Don't Fall for McCain's Speech – It's Time to Get Tough with the Hard Right

ok, the Unreconstructed 60's Radical is willling to play the Grinch on McCain's speech -

- "Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

- Don't let this all seem easy in retrospect: Obama's victory was very, very difficult - it took enormous resources, an extraordinary candidate, an economic crisis and an unprecedented uprising of young people and new voters to overcome the powerful Republican machine that has controlled this country for the past 38 years - Clinton essentially fulfilling the role of a moderate republican by advancing globalism, NAFTA, and removal of the Glass-Stagall act which unleashed the economic crisis.

- McCain is a hard-right reactionary just as Bush is, and any sentimentality about him in defeat is soft-headed, inappropriate and even dangerous: we need to get rid of all such moronic Republican dimwits and move the political dialogue into arenas of real substance.

This election was a golden opportunity to discuss issues - Obama was ready - but it never happened. Why? Because McCain is an intellectual midget: he had no answers on the economy, the war, on global warming, down the line, so his campaign had to rely on smears, lies, nasty racist attacks, and the Sarah Palin effect, a "whack job" candidate whose appointment reveals the deep irresponsibility and lack of moral basis that McCain and the republican party truly represent.

They would run Donald Duck if they thought he could win - but the more you think about it, the less funny that gets. The republicans play Americans for fools with idiots like Palin, putting us all in danger and *removing any real political dialogue from the democratic process.*

That's the central problem all progressives and democrats have to address:

***how to return the national dialogue to real political issues. That means economics, class warfare, taxes, war, global warming and racism. Education and health care are subsets of these categories.***

The republicans take the low road because it's the only strategy that will work for them: if republicans revealed what they really think, and what they really want to do to people (basically, enslave the country and the world) no one would vote for them.

And they know it.

So their only strategy is misdirection - they get you to take your eye off the ball, and then the goofy stuff takes over. Americans are a little too ready to be entertained and amused - a weakness that a Palin can readily exploit.

But McCain's mealy-mouthed speech was just that same kind of tactic - trying to get us to forget who the guy really is, and what he really said and did during the election, which was excremental.

The reality is, the Republicans don't need or want a *real* candidate - they only need manikins, the more distracting the better: like an actor (Reagan), an empty suit (Dan Quayle), a lazy, corrupt rich kid (George W.), a phony "war hero" (McCain) or a flat-out ruling-class fascist (Dick Cheney).

But instead of pandering to such people and tactics, democrats and progressives and leftists such as myself must take a much, much harder line - in particular we have to remove nasty little opportunists like McCain from the body politic, not find sentimental and soft-headed reasons to praise him because he mouthed a few words that someone else wrote.

This election hurled Mccain into the trashbin of history, where he's always belonged. But Palin will not go away, and the danger the republicans represent to our democracy has sharply increased in the past thirty years.

Make no mistake: dominance by the right wing means war, perpetual war, war we'll never be able to stop. And it means economic chaos, on a global level, with greed unleashed in the name of "deregulation" and "globalism."

Only when democrats - in victory for once - get really tough ideologically and politically, can we begin to roll back the ongoing threat that the right wing has posed for the entire planet. Listened to Limbaugh today or yesterday? It's pretty interesting - they're screaming "socialism" (this after George W. has invested US Treasury funds in private banks across the board – these hypocrites never complain about socialism for the rich!!) and the rabid, mad-dog right wing is always ready to take the ideological battle to the next step.

Get tough democrats: crush them. We've shown we can. We have a great leader taking the stage, but we have to do the leading - the ideas and the political force for change will always come from the grass roots. It's no time to relax, and it's certainly no time to waste one breath praising the ludicrous and embarrassing departure of John McCain, a killer of innocent women and children in the Vietnam war, who has made a career by marrying a rich woman and parading around as some kind of hero.

The world doesn't need any more John McCains - good riddance forever. Now let's clean up the rest of the mess.

Thanks for your patience -

The Unreconstructed 60's Radical

Tear down the Walls of Wall Street

>Tear down the Walls of Wall Street – a soapbox cadenza by the Unreconstructed 60's Radical

While trying to appear concerned on television this week - and even furrowing his brow in sincerity - lame duck George Bush in fact is laughing his ass off at every one of us after sweeping a trillion dollars off the table - and out of our pockets and our future earnings, since this is a debt we'll be paying off far into the future. Meanwhile he hands off a vast treasure to his fat cat pals - the final, climactic outrage of a nearly perfect fascist dictatorship, and a farewell gesture we should all understand very, very clearly – usually symbolized with a single, upraised finger.

Make no mistake about it : Bush won. We lost.

Republicans and other Ruling Class types will talk you to death about the overwhelming virtues and merits of the pure market system ...until they lose their shirts. Then they want socialism - socialism for the rich, as John Kenneth Galbraith points out, the only kind that's respectable in America.

Shame on all the Democrats who voted for the appalling, obscene payout to the real rulers of America - but the process leaves us a valuable X-ray of America's true underlying power structure: when the ruling class cracks the whip, all politicians - democrat and republican - line up and bend over to obey!

And then we pay. And pay, and pay and pay.

Here's a real demonstration of power: they tell you "We're taking a trillion dollars now, and you have no choice." That poisonous 'no choice' door-slammer was a unanimous drumbeat heard all week from all the media and from both candidates.

When anyone seriously tells you that you have no choice, well baby, it might be time to reach for your gun.

Because that statement is always, uncategorically, a lie. Every single time.

There is always a choice. Important not to forget that. Always a choice.

What was the choice here? Not long ago Scandinavia handled a similar situation differently - governments bought big chunks of ownership in the companies involved, preferred stock, with warrants to profit on any upside. Barney Frank and the Democrats didn't inform us of anything like that - instead the Democratic party railroaded us to accept the US government's spending a trillion dollars to buy worthless paper!

Result: the trillion goes down a black hole and no one will ever see it again.

Oh, and they'll soon be back for more - because this “solution” won't even begin to solve the problem. It does nothing to solve the liquidity crisis for example, which is the heart of the matter. Under this plan banks are under no obligation to lend, so they won't.

Instead they'll probably say they need two trillion more. Maybe three. Mark my words on this.

And it can't be lost on anyone that the entire exercise reveals what a sham democracy is in the USA : despite enormous, nearly unanimous opposition, the ruling class stuck this one to us and it won. Those representatives you thought represented you? No, not when it mattered they didn't – when the chips were really down, it turns out that they really represented... *them.*... Cheyney, Bush, Paulsen and their ruling class cronies who are all taking their winnings off the table.

They won. We lost.

So what do we do? Maybe it's a good time for people to ask themselves.

Demand radical reform – not phony bailouts, bandaids and humongous transfers of wealth to the ruling elite. No, U6R says this kind of false solution cannot be allowed to stand. If ever there were a reprehensible travesty of the democratic process, this is it.

'If it's too big to fail' - as they tell us - then *it's too big to be private* I say. Time to seize institutions, demand democratic control of all aspects of a new financial system, time to take power away from the real, backroom rulers of America who have just shown their hand, and shown us how powerful they really are.

Anger is valuable – because now there is enough anger in the air to change things, particularly to challenge all the Washington toadies serving Wall Street. Anger enough to destroy and rebuild all the institutions of economic tyranny, starting with the Federal Reserve, and replace them with a financial system run by - and fully responsive to - the American working taxpayer.

Because that's who needs to take over and be the boss now - the American working taxpayer. And that includes all the unemployed American working taxpayers as well.

We live at a dangerous moment, but an exciting one: right now the power, the will and the understanding is there for radical reform of banks and of the entire financial system. People are realizing that they must all be brought to heel before they destroy us, and usher in the radical right's solution, one that's waiting eagerly in the wings – privatization of everything, and a fullblown fascist dictatorship with an iron collar for working people everywhere. Perpetual war. Vast poverty. Global warming, chaos, disaster.

Since the 'growth mandate' of capitalism requires the cancerous expansion of everything - markets, populations, industrial production, natural resources – where is the alternative? How are we going to sober up by drinking an even stronger petrochemical cocktail and raising the atmospheric temperature?

With stakes this high, it's time to use the Shock Doctrine in reverse – use the crisis to create big, radical change.

Not to do so is to accept slavery, which always starts to look attractive as soon as the populace is whipsawed and terrified enough. That's heading right down the tracks at us as we speak: oppression, intimidation, suffering, and control. You lined up at the airport – now you'll line up for everything else.

We can't let that happen, but we have to move now. And let's face it – slavery is an embarrassing legacy to leave our children. Roosevelt pointed out early in the 1930's that all our economic problems are man-made. Unlike the ocean of messages you've been programmed with by the government and the MSM, the problems we see now are not caused by God nor by the overwhelming forces of nature – they are not inevitable and uncontrollable, in fact we are fully up to the challenge of changing the root causes the brought us here – if people understand that's what must be done.

And if they do, things can get sorted out pretty quickly.

Remember: when they will tell you it can't be changed – that's a lie.

It can, it must, and it will change – one way or the other, for better or worse. Let's choose “better” - time to tear down the walls of Wall Street and get rid of the insane, cancerous teetering house of cards, the financial nightmare that now threatens to throw the entire planet into chaos. Let's change it for good, and forever.

Thanks for listening – peace & love to all -

U6R

(your Unreconstructed 60's Radical)

Why John Kerry's low-key strategy makes sense

Why John Kerry's low-key stragey makes sense -
or, how John Kerry will President in 2005

December 14, 2004

I'm not one of those primarily interested in "reform" of the electoral system, although that would be nice.

I'm interested in seeing John Kerry become President.

And I think he will.

Now my radical friends from the days of the Vietnam antiwar movement would probably ridicule my interest in electoral politics, and with some justification. This election provides good evidence for their disrespect.

My reason for wanting to see Kerry become president is simple: it's the will of the people. He was elected on November 2nd, and the election was stolen from him.

The alternative to this is dark, nearly unthinkable: a future of sham elections with the hopes of working people and progressives raised to fever pitch again and again ... only to be disappointed on election day.

Tyranny - imposed by a series of covert operations the specifics of which the mainstream media are avoiding like the plague.

If you want to read chapter and verse on how dirty the Ohio election really was, take a look at the overwhelming evidence presented in the filing to the Ohio Supreme Court on December 13th, 2004, by attorneys Arnebeck, Fitrakis, and Truitt. It's proof, and it's powerful proof, that Kerry won the election.

Petition:
http://www.digitalimageination.com/MossvBush1.pdf
and here: http://joeorgren.com/MossvBush1.pdf

Injunction:
http://www.digitalimageination.com/MossvBush2.pdf
and here http://joeorgren.com/MossvBush2.pdf

Astonishing to read all the evidence professionally collected in one place, four dozen pages of outrage
after outrage.

But this is a very valuable document - it succinctly brings together all the big guns, Mitofsky, Freeman,
and the folks on the ground.

And the numbers are mind-blowing.

Guess what? Kerry won.

Six ways to sundown. And if you don't believe it, look at the probability that Kerry's uncorrected exit
poll swung 3.4% late on election day.

A more sensible bet would by paying for your next outing to a seafood restaurant with that pearl you
find in the oyster stew.

The injunction document isn't as substantial factually but also makes its case with power.

This is a hell of a group of attorneys! Hats off, counselors - and thank you for defending American democracy.

So why Kerry's apparent passivity? What could explain Kerry's reticence even to acknowledge the Ohio recount?

Well, if you think about it, it just makes sense.

Kerry has no upside in going "public" - then the right wing media attacks him like a pack of wild jackals, and he becomes the issue, the target, suffering abuse and humiliation no matter how just his cause.

The clever strategist will understand that the point must be to win, not to grandstand.

Sometimes you have to be stealthy, even somewhat devious, to win.

Much better to take your opponent unaware. That's actually a very clever strategy that's worked in the Kerry/Bush instance: Bush has been cruising along since election day without giving this thing one bit of thought.

Stay sleeping, Georgie boy.

Because some awfully big shoes are dangling as we speak, and are about to drop.

Biggest is the Arnebeck filing, by far. If the court agrees to hear the case, then Arnebeck (a Kerry friend for 20+ years someone wrote) gets the all-important legal tool needed to blow this whole thing sky-high.

He gets discovery.

And with discovery there's no hiding anything. All cards have to be on the table. That's actually the purpose of the legal exercise - to discover what evidence your opponent might be sitting on that could help your case.

Kerry's war chest comes into play - hiring sophisticated forensic and computer experts to make the case legally.

Kerry's attorneys are also asking for hand counting of 92,000 'no-vote' ballots.

There are further ramifications to the court case as well: Arnebeck has already requested a restraining order against the current Ohio Electors, and that would only be the start.

I cannot source this comment - it was made privately - but it comes from someone directly involved with the Ohio efforts. Word is Kerry, Edwards, and the DNC are all following events in Ohio "carefully."

Implication is: they're waiting for the right moment to strike.

Ah. So that means - maybe they do care, but are being quiet about it. The more I thought about that, the smarter that approach seemed ...

Then there's the recount itself: if serious inconsistencies surface in the "randomly selected" (and that's the next issue Kerry's lawyers should go after with hobnail boots) 3% of the vote by hand-count, then the hand count has to be extended to cover ALL votes in the area.

That's where the rubber hits the road in recount efforts - going over everything with a fine toothed comb and finding where all those lost votes might have gone. I think we'll see the Republicans scampering for the underbrush on this one.

Finally there's what I would call the "Revolutionary Situation."

If the recount - with the correction of obvious statistical deformities in the system, which have probability numbers attached to them - shows that Kerry won Ohio, then he is President of the United States.

Or should be.

On a mechanical level, this probably would mean a challenge to the seating of the Electors in January 2005, which throw both houses into separate, private conference.

If the legislature comes back and denies Kerry the presidency, then we're at the Revolutionary Situation.

I think the right wingers will hesitate before executing what will in essence be a coup d'etat, a seizure of power. But they did get away with it before.

That means the final and most important part of Kerry's low-key strategy is us - getting us in the streets, which Al Gore prevented Jesse Jackson from doing in Florida in 2000. This time Mr. Jackson and a lot of other people may not be so polite about a stolen election.

I demonstrated over the weekend - here in L.A. with a truly grass-roots band of activists who picketed and banged drums and entered into conversation with drivers stopped at the light, right in front of the CBS studios at Sunset and Gower. I'd say about half the people who drove by gave us a honk, a wave, a thumbs-up or a positive gesture of some kind. Most were highly enthusiastic.

My impression: despite media silence and "lockdown" there are a lot of people out there who feel strongly that the election was rotten, and stolen. We just need to create a movement that gives their dissatisfaction a place to go.

Tens of thousands, why not millions on the street. That's what will make John Kerry president.That's the radical approach in action - go to the streets and don't stop. Bring the government to a halt if you have to.

The Revolutionary Situation.

You think the Ukraine election would have been toppled without street demonstrations?

This could all be closer than we think. My L.A. experience made me think there are millions out there who are angry about the election results, and don't believe them.

Meanwhile we must HAMMER the media every day demanding that they take notice of events in Ohio. That will make the movement-building a lot easier.

Headlines reading "Ohio Supreme Court agrees to hear Recount Case" would also take things to another level entirely. And I'd just as soon have the Republicans taken by surprise with that one - hand them their entrails on a plate before they realize what's happened to them. At that point the element of surprise could be decisive.

But as always, the grassroots movement out on the streets is what will finally bring about real, substantial change. We need to build that movement now and support the efforts of Ohioans in the recount, in their court battles, and most importantly in their street demonstrations, with demonstrations of our own all over the country to secure the just result of the 2004 election.

Kerry won. Any other result is unacceptable.

peace

Your Unreconstructed 60's Radical