Yves Smith - Barack Obama, the Great Deceiver

Barack Obama swept into office on a tide of giddy enthusiasm. His “Hope and Change” was a pledge to reverse Bush era policies, including socialism for the rich, adventurism in the Middle East, and attacks on civil liberties. He announced his intention to serve as a transformational leader, invoking Abraham Lincoln, FDR and Ronald Reagan as role models. Despite the frigid temperatures, people poured into Washington, DC to hear his inauguration speech, wanting to be part of a remarkable passage.

It wasn’t simply that Obama was the first black president, but also that the economic devastation of the financial crisis opened up a historic opportunity to remake the social contract, to punish the reckless and greedy, no matter how lofty, and to build new foundations and safeguards for ordinary citizens. Obama, with his youthful vigor, his technocratic command of policy details, his “no drama” steadiness, his mastery of oratory, seemed uniquely suited to this time of need. His personal history of repeatedly breaking new ground fed optimism that he could do so for the nation as a whole.

Those times of heady promise are now a cruel memory. Again and again, Obama has shown his true colors. It isn’t simply that Obama lied. Politicians lie. But there are norms for political lying. The depth and dependability of Obama’s misrepresentations constitute a difference in kind.

His pattern of grand promises producing at-best-in-name only and at worst outright bait and switch was well established by his 2008 campaign. Some close observers pointed out his past legerdemain, for instance, his misleading account of his years in New York, his record of fronting for finance and real estate interests in Chicago, his promise to bring a state-wide health care program to Illinois, which in the end was walked back to a mere study. And there were more decisive tells in 2008: the high level of Wall Street funding for his campaign, the inclusion of neoliberal “Chicago boys” in his economics team, his reversal on FISA after promising to filibuster it, which gave retroactive immunity to telecoms for aiding and abetting illegal wiretapping, and his whipping for TARP.

Read More:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/barack-obama-the-great-deceiver.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

US Concerned Israel May Attack Iran "at Any Moment"

The Obama administration is worried that Israel's new coalition government in could signal an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities at "any given moment," one of Israel's leading TV stations reported Thursday night.

Shaul Mofaz and his Kadima party’s joining a unity government with rightwing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could be the final step in a united front for attack by Israel, according to the Hebrew-language Channel 10 News.

The televison station quoted unnamed Obama administration officials as saying they believed a Likud-Kadima coalition government could make a decision about an Israeli attack on Iran before the U.S. presidential elections in November.

* * *

Israel's Arutz Sheva Channel 7 reports:

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/11-6

VW Passat 78.5 MPG (Imperial gallon) 65.2 MPG US gallon in the Uk

PLEASE READ THIS WHOLE DESCRIPTION BEFORE COMMENTING!!. THIS WILL PISS YOU OFF, VW is not allowed by the US government to sell high milage cars to US consumers. VW even makes the cars here that get 78 mpg but must ship it over seas. I have added this link that shows a test drive world record with the passat which was 75 mpg US http://www.vehix.com/blog/most-popular/fuel-efficient/vw-tdi-drives-1531-mile...

 *****UPDATE**** I am still upset with myself for saying "THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION"t. I understand that it is government regulations that crosses over all party lines. It was just that i had watch Obama talking about better milage cars and that was what upset me to make this video. Please understand I do not place the blame on him alone, this has been going on for decades. It seems this one poorly said statement has put off a lot of people to this message. and the wrong camera angle.

Andre Damon - Obama’s jobs program: A laundry list of corporate handouts

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama made his first speech on economic policy since the official start of his reelection campaign, calling on Congress to enact a list of corporate handouts in the name of “creating jobs.”

Obama kicked off his proposals with a right-wing tribute to the profit system, repeating his mantra that “the true engine of job creation in this country is the private sector; it’s not Washington.”

The entire speech was built on the assertion that government spending is not a legitimate means of putting people to work. He even went as far as to boast that the period of his administration was “the only time that government employment has gone down during a recession.”

The speech comes four days after the Labor Department announced that the US economy added only 115,000 jobs in April, significantly less than the amount needed to keep up with population growth.

Read More:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30780

Suzanne Goldenberg - Conservative thinktanks step up attacks against Obama's clean energy strategy

A network of ultra-conservative groups is ramping up an offensive on multiple fronts to turn the American public against wind farms and Barack Obama's energy agenda.

A number of rightwing organisations, including Americans for Prosperity, which is funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are attacking Obama for his support for solar and wind power. The American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which also has financial links to the Kochs, has drafted bills to overturn state laws promoting wind energy.

Now a confidential strategy memo seen by the Guardian advises using "subversion" to build a national movement of wind farm protesters.

The strategy proposal was prepared by a fellow of the American Tradition Institute (ATI) – although the thinktank has formally disavowed the project.

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/08/conservative-thinktanks-obama-energy-plans?newsfeed=tru

Drew Armstrong - Drugmakers’ Deal With Obama Said to Be Probed by House

Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Merck & Co. (MRK) are being pulled into an expanding congressional investigation about the agreement drugmakers reached with the Obama administration to support the Democrats’ overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, according to three people familiar with the talks.

The probe began last year, with Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee seeking documents from an industry trade group, said the people, who aren’t authorized to speak publicly. When that group didn’t cooperate, the panel decided to target Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, along with Merck, Amgen Inc. (AMGN), Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and AstraZeneca Plc (AZN), said one of the people.

The Republicans last month began negotiating directly with the companies in e-mails, calls and meetings demanding documents and information outlining what the industry agreed to with President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010, when the law was being worked on in Congress. Michael Burgess, a Representative from Texas, said he’s been frustrated by a lack of cooperation.

Read More:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-04/obama-deal-with-drugmakers-said-to-be-probed-by-house.html

Tom Engelhardt - The Obama Contradiction

He has few constraints (except those he’s internalized).  No one can stop him or countermand his orders.  He has a bevy of lawyers at his beck and call to explain the “legality” of his actions.  And if he cares to, he can send a robot assassin to kill you, whoever you are, no matter where you may be on planet Earth.

He sounds like a typical villain from a James Bond novel.  You know, the kind who captures Bond, tells him his fiendish plan for dominating the planet, ties him up for some no less fiendish torture, and then leaves him behind to gum up the works.

As it happens, though, he’s the president of the United State, a nice guy with a charismatic wife and two lovely kids.

How could this be?

Crash-and-Burn Dreams and One That Came to Be

Sometimes to understand where you are, you need to ransack the past.  In this case, to grasp just how this country’s first African-American-constitutional-law-professor-liberal Oval Office holder became the most imperial of all recent imperial presidents, it’s necessary to look back to the early years of George W. Bush’s presidency.  Who today even remembers that time, when it was common to speak of the U.S. as the globe’s “sole superpower” or even “hyperpower,” the only “sheriff” on planet Earth, and the neocons were boasting of an empire-to-come greater than the British and Roman ones rolled together?

Read More:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175535/

Richard (RJ) Eskow - Burden of Proof: Geithner, Obama, and Wall Street’s Unpunished Crimes

Forgery. Perjury. Investor fraud. Bribery. Money laundering. The body of evidence against individuals at the nation’s biggest banks is overwhelming. Nothing speaks louder about the banks’ guilt than this evidence - nothing, that is, except the billions they’ve paid to settle the charges.

The Administration reacted indignantly this week to suggestions it’s still slow-walking its investigation. And then, despite all this evidence, the Treasury Secretary of the United States proclaimed that no laws had been broken. And the White House wonders why its word is no longer enough?

A source in the office of a key figure in the investigation has denied a new story that they’re ruled out criminal prosecutions. But the burden of proof has shifted. Nothing will convince the public now except action.

Straw Men

Whether it’s JPMorgan Chase settling bribery charges in Alabama, Wells Fargo settling charges of laundering drug-cartel money in Mexico, or the nation’s five largest banks buying their way out of widespread foreclosure fraud and tax evasion, never in history has so much evidence led to so little action. Investigators pinpointed the fraudulent activity of individual accountants in GE Capital’s settlement with the SEC, only to be dumbfounded to discover that no criminal indictments were handed down.

Read More:

http://www.nationofchange.org/burden-proof-geithner-obama-and-wall-street-s-unpunished-crimes-1335595803

Jane Hamsher - What Foreign Corporations Will Obama Empower to Undermine Environmental Laws Near You?

Australia

New Zealand

Brunei

Peru

Chile

Singapore

Malaysia

The White House wants to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “free trade” agreement with Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Japan is waiting in the wings, Canada and Mexico want in, Taiwan has announced its intention to meet membership requirements and China says it will “earnestly study” whether to seek entry into the agreement.

Basically, the TPP is NAFTA on steroids.  The White House wants to reach a deal prior to the election because they know all the apparatchiks feeding on the $1 billion in Obama campaign money flowing through the system will launch tribalistic attacks on anyone organizing against it (activists, labor unions, workers) for “helping Mitt Romney win” — thus facilitating its easy passage.

Under TPP, foreign corporations would receive:

• Compensation for loss of “expected future profits” if local health, labor or environmental laws limited their ability to do business
• Rights to acquire land, natural resources and factories without government review
• Risks and costs of offshoring to low wage countries eliminated
• Special guaranteed “minimum standard of treatment” for relocating firms
• Right to move capital without limits
• New rights covering a vast definition of investment: intellectual property, permits, derivatives
• A ban performance requirements and domestic content rules (no “made in the USA,” “buy local” or “green jobs”). An absolute ban, not only when applied to investors from signatory countries
• Ability to extend drug patents and limit production of generic medicines that are used for global health programs
• Rollback of regulations that were put in place to prevent another global economic crisis such as “too big to fail” remedies

Read More:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2012/04/27/what-foreign-corporations-will-obama-empower-to-undermine-environmental-laws-near-you/

NSA Domestic Spying Continues Under Obama

WASHINGTON - April 25 - On Monday, National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower and Government Accountability Project (GAP) client William Binney continued publicly revealing massive domestic surveillance beginning under President George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11, and continuing rampantly under President Obama.

A senior crypto-mathematician, Binney served at NSA for over forty years, lastly as the Technical Director of the NSA World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting group, made up of thousands of NSA employees charged with analyzing massive volumes of electronic data gathered worldwide. Today, on the day of the annual Ridenhour Prizes that celebrate whistleblowers and truth-telling in the public interest, GAP is lauding Binney for courageously taking a stand and continuing to blow the whistle on NSA’s unconstitutional domestic surveillance.

Binney’s explosive disclosures over the past few weeks include:

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/04/25-3?print