Operation Itch is on hiatus until after the Thanksgiving holiday. In early December, there are going to be some changes around here. In the meantime, I am recruiting a collective of writers & video creators. Interested? Read more here.
Archive for November, 2008
Calling all video creators, writers & bloggers
November 21, 2008Interview with Adam Kokesh
November 12, 2008With Adam Kokesh on election night at the Ralph Nader party Visit Adam at his blog- http://kokesh.blogspot.com/
ONE MAN, EVEN THE PRESIDENT, CAN’T DO ANYTHING BY HIMSELF
November 12, 2008by Dennis Trainor, Jr
The election of Barack Obama is a moment of undeniable power and significance. A nation built on the backs of slaves, a nation that- two generations ago, forced African Americans to use separate water fountains- not only elected an African American to the highest office in the land, but we have done so with the zealous fanfare that calls to mind the adulation lavished on the Beatles and the Kennedys.
I was in the streets of Washington DC on election night soaking in the atmosphere and talking to people. One woman, an African American in her 30’s, told me that she had never felt like she belonged. In her entire life she said, she had always felt like an outsider. “Until right now.” I soaked that in as much as I could. Then she got into her 2008 Mercedes Benz, gave me a “god bless” and a pulled into the traffic on 14th street, joining the parade of cars with beeping horns and rhapsodic torso’s thrusting out of windows and sunroofs and screaming into the night.
Clearly these people were not wearing their seat belts. Ralph Nader would be horrified.
A few minutes later I spoke with another African American – a homeless man who was waiting for me as I parked my car in the street. Willie, of course, was just after asking me for some money, but wanted a little conversation first. He was already setting the bar low for Obama: “One man, even the president, can’t do anything by himself”, he said. Even so, the smile on Willie’s face and the spring in his step nearly brought me to tears.
I said that one man, if he is the president, can – and has- take us to war.
But Willie was more concerned about domestic issues. “Poverty is not going anywhere, it is just gonna get worse.” Yes, he was obviously angling for some cash- and I gave him some. I almost made a joke about wealth redistribution as I took out what I thought was 3 bucks from my pocket, but (doh!) turned out to be a single wrapped around two twenty dollar bills. So Willie got $41 bucks from me.
Several forces collided in this election. A nation horrified into paralysis and embarrassment by the Bush administration, a country desperate- and ready- to wrestle the monkey of white guilt off of its back and smooth the scars of slavery and racism meet head on with the undeniably transformational figure of Barrack Obama. His ability as an orator to inspire hope is a rare gift. We could, and have many times in the past, settled for much less in a president.
But we also live in a time where marketing holds more sway over our lives than most of us will readily admit. For instance, and speaking of water fountains- in a land where the tap water would be the envy of most people in the world, we willingly pay more for a gallon of bottled water than we do for a gallon of gas. Marketing. Show business.
The presidential election was decided in this context, and Obama’s campaign will go down in history as a masterstroke of marketing. Show biz. In selling us change, the Obama campaign (with the cooperation of most major media outlets) was successful in getting most of us to suspend our critical thinking. Note that Chris Matthews of Hardball said on election night that it was his job to make sure the Obama presidency goes smoothly. A journalist with a news desk granted a major mouthpiece by MSNBC was comfortable enough to actually say this.
Now that we have bought the product of an Obama nation, we will spend the coming months opening the pretty package. What will be inside?
In an ideal world, the American citizens, living as we do in a representative democracy, will (at least in part) get to fill up that package. By holding our elected officials accountable, particularly those members of congress who hold just as much constitutional power as the president, we can create the future.
Am I naïve enough to think that we live in an ideal world? My president elect is asking me to dream big. In Grant Park on election night Obama presented himself as proof that a government of the people by the people and for the people has not perished from the earth.
Now that Obama is elected, it is time for those of you who have been silent- those of you who want a shift away from the imperial, unilateral, bush doctrine foreign policy; those of you who want a single payer health care system, among many other things, to wake up. Making demands, actively shaping the change that Obama promises, that is the role that citizens play in this little pageant. Failure to play that role, to sit back uncritically and wait and see what a Washington DC controlled by the Democrats in the executive and legislative branch will do, cedes power to those who will not wait. Namely it cedes power to corporate interests. For all of your 5 and 10 dollar campaign donations it was Wall street that funded the Obama machine- and they will not will not sit passively back to “wait and see.”
Inauguration day is too late to mobilize. The 1/20/09 bumper stickers have lulled us into a state of passivity worthy of sheep, not the energized and active electorate required to uphold our end of the promise of a government of for and by the people.
Contact your elected officials. Join congressional watchdog groups like NOVEMBER5.ORG. Work with the Democratic majority. Making demands of the incoming administration and congress is not the same as making attacks.
“One man, even the president, can’t do anything by himself”, Willie said.
Well said, Willie. A sentiment worth much more than the $41 I paid for it.
Dennis Trainor, Jr is the writer & performer of “The Hermit With Davis Fleetwood”
With Ralph Nader on Election Night
November 6, 2008His actual words, also uttered on FOX NEWS (and here) are: Obama has a choice- whether he will become an Uncle Sam standing up for the American people or an Uncle Tom, standing up for giant corporations that have dragged America into a ditch.
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Obama Win Causes Obsessed Backers To See How Empty Lives Are
November 6, 2008The revelation that Obama’s candidacy was the only thing that gave their lives any meaning has caused many supporters to wander aimlessly, unsure of what to do with themselves.
from THE ONION
Election Eve- all over but the shouting
November 3, 2008
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Operation Itch produces The Hermit with Davis Fleetwood with viewer support. Your donations support this site. Enjoy the videos? Consider a donation. Thank you- D
Funny Sarah Palin Prank Call With Nicolas Sarkozy
November 3, 2008Marc-Antoine Audette as French President Nicolas Sarkozy calls Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin. Must see.
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Only Nader Is Right on the Issues
November 3, 2008By Chris Hedges (JUMP TO most recent post)
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who has covered many wars around the world. His column appears Mondays on Truthdig.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader speaks during a news conference outside of the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington.
Tomorrow I will go to a polling station in Princeton, N.J., and vote for Ralph Nader. I know the tired arguments against a Nader vote. He can’t win. A vote for Nader is a vote for McCain. He threw the election to George W. Bush in 2000. He is an egomaniac.
There is little disagreement among liberals and progressives about the Nader and Obama campaign issues. Nader would win among us in a landslide if this was based on issues. Sen. Barack Obama’s vote to renew the Patriot Act, his votes to continue to fund the Iraq war, his backing of the FISA Reform Act, his craven courting of the Israeli lobby, his support of the death penalty, his refusal to champion universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care for all Americans, his call to increase troop levels and expand the war in Afghanistan, his failure to call for a reduction in the bloated and wasteful defense spending and his lobbying for the huge taxpayer swindle known as the bailout are repugnant to most of us on the left. Nader stands on the other side of all those issues.
So if the argument is not about issues what is it about?
“Vigilante Voter Police” Harass Minority Voters
November 3, 2008
More at http://www.theuptake.org.
Two lawsuits have been filed against New Mexico’s Republican heavyweights on behalf of voters who endured visits from a private investigator and having their personal information publicly distributed via press conference.
Story By Stuart Overbey
The Obama McCain Challenge (or Move on, MoveON.org)
November 2, 2008In response to John Cusack gives the Bush-McCain Challenge in MoveOn.org’s new ad “Betcha Can’t Tell Them Apart”
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Operation Itch produces The Hermit with Davis Fleetwood with viewer support. Your donations support this site. Enjoy the videos? Consider a donation. Thank you- D
From Ralph to You 72 Hours Left.
November 2, 2008Ralph’s words for you in this most critical period of the 2008 campaign. It’s the last stretch, let’s mobilize.
Tina Fey PWNs John McCain as Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live?
November 3, 2008I disagree- I thought McCain was funny, displayed a good sense of humor about himself and got in some points. The skit dis not make McCain look like a loser. In my opinion, it made him look like a gut who can laugh. Don’t mistake my high marks for McCain on SNL with an endorsement. I would not elect this guy to the PTA, never mind president
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Posted in Entertainment | Tagged 2012, barack obama, comedy commentary analysis pork knives undergarmen, election 2008, John McCain, QVC, Sarah Palin, saturday night live, skit, SNL, tina fey | 2 Comments »