Obama, Inc.
(This article by Jim Hightower is re-posted from the site Otherwords.)
When you dance with the devil, never fool yourself into thinking that you’re leading.
That would be my 50-cents-worth of advice to President Barack Obama as he remakes his presidency into a Clintonesque corporate enterprise. Following last fall’s congressional elections, he immediately began blowing kisses to CEOs and big business lobbyists, and he’s now filled his White House dance card with them.
First came Bill Daley, the Wall Street banker and longtime corporate lobbyist. In early January, Obama brought him to the White House ball to be his chief-of-staff, gatekeeper, and policy coordinator.
Then Obama tapped Jeffery Immelt to lead his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which is supposed to “encourage the private sector to hire [Americans] and invest in American competitiveness.” This is a bizarre coupling, for as General Electric’s CEO, Immelt was a leader in shipping American factories and jobs to Asia and elsewhere. Today, fewer than half of GE’s workers are in our country.
As an AFL-CIO official notes, “Highly globalized companies don’t have the same interests as the United States. There is no company more emblematic of this than GE.”
In his recent State of the Union speech, Obama offered only cold comfort to the millions of Americans who are unemployed or barely employed, saying blandly that “The rules have changed.” Well, yes–and who changed them? Self-serving CEOs like Jeffrey Immelt, that’s who.
America’s working families–our endangered middle class–have a right to expect Obama to fight for rules that are fair to them and our country, not meekly accept rules that have been skewed by an elite corporate class to profit them alone. Instead, our president is waltzing with the devil.
He’s rebranding his presidency, all right. It’s becoming Obama, Inc.
Forget Egyptian Freedom, Levin wants Israeli Security
After weeks of protest in Egypt, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Michigan Senator Carl Levin finally released a statement on the civilian uprising.
Along with Senators Bob Casey (PA) and Chris Coons (DE), Levin sent out a Media Release on Friday (2/4) that tells us something about what some members of US Senate feel are priorities for the US during Egypt’s uprising.
The statement by Levin and company makes some vague comments about “international obligations:”
“With new freedoms, come new responsibilities for the future leaders and Government of Egypt. During this period of transition, we believe that the U.S. should send a strong message to key Egyptian leaders and members of the opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, that Egypt’s international obligations must be respected during a political transition and beyond.”
However, with the next sentence Levin makes it clear where his allegiance lies:
“Specifically, it is imperative that Egypt maintains its historic commitment to peace with Israel, as agreed to in the Camp David Accords, and that the Egyptian military and security forces ensure security on the border with Gaza.”
Levin, Casey and Coons are echoing a long-standing position of the US government as it related to Middle East politics, in that Israeli “security” is the main priority. Their emphasis on Israeli security is interesting considering that recent WikiLeaks documents show that Israel undermined every opportunity at a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians.
It is also interesting that the statement by Senator Levin and his colleagues would emphasize the need for security on the border of Gaza. It has been more than two years since the Israeli assault on Gaza, which resulted in thousands dead and wounded Palestinian civilians. Naomi Klein said in a recent article that despite the international outrage of these war crimes, Israel has not been forced to change its behavior one bit. This is mostly due to the fact that the US continues to bankroll the Israeli occupation of Palestine and allowed the continued expansion of Israeli settlement.
However, there is one additional reason why Levin would be so assertive about Israeli security in the wake of the Egyptian uprising. Michigan Senator Carl Levin has been the second largest recipient of Pro-Israeli PAC money in Congress since 1990. He has received $1,390,594 in campaign contributions from Pro-Israeli groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. For more details on Levin’s relationship to these groups, check out an article from 2008 that breaks down the financial backing of Levin from Pro-Israel organizations.
Top 150 PACs raised $48 million in 2010 Election cycle in Michigan
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network MCFN) released its findings of the top 150 PACs (political action committees) for the 2010 Election cycle. Their findings demonstrate that money overwhelmingly influences electoral politics in this state.
According to a Media Release from MCFN, “The top fundraising PAC of the cycle was the RGA Michigan PAC, one of numerous state PACs created by the Republican Governors Association across the country in the 2010 cycle. The RGA Michigan PAC reported $8,429,328 in contributions, a record for a Michigan state PAC. The RGA Michigan PAC gave $5,295,000 to the Michigan Republican Party, $3,000,000 to the campaign committee of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, $130,000 to the Republican Governors Association and it has filed for dissolution.
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce was the top contributor in 2010 to the top PAC’s parent organization, the Republican Governors Association. The Michigan Chamber’s corporate contributions to the RGA totaled $5,372,500. Net of the $3,000,000 contribution to the Texas governor’s campaign, the contributions ascribed to individual donors to RGA Michigan PAC were a near perfect replacement for the Michigan Chamber’s contribution to the RGA. Of the $8.4 million in individual contributions recorded by RGA Michigan PAC, 98 percent came from persons who do not reside in Michigan. The individual contributions that came to the RGA Michigan PAC first passed through the parent organization.”
This kind of financial shell game is just the beginning of how money will influence politics since the 2010 Supreme Court decision that change how campaign donations could be made during electoral campaigns.
The MCFN confirms this influence in their look at 2010 PAC spending in Michigan by corporations. “Corporate PACs made their Michigan debut in 2010, exploiting the opening created by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In Michigan, corporate funds can be used only for independent expenditures, not contributions to candidates, so organizations that are using corporate funds, so far, are segregating their corporate money in new PACs. The most notable corporate PACs were those of the Michigan Association of Realtors, $450,100, and Business Leaders for Michigan II, at $135,500.”
MCFN executive director Rich Robinson said of the new funding schemes, “The Byzantine transfers into and out of the Republican Governors Association, and the ‘Russian doll’ financing structure in the Realtors’ corporate PAC are clear notice that state PACs have new formulations to defeat transparency. That is not a positive development for democracy in Michigan.”
The list of the top 150 PACs is worth looking at, with several entities on the list from West Michigan, such as Meijer, Progressive Women’s Alliance of West Michigan, Warner, Norcross & Judd and the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.
Film “Scarred Justice” brings forgotten student massacre to light
(Left to right) Henry Smith, Samuel Hammond Jr. and Delano H. Middleton
Dinner and A Movie:
Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968
Thursday Feb. 10, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
The Bloom Collective
671 Davis NW (Steepletown Center)
Corner of 5th & Davis, Grand Rapids
$3-$5 suggested donation.
The Bloom will serve a light supper with vegan options.
Forty years ago, the Kent State shootings made national headlines. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s song, “Four Dead in Ohio,” made the charts—and is still played frequently today on classic rock radio stations. Last 
May, on the 40th anniversary, the shootings made headlines again in USA Today, on CBS news, Vanity Fair and other major news outlets.
Did you know that two years before the National Guard gunned down these four white students, the South Carolina Highway Patrol shot dead three African American students, injured 28 others and caused a young pregnant woman to miscarry? All those shot were shot in the back. Why? They were protesting the illegal segregation practiced by the local All Star Bowling Lanes.
The dead included South Carolina State College students, Samuel Hammond and Henry Smith, and high school student, Delano Middleton.
If you are old enough to remember Kent State but can’t remember hearing about the Orangeburg Massacre, don’t blame your bad memory. The story barely made the news, let alone the top forty. But it’s not too late to learn about these brave young folks who stood up for their civil rights and were gunned down by the local police.
The Bloom Collective is screening the documentary film, Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 on Thursday. The film’s website tells us, “This film brings to light one of the bloodiest Civil Rights era tragedies after four decades of denial. The killing of four white students at Kent State University in 1970 left an indelible stain on our national consciousness. But most Americans know nothing of the three black students killed at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg two years earlier. It raises disturbing questions about how our country acknowledges its tortured racial past in order to make sense of its challenging present.”
Come out and learn about The Orangeburg Massacre and pay homage to the brave students who died or were injured while standing up for their civil rights in 1968.
View the trailer.
Contextualizing the Egyptian and Tunisian struggles
As the people of Egypt continue to struggle for freedom from the abusive Mubarak regime it is important for those of us in the US to think about the role of the US government and the historical significance of this liberation struggle.
It is important to continue to follow the daily news coming out of Egypt, but it is just as important that we understand the context of this struggle. There has been some good commentary and analysis on the contextual significance of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings.
Naomi Prins helps us understand that the uprising in Egypt is not just a response to the politically repressive Mubarak regime, it is also a response to the economic conditions imposed by Capitalism. Prins states, “Mubarak wasn’t pushing subprime loans onto Egyptians; instead, he was embarking on an economic strategy that entailed selling large pieces of Egypt’s banks to the highest international bidder.”
When it comes to the US role in Egypt it is important that we understand the US has backed the Mubarak regime for decades. And while it is likely that the US will support Mubarak stepping down they are not likely to allow the Egyptians to determine their own future. Here Paul Street has some important things to say about the Obama administration’s response to far. Street correctly acknowledges that the US will not allow real democracy in Egypt, since it would conflict with the long term goals of the US and its allies in the region.
“……the administration is certain to strictly qualify any support it might be seen as giving the people in the Arab streets for fear of helping reinforce a new wave of democratic national independence across the oil-rich Middle East, whose petroleum reserves are seen by American planners as too critical for U.S. power for them to be controlled by the region’s actual residents.”
The strategic and resource acquisition motives of the US in Egypt are further supported by an excellent piece from Vijay Prashad on the people the US has used to work with the Egyptian regime to protect elite interests. Thus, the “transition” away from the Mubarak regime that the US is likely to endorse will involve backing the vice president Omar Suleiman. Stephen Soldz points out in a piece on CounterPunch that Suleiman, the most prominent intelligence officer in the country, has been involved in torture for years while being a US/CIA asset.
There are issues that civil society in the US must come to terms with if we are to truly support the Egyptian and Tunisian struggles. We have to be willing to question our own understanding of the Arab world, the role of Islam and our notions of liberal Democracy. These are issues that were the subject of a recent show on Al Jazeera that involved a conversation with Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek.
Yesterday, members of the Grand Rapids Branch of the IWW joined thousands of other people across the country at Chase Bank locations to show support for farmworkers who are being exploited by RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Some members handed out flyers to Chase Bank customers to let them know about the campaign to pressure RJ Reynolds to meet the demands of farmworkers who pick tobacco. The flyers also encouraged people to pull their money out of Chase Bank until there was economic justice for the farmworkers. Chase Bank is the largest lender to RJ Reynolds, which is why the Farm Labor Organizing Committee called for actions all across the country yesterday.
Many people took the information flyers and several people talked to IWW members about the campaign. However, just minutes after IWW members arrived at the Michigan Avenue Chase Bank, the branch manager came out to tell people they could not be there and that if anyone parked in their lot they would have the car towed away.
Minutes later 3 GRPD squad cars showed up and told the IWW members that they could not be on the bank property and remove their signs that were planted in the snow along the sidewalk. IWW members remained for 90 minutes distributing flyers, talking with customers and holding signs for those driving by on Michigan Avenue.
GRIID spoke with IWW member Cole Dorsey about the action and another IWW member who went into the bank to close her account in support of the FLOC campaign.
HOEKSTRA TAKES A SPIN
(This article is re-posted from the Center for Responsive Politics.)
Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra is the latest member of the departed 111th Congress to take a spin through the revolving door of political influence.
The former Intelligence Committee chairman will translate his know-how to major law and lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro, according to Politico. As the firm’s new legislative and regulatory adviser on intelligence, Hoekstra joins a host of former members of Congress, including once-speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.).
Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican, surrendered his congressional post during the last election cycle, after leaving to run for governor of his home state. He failed to advance beyond the primary in that contest, but Hoekstra is one of several high-profile Republicans reportedly considering a challenge to Democrat Debbie Stabenow, Michigan’s junior senator, during the 2012 election.
Last night, Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian doctor who suffered tremendous family loss in the 2009 Israeli assault on Gaza, spoke to a crowd of over 100 people at the Schuler Books on 28th Street.
Dr. Izzeldin, who spoke in Grand Rapids last year, was invited to speak again by the local group Healing Children of Conflict (HCC). Dr. Izzeldin shared his personal story of family loss, first his wife in 2008 and then his 3 daughters in January of 2009 as Israeli bombs hit his home.
Dr. Abuelaish said that he was the first Palestinian doctor to practice medicine in an Israeli hospital. He says that this demonstrated to many Israelis that Palestinians are just as capable of serving as are Israelis.
His words were not overtly political, rather he emphasized the need for all of us to spend time with family and to love each other as much as possible, because we never know when our last chance will be to treat each other in a loving manner. He knows all too well, since his daughters were taken from him in an instant.
Dr. Abuelaish said that he had just come from his daughter’s room when the bomb hit their house. His daughters were killed instantly. When he entered the room his daughters’ bodies were almost unrecognizable, with their heads missing from their shredded bodies and blood everywhere in the room.
He tells the audience that what would happen if his son (who is still alive) would turn to violence and even take his own life as a suicide bomber? Dr. Izzeldin says that he cannot judge him if he turns to violence. Instead, he says that we all need to ask ourselves what have we all done and what are the factors that led someone down the road of violence? “If we do nothing to change the circumstances that led people to violence then we can not claim to love peace.”
As tears rolled down his face, he told the audience that what he wants to do is to honor his daughters by working towards peace and to make sure that no other children suffer the same fate. He says he is more determined to not hate, to not create more victims in order to bring justice for his daughters.
For Dr. Izzeldin hate is a poison, that once it enters your body you will be infected by it. The antidote of hate, he said, is to challenge the one you hate to see the world differently and to show them that you believe in the power of peace.
He said that one of his surviving daughters had been studying to go to college. She was wounded in the Israeli Gaza assault and lost sight in one eye, but when she was discharged from the hospital she did not lose sight of her goals. She is now going to college in Toronto and wants to keep the memory of her sisters alive by not giving up and giving in to violence.
He spoke about needing to bring prescriptions to those who are sick. When patients come to a hospital they are looking for a prescription to be healed. “We can’t just tell patients that we hope they get better.” He said in the same way we need to find the right prescription to make the world better. We cannot just want a better world we have to make a better world. He called on all of us to investigate what is going on and to see that we can do something to support those who are fighting to live.
Dr. Izzeldin told the audience that there is now a foundation established in memory of his wife and daughters, called Daughters for Life. Dr. Abuelaish said that Palestinian women are the ones who have pushed the hardest for education for children. He believes that it is time for Palestinian women to lead, to show us the way of the future. The foundation will give education awards to girls from the Middle East so that they will be able to study at the university level.
He concluded by reading a poem written by an Israeli/Jewish woman and an excerpt from his book I Shall Not Hate.
There was some time at the end for Q&A. One man asked him what he thought about a 1 or 2 state solution for Israel and Palestine. Dr. Abuelaish responded by say that as a doctor he doesn’t ask the woman who is in labor in the delivery room if she wants a boy or a girl. He knows she would tell him to just make sure the baby is healthy. He says that a 1 or 2 state solutions are theoretical questions and that what we must do is to take action right now to deal with the more immediate. He said that the Israeli settlements continue to be built, “we can’t even freeze them for 3 months and the US continues to give $3 billion a year.” Theoretical questions mean nothing, especially when we can’t even make progress towards justice.
Another person asked him what he thought about what was happening in Egypt. He said that all political leaders exist to serve their people, not to intimidate them. He hopes that peace and freedom will prevail in Egypt and that he is inspired by the courage that young people have in Egypt. He said we could all learn from them.
Michigan Human Rights Activists Face Nearly a Decade in Prison for Anti-Imperialist, Anti-War Protest
(This Action Alert was sent out by the Campaign to Free Ahlam Mohsen and Max Kantar.)
Ahlam Mohsen and Max Kantar are both facing felony federal assault charges for their roles in an anti-imperialist, anti-war action that took place during a Democratic Party meeting in Big Rapids, Michigan on August 16, 2010. At the meeting, which was attended by Senator Carl Levin—Chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the U.S. Senate—Max Kantar, 23, stood up and denounced Sen. Levin for his complicity in and support for U.S. war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Middle East. After Kantar was finished speaking, Ahlam Mohsen, 23, pushed an apple pie into Levin’s face.
Mohsen and Kantar now face up to EIGHT YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON for speaking out against U.S. atrocities and mass murder against the peoples of Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.
Mohsen and Kantar’s legal defense team is in IMMEDIATE NEED OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. Please make checks payable to the Campaign to Free Ahlam and Max C/O MECAWI and mail to MECAWI at 5920 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48202. For questions, please contact the Campaign to Free Ahlam Mohsen and Max Kantar via email at campaignforfreedom@gmail.com.
The CAMPAIGN also calls on all freedom- and justice-loving people to respectfully demand that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan drop all charges against Ahlam Mohsen and Max Kantar. Assistant U.S. Attorney HAGEN FRANK is prosecuting the case.
ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, HAGEN FRANK
330 Ionia Avenue, N.W.
Suite 501
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Fax: 616-456-2408
Senator Levin was targeted because of his CRIMINAL ROLE in supporting the U.S.-led SANCTIONS on IRAQ during the 1990s which killed in excess of 1,000,000 people, including some 500,000 CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF FIVE due to the denial of food, medicines, and water sanitation items. In addition to receiving more PRO-ISRAEL lobby money than virtually any other member of the Senate, Levin has also been a major proponent of U.S. DRONE BOMBINGS in PAKISTAN which have killed mostly civilians, including thousands of men, women, and children. Levin has always voted without fail to fund and sustain the murderous and dehumanizing U.S. OCCUPATIONS of IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN—unjust wars which include vast amounts of U.S. torture, murder, imprisonment, death, and destruction. The full statement (with sources) read by Kantar to Senator Levin can be accessed here: http://www.mecawi.org/Ahlam.statement%20and%20sources.pdf or http://freeahlamandmax.blogspot.com/2011/02/statement-read-to-senator-levin-in-big.html.
For more information, or to find out how you can help, visit the website of the CAMPAIGN TO FREE AHLAM MOHSEN AND MAX KANTAR at http://freeahlamandmax.blogspot.com/ or contact us via campaignforfreedom@gmail.com.
DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST AHLAM MOHSEN AND MAX KANTAR! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
GVSU Students Stand in Solidarity with the Egyptian Freedom Struggle
Earlier today a small group of GVSU students braved the blistering cold outside at the Allendale campus to make a public showing of support for the people of Egypt.
Several students held signs, others gave out small Egyptian flags and everyone tried to engage the student body as they passed by about what is happening in Egypt. Their show of solidarity, while small in numbers, is a reflection of the kind of support that people are demonstrating worldwide as Egyptian civil society continues in their struggle against the repressive Mubarak regime.
We spoke with a few of the students on camera about their action, what this means for the US, the Obama administration’s response so far and what students can do to get involved in ongoing actions of solidarity.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
