Who is in control of the White House?

[SargeUNN]

I have been a supporter of Obama and still am, but I wonder if he is in control of the White House. He needs to fire Simpson and doesn't when Simpson's crap is totally against what the Democratic Party and Obama are suppose to stand for. Yet Fox Noise runs a liable story on Sherrod and they fire her without consideration. Just makes me wonder who runs this White House. Come on Obama take charge on this.

[valerief]

1. Pinochet's zombie. nt

[DJ13]

2. A guess...

[Better Believe It]

3. That's a tough question. Let me hazard a guess.

I think that pretty much sums it up when dealing with economic policy.

[zipplewrath]

4. What makes you think

It isn't Obama? After 18 months, one has to begin to realize that Obama probably has exactly the White House he wants.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. Have to agree there.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WCGreen]

27. He was my third choice....

I thought he was coming on the scene too fast and too furiously...

He had a scant record, to say the least...

[zipplewrath]

33. I backed into him as well

When it came down to the whole Clinton/Obama thing, I was more about not having Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton than particularly an enthusiastic Obama supporter. I figured that it would be good for the democrats to have the first AA president, although the first female would have been good too. And yes, I thought it would be nice to have a decent orator for a change.

I was concerned about his inexperience. Kennedy suffered some early setbacks because of it. Obama would be walking into two wars and an economic collapse on day 1. I do think his inexperience has shown on occasion, nothing disasterous, just a stumble here and there. But overall I am led to believe he is achieving and doing the things he wants to. I'm not buying this whole "congress is holding him back" schtick.

[Jefferson23]

5. An oligarchy is not too far fetched in my opinion. Sad is an understatement. n/t

[nashville_brook]

6. i think this is a good question. i don't think that Obama is a bad person/pol...

i do believe he meant what he said in the campaign and during the *first few weeks* of the new administration. but something has changed, and it feels similar to when things at work b/c of diff management.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. I LIKE Obama. Seems like a nice, genial smart guy.

It's the people in power I dislike.

[TBF]

51. You don't think Obama has any power?

Seriously? Sure he's more attractive and articulate than George Bush, but do you really think he has no choice in this? We all make a choice whether to sell out or not in many ways.

[nashville_brook]

7. dupe/delete

[Subdivisions]

9. The Oligarchs. n/t

[opihimoimoi]

11. The Span of Control (5 to 6 is best) is very often violated in most large administrations, imho

When there are 15...20 peeps in a room for a series meeting...how does one cope with the many ?'s and solutions effectively?

in an hour?

2 hours?

on the surface...all would seem well ...sometimes with help such as spin

But, Frustration and stymieness is shown with body language and failed spin..

Dilution is the pain of ignoring the rule of 5

[VMI Dem]

12. Obama.

[FrenchieCat]

13. We the people could be, if only we stopped blaming folks as our only answer,

and start being smart about how to achieve our goals through activism; not activism only centered around demonizing via exaggeration and hyperbole,
but activism centered around making sure our voice is heard with an alternate solution to whatever problem it is that we are mad about.....
because I believe that making positive change requires providing the President with what we see as an alternative without acting like we are part of the opposition which is what we look like when we pile on.

One of the ironies about our current political climate (which is a hateful and unintelligent one) is that many believe that the President's team should be way more media savvy, and should know how to get their message out without the media stepping on it....while progressives that disagree with this White House, time and time again allow themselves to be used by the media in order for the media to do nothing more than beat up on the White House, without really ever making the progressives' case.

The point is that politics is a very difficult business because it isn't fair or even impartial, and the more that many ignore these facts (like the real part that the media plays in manipulating all sides, and public opinion as well), the less effective all efforts to improve the direction of this country will remain.

[Better Believe It]

19. Most liberals/progressives have used your strategy for the last year and a half. How have they done

[asdjrocky]

47. That's exactly what most of us have done all of our lives.

It's not working, Obama doesn't listen. It's clear who he takes his orders from.

[bobbolink]

58. They want us to give up, and that makes me stubborn.

But with all the shit stacking up, I really don't care anymore.

I just found out that another DUer was cut off disability. It *IS* a purge.

Yet, even after thousands die and it turns out I was right and nobody chose to hear... even after that...... it just won't matter.

So, what the fuck.

"I don't know whether I don't care, or I don't care." B.J. Hunnicutt on M.A.S.H.

[earth mom]

14. The bankster gangsters and the rest of corporate america are in control. They want OUR money-

-Taxes AND Social Security-and they will do anything to get their grubby hands on it.

So far so good, ain't that so? :grr:

[pscot]

15. Well, he is the President

Unless space aliens kidnapped him and substituted an evil clone.

[unblock]

16. al haig, right?

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Autumn]

18. That would be President Obama in charge. n/t

[KarenS]

21. +1 n/t

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FrenchieCat]

24. Using "own him" when referring to a Black man, no matter his

station in life is ignorant or at best willful in its intention.

The hyperbole is sickening and dangerous.

[jgraz]

29. Well, that didn't take long

:eyes:

[Autumn]

31. Got that right

:wow: Got nothing else, you have to go with what you have.

[FrenchieCat]

35. What's amazing is that folks of color aren't allowed to say anything these days.....

about much of anything, lest they be called on the carpet
for using the race card. Folks of color need to get over it....
and certainly the reference to a human being as "owned" shouldn't
be up for comment as to what that might connotate in the minds of
folks of color...because some folks are the only one with the right
to make that determination.

Of course, if one is discussing sexism or homophobia, then pretty much
anything goes, in terms of what is seen as such, by those who represent
those communities....

How could I have dared to forget?? :scared:

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Glenn Beck? Racism and White Privilege on the Liberal-Left
Tim Wise

...."Other examples of liberal-left marginalizing of folks of colors’ concerns — and thus, people of color themselves — include the way many progressives seek to consciously downplay the role of race and racism in particular political struggles, even when such matters are central to the issue at hand.... The same problem emerged in the mid-to-late 90s in California and Washington State, when white-dominated liberal activists and campaigners were trying to save affirmative action from ballot initiatives that sought to eliminate it. In both cases, despite the obvious centrality of white racial resentment to the issue, organizers avoided discussing racism, either as a motivator for the anti-affirmative action movement, or even as a reason for why affirmative action was still needed and should be defended. Rather, they chose to focus on the impact to women as women (and especially white women) if affirmative action were ended."

"Perhaps the most common way in which folks on the left sometimes perpetuate racism is by a vulgar form of class reductionism, in which they advance the notion that racism is a secondary issue to the class system, and that what leftists and radicals should be doing is spending more time focusing on the fight for dramatic and transformative economic change (whether reformist or revolutionary), rather than engaging in what they derisively term “identity politics.” The problem, say these voices, are corporations, the rich, the elite, etc., and to get sidetracked into a discussion of white supremacy is to ignore this fact and weaken the movement for radical change."


"As such, the way in which that part of the movement framed issues, and made their case to an oftentimes hostile public, reflected first and foremost the concerns of white (and, it should be noted, middle-class) women. Thus, to frame the fight for women’s liberation as a fight for the right to a career and to break free from the chains of domesticity (as was so central to the early feminist writings of women like Betty Friedan), presupposed that women were not currently working outside the home. But of course, most women of color in the United States had always worked outside the home (as well as in it) and so the struggle as articulated in books like The Feminine Mystique was implicitly white, and of little value to women of color whose lived realities were different."
http://www.timwise.org/2010/08/with-friends-like-these-who-needs-glenn-beck-racism-and-white-privilege-on-the-liberal-left/

This is the second part of a two-part series on racism on the right and left of the United States’ political/ideological spectrum. Part one, which can be found Here: http://www.timwise.org/2010/07/reading-racism-right-to-left-reflections-on-a-powerful-word-and-its-applications/

[jgraz]

39. Well, that didn't take long

:eyes:

[TheKentuckian]

40. Talking about what you are "allowed" to say is the same as saying you are owned.

Fuck that shit, I'll say my piece and spit it out and I'm just as black as you and Barack. Descended from slaves and their masters generations in this country black.

I could give a runny shit about "the race card" being pulled or upsetting delicate sensibilities from either side, I don't care if somebody wants to call me a sell out, I don't care if somebody thinks I'm being uppity, I've heard it all. I've seen all the ugly. I've had plenty of my taste of Mississippi Burning and School Daze.

I could give a fuck. I'm an American and son of the people who's nation it was, those that conquered it, and those on who's backs built it and I sure as hell won't be "allowed" to say what I think on the whole ball of wax past, present, and future.

When folks say owned about a politician, yes even a black one, they are being kind and accounting the lion's share of the blame to an unknown power or even apparent ones.
The politician is just be pragmatic and keeping their head above water, maybe make a wave when they can, or dealing with too much established juice and playing the game.

Myself, I'll hold accountable the one that claims to have the strings until I see somebody pulling theirs so I can aim higher

[truedelphi]

43. I agree. It is ignorant, because Obama is the least owned person in the country.

He had a huge opportunity, there in February of 2009, to tell America's owners that he was elected president and would be doing right by everyone, and that thanks for the offer, but he could not at all
work for the Big Corporate Interests.

But for whatever reason,he decided to go ahead and work for them.

For that, he could well receive two terms in office, and all the royal lifestyle a la Bill Clinton once he is out of office.

But saying he is owned is not really true.

We the American Average Working Person are owned. We are the ones enslaved, regardless if our skin is white, brown, black, pink, yellow, red, purple or green. We are all slaves. And being offered fewer and fewer choices each day...

Meanwhile the prisons continue being built.

[Catherina]

48. Since when are you the arbiter of that? I'm Black and totally disagree

Kentuckian wrote an excellent response to your unsurprising hyperbole and I'm endorsing what he said.

I don't appreciate the way you just played the race card. It's not only totally sickening and dangerous but very destructive.

[Autumn]

25. They own all of our politicians.

We will continue to be lied to and manipulated .

[Jax]

22. Obama and his Dumbasses for the Leisure Class clowns.

Obama OWNS this shit.

[KittyWampus]

23. Rahm Emanuel. Du'h!

:sarcasm:

[Fumesucker]

28. The Professional Left..

SATSQ

[Catshrink]

30. He needs to fire a lot of people

Geitner, Summers, Duncan, Rahm.

[blm]

32. The 'experienced' Dems from the last Dem WH, which rolled over for GOP and called it 'triangulation'

as the left was too busy trying to put out daily media fires from the smokescreen bombs being thrown to distract us. And I sadly include myself in that distracted group. I should've been marching in front of the WH with signs demanding BCCI books be opened to the public and Poppy Bush and his fascist cronies be exposed and held accountable. There would have been no Bush2, no 9-11. And we would have had universal healthcare by the end of the 90s.

[glitch]

45. Those media fires were very strategically lit, as they are now. Eyes open.

The more 'we' triangulate, the further right 'they' move, triangulating towards fascism.

[blm]

52. exactly - - -Whitewater, my ass. Monica, my ass.

.

[ljm2002]

34. You say, "Simpson's crap is totally against"...

..."what the Democratic Party and Obama are suppose to stand for".

My question is, just what is it that the Democratic Party and Obama are "supposed to stand for"? I ask this sadly, as it seems to me the Democrats have given up the people's mantle, and are now firmly clinging to the corporate coattails in hopes that will keep them in power. Which it may, in the short term. But many of us already recognize we've been sold out and stomped on.

I thought that Democrats stood for the working man and woman. Historically that is what the party was about. Nowadays? Not so much, not so much at all. Instead they're trying to convince us that we're all part of the great financial engine, what with our IRAs (whose values have declined) and our homes (as we watch our equity disappear) and all those "investments" that the common people engage in.

Pffft.

[Usrename]

53. I'm not sure if this topic is allowed here at this site.

It would be an interesting discussion, but I really don't think it is allowed.

[metapunditedgy]

36. Just as Reagan was *responsible* for the Exec Branch, no matter how much he denied it,

Obama is now responsible.

"Who is actually making the decisions?" is a slightly different question.

[Progrimm]

37. If I had to guess

It sadly looks like Obama is planning to triangulate after the mid-terms like Clinton did after 94, which is horrible to say the least given his policies thus far have been far to corporatist as it is, looks like things are about to get much worse :/ At this rate it will take a second economic crisis before we can really take on the super rich in this country if even then.

[Progrimm]

38. If I had to guess

It sadly looks like Obama is planning to triangulate after the mid-terms like Clinton did after 94, which is horrible to say the least given his policies thus far have been far to corporatist as it is, looks like things are about to get much worse :/ At this rate it will take a second economic crisis before we can really take on the super rich in this country if even then.

[pacalo]

44. Welcome to DU, Progrimm!

:hi:

[area51]

49. +1

Welcome to DU, Progrimm.

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

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[KG]

42. the same entities that controlled the bush WH

[glitch]

46. Ayup. nt

[rucky]

57. M-I-C...

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Regret My New Name]

54. Why does this ' Name removed ' guy keep saying the same thing over and over?

[Taverner]

55. Obama. But that is not the point.

The White House has no power - nothing!

During Reagan and Bush, the power from the WH was moved to corporate boardrooms and earnings sheets.

[mix]

56. Reagan. nt

[Imagevision]

59. The same people who were in control when Bush played "spokesman" for the group...