytown in Recife (Brazil) took over the Shopping Praia Hotel. The formerly fancy hotel near Boa Viagem beach shut its doors seven years ago and became a hangout for crack addicts and thieves. 42 families from the Entrapuluso slum spent most of last Thursday cleaning up what they hope will become their new home. They renamed the building “Barack Obama” to symbolize their “hope for a better future”. It is not uncommon for Brazilian squatters to base the names of their settlements on current events especially wars most large cities have shantytowns with names like Vietnam, Iraq, Malvinas (i.e. Falklands) which are indicative of when they were established.

Based on TV and newspaper reports. I haven’t fond anything in English

http://jc.uol.com.br/2008/11/11/not_184675.php

http://www.diariodepernambuco.com.br/2008/...1/urbana1_0.asp

Edited November 12, 2008 by Len Colby

[J. Raymond Carroll]

Obama .... ... the doubts I've had about him all along just grow stronger.

This is the same guy who had no doubt Sarah "Whack-Job" Palin was a better VP choice than Joe Biden.

[David G. Healy]

It's sad to say this, but I think the election was mostly meaningless.

America is dominated by elites who fund both major parties and have

already put their meathooks into Obama.

If you're a lefty and consider Obama's victory a watershed moment,

consider this: what did Clinton or Carter do for you as president? Sure,

you probably miss their eloquence, after 8 long years of listening to

GWB. But beyond that, what did they really do for our country?

Carter gave us billion-dollar payouts (in 2000 dollars) to the steel

industry, started the deregulation movement (which did help our GDP

at the expense of stability), and began funding the mujahideen in

Afghanistan. If it wasn't for the (overhyped) Middle East Peace Accord

and the (underused) Freedom of Information Act, I would have a hard

time saying he was useful at all.

Clinton managed to give us semi-balanced budgets (not really his work,

but I'll give him some credit), but also began the crippling handover of

our rights to FEMA and other agencies while continuing the raiding of

our economy (e.g., the Telecom Act).

In other words, what did our "Democratic" presidents really do for

the progressive movement? (No fair saying that they just "weren't

as bad as Republicans.")

I'm hopeful that Obama won't just hand away our future to the elites

overnight. Like most Democrats, he will probably take a full 8 years to

do his damage. (Republicans typically do their damage immediately.)

We should use that time to study his actions and prepare solutions.

Remember, populism is the antidote to both parties, as well as the elite.

The trouble is that it's hard to create popular movements when...

... oh, sorry, my TV show just came on. Gotta go!

why lob a turd over the transom, Mr. Fairlie? Follow the story to the end (thats the problem with GOPers, aka the Repubicans, no staying power)

ACT II: you're watching TV from the ground floor Mr. Fairlie! Get to the top of the building, the view is more, er, comprehensive ---- it's called: the spreading of Capitalism i.e., spread the wealth (convert those sworn US enemies, China & Russia) Oh-my, such sweet, SWEET success... AND then there's the world religious states? They'll always be pissing and moaning about each other, proffering who has the smoothest road to HEAVEN (with and w/o virgins). Forgetting of course that BIG-JUDGE in the SKY, oh well...

So stay tuned till next weeks addition, the on-going spreading-of-capitalism, serial saga. **Once they get a taste (pardon the pun) of capitalism that is, they don't, nor do they want to, 'go back'**

Edited November 16, 2008 by David G. Healy

[David G. Healy]

why lob a turd over the transom, Mr. Fairlie? Follow the story to the end (thats the problem with GOPers, aka the Repubicans, no staying power)

I'm afraid that I wasn't able to pull any meaning out of your post.

Are you implying that I'm a "righty" simply because I used the term "lefty"?

Do you think that I haven't been to the top floor? If you intended there to be

some meaning in your post, please explain. Thanks!

of course you don't "pull any meaning" from posts that don't conform to "pre-existing" righty agendas, no surprise there... Show us your chops, Mr. Fairle, tell us what you see from that top floor. Ya got a worldwide stage here.... Thanks!

Edited November 17, 2008 by David G. Healy