By WILLIAM RIVERS PITT truthout International Posted by Bulatlat.com The calendar has come around again to Thanksgiving, and families all over the country will be gathering around dinner tables to celebrate. Or try to, anyway. With unemployment above ten percent, and with actual unemployment closer to twenty percent, with foreclosures all over the place, with…
Tags: Barack Obama
The Afghan Speech Obama Should Give (But Won’t)
BY TOM ENGELHARDT TomDispatch International Posted by Bulatlat Sure, the quote in the over-title is only my fantasy. No one in Washington — no less President Obama — ever said, “This administration ended, rather than extended, two wars,” and right now, it looks as if no one in an official capacity is likely to do…
Bring Them Home, Mr. President
By EUGENE ROBINSON Truthout International Posted by Bulatlat.com WASHINGTON – The most dreadful burden of the presidency – the power to send men and women to die for their country – seems to weigh heavily on Barack Obama these days. He went to Dover Air Force Base to salute the coffins of fallen troops. He…
Arroyo-Obama Meeting Questioned
For the Arroyo government, it would be a dream photo ops come true. For the United States government, it would be a chance to reinforce their neo-colonial interests in the Philippines. “Both Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and US president Barack Obama plan to utilize the meeting for their own gain. Arroyo needs the publicity as a…
Worsening Human-Rights Situation in the Philippines Is a Challenge to Obama
The crimes and other atrocities stemming from the implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya are directly instigated by the so-called “war on terror,” which the Bush regime exported to and imposed on the Philippines. The Obama government is faced with the challenge of stopping the war begun by its predecessor – a war that has caused countless human-rights violations in the Philippines and its other “fronts.”
Obama in Cairo: High Words, Low Truths
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN CounterPunch International Posted by Bulatlat As they drafted his speech to the Muslim world, delivered in Cairo on Thursday, June 4, President Obama’s speech writers strove to suggest that cordiality towards Islam is soundly embedded in America’s cultural history. The first Muslim congressman, Obama confided to his vast audience across the Muslim…
Obama Speaks: Will Palestine or Pakistan Decide?
By STEVE WEISSMAN Truthout International Posted by Bulatlat From his first “greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum,” President Barack Hussein Obama showed how to use the bully pulpit. Some listeners might have found him pedantic or even preachy, but he was delivering his sermon to American and Israeli audiences as…
Conflating Afghanistan and Pakistan: Obama’s Axis of Obedience
The question at hand is not whether Pakistan is on the verge of a takeover by reactionary religious extremists from Afghanistan. It is not. Conflating the situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan only confuses people. Pakistan is, however, experiencing an extraordinary upheaval of popular discontent. In a word, it’s the emergence of democracy. Left on its…
Election Exclusion in Haiti: Obama’s First Foreign Policy Disaster?
The Washington-based group the Haiti Priorities Project recently dispatched a team of 70 pollsters throughout Haiti. According to their findings, “Only 5 percent of potential voters nationwide say they are ready to go to the polls in order to elect 12 senators for the upcoming elections on April of this year.” In polling from several…
From Twin Towers to Twin Camelots
The world falls in love with a charismatic young president, his stylish wife, and their charming young children. In the campaign for the presidency he has defeated his opponent in part by charging Republican failure in the war against America’s enemies. In the dawn of his administration this Harvard man musters strategic buttress from intellectuals…
‘Only the Little People Pay Taxes’: Obama and the Ruling Class
The list of Obama nominees not to have paid their taxes continues to grow. BY DAVID MACARAY CounterPunch INTERNATIONAL Posted by Bulatlat “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” — Leona Helmsley The list of Obama nominees not to have paid their taxes continues to grow. The latest confessor is Kathleen Sebelius,…