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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7518
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008 - 11:16 am: | 
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Weekend Edition
November 7 / 9, 2008
CounterPunch Diary
Hail to the Chief of Staff
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
The first trumpet blast of change ushers in Rahm Emanuel as Obama’s chief of staff and gate keeper. This is the man who arranges his schedule, staffs out the agenda, includes, excludes. It’s certainly as sinister an appointment as, say, Carter’s installation of arch cold-warrior Zbigniev Brzezinski as his National Security Advisor at the dawn of his “change is here” administration in 1977.
Emanuel, as Ralph Nader points out in my interview with him below, represents the worst of the Clinton years. His profile as regards Israel is explored well on this site by lawyer John Whitbeck. He’s a former Israeli citizen, who volunteered to serve in Israel in 1991 and who made brisk millions in Wall Street. He is a super-Likudnik hawk, whose father was in the fascist Irgun in the late Forties, responsible for cold-blooded massacres of Palestinians. Dad’s unreconstructed ethnic outlook has been memorably embodied in his recent remark to the Ma’ariv newspaper that "Obviously he [Rahm] will influence the president to be pro-Israel… Why wouldn't he be [influential]? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House."
Working in the Clinton White House, Emanuel helped push through NAFTA, the crime bill, the balanced budget and welfare reform. He favored the war in Iraq, and when he was chairing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 he made great efforts to knock out antiwar Democratic candidates. On this site in October and November, 2006, John Walsh documented both the efforts and Emanuel’s role in losing the Democrats seats they would otherwise have won.
In 2006 Emanuel had just published a book with Bruce Reed called The Plan: Big Ideas for America, with one section focused on “the war on terror”. Emanuel and Reed wrote, “We need to fortify the military's ‘thin green line ‘around the world by adding to the U.S. Special Forces and the Marines, and by expanding the U.S. army by 100,000 more troops. …Finally we must protect our homeland and civil liberties by creating a new domestic counterterrorism force like Britain's MI5.” Recall that Obama has been calling throughout his recent campaign for an addition of 92,000 to the US Army and US Marine Corps.
Emanuel and Reed had fond words for the mad-dog Peter Beinart, neocon warrior theoretician for the Democrats, roosting Marty Peretz's The New Republic, and author of The Good Fight where Beinart explained why a tough new national security policy is as essential to the future of of progressive politics as a united front against totalitarianism and communism was to the New Deal and the Great Society. Emanuel and Reed also commended Anne-Marie Slaughter's proposal for "a new division of labor in which the United Nations takes on economic and social assistance and an expanded NATO takes over the burden of collective security." In other words, let NATO shoot the natives and the UN clean the floors.
Walsh took a hard look at the 2006 Democratic primary race between Christine Cegelis and Tammy Duckworth in Illinois's 6th CD, a Republican District, which had elected the disgusting Henry Hyde from time immemorial. In 2004 Cegelis, who iwas only mildly antiwar, ran as the Democrat with a grass roots campaign and polled a remarkable 44 per cent in her first run. It was not too long before Hyde decided to retire, and the field seemed to be open for Cegelis in the November poll, in 2006.
Enter Rahm Emanuel, who promptly dug up a pro-war candidate, Tammy Duckworth. Although she had both her legs blown off in Iraq, she remained committed to "staying the course" in Iraq. Duckworth had no political experience and did not live in the 6th District. Emanuel raised a million dollars for her and brought in Joe Lieberman, Barak Obama, John Kerry, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton to support her. Despite all this help and with the Cegelis campaign virtually penniless, Duckworth barely managed to eke out a primary victory by a measly four percentage points.
To win the House, the Dems had to win 15 seats from the Republicans. Walsh identified 22 candidates hand picked by Emanuel to run in open districts or districts with Republican incumbents. Of these, nine adopted a US “must win” in Iraq position and only one of Rahm's candidates was for prompt withdrawal from Iraq.
Then, after the election, Walsh assessed Rahm’s supposed brilliance in winning back the House. “Looking at all 22 candidates hand-picked by Rahm, “ Walsh wrote, “we find that 13 were defeated [including Duckworth], and only 8 won! And remember that this was the year of the Democratic tsunami and that Rahm's favorites were handsomely financed by the DCCC. The Dems have picked up 28 seats so far, maybe more. So out of that 28, Rahm's choices accounted for 8! Since the Dems only needed 15 seats to win the House, Rahm's efforts were completely unnecessary. Had the campaign rested on Rahm's choices, there would have been only 8 or 9 new seats, and the Dems would have lost. In fact, Rahm's efforts were probably counterproductive for the Dems since the great majority of voters were antiwar and they were voting primarily on the issue of the war (60 per cent according to CNN). But Rahm's candidates were not antiwar |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2438
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008 - 11:56 am: |
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Why don't you just dip yourself in some bleach and go co-host the Rush Limbaugh show? Or better yet go on the Hannity and Holmes show. Damn! What, they don't spread enough BS around that you feel this urgent need to help them reach some black people or what? |
Carey
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 1341
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008 - 12:16 pm: |
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LOL @....."Why don't you dip yourself in some bleach and go co-host the Rush Limbaugh show"
That s**t was funny!!! Damn!
A_womon......All The Time  . |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3482
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008 - 09:24 pm: |
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"Why don't you just dip yourself in some bleach and go co-host the Rush Limbaugh show? Or better yet go on the Hannity and Holmes show. Damn! What, they don't spread enough BS around that you feel this urgent need to help them reach some black people or what?"
 ........Ouch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 7629
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 09, 2008 - 08:57 am: |
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Rachel Maddow kept it real about Emanuel (which is why I like her show). He probably isn't all that. Now, whether he's a fascist, like this article suggests, lol, who knows. It could be right. |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2439
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 09, 2008 - 10:18 am: |
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The bottom line about emanuel is he don't take no shit off of anyone, he has A LOT of experience with middle eastern issues and he has a firm grasp on white house politics and policies since he worked under the Clinton admin.
He is a smart pick he will definitely be able to orient Obama quickly, and probably has given him a lot of good advice already since they are good friends. |
Libralind2
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 1114
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 09, 2008 - 09:27 pm: |
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I trust Obama
LiLi |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7526
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 - 11:01 am: |
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Why don't you just dip yourself in some bleach and go co-host the Rush Limbaugh show? Or better yet go on the Hannity and Holmes show. Damn! What, they don't spread enough BS around that you feel this urgent need to help them reach some black people or what?
(If you were doing anything but reading JET and UPSCALE magazine,you would know the whole mess Obama is inheriting is because the Neocons got hold of the foreign policy of this country--the 9/11 attack, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the continuing threatening War with Iran, the mess in Palestine...
Why go on? You are one know knows nothing.
Know this. If the Neocons get hold of Obama's presidency it will probably come down to nuclear combat toe to toe with the Russkis.
Do some research and reading and call me in the morning.) |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7528
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 - 11:18 am: |
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I would trust the Israelis to know one of their own better than anybody in this discussion group
Rahm Emanuel is a supporter of Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Emanuel rose to prominence in the Democratic Party as a result of his fundraising connections to AIPAC. A strong supporter of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, he comes from a terrorist family. His father was a member of Irgun, a Jewish terrorist organization that used violence to drive the British and Palestinians out of Palestine in order to create the Jewish state. During the 1991 Gulf War, Rahm Emanuel volunteered to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. He was a member of the Freddie Mac board of directors and received $231,655 in directors fees in 2001. According to Wikipedia, “during the time Emanuel spent on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities.”
In “Hail to the Chief of Staff,” Alexander Cockburn describes Emanuel as “a super-Likudnik hawk,” who as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 “made great efforts to knock out antiwar Democratic candidates.”
My despondent friends in the Israeli peace movement ask, “What is this man doing in Obama’s administration?” |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13037
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 - 11:55 am: |
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I don't think Rahm will be setting policy. He was chosen for the Chief of Staff position because of his proven skills at managing people and getting things done. He will be Obama's enforcer, not his consultant or advisor. |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2440
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 - 12:46 pm: |
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Yeah, and some folks believed the lies that American Indians were terrorists when they were only protecting what was rightfully theirs. Terrorism is in the eye of the beholder. Some might think terrorism is a country whose leaders were set on bankrupting it--sucking it dry on the backs of the poor while making the rich richer and middle class disappear, and the job industry in this country damn near dead.
Tell me, why are gas prices falling like a rock, when the last four years they shot up every other day under the premise that the war and natural disasters were driving up the cost of a barrel of oil in the middle east and thus driving our costs for a gallon of gas, yet the Saudis and other middle eastern countries were paying 12 to 30 cents per gallon for their fuel. Who's being terrorized? The wealthy oil barons in OUR country milked our purses of oily copper while filling their pockets with pure oily black gold.
Tell me who was at the helm engineering the rise and fall of the housing market while placing insured bets on which neighborhoods would fall first and making millions and sometimes even billions whether they were right or wrong? See gambling on the mortgage industry, while insuring their interest was the new vegas game of the wealthy a win win gamble for them, while breaking the backs of the poor.
I would break the politics game down for you, but I don't have time to waste on a fear monger like you, who doesn't know the art of critical thinking--the first skill you need to master when attempting to separate the real truth from internet pablum being fed to the masses.
You with your infinite knowledge want to lay this BS at the feet of one man. Ni**a please!
Get some real facts and call ME in the morning. Man up dud and quit sounding fake alarms like chicken little.
The one's who really had their finger on the bomb are leaving the white house. |
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