Forum Post: Breaking With Convention: Occupy Chicago Protests GOP in Tampa, Democrats at Home
Posted 12 years ago on Sept. 8, 2012, 4:25 p.m. EST by LeoYo
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Breaking With Convention: Occupy Chicago Protests GOP in Tampa, Democrats at Home
Saturday, 08 September 2012 12:43 By Joe Macare, Occupied Chicago Tribune | Report
On September 17, Occupy Wall Street will mark its one year anniversary with a spirit somewhere between celebration, outrage, and the need to reaffirm its own identity and significance. But in Chicago the Occupy movement seems to have other priorities for September, namely protesting the Democratic National Convention and supporting the likely teachers' strike.
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As Chicago Teachers Head Toward Strike, Democrats Turn on Their Union
Saturday, 08 September 2012 11:22 By Theresa Moran, Labor Notes | News Analysis
Have Democrats abandoned teacher unions in their pursuit of a corporate-backed education overhaul? From the looks of the Democratic National Convention, it would seem so.
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: At This Year's DNC, President Obama Offered Choice, Not Change
Saturday, 08 September 2012 09:35 By Thom Hartmann, The Thom Hartmann Program | Report
Thom Hartmann here – on the news...
You need to know this. President Obama took the stage at the DNC on Thursday night and instead of talking about change – he talked about choice. The President said, "when all is said and done – when you pick up that ballot to vote – you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation." You know, it's easy to resign into cynicism and attack both parties as tools of the corporate elite. But the President's speech last night revealed that there are still enormous differences between himself and Mitt Romney – differences that will affect the lives of tens of millions of Americans. As the President outlined, it's a choice between hiring teachers or firing teachers. A choice between making the rich pay their fair share or shifting more of the tax burden onto working Americans. A choice between doing something about climate change, which the President said "is not a hoax," or continuing to do nothing as the planet gets dangerously too hot. It's a choice between relying solely on big oil to energize our nation or adopting clean energy. It's a choice between Medicare and no Medicare. It's a choice between getting the healthcare you need or being denied health insurance for pre-existing conditions. Ultimately, it's a choice between having a middle class in America – or not. And even though the president didn't mention it, this election will be a choice between having a Supreme Court for the next generation that sides with working people or having a far-right Supreme Court that sides with corporations. Many progressives are disappointed with President Obama – and many have good reason to be. But if we sit out this election, then the oligarchs will only tighten their grip on power in America. That's what's at stake.
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Kill Lists and Giant Triplets: Obama and the Neoliberal Government
Saturday, 08 September 2012 10:51 By Tolu Olorunda, CounterPunch | Op-Ed
Power is self-sufficient, a replete possession, and must be maintained by whatever agency is required.
—Wole Soyinka, Climate of Fear
Wars, especially undeclared ones, invariably boost the powers and status of the president as commander-in-chief. ... A president, however feckless or imposing, is transformed, rendered larger than life. He becomes the supreme commander, the unchallengeable leader and the nation incarnate.
—Sheldon Wolin, Democracy Incorporated
[Author’s note: This essay is an excerpt from The Substance of Truth (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2011). It is offered for reflection on the day the president would, should all go right, accept his party’s nomination for re-election. The begging question, then, is four more years of what? Neoliberalism and imperialism unhinged?]
On January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama received the mantle worn for eight years by George W. Bush, and thereupon swore a new course in domestic andforeign policies, calling in the Middle East for "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," and assuring an economic model on the domesticfront that "helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, [and] a retirement that is dignified."
It's been more than two years now, and the tight rope upon which many balanced their hopes—for a truly different and transformative model of governance—has lost a good deal of fidelity, as the Obama Administration proves day after day a determined unwillingness to stray far from many of the policies that earned the ire of millions, the world over, while his predecessor held the fort. From the Justice Department, to the Money Department, to the War Department, promises delivered on the campaign trail that elevated the spirits of citizens, Left and Right, and inspired a political uprising—following eight harrowing years of hubristic, neoliberal rituals—haven't met the early manifestation many expected with a new face and new mind manning the White House. So, now, one question widely abounds: Who is the real Obama? But to ask "is to drift towards the illusion of thinking there is one—as opposed to an infinitely mutable organism, endlessly adapting to political circumstance, with an eye eternally cocked to the main chance."
Rahm Emanuel is another good little Republican boy. I hope the teachers do strike. This is beyond ridiculous.