California Governor Jerry Brown is going around the world with one simple, yet simply wrong message, “California is Back.” The problems with this statement is that it is false and that Jerry Brown is obviously out of touch with the people of the state that he “governs.” Continue reading
The referendum on Egypt’s new constitution passed without any serious incident, despite threats from the Muslim Brotherhood which Egypt has branded ‘terrorist.’ Continue reading
Governor Jerry Brown and his staff are exchanging high-fives over balancing California’s budget, but the people on whose backs it was balanced are not rejoicing. The state’s high-wire act has been called “the ultimate in austerity budgets.” Continue reading
Bill de Blasio, who transformed himself from a little-known occupant of an obscure office into the fiery voice of New York’s disillusionment with a new gilded age, was elected the city’s 109th mayor last Tuesday. The city seemed to be saying in its vote, “Enough is enough” after 12 years of the autocratic Michael Bloomberg and honcho Ray Kelly’s “stop and frisk” police force. Continue reading
The elections are over and while many Demo-liberals are heartened by the results the rest of us should understand that we have a long way to go. Continue reading
Acceptance of voting machines and the electronic counting of votes is the acceptance of corruption and tyranny. Remember that Stalin is reported to have said that who votes does not matter but the who counts the votes does. Continue reading
If you want to see how grossly money can distort democracy, just go to the state of Virginia, where there are no limits on how big a check can be written for statewide office. Groups and individuals from outside the Old Dominion are taking full advantage, pouring millions into a governor’s race they see as a dry run for the tactics they’ll use in the 2014 midterms and the 2016 presidential race—sort of the way the Spanish civil war turned out to be a testing ground for many of the deadly weapons of World War II. Continue reading
With Narendra Modi’s candidature declared as the prospective prime minister of India in case the NDA should win the 2014 elections, L. K. Advani must be a broken man. Cardinal Wolsey, a politician and cardinal under King Henry the VIII of England, famously said before he died, “If I had served God as diligently as I have done the King, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs.” Having entered the twilight of his life, I am sure L. K. Advani feels the same, that had he served the people of this country rather than the sectarian agenda of the BJP he wouldn’t have been a lonely, isolated man and the people would still be with him. The historic opportunity for a politician to be a statesman is a lost one. Continue reading
With his popularity about the same as a hairy wart, Gov. Tom Corbett (R-Pa.) had to make some critical changes in his administration if he has any hope of winning a second term in 2014. Continue reading
Reports of Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s sexting recidivism have vaulted Democrat Christine C. Quinn into the front-runner position. Quinn, currently speaker of the New York City Council, is running against Weiner, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, former New York City comptroller William C Thompson, Jr., and others in the September 10 Democratic primary. But even though Quinn is an out lesbian and has significant feminist and LGBT support, especially as the only woman Democratic candidate in a sea of male sex scandals, there could be a dark horse in the primary known as New York City’s carriage horses. Continue reading
Iranian moderates gleefully shout “Ahmadi Bye Bye” as they joyously take to the streets to celebrate the victory of President-elect Hassan Rouhani, who avoided an electoral run-off by winning over 50 percent of the votes. Continue reading
No wonder why so many who could vote actually choose not to. In most instances, especially anywhere that political party affiliations are labeled, why bother? As Ralph Nader put it so succinctly, all we choose from are ‘Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum’. Continue reading
That the fix was in was confirmed when the Godfather himself, son of a Kenyan, Barack Obama, called Uhuru Kenyatta, indicted for “Crimes Against Humanity” by those minions of Pax Americana, the International Criminal Court, to congratulate him for successfully conducting another Kenyan stolen election. Continue reading
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was mad. Not the kind of mad you get when your favorite team blows a big lead and loses its eighth straight game, but Red-Faced-Exploding-Blood-Pressure Mad. Continue reading
Just as with the April 2002 coup strife in Venezuela, stirred up by CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency provocateurs in the oil workers’ labor sector and in some parts of the military, the CIA is using a slightly different playbook prior to the April 14 election. The upcoming election pits Hugo Chavez’s designated successor, Nicolas Maduro, against the Western- and corporate-backed candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, the governor of Miranda state. Continue reading
The New Deal Party, I think, is a great idea for the left to seize upon. With so much of the Democrats/Democratic Party having gone DLC/Wall Street, the time is now more than ever for a third party. Continue reading
On Saturday, Egyptians were required to vote “yes” or “no” to the draft constitution. Out of the 51 million eligible to cast their ballots only 18 million did so during the crucial first phase that polled ten governorates, including Cairo and Alexandria. Continue reading
Preliminary results of last Saturday’s referendum held in ten governorates indicate that approximately 56 percent of Egyptians approve of the contentious Islamist-weighted draft constitution. The vote was hurriedly pushed through by President Mohammad Mursi amid an outcry from moderates and secularists who said the draft threatened freedoms hard-won during the January 25 revolution. Continue reading
More than weeks have passed since the night of the Rove meltdown and Romney’s electoral loss. Like the days after a major sports championship, everybody has an opinion on two things: why victory was achieved this time and how victory can be achieved the next time. However, political reality is quite different than sports. Democracy is more than a game. And if our current democracy is a game, the people lost in 2012. Continue reading
The most expensive election campaign in American history ended with more good than bad results, given the choices allowed. Voters defeated the possibility of cancer, but were unable to cure the polio we still suffer. A reactionary effort to take us further back than we have already gone was mostly unsuccessful. But the advances made were smaller than some wishful thinkers suppose. We need radical change in substance and got nothing more than stylistic moderation in form. Continue reading
Forty years ago, as a young, aspiring political operative, I was a staff member on Senator George McGovern’s presidential campaign. We thought we could beat Richard Nixon but famously lost every state in the union, except Massachusetts (with the District of Columbia thrown in as a forlorn consolation prize). Continue reading
‘Neck and neck,’ ‘too close to call’ said the pollsters. I did not realise just how wrong they were when I decided, admittedly in somewhat of a cowardly fashion, not to glue myself to the box for the first time in decades, as election results were being called. A Romney White House was simply too dreadful to contemplate. Continue reading
A mass grassroots election protection movement has been born. It’s finally forced the issues of mass disenfranchisement and hackable electronic voting machines into the mainstream. Continue reading
The Washington punditocracy worked overtime the morning after the election postulating the winners and losers in the 2012 election. Continue reading
The exuberant jubilation that was there for Obama’s first ascendancy is noticeably removed for the “grand orator’s” second term. Though his sycophants, rose-colored onlookers, and enablers of all sorts—are still singing their darling’s praises. A darling they should, certainly, not be trusting so unguardedly and who may, in fact, cleave them with a dagger,should they not be looking for it, in their much vaunted “gentleman caller’s” second term. Continue reading
The simple truth of Barack Obama’s victory is that if it had just come down to Ohio, Mitt Romney might have won. Continue reading
Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky, of Peoria, Ill., ordered all parish priests in his diocese to read a letter to their congregations condemning Barack Obama. The letter, to be read the weekend before the election, declared that Obama and the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate had launched an “assault upon our religious freedom.” Continue reading
Did you really want to face Mitt Romney and his gang? The ex-private equity CEO, company-killer, tax cuts for the rich enthusiast? The truth is, what Obama did was outflank and out-bullshit all these smart-ass white guys that voted for Romney, thinking they were a winner like Mitt was, on the money, no more taxes, the fix is in, all that and more, denial of women’s reproductive rights, denial of equality in the work place and so on. Continue reading
My cynicism about the stupidity of the American public would have increased exponentially if Mitt Romney would have been elected president. In over 50 years of voting and 25 years of working professionally in the world of politics and public policy, I had never seen such outrageous and persistent lies, distortions and intellectual insults from a presidential candidate. Please note that I was not an Obama supporter; I proudly voted for the Libertarian candidate. Continue reading
The election that was supposed to be too close to call turned out not to be so close after all. In my opinion, Obama won for two reasons: (1) Obama is non-threatening and inclusive, whereas Romney exuded a “us vs. them” impression that many found threatening, and (2) the election was not close enough for the electronic voting machines to steal. Continue reading
Sorry to dampen the celebrations but what have Americans learned from Tuesday’s elections? Continue reading
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Let’s not repeat the Barack f*ckup with Hillary
Posted on November 12, 2013 by William Blum
Not that it really matters who the Democrats nominate for the presidency in 2016. Whoever that politically regressive and morally bankrupt party chooses will be at best an uninspired and uninspiring centrist; in European terms a center-rightist; who believes that the American Empire—despite the admittedly occasional excessive behavior—is mankind’s last great hope. Continue reading →