{"id":2335,"date":"2009-05-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/obama-100-trop-beau-ce-president\/"},"modified":"2016-03-03T09:55:34","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T09:55:34","slug":"obama-100-trop-beau-ce-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2009\/05\/obama-100-trop-beau-ce-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama 100: Trop Beau, Ce Pr\u00e9sident!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Too handsome that president” was the conclusion of the French women\u2019s magazine Voici<\/em> (27\/12\/08) “le pr\u00e9sident plus sexy jamais \u00e9lu”, the most sexy president ever elected, “attendu comme le Messie”, awaited like the Messiah”. In the swimming trunks, also appearing in an IHT column 16\/05\/09 calling Michelle’s remark about being “proud about her country for the first time” a blunder<\/em>.\u00a0 Oh no. Honesty.<\/p>\n

Where are we after 100 days?\u00a0 Close to hyphenation, Obama-Bush.\u00a0 But Obama is to the right of Bush in West Asia.\u00a0 He was silent on the Gaza massacre and no words to irritate the Israeli leadership as Rice did questioning settlements; on Iraq in the increasing numbers of soldiers that will “stay behind” instead of negotiating with the resistance; on Iran, watch the Dennis Ross preparations in State Department; on Pakistan in forcing their army to shoot on their own, the few available that is, the so-called talibans are of course in the refugee camps unavailable for murder by tanks designed for conventional war with India; in Afghanistan more than doubling by deploying 36,000 more troops, with the Gates switch to Delta Force counter-insurgency, over even Karzai strong protests. With the Pentagon budget up from US$534 to 740 billion.\u00a0 Change yes, wanted?<\/p>\n

The operation in Gaza was not military but designed to punish the people for having produced Hamas, and of course to prove to them that Hamas is not in a position to protect them.\u00a0 Exactly the same as the strategy in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan.\u00a0 And in Sri Lanka:<\/p>\n

A CIA regional analyst in July 2001: “Containing the LTTE while stepping up pressure on the civilian population under its control by stepping up ‘terror’ bombing might create conditions for unseating Prabhakaran” (US Strategic Interests in Sri Lanka, Taraki<\/em>, 30\/09\/05)<\/p>\n

It did not.\u00a0 But thus speaks an empire, deeper, stronger than an Obama cover up front, speaking very seductively for the millions naive about the empire.\u00a0 Obama has become the good cop who strikes people with their feathers when the bad cop is through with the job.<\/p>\n

He has taken on an enormous agenda after the 43rd president, George Walter Bush, by many seen as the worst ever.\u00a0 Depends on the criteria.\u00a0 Economically he may compete with No. 31, Hoover.\u00a0 But in spite of wars for oil, its pipelines, its bases and its discontents in Iraq and Afghanistan, there have been much worse imperialists.\u00a0 He pails relative to No. 11, Polk (conquering more than half of Mexico, well prepared by No. 3, Jefferson and No. 5, Monroe), the very imperialist numbers 25-26-27, McKinley-Roosevelt-Taft. And there have been some strange highly forgettable ones, even unmentionable.<\/p>\n

But undoing the crimes and stupidities of Bush does not a good policy make–as little as stopping beating your wife does a good marriage make–it only looks very seductive for a short while.\u00a0 He is the top administrator of the US Empire and there is no change in its economic and military policies in spite of a positive rhetoric on negotiation and dialogue rather than hegemony and truth monopoly.<\/p>\n

There is a stimulus approach to the economy but the bailout approach is far stronger, with the TARP from Bush costing US$1450 billion.\u00a0 Michel Chossudovsky, the brilliant Canadian economist, adds Defense, Bailout and Net Interest (on the US debt) and gets US@ 2353 billion, very close to the total US federal revenue of US$2381 billion.\u00a0 Of course the cuts will be on health, education, welfare and–also an Obama policy–taxes.\u00a0 His use of Summer-Geithner was a major mistake–Summers even earned millions from the banks and hedge funds he is now protecting from regulation.\u00a0 Or – are the forces protecting Israel from Obama\u2019s “change” also protecting Wall Street?<\/p>\n

Softening close to 50 years of illegal sanctions on Cuba is not enough, nor is rhetoric at the OAS meeting in Trinidad.\u00a0 There is a peaceful revolution in Latin America, giving common people more space and livelihood.\u00a0 Obama should welcome it, learn, practice it. And turn Guant\u00e1namo, wrongly acquired in 1934, back to the owner: Cuba.<\/p>\n

Will Guant\u00e1namo be closed?\u00a0 Maybe, maybe not.\u00a0 The military tribunals will stay.\u00a0 At the Bagram base prisoners still have no rights whatsoever.\u00a0 And Obama stops release of the next batch of torture photos lest publication endangers US soldiers\u2019 lives. But his censorship endangers them more than honesty and transparency, and the photos will be leaked sooner or later.\u00a0 Rumors say they reveal more use of sexuality as torture technique.\u00a0 Besides, there is a good way of protecting US soldiers’ lives: withdrawing them, even if suicide (up 13%) and traumas of all kinds will be a lasting legacy.<\/p>\n

And those who paved the way legally and politically for torture get off with impunity.\u00a0 John Yoo is a tenured professor at Berkeley, Donald Rumsfeld is at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, George Tenet makes money directing companies with military or intelligence contracts, Douglas Feith teaches at Harvard, so does Bill Kristol, and Paul Wolfowitz runs the US-Taiwan Business Council.\u00a0 They should be in court all of them, but Obama is looking forward, not backward. Not even demanding an investigation of the Smithfield corporation running giant hog farms around the world, also near Vera Cruz in Mexico by many held responsible for the swine flu (IHT<\/em>, 06\/05\/09).<\/p>\n

In a democracy candidates launch products, their policies, in the political market.\u00a0 People buy products they like by voting for them.\u00a0 In this there is a contract like in the economic market; this is the quality we offer, this is the price.\u00a0 False advertising can qualify as a crime.\u00a0 How about false political advertising?\u00a0 The voter has paid the price, voting, is the elected president then free to run away from so many of his promises?\u00a0 Is that not better known as fraud, and a colossal loophole in democratic theory and practice?<\/p>\n

There is much search and research behind a price for commercial products; are politicians exempt from that?\u00a0 The word is populism, and Obama is one of them. And a very seductive one, as long as it lasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Too handsome that president” was the conclusion of the French women\u2019s magazine Voici (27\/12\/08) “le pr\u00e9sident plus sexy jamais \u00e9lu”, the most sexy president ever elected, “attendu comme le Messie”, awaited like the Messiah”. In the swimming trunks, also appearing in an IHT column 16\/05\/09 calling Michelle’s remark about being “proud about her country for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}