Buying Brand Obama

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090503_buying_brand_obama/

Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.

HopeOver, HopeLash, HopeBreak: A Lexicon of Disappointment

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-klein/hopeover-hopelash-hopebre_b_188180.html

Hopeover. Like a hangover, a hopeover comes from having overindulged in something that felt good at the time but wasn't really all that healthy, leading to feelings of remorse, even shame. It's the political equivalent of the crash after a sugar high. Sample sentence: "When I listened to Obama's economic speech my heart soared. But then, when I tried to tell a friend about his plans for the millions of layoffs and foreclosures, I found myself saying nothing at all. I've got a serious hopeover."
Hoper coaster. Like a roller coaster, the hoper coaster describes the intense emotional peaks and valleys of the Obama era, the veering between joy at having a president who supports safe-sex education and despondency that single-payer healthcare is off the table at the very moment when it could actually become a reality. Sample sentence: "I was so psyched when Obama said he is closing Guantánamo. But now they are fighting like mad to make sure the prisoners in Bagram have no legal rights at all. Stop this hoper coaster -- I want to get off!"
Hopesick. Like the homesick, hopesick individuals are intensely nostalgic. They miss the rush of optimism from the campaign trail and are forever trying to recapture that warm, hopey feeling--usually by exaggerating the significance of relatively minor acts of Obama decency. Sample sentences: "I was feeling really hopesick about the escalation in Afghanistan, but then I watched a YouTube video of Michelle in her organic garden and it felt like inauguration day all over again. A few hours later, when I heard that the Obama administration was boycotting a major UN racism conference, the hopesickness came back hard. So I watched slideshows of Michelle wearing clothes made by ethnically diverse independent fashion designers, and that sort of helped."
Hope fiend. With hope receding, the hope fiend, like the dope fiend, goes into serious withdrawal, willing to do anything to chase the buzz. (Closely related to hopesickness but more severe, usually affecting middle-aged males.) Sample sentence: "Joe told me he actually believes Obama deliberately brought in Summers so that he would blow the bailout, and then Obama would have the excuse he needs to do what he really wants: nationalize the banks and turn them into credit unions. What a hope fiend!"
Hopebreak. Like the heartbroken lover, the hopebroken Obama-ite is not mad but terribly sad. She projected messianic powers onto Obama and is now inconsolable in her disappointment. Sample sentence: "I really believed Obama would finally force us to confront the legacy of slavery in this country and start a serious national conversation about race. But now he never seems to mention race, and he's using twisted legal arguments to keep us from even confronting the crimes of the Bush years. Every time I hear him say 'move forward,' I'm hopebroken all over again."
Hopelash. Like a backlash, hopelash is a 180-degree reversal of everything Obama-related. Sufferers were once Obama's most passionate evangelists. Now they are his angriest critics. Sample sentence: "At least with Bush everyone knew he was an asshole. Now we've got the same wars, the same lawless prisons, the same Washington corruption, but everyone is cheering like Stepford wives. It's time for a full-on hopelash."

Despite Obama’s Vow, Combat Brigades Will Stay in Iraq

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46264

Despite President Barack Obama’s statement at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina Feb. 27 that he had "chosen a timeline that will remove our combat brigades over the next 18 months," a number of Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs), which have been the basic U.S. Army combat unit in Iraq for six years, will remain in Iraq after that date under a new non-combat label.

FBI Wanted Obama Plotters Charged, But A Rove Appointee Said No

Full Story - Orcinus

We noticed last week that it was awfully peculiar that Colorado’s U.S. Attorney, Troy Eid, had so airily dismissed conspiracy charges against the three white-supremacist tweakers who were caught planning to assassinate Barack Obama at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Now it turns out that those suspicions were fully warranted

Even more significant, beyond the details of the plot, was the fact that, as the Colorado Independent notes, the FBI asked for more serious charges to be filed and were turned down.

Note the language used by Eid in dismissing the gravity of the case: the case isn't serious because they were "more aspirational, perhaps, than operational"? Well, when it was the Liberty Seven -- black Muslim men who were described by the FBI as "aspirational rather than operational" -- there was no hesitation by the Justice Department in bringing charges.

Obama to Announce Biden as Running Mate

Full Story - Yahoo News!

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running mate, CNN said on Saturday, citing several unnamed sources in the Democratic Party.

Biden, 65, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a highly respected voice on international affairs.

The long-serving senator emerged as a strong possibility after three other contenders -- Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- reportedly were told they had not been picked.

Rep: 1/2 of House Dems May Vote Hillary at DNC

Politico.com

Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’s happy for the chance to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic National Convention — and she predicts that as many as half of the Democrats in the House could join her.

Said Sanchez: “I believe there are a lot of supporters for Hillary among the superdelegates, especially now that they’ve agreed to place her name in nomination. I think half the House Democrats would probably be Hillary supporters, especially women. ... I felt she was the most experienced and the best candidate and I still feel that way.”

Obama’s decision to accept a roll call vote, which came after weeks of talks with the Clinton camp, doesn’t mean he’ll let the process get out of hand, observers say. “The convention is about nominating Barack, so his people want to speed through the vote as fast as possible so it won’t take too much TV time,” said a Democratic delegate who plans to vote for Clinton. “They also want to avoid a scenario where she’s leading at any point.”

Clinton to get Roll Call at Democratic Convention

Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — Turns out Democratic primary loser Hillary Rodham Clinton will get time to shine at the party's national convention after all _ and quite a bit of it. Democrats officially will choose Barack Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall.

But in an emblematic move meant to heal divisive primary wounds, the vanquished Clinton name also will be placed in nomination alongside his during the traditional state-by-state delegation roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Historically, the roll call has occurred on the convention's third night. That's still likely, although Democrats say the mechanics of how the vote will play out still are being determined. When it occurs, Clinton _ herself a superdelegate who gets a vote _ is expected to release her delegates to Obama, announce her support for him and ask her backers to do the same.

See Also:

Clinton's Name to be Placed in Nomination

Clinton Will be Put Up For Nomination

EXCLUSIVE: FAA Tapes Reveal Drama of Obama Jet Incident

ABCNews

The incident involving Sen. Barack Obama's campaign plane last month was much more serious than the airline or the Federal Aviation Administration said, according to FAA control tower tapes obtained by ABC News.

Just 41 seconds after discovering he no longer had full control of the plane's up and down movements, the pilot told an FAA air traffic controller "at this time we would like to declare an emergency and also have CFR [crash equipment] standing by in St. Louis."

Obama and the Airplane

Red Dirt Report

By Andrew W. Griffin
Red Dirt Report, editor
Posted: July 8, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY -- As reported here at Red Dirt Report, via a story linked the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website, Sen. Barack Obama's airplane had to make an emergency landing at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Mo. and as of now, the FAA is "conducting an investigation' according to reports. Seems strange, though. Of course Sen. Obama took the incident in stride, according to reports.

And as I've written previously, in my article "Stay safe, Obama," many have expressed concern about Sen. Obama's safety as he tours the country campaigning for president, particularly as he flies from town to town. Planes do fall out of the sky sometimes and sadly more than one have contained outspoken political figures.

Yes, it goes without saying that there have been a number of politicians, many outspoken, who have died in air crashes of varying sorts, including Rep. Larry McDonald, D-Ga., who died in 1983 aboard KAL 007 near Sakhalin Island, USSR when the Soviets shot it down when it entered their airspace, or so the story goes. McDonald, a member of the John Birch Society, had been outspoken about a growing communist presence in the world and an impending New World Order.

And then there was Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., who died in October 2002 aboard a plane which crashed mysteriously in northern Minnesota. Wellstone had voted against the Iraq war resolution weeks earlier. He was extremely disliked by the Republicans, particularly Vice-President Dick Cheney and the neoconservative faction. My February 2005 Alexandria, La. Town Talk review of Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer's "American Assassination: The Strange Death of Sen. Paul Wellstone" book about the murder of Wellstone, really opened my eyes to the issues surrounding that crash. I have no doubt that plane was taken down on purpose and the feds knew it was going to happen in advance, not unlike the 9/11 attacks.

Others include Reps. Nick Begich, D-Alaska and Hale Boggs, D-La. in October 1972 in Alaska. They were never found. Boggs had been on the Warren Commission and doubted the 'single-bullet theory' and some say wanted to re-open an investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Begich, meanwhile won his re-election posthumously, a few weeks later. However, since then, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, Mr. "Bridge-to-Nowhere" has held Begich's former seat.

And within a day of one another, Sen. John Heinz, R-Penn. and former Senator and Iran-Contra figure John Tower, R-Texas, were killed in bizarre air crashes - Heinz in a helicopter and Tower in a plane - during the first week of April 1991. Also killed aboard Tower's plane was a NASA astronaut from Georgia, Manley Lanier "Sonny" Carter, Jr. What did Tower know?

There was Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan who ran against Republican incumbent Sen. John Ashcroft in 2000. On Oct. 17, Carnahan' s plane crashed. Jean Carnahan, his widow, replaced him after he posthumously won. Of course Ashcroft would soon be named US Attorney General under the Bush Administration.

Do you remember the Clinton Administration's Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown? He also died during the first week of April, this time in 1996, during a mission to Croatia, Brown and 34 other Americans perished in a bizarre air crash, not dissimilar to the one that killed Wellstone and his entourage.

Speculation has swirled since then about why Brown may have been targeted. First, he was facing a Justice Department investigation and possible jail time as well as the wrath of Bill and Hillary Clinton in the wake of Whitewater and other money-related scandals. One online report says Brown told Clinton he wouldn't take the rap and that he'd spill the beans on Clinton's involvement. From then, the report says, Brown was a 'dead man walking.'

So, now we have Obama, a rising star in American politics on the verge of becoming president. Are there powerful forces that would want to thwart his attempts to become president? Various secret societies, racist elites and elements of the military-industrial complex would most definitely prefer a John McCain presidency because he would go with the "business-as-usual" program and continue the war on Mesopotamia for 100 years.

Think back to JFK and his optimistic proclamations. Sure, he made some mistakes but sought to bring peace to the world and spoke out against secrecy in government and the powerful influence of secret societies.

In '"Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA," the incredible new book by Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara, he notes that the USSR's Nikita Khrushchev was open to JFK's offer to have a peaceful, joint US-Soviet mission to the Moon.

Hoagland and Bara write that Khrushchev's son has said recently that his father had agreed to this joint mission to explore the mysterious Moon but that powerful congressmen like Albert Thomas, the Texas congressman who was aboard Air Force One after JFK was assassinated were against a joint mission. Tellingly, it's Thomas who winks at a smiling, just-sworn-in President Lyndon B. Johnson as everyone else looks sad and bewildered by JFK's murder.

Who really knows what an Obama presidency would bring to America. While I'm not necessarily an Obama supporter, there is an optimism in his speeches and presence that many people find very attractive, particularly when matched against McCain's crotchety, shaking-his-fist-at-the sky old man routine.

Scarily, though, history shows us that idealistic leaders usually are stopped before they can truly shine and lead humanity to a better day. I pray that Sen. Barack Obama continues to have a safe journey as he travels our great country in hopes of being the next president.

Copyright 2008 West Marie Media

Mechanic: Obama's Plane Could Have 'Lost Control' in Anomaly

Popular Mechanics

When Barack Obama's plane encountered mechanical problems during a flight on Monday, was the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate in more danger than anyone let on, including his campaign staff, a major airline, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)—or the senator himself? "Everything seemed under control," Obama told reporters onboard his charter MD-80 after an unscheduled touchdown. "The pilots knew what they were doing."

But even as the head of the NTSB called the agency's investigation of the incident "extremely serious," a veteran MD-80 flight mechanic described the onboard irregularity to PopularMechanics.com as potentially "extremely dangerous."

Obama Plane: Passengers Told They Might Have to Assume Brace Position

Democratic Underground

That ultimately did not happen, but National Transportation Safety Board chairman Mark Rosenker told ABC News' Dennis Powell yesterday that the incident "is extremely serious in this particular case."

An inflatable slide in the tail cone of the plane had deployed, making control of the plane tough. "There are hydraulic lines back there," Rosenker says. 'There are control cables that deal with the elevators and other area's of control surfaces for the aircraft, and could potentially make it extremely difficult if not impossible to fly the aircraft."

Secret Service Stand-down at Obama Event Raises Suspicions

Source-InfoWars.net

Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena, reports the Star-Telegram.

The Star Telegram article continues:
Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked.

* * * * * * *

As researchers of the JFK assassination will be aware, in addition to those who have looked into the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, a secret service stand down at a large public event should set alarm bells ringing.

Flashback: The death of JFK, Jr. (Or Why Obama got the Kennedy vote!)

(Original-WRH)

John Kennedy Jr. was planning to announce his intention to run for the US Senate in the the July 26th, 1999 issue of Newsweek. But then he died in a suspicious plane crash, and his rival for that same Senate seat, Hillary Clinton, won. The July 26th, 1999 issue of Newsweek was pulled from circulation and the story of JFK Jr's plan to run for office buried.

If you are wondering why Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama over Hillary, this is probably a big part of it.

Italian newspaper suggests Hilary Clinton's victory in New Hampshire was a miracle of technology

(Original-The Canadian)

Il Giornale, reports that all Democratic candidates except Hillary Clinton made gains when the New Hampshire ballots were manually tabulated, while Ms. Clinton made inexplicably large gains where ballots were tabulated by computerized scanners.

According to the report, Republican maverick candidate Ron Paul should have finished third in the Republican primary rather than fifth. Thus, it would appear that both Barack Obama and Ron Paul were the primary targets of vote-rigging operations in New Hampshire.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has earned recognition as one of the foremost authorities on election procedures, has frequently pointed out that the United States of America does not meet international criteria for electoral security.

Exit Poll data indicated significant Obama win in NH

(Original)

Even the Exit Polls showed that Obama should have won, according to Chris Matthews on Hardball today. It’s the first specific indication that we’ve seen that the raw, unadjusted Exit Poll data, which only corporate mainstream media folks, not mere mortals, are allowed to see, confirmed all of the pre-election polling which predicted an Obama win.