BuzzFlash Mailbag for November 24, 2008

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Subject: The Choice to Retain Robert Gates

Should Barack Obama choose to retain Robert Gates, if only for a year, he will telegraph a victory of the bankrupt status quo in the far-reaching and foremost area of Defense. Having already appointed two Tenet alums, John Brennan and Jami Miscik, President-Elect Obama needs to show as much certitude with Defense as he is doing with Treasury. In making a strong case for a shift away from the Bush military era Melvin Goodman suggests several well qualified, experienced leaders who would do far more to make us safer, reclaim the moral high road while saving us billions of dollars at the same time. Mr. Goodman writes in The Public Record:

The retention of Bob Gates at the Department of Defense for any length of time would signal Obama’s support for policies he has publicly questioned in the past and indicate that he lacks confidence in his own ultimate choice of Secretary of Defense. Gates has been an enthusiastic supporter of such Bush Administration policies as the deployment of a ballistic missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic; the rush to bring Ukraine and Georgia into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; continued spending on a National Missile Defense (currently the most expensive weapons system in the Pentagon’s inflated budget); and the abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. These policies have weakened the international regime for non-proliferation and the arms control process with Russia and should be reversed by the new Obama Administration.

Having spent the last eight years gifting hundreds of billions of dollars to the Hallibutons and Blackwaters of our economy, it is high time we put an end to the pillage.

... Gates has failed to tackle the huge budgetary, personnel, and organizational problems that exist at the Department of Defense. A recent study by the Government Accountability Office revealed nearly $300 billion in cost overruns on the largest defense acquisition programs, a problem that Gates has not addressed. Gates also favors an expanded role for the Pentagon in nation-building, which will lead to huge increases in the already-inflated defense budget as soldiers on the ground become both cops and social workers.

It is understandable that a new administration might hesitate to change horses in the middle of a transition for fear that it might strengthen the “enemy’s” resolve. That kind of thinking, however, is deeply flawed. There are several individuals, briefed and ready to go, who would not only bring to the table the highest levels of experience required as Secretary of Defense but also the significant defense changes we so need . . . and were promised.

If Obama is genuinely seeking a bipartisan administration, then Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, an infantry officer in Vietnam and a man with deep knowledge of national-security affairs, would be an ideal choice.

Larry Korb, who has served both Democratic and Republican administrations at the Department of Defense, is an expert on defense spending and the weapons acquisition process. Among Democrats, Senator Jack Reed, another Vietnam veteran, and former senator Sam Nunn would be excellent choices. Richard Danzig has severed several administrations at the Pentagon and, unlike Gates, shares Obama’s priorities for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. None of these individuals requires on-the-job training at the Pentagon that would demand retaining Gates as secretary of defense for any length of time. Indeed, managing an appointment this way would be an insult to any qualified candidate for the job.

Let’s face it. Intelligence is still the key to any country’s security. Tragically, the Bush administration has raped the agencies of pure analysts, replacing them with individuals straight out of the military. Robert Gates will not put a stop to such a policy much less reverse the trend.

The United States must return to the strategic agendas of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, which favored significant reductions of nuclear weapons, the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and enhanced effectiveness for the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States must end its development of low-yield nuclear weapons, such as bunker busters, and deployment of national missile defense in order to return to the high moral ground in the search for disarmament.

[Gates] isolated the United States from the international community. President Obama must establish his own strategic agenda, and he should not begin by appointing or retaining those who served the Bush Administration and its failed policies.

We don’t have another year to waste. Melvin A. Goodman is senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA. He is a professor of international security studies and chairman of the international relations department at the National War College. He was division chief and senior analyst at the Office of Soviet Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency from 1976 to 1986.

Marji Mendelsohn
Cincinnati, Ohio

Subject: Don't Heed the Media

DON'T HEED-A THE MED-IA

a poem by Joan Wile

author, "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace" (Citadel Press, May 2008)

The media they feedya
sensation not sense
you, public, so dense,
allow them to leadya

They milk the inane
until we're insane
They fixate on Palin
day out and day in
until we're in pain
They're hung up on Hill
obsessed about Bill
They force feed us Britney
Expose ev'ry titty
until we feel ill

Why can't they relate
succinctly and straight
the substantive news
devoid of their views
Let us calculate our eventual fate

Joan Wile

Subject: Why can't liberal blogs get it?

Look at the facts, after 911 the president goes after an entire country, Afghanistan then Iraq, just to make sure things are stirred up real good. Now after spending 1 trillion dollars we have accomplished nothing, If media or 911 commission had done its job, everyone would know we were not attacked by any one country. It is same M O that Israel uses when one person attacks one of their citizens, they bomb the hell out of Lebanon or whoever they want. It just goes to show the citizens of this country the war against Iraq was planned beforehand. The downing street memo is evidence of that conclusion. The representatives in our congress are choosing to do the bidding of corporations who make money in wars. Eisenhower warned us, and now instead of discussing issues, the war machine is taking the country over where the soldiers who died to keep American free are now cannon fodder in the memory of a united people who yearned for a say in how their gov't acted.

Scott
Phoenix, Az

Subject: Inhofe says it's the Sierra Club, Coburn says it's the UAW.

Someone take my Senators please. Inhofe says it is the Sierra Club taking over Detroit and Coburn says,

The Big Three will not be competitive until their employment costs are comparable to their competitors. The United Auto Workers union and Big Three executives jeopardized the future of their companies by allowing employee costs to cripple their competitiveness. This combined with excessive corporate tax rates will undermine any business plan moving ahead. Additional federal funds will only prolong their need to reorganize and lower costs. Renegotiating labor contracts is the only sensible way forward.

After they get it together after busting the union, then he wants only limited influence from the Congress. After he screws the workforce he wants to keep the baby. On top of that he wants more corporate welfare. Those workers are just getting way too much. He likely wants to make the CEOs' tax cuts permanent. Tom, when is anything going to trickle down?

Maybe Tom would like to see how much he makes an hour. Remember when he was in the House he thought he should be allowed to make as much as he wanted over what he made in the House. He got in trouble for it. Whatever he gets he is overpaid. He is supposed to represent us and so far he only represents the wealthy. He doesn't even want all of us to have health care and he is a friggin' doctor.

“The labor rates of the Big Three are out of sync with labor rates across the nation and it is unfair to ask American taxpayers to subsidize poor management decisions. The only acceptable Congressional action would be the possibility of guaranteeing loans after labor contracts are renegotiated,” Dr. Coburn said.

Just screw the workers. Why should they be able to afford their house payments, which they negotiated according to their pay? Then Coburn can go after them for buying more house than they can afford and he can give all the financial institutions a free ride. He doesn't care how they made the money or what decisions Citigroup made he just wants to give them more tax cuts as reward for this fiasco. It is all the fault of we the people, none of the bigwigs are at fault.

I have never checked, but how much does Coburn charge in his medical practice? Are his pre-natal and delivery costs competitive? Does he pay his nurses and office staff well? Do they have health care or retirement benefits?

"No one in Congress wants to see these companies fail. Nor does anyone want to see workers’ displaced,” Dr. Coburn continued. “Fair bankruptcy proceedings would allow unsustainable labor contracts to be renegotiated and failed business models to be reorganized. By supporting and overseeing these proceedings, Congress can protect taxpayers, auto workers and auto companies. Decreased labor costs, lower corporate tax rates and an improved product mix will enhance the competitiveness of the American auto industry and keep our nation a leader in the global marketplace.

Not one thing has been done to help people to keep their homes. Fair bankruptcy proceeding, that is a laugh, for whom? I guess he must be talking about the corporations, because the GOP made a shambles of everyone else's bankruptcy laws. The creditors get saved even if every dime charged was for health care or food and not fur coats and jewelery. On top of that credit card companies can jack up interests rates with no limits.

More corporate welfare, less for the workers, no lowering of health rates, workers can't get a break filing bankruptcy, but CEOs can keep houses? Give it a rest, Tom, nothing has trickled down and nothing will trickle down because the guys in control couldn't care less and you are one of them.

Oh, wait, Tom is trickling down on me. I hope those astronauts get that machine finished because we are all going to need to turn what Tom is trickling into something we could drink.

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index...

Inhofe Calls it Environmental Thuggery--

"I unearthed green roots hiding beneath the bailout rhetoric", he said in a speech in the senate. On top of everything else my spell-checker just suggested I change Inhofe's name to "inhale". Let's get him a new job checking for brown roots in Okla. Rep. Mary Fallon's hair.

"In fact, there are 'usual suspects' working behind the scenes to subvert the auto bailout and ultimately betray auto workers." OMG, no, not the usual suspects being pointed out by the 'usual suspect', meaning the global warming ignoring congressional suspect.

Detroit has been hijacked by the "powerful environmental lobby" and the anti-green, pro-dirty air sheriff has caught them green-handed. Obviously we don't want any of that stuff that the Japanese and everyone else has managed to include in all of their cars. What will the "powerful energy lobby" do? Inhofe is quite comfortable in their back pockets.

Get me a sign, we can't have breathable air, we must stop it now or the drug industry supplying all those inhalers will go broke and the health industry will collapse if we get any healthier.

Sorry, I have to stop to go potty from all the laughing over the next sentence. "The money is a tool of Congressional industrial policy to turn GM, Ford and Chrysler into agents of the Sierra Club and other green lobbies." He gets this information from the Wall Street Journal, "make Detroit a subsidiary of the Sierra Club."

We can't have that, but does the Sierra Club own Toyota and all those foreign companies that have managed to green-up. Maybe the Sierra Club owns Japan.

"In their public statements, proponents describe the bailout as an attempt to save jobs, American manufacturing and the middle-class way of life. But look closely and you can see that what's really going on is an attempt to use taxpayer money to remake Detroit in the image of the modern environmental movement. Given a choice between greens and blue-collar workers, Congress puts the greens first."

Heaven forbid we should compete with the Japanese, we like the antique environmental movement. Inhofe loves his gas-guzzling polluters. The bigger the better because he gets a lions-share of his contributions from the oil industry. The man is so oily he has to tether himself to his congressional chair or he will slide right out and might get to close enough to hear what the other side says. He is definitely on the side of the CEOs in their corporate jets that use a lot of gas.

Inhofe and Bush want to give them the money, but with no limits on how it can be used, just like they want to do with the financial people. People, understand, we do not want to sell cars like the Japanese. We do not want to compete.

OMG, Jimbo has a colleague, who is a Democrat, Sen. Bill Nelson who wants 40mpg in 10 years and 50mpg in 12 and he wants hybrids, Made in the USA. Never!!!! "President-elect Obama has pledged to grant California a global warming motivated waiver to allow the state to demand its own standards of emission reductions from new autos." You would think with all that smoke from fires California wouldn't care about clean air. In fact the dirtier the better.

He quotes the WSJ, "All of this shows that Democrats don't merely want to save jobs. They want an entirely different American auto industry that serves goals other than selling cars to consumers. The green lobbies have disliked Detroit for decades -- for resisting fleet mileage standards and having the audacity to make SUVs, trucks and other vehicles that people have wanted to buy but that violate modern environmental pieties. For the greens, the bailout is their main chance to remake Detroit according to their dictates."

The Democrats don't merely want to save jobs, they would like to do it while saving the planet, as well. Remember Inhofe thinks their is no such thing as global warming. It is rumored that he also thinks all that crap coming from coal burning facilities and those chemical and oil refineries along the Houston Ship Channel is a big fog machine. He thinks you should be able to see what you are breathing.

The audacity of Detroit making SUVs and Trucks that don't get the same gas mileage of those produced by Toyota. I think we need to just kick that Sierra-backed Toyota bunch back to Japan. They might just make the air in Tennessee and Alabama too clean for the Inhofe/Shelby "If You Can't See It, Don't Breathe It" lobby.

"Environmental pieties", give me a break?

"The more realistic alternative to this Utopian green vision is to let GM or Chrysler file for Chapter 11 like any other company that can't pay its bills."

Let's just look at this a minute, how many of the firms involved in the mortgage flim/flam have filed for Chapter 11? I can't think of any, but my memory isn't that good. Hey, I think Citibank should be the first. This whole thing is so flimsy, it is more sheer than a honeymoon negligee.

Give the money guys, all they want, with not the slightest hint of a regulation and keep the Oil Lobby happy, keep the guzzlers. I heard oil went up $50 a barrel over the weekend and not a moment to soon, just in time for the holidays.

http://inhofe.senate.gov

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

Subject: Citigroup, but not Detroit?

I have to wonder why they have no difficulty rescuing Citigroup who obviously were doing the same as most other financial institutions, which means playing fast and loose with the market and anything else to make money without any regulation of any kind.

So what is the difference between them and the auto-makers? It seems to me they were doing the same thing which is using the least amount of money to make the most and not really caring what it did in the long run.

Does Citigroup have any corporate jets? Do their CEOs have golden parachutes? My guess is they do, anyone want to bet, but no one in Congress asked if they did? While the part about the golden parachutes came out while they were begging Congress, why didn't they ask if they came on corporate jets?

They only difference I see is that the GOP is into screwing the unions. Bank employees don't have unions, do they? They do have children to feed and make a lot less than the CEOs. They may have done some of the loans, but they did what they were told to do.

I even saw a piece on BuzzFlash complaining about the high wages of the regular guys in the factories, but I recall in the past decade unions taking pay and benefit cuts, while the CEOs didn't. By the way, Congress has taken no pay or benefits cuts from as far back as I can remember and I am 62.

The idea of blaming the blue collar workers who have no control, at all, zilch, on what kind of cars they make or what their mpg is. As far as I can see, this entire fiasco is from the top down.

Mr. Weill, Citigroup's retired CEO has to consult for up to 45 days a year and will be paid $3,846 per day. He gets to use the corporate aircraft (They do have corp jets.), a car and driver, an office and secretary. He has decided to reduce is NON-BUSINESS use of the aircraft beginning six years after his retirement. He also gets a supplemental lifetime annuity of $350,000, annually. His retirement benefit is $746,089 annually, not counting the annuity.

As far as I know, none of Oklahoma's congressional delegation has been the slightest bit concerned about this, but they sure do care about those autoworkers getting too much and they don't give to the GOP. You see our Congressmen, especially Coburn, Inhofe and Cole do not think blue collar workers deserve representation.

Right Wing Using Bailout Crisis To Push Anti-Union Attitudes -- Their 2008 Hot-Button Issue? -- A BuzzFlash News Analysis

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok.

Subject: Supersize that stimulating plan for me, Mr. Obama

To show you the magnitude of the rip-off this bail-out really is, consider the number of homes in foreclosure at 500,000 and double it to include those going into foreclosure next year. Now, forget about the amount needed to reinstate the defaulted mortgages. Instead, multiply that figure by the average value of all the homes going into foreclosure of about $300,000: $3 trillion. Obviously, this "bailout" has little if anything to do with residential real estate lending and more to do with investor greed.

If Congress can't get itself to see reality, at least end these lender's ability to damage homeowner's credit by busting the monopoly conspiracy between the three credit agencies and the lending industry.

Will Wyche
Palm Springs,CA

Subject: Energy

What do we do to get the nation to consider generating hydrogen to power cars, trucks, power plants, etc? Hydrogen can be generated by using wind power to generate electricty; to then use the electricity to electrolyze water into hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas then can be used as gasoline, diesel, coal, natural gas, propane is used today, minus the CO2, or any other pollutants. The federal government needs to do this and make it a federally owned operation to prevent constant price increases. A program of WWII importance will put many people to work as well as getting us out of the shennanigans involving the middle east.

Energy, in this day and age, is as important as water. We have socialized water to prevent the inevitable abuses. A federal program to build the wind turbines (maybe install them on old oil tankers sent out to sea to produce hydrogen) and create the distribution system is necessary. Why isn't there discussion of such an endeavor? How is a spark generated to put this on our political table?

Ron Spainhour
Apollo Beach, FL

Subject: Bailing the Ocean Instead of the Boat

The Republican Pantheon

Hi Buzz & Friends,

I've heard some right-wing commentary expressing resentment at Barack Obama modeling himself after Abraham Lincoln and studying Lincoln related literature. As always with these wing-nuts - you just don't know where to start.

I guess, studying anything at all is as good a place as any. Intellectual curiosity, of any sort, is almost non-existent for republican wing-nuts (they make history not study it). History is just a sound-bite theme to support their current objectives.

Second: There's only one god in the republican pantheon and everyone knows it: RWR.

Third: if Lincoln is the most exalted of the presidents, as the wing-nut was saying, then why have republicans abandoned him? Let's split them up. We'll take Lincoln and they can have RWR/666. And since they don't seem to care much about Eisenhower - we'll take him too, giving them the two bushes with Nixon as a bonus. What does it matter to them anyway they have their golden calf, hallowed by his name.

Semi-finally, Lincoln spent his entire two terms trying to keep the country together or unite it again. Does this sound like modern day republicans? The Palinites are secessionists for god's sake. Theirs is not the party of Lincoln but the detritus of the Confederacy.

Republican claims to Lincoln are just as tenuous as their claims to Christ are. It may be the messenger who is remembered, but it's the message that is important and the message that ultimately endures.

Abe was from Illinois, Barack is from Illinois. Abe had vision and a message - so does President-Elect Obama. The nation was deeply divided when Lincoln took office - hmmm. I can go on - because there is more to link the two men - both circumstantially and personally - I didn't even mention the most obvious.

But let me just say this: We are not Rome. We are not Athens. We are America. We have a pantheon of beliefs - not gods. Barack Obama knows that - so should wing-nut.

Obama studies Lincoln: It doesn't get any better than that. That's My America.

Tim Mooring
San Francisco

Subject: THE BUSH TORTURE COMMISSION

This approach to Bush's myriad felonies is just as SILLY and dismissive as the 9/11 and Warren Commissions - created to arrive at conclusions completely opposite what REALLY happened. As the other 2, the Bush Torture Commission will sweep 'Reality' & 'Justice' under the rug ostensibly to 'protect and preserve a fragile Union'.

Americans are the most profoundly & disturbingly STUPID, BOVINE, OBLIVIOUS, GREEDY, COWARDLY people ever to occupy this planet. They'd rather keep their heads down AND LOSE EVERYTHING than STAND UP & PROTECT WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY THEIRS.

Unfortunately, Americans are gutless GELDINGS - SLAVES to the WEALTHY OLD WHITEBOY 1%-ERS. Close examination reveals the ONLY PEOPLES who have fought and continue to fight them are BLACK, BROWN & RED. The Cream, White & Beige folks have NEVER raised a hand to their 1%-ER 'MASTERS'!

JOSEPH CONRAD
TUCSON, AZ

Subject: digital tv transition

Will this be a smooth transition? What is the real reason this is happening; is it to line the pockets of cable companies?

s
nashville

Subject: Baling the Ocean Instead of the Boat

Hi Buzz & Friends,

The notion seems to be that if we can lower the water level quickly enough we can keep the big banks' leaky boats from sinking. This is not a good plan.

As Senator Schumer explained on ABC's This Week program: The difference between the big banks and Detroit is that the underlying banks are healthy. It's just the bank holding companies that have engaged in some very risky behavior and lost badly. They apparently invented a new kind of monopoly money and spread it around allowing them as individuals to make millions in bonuses and salary. But their monopoly game has gone sour and they've accrued obligations of as much as 60 trillion dollars in monopoly money. Now they want to cash out of the game and have American taxpayers pay their monopoly debt - but in real money.

First of all, I fail to see what risks these big bankers were taking if the American taxpayer has to make good on their losses. I didn't get any fat bonuses or a multi-million dollar salary - did you? So we get any debt and they get any profit. If that's considered fair in this country - then I don't know America or Americans very well at all.

In a split second I can devise a better bailout plan. Why don't we simply issue some arrest warrants and see if these poor little big bankers can scrape together enough cash to bail themselves out of jail? The advantage of this plan is that it would go a very long way towards restoring faith in the banking system - without costing the taxpayer even a dime.

Chuck Schumer gave a vivid depiction of these holding companies as "too big to fail and having their tentacles everywhere". Given this scenario I recommend yanking this tentacled thing out from the rest of the catch, beating it with a boat hook until it doesn't move anymore - then toss it over the side.

From his pale complexion and frightened looking face I would guess that Schumer has had recent, first hand encounters with this tentacled creature. He used the phrase "even republicans agree" - which everyone knows to be a four-alarm expression - as republicans never change their minds about anything. The frightening implication here is that democrats have come around to the republican view. This should scare everyone half to death.

Perhaps the thing that I resent most about the "bailing the sea" plan is the way that the big banks are acting as though the taxpayers of this country are late on making a 700 billion dollar payment on their credit card. There's no gratitude. Only the rather grim promise that they'll be back for more latter. Meanwhile they have an important bridge club meeting across town and haven't got time to listen to Americans whine.

These banks want to turn the world on its head to suit their failed business practices. We must not let this happen. Every American needs to make their voice heard on this issue.

Tim Mooring
San Francisco

Subject: Larry Summers?

I really hope Obama is joking about bringing this guy aboard. He doesn't think women should be in science and math. ... it makes me sad that he has said he does not think women should be in science or math. I knew most people probably forgot Summer's tirade against women ... I would write to President Elect Obama and tell him I disagree with that post. Not that it would matter. What am I? Just a woman mathematician.

www.change.gov

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: Summers is called brilliant by many but has been embroiled in controversies. That's probably why he will not be Treasury Secretary.]

Subject: The Price of Our Good Name

Whose good name? The NYT? The one that gave us Judith Miller and still gives us David Brock under the guise of legitimate conservatism?

Excuse me, but the the price of "our good name", i.e, as Americans, as the progeny of democracy, human rights, freedom, and magnanimity is a myth until the investigation and impeachment of all those who have destroyed those treasures over the past eight years--starting with the bottom feeders both inside the Federal government AND the MSM--is thoroughly accomplished.

And that Obama will never do! So just forget about so-called "good names" or any other form of social or international justice with some sort of half-hearted rollback at Guantanamo, repeal of the Patriot and Military Commissions Acts or even if the DOJ's attorneys get their jobs back. History will never forgive us and there is no moral future for us until we excoriate and remove every tainted limb of the root of the poisoned tree that has strangled our heritage during the past eight years.

Will Wyche
Palm Springs, CA

Subject: A Thanksgiving video - what we should be thankful for and remember

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYKc0oyeXVs

Please note this hasn't been shown on television for at least the past 8 years. (5-minute Charlie Brown segment)

Mike Curtis
Greenbrier Ark

Subject: Bush

The next time I hear the name of that vile degenerate idiot bush mentioned anywhere, I want to hear it in connection with his execution for treason and war crimes. Good riddance to the worst blight in American history.

Sheldon Ceresnie

Subject: Democrats' legacy: auto industry on the brink

Incredible. A collapse of the Detroit auto industry and the restructuring of contracts may just break the United Auto Workers, and the former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich seems quite indifferent. In "Why We're Rescuing Wall Street and Not the Auto Industry: Citigroup Versus General Motors" he argues there's a Treasury/Fed bias influencing government aid to Citigroup.

If Treasury is out there pushing for propping up the banks, shouldn't we have a Labor secretary pushing for manufacturing? Yet one of the Democrats' most recent Labor Secretaries is busy justifying the Democrats' Congressional inaction and speaking much too indifferently about the demise of Detroit's car companies.

This is such a typical response by Democrats. The Democratic Party is so interested in displaying an aura of fairness that it will whack one of its own constituents in the knee. Where is the advocacy for the American worker and American manufacturing? Union workers, management, dealerships, and suppliers are all facing an uncertain future.

It's absolutely incredulous that last week the Congressional Democrats preferred bashing the CEOs' private jets rather than focus on the 3 million people at risk by a demise of the auto industry. Yes, the execs should have thought through the implications of the planes. Dumb move. But that point should have been made and then the Democrats should have moved on. To see the Democrats just hound the CEOs on Capitol Hill over that issue rather than probe into the financial data and the implications of government inaction was truly a dereliction of duty.

American manufacturing is at peril, and Democrats focus on a sidebar subject. If the Big 3 collapses, it will be on the Democrats' watch. Don't they get that?

Beth M
Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan

[BuzzFlash Note: Reich is not being indifferernt, but is calling attention to the need to intervene to assist the auto industry.]

Subject: Civilian National Security Force

What will the Civilian National Security Force be used for? Has Obama given details on that plan?

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: Here's what Obama said in July. The right-wing likes to suggest he's proposing an American SS.]

Subject: "Uncle Ted"

I was simply appalled at the senators' emotional display on the "retirement" of that Alaskan rogue Senator Ted Stevens. The man is a convicted felon on corruption charges yet has the gall to engage in collegial bathos.

The Senate should be ashamed of its actions, particularly "wide stance" Craig. Emotional drivel! It should not try and emulate the English House of Lords known for its flakes and torpid peers both temporal and spiritual. The real power is in The House as it should be in the US.

A. Leslie Palmer

Subject: Bush pardons solution

Early in my professional life, I was the editor of a small weekly newspaper in Tennessee. The upcoming situation of blanket pardons that is facing our nation with bush still in the White House was faced in Tennessee, and a solution was found, establishing a precedent.

Here's the quote from Wikipedia on Governor Ray Blanton.

[edit] Transition from Blanton to Alexander In January 1979, with his term expiring, the State's Pardon Board began to make a series of pardons that seemed to be either the product of sheer politics or open bribery. This generated outrage from both political parties. Leaders from both houses of the legislature, Lieutenant Governor (and Senate Speaker) John S. Wilder and State House Speaker Ned McWherter, searched for a way to prevent further damage to the state's reputation. They found it in the state constitution, which is somewhat vague on when a newly elected governor must be sworn in. It was eventually decided to swear in Alexander three days before the traditional inauguration day.

And no, Blanton was not a Republican, but a Democrat. The GOP doesn't hold the patent on crooked behavior. You can also see this dramatized in the Sissy Spacek film MARIE.

Is it law that our new President MUST wait until January to take office?

Mike Curtis
Greenbrier Ark

[BuzzFlash Note: The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1933, set that date.]

Subject: The Two Step Program For Changing The World

"The first step?"

"Ending the Iraq War."

"Done how?"

"There was this so-called security pact, which, if approved by the puppet Iraqi parliament, would have extended the U.S. military occupation for a minimum of three more years."

"Otherwise?"

"Troops out now."

"Number of lives that subsequently were saved by troops out now?"

"Thousands and thousands."

"So what ended the Iraq War?"

"Iraq's puppet parliament was about to approve this pact, when, in a reprise of "The Battle of Algiers", the streets of Baghdad erupt?"

"With what?"

"Mass uprisings."

"Peaceful?"

"Naturally."

"Why naturally?"

"Because as Mohammed Ismael*, 17-year old student from Sadr City and participant in the mass uprising put it, 'We are against this agreement and we will resist it in any way.'"

"Based on?"

"Patriotism."

"Meanwhile here at home?"

"President-elect Obama lets it be known that he will make good on his campaign promise to bring the troops out within 16 months, provided the Iraqi people are in agreement with this and are up to keeping the peace."

"The effect of that message?"

"The bloodshed quickly stops."

"And the second step towards change?"

"Universal health care?"

"Based on?"

"Yes we can."

"And since then what sort of world?"

"It's been up to us."

*'Iraqi protesters burn Bush effigy' - Saturday's LA Times

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Time for Bush to step down

It is time for George Bush to step down.

He and Richard Cheney should resign.

Then, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, next in the order of presidential succession, will serve as president until Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20.

Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury appointed by Bush, is currently out of ideas. And the ideas he has had so far have worsened the world economy.

Paulson is the most important man in the world at this moment.

The world needs better.

Anthony King
San Francisco CA

Subject: Cheney indictment is path to Bush pardon

If Cheney and Gonzales are indicted in Texas then Bush will have the Constitutional authority to pardon them.

Maezeppa
Los Angeles CA

Subject: A Visionary in Obama's Cabinet

Obama needs a practical visionary in his Cabinet to succeed. The incremental Clinton approach will not work in a dire economic recession. The big difference maker Obama needs to appoint is Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich can excel in any number of positions and bring out the best in Obama. www.change.gov is where you can make suggestions to the Obama team.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Bank "Bailout"

Has anyone noticed the complete lack of mainstream coverage of the scandalous give away of 2 trillion greenbacks unaccountable as a secret from Paulson et al.!? Naomi Klein gives us the most responsible take on this that I've seen and yes no mention even on NPR. Perhaps 'This American Life" can truly vindicate itself again after such great reporting on the early stages of the economic meltdown, though this historic illegal giveaway is more monstrous than the wars going on....I regress..J

Joel Hazard
Toledo OH

Subject: Upon Realizing That The Changes One Can Believe In Are Actually Taking Place

"What was one's immediate reaction?"

"Welwadayaknow?"

"Odd?"

"Why odd?"

"One had to have seen it coming."

"Not."

"Why not?"

"With one's just getting by as tough as it must have been way back then, it made no sense wasting one's time and energy on that which is never going to happen."

"Then why the wadayaknow?"

"Dreams."

"Anything else?"

"Yes we can."

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: President Obama

Why am I hearing complaints about President Obama?

I'm used to hearing the neocons moan and groan spewing hate, but to hear complaining from our own Democrats is disturbing.

Have we've forgotten the stolen elections the deceitful lies, and dreadful journey to the pits of hell, for eight grueling years of the Bush/Cheney regime?

President Obama has the inner strength to not only forgive everything that has been thrown at him during the primaries but to keep a clear head in picking the right people for the job of helping him bring what is good, and right to "We The People" of America.

Enough! Help, and pray for this honorable man who is risking his life by taking on this awe inspiring task of President, and believe he will do exactly what he promised to do. A promise from Barack Obama is a promise I would trust the future of my grandchildren with.

God Bless President Barack Obama. With his election I am finally able to exhale and have hope for the next generation.

Faith or Doubt -- Second Guessing Obama. Are You? -- A BuzzFlash News Analysis Is Obama Letting Progressives Down, Or Are We Not Cutting Him Enough Slack? Tell Us What You Think.

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