[Dialogue] Sirota Nails it here

Wed Jan 23 12:21:12 EST 2008

I hope that progressives will recognize what's really going on with the  
Clinton campaign

Dick Kroeger

____________________________________
 From: Dick email
To: FacilitationFla
CC: DavThom at att.net,  KroegerD
Sent: 1/23/2008 11:10:46 A.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: My  point exactly

    *   _The  Politics of Hopelessness_ 
(http://action.credomobile.com/sirota/2008/01/the_politics_of_hopelessness.html) 
"You were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at  Wal-Mart." - Barack 
Obama to Hillary Clinton, 1/22/08 
The _exchange_ 
(http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/21/debate.transcript/index.html)   lasted about 3 seconds - if you flipped the channel for a moment, 
you might  have missed it. That was the amount of time the two leading 
candidates for  the Democratic nomination for president spent talking about the 
corporate  takeover of our government - the issue that almost singularly drives  
American politics and that is at the core of our country's most fundamental  
problems. 
Clinton, of course, declined to address this part of her past -  the part 
where she helped direct Wal-Mart, arguably the most efficiently  rapacious, 
environmentally destructive, and anti-worker creation in all of  human history. She 
cynically parried by mentioning a campaign contributor of  Obama's who has 
been in some legal trouble - as if we are expected to forget  the name _Norman  
Hsu_ 
(http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/26/hsu_raised_big_money_for_clinton_supporters/) , much less Clinton's status as the _top  
recipient of health industry cash in the entire  Congress_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/nyregion/12donate.html)  - Republican or Democrat. And thanks to  
moderator Wolf Blitzer, the debate was quickly shifted to topics less  
uncomfortable for the corporate media like, say, how Barack Obama voted  "present" in one 
half of one percent of his votes as a state legislator in  Illinois. The 
horror. 
Later in the debate, when John Edwards gave perhaps the most  eloquent answer 
of all on a question about poverty, Clinton tried to one-up  everyone by 
saying "when I graduated from law school, I didn't go to work  for a law firm. I 
went to work for Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's  Defense Fund." Yes, 
folks - forget about her time at Arkansas most powerful  corporate law firm. 
Forget that she ignored potential conflicts-of-interest  to serve at that 
corporate law firm even as her husband was governor of the  state. Forget her role 
helping build Wal-Mart into the monster it is today.  Forget even her sitting 
by and cheering as her husband's administration -  which she now overtly asks 
voters to re-embrace with her candidacy - rammed  NAFTA and welfare reform 
through Congress, throwing millions of people into  poverty. Yes, just remember 
that for a few moments right out of college, she  worked at a non-profit.  
This is truly the politics of hopelessness - a politics mastered  by a 
Clinton machine deft in all the dark arts of corruption and  demagoguery.  
It is a machine fueled by tens of millions of dollars of  corporate cash from 
moneyed interests looking for the kind of _candidate  who appears on the 
cover of Fortune magazine_ 
(http://www.american.com/graphics/2007/june/copy_of_hf.jpg)  and  _laughs at  workers_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBypp2hqxaQ)  
who were crushed by Clinton administration  policies.  
It is a machine that is all too happy to champion a former  president who, 
according to today's Wall Street Journal, is happy to  personally pocket _$20  
million windfall from a well-connected  crony_ 
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120097424021905843.html?mod=googlenews_wsj) . 
It is a machine headed by a candidate who pushed the country into  war, yet a 
candidate happy to attack an opponent for not opposing the same  war more 
strenuously.  
It is a machine only too thrilled to use innuendo to _play  the race card_ 
(http://www.boston.com/news/
nation/articles/2008/01/15/hillary_and_the_race_card/) . 
It is a machine, in short, that is ready to once again prioritize  the 
ugliest impulses of two dynasty-seeking egomaniacs using vapid  soundbites (_"I'm  a 
hand's on leader"_ 
(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8tcMQCbWKZA&refer=home) ) and intelligence-insulting slogans  (_"Delivering  Real 
Change"_ 
(http://epaper.eurekareporter.com/article/080115-bill-clinton-in-eureka) ) to run _"over  the dead bodies"_ 
(http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/over-the-dead-bodies-again.html)  of Americans hoping for something  
different.

____________________________________
 Start the year off right. _Easy ways to stay in shape_ 
(http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489)  in the new year.  

**************Start the year off right.  Easy ways to stay in shape.     
http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489
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