In recent weeks, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has treated his supporters to a series of unsettling revelations about his views. Obama now supports extending the death penalty to a new category of crimes; he sided with a decision striking down Washington, D.C.’s 32-year ban on handguns; he plans to vote for a bill that sanctions domestic spying; he gave a hawkish… return to article
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Reader Comments (4)Page 1 of 1 pagesPoliticans are politicians. Why would anyone think Obama was any different?
Posted by Greytdog on Jul 8, 2008 at 11:28 AM “Further, Obama has embraced the mantra of personal responsibility.”
Yea! Hopefully we all can embrace this!
Posted by wolf on Jul 8, 2008 at 6:26 PM The death penalty case was not simply rape - the child was torn apart by a 250 lb man, left to bleed to death, and her ongoing-as-she-grows reconstruction won’t be painless or invisible - she was his second victim, and these criminals grow more violent, not less. Ever fight for real rehab for the victims of these crimes?
Gun case finally laid to rest NRA’s claim that government has no right to make legal demands of gun owners, that’s why Barack favors it. It would take one helluva Supreme Court to rule all gun ownership illegal except in the hands of the military and police. I would break that law. I won’t be at the mercy of renegade military or police, or of a police state. I wonder why progressives don’t try to stop gun smuggling and stop trying to eliminate legal gun ownership? Smuggled US weapons are murdering thousands daily around the world.
One DLC of numerous advisors does not a DLC economic policy make. Obama has advisors on opposite sides of all issues, on purpose. I refuse to get in a tizzy over advisors who have to come from somewhere, and everywhere is tainted. The ultimate decision rests in one person’s hands and, so far, I trust Obama’s.
AIPAC speech - hated it, but expected no less since they were dead set against Barack until he did it, as he’s not letting their PAC donations get into his campaign or the DNC. That’s a first.
Faith-based organizations? I’d go hungry without them. I had no idea my local foodbank is faith-based except they treat people so well and it’s clean with good fresh clean food. I wasn’t sure until I asked. They never proselytize or even give their church props. Why don’t progressives go after how dehumanizing Health & Human Services are, from disability to welfare to social security? You want those in need to get abused and forever shortchanged by the automatons who hate every client, without a challenge by “the defenders of the weaker”? And who’s really been serving, even organizing poor communities for decades when progressives get bored with a cause and move on?
The “real middle” is where Obama is - it’s not a switch or political ploy. Read his books. I was so left and anti so many things, we accomplished very little in the scheme of things. He’s middle and anti-corporate-rule, a refreshing change, and he gets cooperation where there’s usually opposition because of it.
Not even Kucinich did as much as Obama to at least begin to remedy racial profiling, to institute the toughest video recording law in the nation in Illinois of every police felony interview, to help at least put a moratorium on executions when innocents were being killed, to make childcare subsidies six times what the Clintons allotted for Illinois, so women could do what we want to do - get off welfare and be able to study and work! That’s changing lives, not lofty rhetoric.
When I see progressive show focus and stick-to-it-ive-ness to achieve even these moderate improvements nationally, I’ll be glad to work for radical change again. In my decades of activism, I’ve seen false starts, limited commitment, and many balls dropped in the face of what should be expected sabotage and resistance.
As in FISA. I have a foot-thick FBI file with a bunch of redacted nonsense and unflattering photos. I don’t doubt that no mere law will stop an empire nation from spying on its own citizens - never has, never will. Presidents can’t stop it. John Lennon and lord knows Martin Luther King Jr. couldn’t stop it. Spy agencies are numerous, and those are the visible, bare shells. The ones we don’t know about are the ones hurting us - and they’re out there. Until we end, worldwide, corporate supremacy over human beings, we’re stuck with this.
So, to accomplish the small stuff, build up a cadre of serious dedicated comrades and an alternative system for when we can gather all our forces and topple this miserable corporate fascism, has become my goal, and I like Obama’s very effective tactics.
Posted by Inaru on Jul 9, 2008 at 10:58 AM Look, he’s running on the promise of change, so why get your skivies in a knot when he demonstrates it each day and every day?
The only upside to the promises of candidates is that they can only really do what the lobbyists will write into a bill.
Save your ideas and your money — buy a lobbyist.
Posted by whattheheck on Jul 9, 2008 at 3:46 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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