The Reid/Pelosi Obama Enablers Must Go NOW!

As Barack Obama prepares to make a “grand bargain” with GOP to destroy Social Security and Medicare, his enablers must go.  It was Reid and Pelosi along with Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy who created and promoted Barack Obama, the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan.  They did everything possible to keep the Clinton’s out of the White House.

After years of Democratic capitulation to the GOP while feigning helplessness, while our civil rights and our earned entitlements have been viciously slashed it’s time to rebel.  Democrats tried to convince their constituents that the country is “center-right” and they had to be milquetoast to stay in congress to “fight” for Social Security and Medicare.

George W. Bush could not do anything, from the Supreme Court overturning a federal election and codifying into law touch screen voting machines, from going to war, to passing the “Patriot Act”, to destroying public schools, to the devastating tax breaks for the rich while cutting social programs to fund war, to packing the Supreme Court with Tea Party nuts, to bank bailouts; none of it was possible without the help of Democrats. 

Look at the 2008 Democratic Primary.  It was point man Chuck Schumer who presented the Senate Democrat sanctioned candidate for President.  The black guy Joe Biden said “was so clean” ignoring his tawdry past.

After all the damage done to the United States by the Bush Administration in concert with Senate Democrats, they convinced the American people the democratic candidate would be our savior, as long as they got to pick the candidate.

Hillary Clinton was set up by them along with Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel and NBC.  In the primary, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, and every candidate attacked Hillary Clinton over and over.

The Iowa Caucus is where the Democrats solidify their candidate.  There’s no polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. just “meet ups” and the candidate is “announced the winner”.  When Florida and Michigan said bullshit we’re not waiting we’re going to have our primaries and Clinton won, the DNC punished them by not counting their votes.

So now we have the same “Democrats” selling us out again.  BUT NOT THIS TIME!  If we learn anything from Ted Cruz it is this, come out swinging.  Don’t stand in line and politely wait your turn capitulating to those who are career politicians.

Democrats had a gentleman’s agreement with Republicans that the leadership in either party would never be challenged by the other party.  How do you think a piece of shit like Ted Kennedy who drove MaryJo Koepeckne into the tidal basin and left her to die while he went to the Kennedy compound to lawyer up could get re-elected over and over again with no real Republican opposition?  Don’t you think deals were made?

And don’t forget, that Jimmy Carter lost his re-election to Ronald Reagan because of Ted Kennedy.  Ted Kennedy ran against an incumbent Democratic President in the Democratic Primary and would not concede loss.  He took it all the way to the convention floor irreparably hurting Carter’s chance of re-election.

Let’s look at recent events, like the full speed ahead charge to war in Syria. 

Here’s Nancy Pelosi the Minority Leader from the Huffington Post:

On Syria Vote, Nancy Pelosi Loses Liberal California Base

Since President Barack Obama announced that he would seek Congress' support for use of force against Syria last week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been tasked with garnering crucial Democratic support for the attack.

But if recent comments from delegates representing the San Francisco Bay area -- Pelosi's loyal base -- are any indication, even staunch supporters may not be behind her on this one.

"I have tremendous respect for Nancy Pelosi as a leader, as a person, as an intellect,"Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) told the San Francisco Chronicle. "But I cannot ever delegate my decision to her."

Did Pelosi give a shit about her constituents?  Hell, no.  Notice how “liberals” like Zoe Lofgren are so cowed by the Democratic leadership that to buck the leadership there must be a qualifier like “I have tremendous respect for Nancy Pelosi as Leader”.  

Really??  I have no respect for her after she told Democratic “Super Delegates” they were to ignore the people’s vote and cast their Super Delegate votes for Obama over Clinton or be punished by the party.

Now lets see a “real democrat” an unapologetic Democrat, like Alan Grayson.

Now, that’s real leadership.  Dump Pelosi and elect Alan Grayson as “minority leader” and see how long we remain in the minority.

In the Senate, Tom Daschle had a gentleman’s agreement with Trent Lott that he would not be challenged for re-election, but Republicans learned that the old guard had to go.  They ran John Thune against Daschle and poured tons of money, a lot of it probably illegal into his campaign.  But who was going to challenge the tainted money?  Democrats?  Oh please. 

So Daschle lost and then next in line was Harry Reid.  The worst, most ineffective politician ever, but he would never rock the establishment boat.

So the Republicans with this winning strategy of take no prisoners had to get rid of Trent Lott who was still making deals with the hapless Democrats.  Republicans are smart, they bided their time and as soon as Lott made a mistake they pounced.  At Strom Thurman’s retirement Trent Lott give them their opening “Trent Lott said he supported Strom Thurmond's segregationist campaign in 1948”.

A completely innocuous remark, but Republicans pounced and forced him out of office.  They were elated.  They knew if they waited they could get rid of Lott.  And, the beauty was they could blame Democrats for being “overly sensitive” even though none of those cowards would say anything, ever.  Democrats were blamed for years for Lott’s demise.

Republicans didn’t say “who’s next in line”?  Hell, no.  They put Senator Bill Frist, a bomb thrower who just got elected to the Senate from the House.  A guy whose family’s millions came from HMO’s. 

Then they passed the Medicare prescription drug benefit with no negotiating prices and Billy Tauzin threatened any Republican that voted against it with primaries.  The vote was illegally taken after the floor was closed for votes but did any “Democrat” object?  No.  Then Billy Tauzin left the house and went to work for a Pharmaceutical Company as a lobbyist for a couple million dollars.  No questions asked.

That’s how you play the game.  So Democrats have to demand Reid be gone, Replace him with a real Democrat like Elizabeth Warren, not the next asshole in line.

So it’s time we just said “no”.  No cuts to Social Security, no cuts to Medicare, no more public school funds to private charter schools.  Just say no Pelosi, no Reid.  Now, before they enable Obama to destroy our safety net, they must go.

By Patricia Baeten

Fascist Five Ready to Sell America to the Koch Brothers

Yes, we’re barreling down on October 17^th.  October 17^th is the day that the Treasury runs out of options to fund the government and October 17^th is oral argument day when the “Fascist Five” on the Supreme Court have indicated they will sell the Koch Brothers the US Government.

A lot of the problems we are having with the government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis are the direct result of the “Fascist Five’s” decision in the court case of Citizen’s United.  Since that decision, the Koch Brothers’ Tea Party has held our government hostage. 

Two Senators, funded by the Koch Brothers, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, have hijacked our government have closed down all operations and are threatening to have the United States default on its debt.  This would stop all Social Security payments, Veteran Benefits, Medicare, Federal Tax Returns, Food Stamps, and School Lunches etc.

Citizens United was started by David Bossie, a former Chief Investigator for the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  The Committee was chaired by Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana who was known for shooting watermelons in his back yard to prove the Clinton’s had killed Vince Foster, a close friend of Hillary Clinton, who had tragically committed suicide after years of struggling with depression.

 Bossie led continuous investigations into the Clintons all through the Clinton Administration and had a visceral hatred of the Clintons.  Democrats found his investigations were overblown and overstated.  The Clinton’s were vindicated of all the charges Bossie had brought.

Bossie eventually resigned stating

"The White House and Democrat minority are using this issue to attack you and the committee," Bossie told his boss in May 1998. "It is for this reason and with deep regret I offer you my resignation." When George W. Bush and the Republicans took power, Bossie was stuck outside looking in, running a small activist group called Citizens United.

In 2008 Bossie’s group Citizen’s United planned to unveil Hillary: The Movie, just as Hillary Clinton was planning a Presidential run.  The feature-length film was a hatchet job on Hillary Clinton and the FEC, calling it a campaign ad deemed it illegal.  Campaign ads were prohibited by McCain Feingold prior to an election.  Bossie sued and won.

The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission held that Congress cannot limit expenditures in political campaigns as long as the spender, who might be an individual or an organization, including a corporation or union, is not affiliated with or acting in concert with the candidate or political party. The Court held that such “independent” expenditures are not campaign donations, which can be regulated; they are pure expressions of the political preferences of the donors. 

This decision by the Supreme Court opened up the gates of hell and the money flowing into elections increased exponentially opening the door for people like the Koch Brothers to buy not only federal elections but entire state houses like that in Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.

The Supreme Court is now scheduled to hear the case of McCutcheon vs. Federal Election Commission.  The case would allow unlimited contributions by individuals.

Right now the Koch Brothers’ Tea Party politicians have our government held hostage.  They have shut down the government and millions are suffering because of it.  If the Supreme Court finds in favor of McCutcheon our Democracy is lost. 

By Patricia Baeten

Pass the Koch Brothers Fascist Agenda or We'll Kill America

Obama and Biden are Reagan Democrats and could care less about the American people, Social Security and Medicare.  Any programs for the poor and middle class are just bargaining chips to them. 

We have a government run by people who have used their positions in government to become incredibly wealthy, and used those positions to ensure only the incredibly wealthy could run for government.  The longtime democrats in leadership like Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer are responsible for the breakdown in our government.

They hide behind the façade of being Democrats, whose main goal is to save Social Security and Medicare but their goal is far from it.  They are at the ready to throw social programs on the table as bargaining chips. 

After all, it was Chuck Schumer who was front and center to repeal Glass-Steagall and pushed the Gramm Leach Bliley Bill and Ted Kennedy that sold out public schools to Bush’s “No Child Left Behind”.  Our election system has become so corrupt with corporate ownership of the airwaves, press and political parties that only those candidates committed to keeping the status quo are allowed to run on the party ticket.

These people were the same ones who obstructed the Clintons’ attempt to provide universal healthcare for all during Bill Clinton’s Administration.  These Senators ensured Hillary Clinton would not ascend to the Democratic Candidacy for president.  

Had Hillary Clinton, after winning over 18 million votes from Nevada to Puerto Rico, been allowed to run on the Democratic ticket after winning the Democratic Primary, we would have had universal healthcare, full employment and the perpetrators of the biggest bank scam in the history of the world, would have been frog-walked out of Wall Street into prison where they belong.

Can you imagine what it would have done to the economy and to the job market if healthcare were government guaranteed like Social Security and Medicare?  What if employers had that extra money they now must spend on healthcare to hire more employees?  What if people had universal healthcare so they could start their own business?

Over and over these Senators cited that the failure of the Clintons to provide universal healthcare was due to their failure to defer the legislation to the Senate.  They hated Bill Clinton, especially after he forced them to back him on raising taxes on the wealthy, passing a balanced budget and creating 22 million new jobs.  They impeached him for it and would have removed him from office were it not for his popularity with the American people.

During the 2008 campaign Joe Lieberman, who was hated by Democrats, lost his Democratic primary to Ned Lamont, an FDR Democrat.  Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd, Barack Obama and all the Reagan Democrats refused to support the democratically elected primary candidate, Ned Lamont.  They all went to Connecticut and campaigned for Lieberman on the Lieberman Party ticket, rather than the democrat.

The same happened to Joe Sestack when he ran against Arlen Specter. He was warned not to run for the Senate, that the Party backed Republican Arlen Specter who lost the Republican Primary.  The Democrats refused to support Sestack and elected Pat Toomey, a Republican.  These “Democrats” are out for themselves and should be shunned.

When Al Franken beat Norm Coleman in Minnesota, the Democrats refused to recognize his win, and he was on his own without help from the Democratic Party to financially face a Republican requested recount.  Coleman had tons of money endowed on him, but he lost in spite of the Democratic Party refusing to help Franken.

But the Democrats preserve their incumbent losers and hobble the real democrats and ensure they hold no chairmanships on committees.  Congress doesn’t care what the American people think, the people do not control who is in office.  That is controlled by the two parties and billionaires like the Koch Brothers.  Make no mistake about it, this was done to us by the New Democratic Party of Biden and Obama.

Every liberal candidate has had to win without democratic support, from Elizabeth Warren to Sherrod Brown.  They represent true hope for America.

Wall Street laundered almost a billion dollars into the Obama campaign after he was the first candidate ever, of any party to refuse public financing.  Their campaign contributions ensured there would be no prosecutions on Wall Street and no universal healthcare.

They claimed 300 million people donated over 300 million dollars to Obama's campaign in $200 dollars or less, untraceable, unreportable prepaid credit cards during the month of October 2008.  There's only a little over 300  million people in the US.  Are you saying every man, woman and child in America donated to Obama's campaign?  How dumb do you think we are?

The shutdown in government has been sanctioned by both parties so that they can put tremendous pain on the American people.  Obama and Biden gave away the farm with the sequestration followed by the government shutdown.  Make no mistake, the sequester was Obama’s idea and occurred upon his insistence. 

Now, after all the pain sequestration has wreaked on the American people in less pay, less benefits and huge loses in income and security, loss of jobs and loss of homes, the parties are planning to let the debt ceiling fall in. 

That means, no Social Security, Medicare, VA Benefits, no unemployment or any type of assistance will take place after October 17th.  Non-essential government and contractor employees were the canaries in the coal mine.

The American people will be so beaten down they will accept whatever crumbs the parties decide to give the American people in the form of cuts to all benefits that they have earned and paid for.

In Rupert Murdoch’s “Wall Street Journal” Paul Ryan has penned an Op Ed.  Paul Ryan who was able to go to college and whose family was supported by Social Security after his father died, wants to end Social Security for other families that may find themselves in the same circumstances.  Ryan wants cuts to Social Security and Medicare, kind of like destroying the village to save it.

"Just as a good investment gets higher returns through compound interest, structural reforms produce greater savings over time," Ryan wrote. "Most important, they make the programs more secure. They protect them for current seniors and preserve them for the next generation. That's what the president and Congress should talk about."

Ryan uses the same logic that Franklin Roosevelt warned us about. 

The Koch Brothers agenda that they have their Tea Party politicians promoting are as follows:

Their demands now include a one-year delay of the health care law, fast-track authority to overhaul the tax code, construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, offshore oil and gas production, more permitting of energy exploration on federal lands, a rollback of regulations on coal ash, blocking new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas production, eliminating a $23 billion fund to ensure the orderly dissolution of failed major banks, eliminating mandatory contributions to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and an increase in means testing for Medicare, among other provisions.

America is not broke, we have been robbed.  Trillions of dollars have been stolen in 401K’s, pensions, municipal bonds, real estate, student loans, mortgage loans, and the only people in congress that can help us are not speaking up.  Time for us to fight back.

These career politicians that call themselves Democrats and tell us we are a "center right" country and we have to elect them or Republicans will slash Social Security are liars.  Do not trust them, they lie over and over again, and do everything to stifle real democrats.  That are not our friends.

Speak up America.

By Patricia Baeten

Ted Cruz ALEC and Blazing Saddles Diplomacy

After watching Ted Cruz, the junior Senator from Texas and Tea Party favorite spend 21 hours blathering in a pointless fake filibuster against a House Bill he supports, I had a flashback to Blazing Saddles.  The only thing more ridiculous than Cruz’ inane filibuster threats were the idiots who supported this Quixotic effort, and tried to make it sound like something brilliant and worthwhile, like Fox News.

Fox News originally stood with the sane element of the Republican Party that Cruz’ effort was pointless because it didn’t accomplish anything and tied up the business of the American people.  But after being whipped into submission by their financial backers, Fox’s anchors began trying to convince their viewers that Cruz was a genius who was now the true leader in the Senate.

The bill that Cruz was trying to delay would temporarily fund government functions for the next two and a half months but would de-fund the Affordable Care Act.  Cruz was just laying the tracks for the crazy train to come, the debate on raising the debt ceiling.

The debt ceiling needs to be raised for the U.S. Treasury to pay for debts incurred from legislation already passed by congress.  Economists of all political persuasions have warned that a failure to raise the debt ceiling by the Treasury’s deadline of Oct. 17 could be catastrophic.

The Republican Party is splintered between the partially sane faction and the totally insane faction, the Tea Party. 

After the Supreme Court ruling in Citizen’s United, ALEC members such as the billionaire Koch Brothers can now buy seats in congress for politicians like Cruz who will advance their agenda to destroy America.     

The ALEC funded politicians in the Republican party have now raised the ante for America and whether or not we are good for our IOU’s.  Behind closed doors, House Republican leaders bowing to the Tea Party laid out their most recent demands for a debt-ceiling increase.

Their demands now include a one-year delay of the health care law, fast-track authority to overhaul the tax code, construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, offshore oil and gas production, more permitting of energy exploration on federal lands, a rollback of regulations on coal ash, blocking new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas production, eliminating a $23 billion fund to ensure the orderly dissolution of failed major banks, eliminating mandatory contributions to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and an increase in means testing for Medicare, among other provisions.

To understand what it would mean to America if these Tea Party demands were met, one need only look at Detroit.  

According to “The Black Agenda Report” by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley:

If one picture is worth 1,000 words, then the pile of petroleum coke, petcoke, which sits along the Detroit River tells quite a story. Beginning in November 2012, the Koch Carbon Company began dumping the petcoke, which is a byproduct of tar sands oil production and also a cheap fuel. Koch Carbon is owned by those Kochs, Charles and David, the incredibly wealthy right wing industrialists who play a very public role in bringing union busting Right to Work laws, Stand Your Ground, and other horrors to state legislatures across the country.

The petcoke originates from tar sands oil in Alberta, Canada; it is later refined by Marathon Petroleum and then purchased by the Koch Company. Petcoke has been called the dirtiest of dirty fuels because it emits more carbon dioxide than coal and contains more metal and sulfur. As a byproduct it costs nothing to produce yet can be sold at a high profit. Without seeking permits, with no public notification whatever, Koch Carbon began dumping the petcoke last year and it isn’t hard to figure out why Detroit was chosen as the location.

Detroit as a sovereign public entity no longer exists. It is completely powerless, having been taken over by the “lords of capital” personified in this case by emergency manager Kevyn Orr. There is quite literally no one in Detroit’s government with the power to stand up to the Kochs, Orr, or to anyone else who can do the city harm.

This is the Koch Brothers and their Tea Party politicians America.  Is this the America you want?

By Patricia Baeten

Obama Budget Cuts to Medicare Will Close Rural Hospitals

The Obama Administration has proposed changes to Medicare reimbursement to Critical Access Hospital’s (CAH).  Critical Access Hospitals are medical facilities in rural areas that serve communities where there is no other option available and therefore Medicare reimbursements are higher for those hospitals.  Senator Tammy Baldwin is leading a fight against Obama’s proposed Medicare Reimbursement cuts.

Obama’s proposal would remove the CAH designation for hospitals within 10 miles of another hospital from 101 percent to 100 percent of reasonable costs in 2014 and in some cases hospital would lose their classification and would receive no Medicare reimbursement.  Obama’s proposal would save more than $2 billion over 10 years.  This could cut funding to 53 out of 58 Hospitals in Wisconsin currently designated as Critical Access Hospitals. 

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Nationwide there are more than 1,300 critical access hospitals.  The CAHs patient populations are largely elderly and low income without access to the larger, more expensive healthcare systems in urban areas and many have 25 or less hospital beds. In addition to providing basic outpatient care and inpatient care, they provide long term care for patients.

There are serious concerns that Obama’s requirement changes for designation as critical access hospitals will limit the care their patients receive, force layoffs of hospital workers in rural areas and lead to closures.  In other words, rural healthcare would be devastated.  According to Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, “most CAHs operate with a negative operating margin, even with the current enhanced reimbursement’.  Terry Eisinger, president of the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health said “rural health care is fragile as it is without any additional cuts.”

On the August 22^nd edition of ABC’s Nightline, Remote Area Medical (RAM) Facility’s annual visit to West Virginia was featured. 

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Remote Area Medical was started in 1985 by Stan Brock after years of working deep in the Amazon where medical care was 26 days away by foot. He began bringing healthcare to poor, under developed countries like Haiti, Africa, India and Guyana.  After setting up headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee he realized that larges swaths of citizens of the United States had no access to healthcare.  

“You’ve got 40 or 50 million people that are in this category that don’t have insurance and can’t get the care that they need or can’t afford it.”

He’s held more than 700 RAM events around the world, and has helped more than 550,000 in the United States alone. 

Teresa Gardner, who runs the local free clinic, first invited Brock to Wise, West Virginia 14 years ago and now the RAM visit is an annual event.  

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"It's always an amazing sight, isn't it? That here in America at 5 o'clock in the morning, with rain threatening, there are 1,500 people out there," Brock said, standing by the entrance gate overlooking the crowd on the first morning. "It's sort of the one time opportunity that they know they can afford to get the care that they need. ... It's a pretty sad sight."

"The economy here has hit a downturn. We've had a lot of mining layoffs, which is really the only industry here," Gardner said. "It's just incredible the desperation that people have for health care."

Gardner first invited Stan Brock and RAM to Wise 14 years ago and helps organize the 1,400 dentists, eye specialists, doctors and volunteers who all donate their time and expertise. Approximately 80 dental chairs are fully manned, as well as 16 eye examination stations.

 At Wise, RAM has "all the different specialists, all the way from cardiology, OB-GYN, pulmonology, nephrology, dermatology," Gardner said. "It's a really good opportunity for the patients to come out and get some very good care that they wouldn't otherwise have access to."

"You find people having strokes, heart attacks, elevated blood sugars. We do a lot of emergency care here on sight," she said.

In fact, six people over the course of the weekend are found by the mobile X-ray unit to be walking around with broken limbs.

"Even though the care here is quality care, we don't need to be doing this in the world's richest country," Brock says. "I would rather be back in Haiti, in India and Africa, and where this organization began in the Amazon than doing it here in the world's richest country. But I don't see this ending anytime soon".

RAM is funded by donations and receives no government funding.  One of the major setbacks for RAM is that RAM has an army of volunteers, many of whom have volunteered for years and pay their own travel expenses to provide care.  A problem in providing care in the United States is that each state has requirements for volunteers to be licensed in that state to practice medicine. 

Brock said he would be able to hold more events around the country and help more patients if states would be less strict about allowing volunteer doctors from other states to practice temporarily within their borders.

"People come all the way from Florida, all the way from Michigan, all the way from Wisconsin, New Jersey ... because we're not allowed in those states because they won't allow doctors to cross state lines," he said.

It is the thought of having to turn away people that haunts Brock.

In a New York Times article dated May 13, 2011 entitled “Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care” you can see who Obama is looking out for.

“The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care”.

“The UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest commercial insurers, told analysts that so far this year, insured hospital stays actually decreased in some instances. In reporting its earnings last week, Cigna, another insurer, talked about the “low level” of medical use”.

“Yet the companies continue to press for higher premiums, even though their reserve coffers are flush with profits and shareholders have been rewarded with new dividends. Many defend proposed double-digit increases in the rates they charge, citing a need for protection against any sudden uptick in demand once people have more money to spend on their health, as well as the rising price of care”.

Yes, you read that right.  “The insurance companies continue to press for higher premiums, even though their reserve coffers are flush with profits and shareholders have been rewarded with new dividends”.  The insurance companies and their CEOs with their million dollar and some times billion dollar salaries just keep getting richer, while the American people travel for days in inclement weather hoping to get a coveted space on a gurney in a cattle stanchion to receive life saving medical care.  These greedy bastards are nothing more than merchants of death.

Make no mistake about it, Obamacare was written of, by and for the insurance industry.  When you hear that Healthcare is one-fifth of the economy, what they really are saying is that one-fifth of the profits on Wall Street come from our for profit healthcare system. 

This is the richest country in the World but the wealth is concentrated at the top.  Our congress has some of the richest people in it.  Darrell Issa’s net worth since he has been in congress is over $355 million dollars, and he’s not the only one. 

By Patricia Baeten

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Obama Screws Over the Egyptian People

I have had an affinity towards the Egyptian people and their fight for a government that is of, by and for the Egyptian people.  When Obama was on the campaign trail he gave a speech and stated:

“And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.”

In January 2011 the Egyptian people protested en masse calling for the removal of Hosni Mubarak as president and demanded free democratic elections for the president and the governing body of Egypt. 

Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State asked the Egyptian people to allow for the orderly transition from Mubarak’s regime to Democratic elections which were scheduled for September.

"We want to see this peaceful uprising on the part of the Egyptian people to demand their rights to be responded to in a very clear, unambiguous way by the government, and then a process of national dialogue that will lead to the changes that the Egyptian people seek and that they deserve,"

“Otherwise, she warned, protesters seeking better opportunity and a stronger political voice might end up facing further repression from new leaders instead of the democratic reforms they seek.”

Soon after Secretary Clinton’s remarks President Obama, with all the diplomacy of a drunk in a bar lunging at everyone with a broken beer bottle, said “Mubarak must go”.  It was evident early on that Obama’s people and the Clinton people had very different foreign policy. 

On February 11^th, 2011 the military removed Mubarak from power.

Later in mid-February, 2011 protests broke out in Madison, Wisconsin against the Republican Senate and Governor Scott Walker’s 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 or budget repair bill crafted by ALEC and the Koch Brothers to destroy collective bargaining in the State. 

Where were Obama and his comfortable shoes?  No where to be found.   But in spite of all the upheaval in Egypt, it was the Egyptian people who ordered pizza to feed the protesters in Madison.  Obama’s response was “screw you”, Egyptian people’s response “we are with you.”

Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, and the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, executive power was assumed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.

During 2011 tens of thousands of Egyptians protested in the streets against the continued military rule and Egypt’s military rulers agreed to form a new government and transfer power to a civilian body by July 2012; also the government would hold parliamentary elections on November 28 and a presidential election by the end of June 2012.

The rules for the election were released on January 30, 2012. Candidates had to be born in Egypt to Egyptian parents, may not have held dual nationality and may not have been married to a foreigner. To be nominated, they required the support of 30 Members of Parliament or 30,000 voters. The formal registration process for candidates started on March 10th and ended on April 8, 2012.

On 14 April 2012, the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) announced the disqualification of ten candidates, mostly moderate to liberal.  Reasons for the disqualifications were not given, but the affected candidates were given 48 hours to appeal the decisions. Two of the disqualified candidates, Suleiman and El-Shater's campaigns stated they would file appeals.  All appeals were rejected.

Mohammed ElBaradei had withdrawn his bid in January of that year citing concerns about the undemocratic way the military was governing Egypt.  Mr. ElBaradei had wanted a new constitution to be drawn up from scratch before any elections took place.

In April 2012, he took to Twitter calling the transition to democracy "bungled" and criticizing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' approach to writing a new constitution.

On April 25^th the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission accepted the appeal filed by Ahmed Shafik against its previous decision to exclude him from running for President. The appeal also requested the new Parliamentary law be brought before the Supreme Constitutional Court to determine its constitutionality, that didn’t happen.

The Egyptian people didn’t have a real choice in selecting the candidates for president, just like the American people did not have a choice in the selection of their candidates for president in 2008, which was decided by the two parties, Republican and Democrat. 

On June 24^th, Egypt’s election commission announced that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi had won Egypt's presidential runoff. Morsi won by a narrow margin over Ahmed Shafik, who was the final prime minister under deposed President Hosni Mubarak.  The commission said Morsi took 51.7% of the vote versus 48.3% for Shafik.

There now was a gaping divide between the Muslim Brotherhood, and the rest of the country; about 48% of voters, according to the poll, which gave Morsi the presidency with close to 52% of the popular vote.

Little more than three months into the four-year term of Morsi's government, the economy was in shambles, the body politic was barely functioning and the Egyptian people were deeply polarized.  The 17 months after Mubarak’s exit had been unsettling for the Mubarak faithful. But the year since Morsi's inauguration had been even worse.

By March 2013, serious diplomatic efforts to convince Morsi to form a government of national unity had failed. Morsi went about making it even worse by maintaining a Muslim Brotherhood government run by newly promoted lower-grade officials with bad ideas. The last straw appeared to be the appointment of the culture minister.

Morsi fired five key cultural figures, and replaced them with Muslim Brotherhood members including the head of the opera house and the National Library and Archives.  It was evident he was trying to impose an Islamist agenda on cultural institutions which had always been secular.

"The economy was being wrecked by the movement. They were spending at least $1.5bn per month more than they should have. They were using months and months of reserves at a critical level. You couldn't deny the underlying trend that the government was heading for bankruptcy”.

"Whatever mess they had created was going to lead to civil revolt. Soon they wouldn't have been able to pay for civil servants' salaries."

Within a week, citizens experienced shortages of essentials, especially food and fuel. In Egypt, the military owns a significant stake in the gas and oil sector and was always a guarantor of supply, now there were long lines for fuel. 

On the evening of April 15, 2013 a man by the name of Mohammed Abdul Aziz and five other friends sat in a coffee shop in central Cairo to plot ways to invigorate Egypt’s tired civil opposition. 

"In the beginning all we wanted to do was gather petitions to renounce Morsi," he said. But the group soon got a name, Tamarod (Rebel). Within weeks it had also gained a momentum that propelled it to centre stage of a defining period in Egypt's modern history – the ousting of the country's first democratically elected leader.”

By mid-June, other state institutions were now sharing the military's alarm; the tide was clearly turning against Morsi. Tamarod claimed to have received more than 20 million petition signatures.

In late June millions of Egyptians took to the streets demanding that President Mohamed Morsi step down immediately in what one military source called "the biggest protest Egypt has seen in its history."

"It was becoming clear that everything that the state had built, everything that it had stood on, was coming crumbling down," said Ahmed Badawi, a mid-ranking police officer who was unhappy to see Mubarak go. "It was a case of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend, so we joined them in Tahrir Square this time'," he said of this week's revolts.

From every angle, Morsi was increasingly being seen as, a captive of his constituency, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Squares across the country were overwhelmed by the scale of popular participation and energy, which some say represented possibly the largest political assembly in world history. CNN reported over 33 million people were out in Egypt on Sunday, or nearly 40 percent of the country, according to satellite data.

June 30, the date of the first anniversary of Morsi’s swearing in, was chosen by Tamarod for a march to the place where it all began, Tahrir Square.  By now the shortages were especially severe.

By July 3^rd the army had given Morsi the first ultimatum: find ways to end the crisis within a week. Morsi was unable to meet that ultimatum and helplessly watched as the large crowds hoped for by the born-again opposition materialized.

After Morsi was removed from office by the military, things were relatively stable.  The Obama Administration stood by Morsi calling him democratically elected.  But the selection of the candidates to run for office was rigged.

In 2011, President Obama was quick to demand President Mubarak to step down and leave office.  Obama had supported Morsi’s close election even though it was rigged. 

On July 6^th, it was announced that Mohammed ElBaradei would be named interim prime minister.  The Obama Administration began pressuring the Egyptian Army to return Morsi to power as he was “democratically elected” and began threatening to call the overthrow a military coup, meaning aid to Egypt would be cut off unless Morsi was returned.

ElBaradei is a Nobel peace Laureate and a former director of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.  Mr. ElBaradei leads an alliance of liberal and left-wing parties, the National Salvation Front.

In 2012 he was running as a liberal, secular candidate in the presidential elections, but withdrew his bid in January of that year citing concerns about the undemocratic way the military was governing Egypt.

ElBaradei's nomination had been confirmed by several sources and state media but just before midnight a presidential spokesman told reporters that no prime minister had yet been chosen.

The intense pressure to reject ElBaradei as prime minister appeared to come from the Obama Administration.  President Obama had declined to press Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to leave office, saying that his administration would continue to work with the “democratically elected government” amid violent protests in Cairo.

ElBaradei was later named interim Vice-President but resigned after an army crackdown on Pro Morsi violent protests resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Egyptians.  He is now to be tried for the “betrayal of trust” by the Egyptian army.

“Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate who quit the Egyptian cabinet in protest over last week’s bloodshed, faces being hauled before the courts after being accused of a “betrayal of trust”.

Mr. ElBaradei was a co-leader of the National Salvation Front (NSF), a prominent coalition of liberal and secular forces which joined the nationwide demonstrations against the deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

“The case against him will be heard in a Cairo court next month and is being brought by Sayyed Ateeq, an Egyptian law professor, according to judicial sources who spoke to Reuters. 

“He was appointed in his capacity as a representative of the NSF and the majority of the people who signed the Tamarod declaration,” Mr. Ateeq told Reuters, referring to the grassroots petition movement that had called for Mr. Morsi to resign”.

“Mr. Ateeq said Mr. ElBaradei – who left Egypt earlier this week and traveled to Europe – could face three years in prison if found guilty. But judicial sources said the maximum sentence is a fine and suspended jail term”.

And now Mubarak has been freed and remains under house arrest.  It is so sad to see the Egyptian people, after all their bravery and sacrifices of life and limb to have Mubarak back.  It is an outrage that all the world should stand in shame on this day.

The Egyptian people deserve to have free and fair elections, and Mohammed ElBaradei would have ensured that would happen.  Obama is hated in Egypt and for good reason and he is quickly beginning to be hated in the U.S.

By Patricia Baeten

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