Sam Husseini summarizes the setting in the House Chamber: "Bottom line: the people in that big room - rhetoric aside - are united for the 1%; the 99% are largely unrepresented." So Obama can casually say, in regard to Iran: "There's no option off table" - an "open threat, openly aggressive, [and according to the UN charter the threat by itself is] illegal." There's little check on an imperial policy that serves only that 1%.
Obama begins with the murder of Bin Laden, which - the rest of the world recognizes - multiply violated international law. And he ends with a chilling invocation of the military - and the murder of Bin Laden! "All that mattered that day was the mission." We've been warned.
But a noted liberal, Michael Moore, opines that the speech had "a great, great close!" That was Obama's invocation of the military who can arrest you without charge and hold you indefinitely without trial. Gov. Mitch Daniels, following suit, begins the Republican response with the murder of bin Laden...
Obama's encomium to the military didn't mention that he's empowered them by unconstitutionally abolishing habeas corpus, in the NDAA that he signed quietly on New Year's Eve. (One blogger notes, "More than a little disturbed by notion that the US military should be institutional model for the rest of society"; another offers, "Shorter Obama: You members of Congress are ALL FIRED! I'm hiring the Generals instead.")
The SOTU speech, although obviously a campaign speech, makes it clear that we should ignore the presidential election and concentrate on campaigns (like Occupy, etc.) to reverse Obama's military and economic polices. Elections are what we do instead of politics in America - where policy is insulated from politics.
--CGE
On Jan 24, 2012, at 10:30 PM, Mitchel Cohen wrote:
>
> Here are my instant comments:
>
> He supported hydro-fracking and "clean energy" a LOT (but without
> mentioning that label). He said he'll be opening up millions of
> acres of public lands for that purpose. The only caveat was that
> he'd require companies doing the fracking to reveal the chemicals
> they're using.
>
> The Great Oz (Obama) also humbugged his way through proudly saying
> that more offshore oil is now being drilled than ever before, and he
> will expand that. The caveat was saying he'd close tax subsidies and
> loopholes for oil companies, who have been receiving them for a
> century.
>
> He did not call for exonerating the student debt or even providing a
> moratorium on it as so many had hoped (though he packaged this as
> though he was making some great concession), but for stopping the
> increase in interest rates due this summer, leaving the current
> interest rates in place.
>
> And he called for all millionaires to pay a 30 percent tax rate as
> Warren Buffet has written (as though that will generate any
> significant funds), but failed to mention that under FDR that was a
> 92 percent rate, and even under Kennedy is was over 70 percent.
>
> Of course, as expected, he wrapped himself in the flag and rah-
> rahhed the extra-judicial murders of bin-Ladin and Qaddafi (instead
> of obtaining warrants and arresting them), and while praising
> himself for pulling back troop levels slightly in Afghanistan said
> nothing about the U.S. government's reliance on the vast increase in
> paid mercenaries there.
>
> And, he talked about making the U.S. profitable for businesses to
> hire workers. He should have prefaced it by saying, "now that we've
> busted unions and are eliminating environmental regulations, and
> bailed out the banks and auto industry we can make U.S. corporations
> even more profitable." He also continues to support the so-called
> "free trade" agreements that sent millions of U.S. jobs abroad.
>
> Hey, I didn't take notes. Those are just things I remembered, off
> the top of my head. So many people want to feel that they are part
> of something greater than themselves that they may again fall for
> Obama's rhetoric. Which would be unfortunate. The corporate TV
> pundits were harsher than usual, and pitched the whole speech --
> without mentioning any of the specifics listed above -- in terms of
> his electoral fight with the Republicans: "Will it help him?" "He is
> drawing a line in the sand to challenge Romney or Gingrich." No
> analysis of the specific issues Obama brought up on behalf of his
> corporate masters, while seeming to be a populist.
>
> At least that's my immediate read on his speech. What did others
> think?
>
> Mitchel Cohen
>
>
>
>
> http://www.MitchelCohen.com
>
>
> Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering.
> There is a crack, a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in.
> ~ Leonard Cohen
>
>
>
>
>
>
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