RFK, Jr. and Senator Whitehouse Expose Republican Obstructionists

[GoLeft TV]

Run time: 06:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp07wRjW2ic   Posted on YouTube: October 04, 2010 By YouTube Member: golefttv Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: October 04, 2010 By DU Member: GoLeft TV Views on DU: 837

 
Recently, the Census Bureau released a new report showing that the poverty rate in America has risen to a staggering 14.3 percent. In addition, we now have roughly 10% of the American workforce unemployed, and that doesn’t include the numbers of people who are no longer receiving unemployment benefits or who have quit looking for work. And in spite of the Republicans’ claims that the Democrats are not doing enough to create jobs, the Senate passed a bill last week that would make billions of dollars available to small businesses to create more jobs for working Americans. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. discusses this bill, as well as the Senate’s other efforts to decrease the number of unemployed Americans, with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

[opihimoimoi]

1. This is a brilliant Senator who wiped the floor with Carl Sheeler in 2006 RI Primaries

If ya recall, Carl ran as a DEM but upon being defeated, promptly endorsed the GOP candidate, Lincoln Chafee,.... esposing himself as a DINO...

Whitehouse went on to become one of our most stellar Senators of late..He is Oval Office material...

[JDPriestly]

2. Obama made a huge mistake in that he did not start out by

trying to dismantle or at least weaken the infrastructure that underpins the extreme right: their stranglehold on the media, the money they spend on "think-tanks," their use of language as propaganda and their dependence on big military (i.e., government tax money) expenditures to insure that they have the money to fund their dominance.

The key is ending the monopolization of our culture and our political life by huge multi-national businesses. How many media outlets should one corporation or alliance of corporations be permitted to control? At what point in consolidation do we no longer have a free press?

True, too much money is spent on right-wing think-tanks. Meanwhile, university budgets -- especially public university budgets that encourage free speech and unbiased intellectual activity -- are cut. Obama could have focused on increasing public funding for public education. Instead he is strengthening corporate control over our intellectual life by increasing private investment in and control of education at all levels -- even elementary school.

Obama did not analyze the key problems in the country before becoming president. So far, he has only dealt with superficial issues. That is what is getting him into trouble.

Obama's handling of the BP spill is a good example. He should have started a public conversation about the control and direction of energy policy and national resources. He should have questioned the stewardship of the corporations that lease and exploit our lands. Instead it appeared to Americans that he was siding with the irresponsible corporation BP. That was downright foolish. Sorry, but it was.

Obama failed to seize an opportunity to start a national conversation on a major issue. He failed to question the fundamental assumptions that most Americans have about how our environment and energy resources should be handled, who should be responsible for protecting them. Then he wonders that he is blamed for the entire situation. This is but one of many opportunities that Obama missed due to a lack of intellectual power among his aides.

The movement that supported FDR grew out of the populist, reform movements of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In a way, FDR destroyed the momentum of his own base by transferring so much responsibility and power to the government.

During his campaign, Obama started to rebuild a base movement that could have been populist, respected our traditions of individual freedom but have been realistic about the danger of the dominance of monopolies or coalitions of very large companies to that freedom. Then he got into office and became just another D.C. spokesperson. Since then, his perspective seems to have become hazier and hazier when it comes to limiting the power of the corporations.

The tea-baggers sense that Americans have lost their autonomy and individual freedom. Most Americans feel that way. But the tea-baggers don't understand that the very folks paying for the organizing of their movement are the ones taking away their freedom.

Obama needs to respond to the frustration that so many Americans including tea-baggers feel. He needs to talk about the infrastructure of our communication, about breaking up the dominance of our culture and economy by big corporations and Wall Street and once again returning political and economic power to ordinary individuals.

Obama is not doing that. Not at all. He seems to think his job is about handing out tickets to doctors' waiting rooms. No, his job is to dismantle the corporate noose around the necks of Americans. Nothing wrong with the concept of the corporation. Americans want capitalism, but we want freedom too. And these huge corporations are killing both capitalism and freedom.

Obama needs to do more than reorganize his staff. He needs to rethink his goals. That is the only way he can succeed.