Obamistan and Paradise

Instead of the change offered during the campaign, Obama is following in the wake of Bush-oriented policies, programs, and forming a public relations putsch aimed at disagreeables. While sham finance and health reform might fool some of the people, some folks still listen to Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now” or read “Rolling Stone” and the occasional story in the “Washington Post,” “The New York Times,” and “The Nation.” (See ACLU on the “New Normal” below.)

Liberals, members of the left, and congenial do-gooder Democrats are shunted away in closets with their angst in the new Obamistan.

Names like “Gitmo,” “indefinite detention,” and the war against women and children in Afghanistan hardly suggest structural change. The occupation of Afghanistan by soldiers, private contractors, and video-controlled drones does not make America safe. We do have structural change when it comes to endlessly high unemployment. The elites in Washington D.C. and on Wall St. have socialized losses and privatized profits. Cutting jobs and boosting unemployment helps the stock market go up.

Democrats and Republicans merely argue over the spoils.

The swing to the right in Obamistan is extraordinary: See “Top Secret America,” the Washington Post’s series, which unveils the elite’s growing number of government and corporate listening posts. (Bush built detention camps for dissenters all across America.) The government commits war crimes—according to the record– but investigates WikiLeaks for tarnishing its public relations image. Google has erected huge “tank farms” to store private data while the Geeks-r-us praise the world’s greatest search engine.

“You ain’t got no privacy.”

Once the Clintons were sixties activists. Then they joined the government. And despite the peace and prosperity of their presidential era, they deregulated the country for their corporate masters, and helped move the debate to the right. They normed the new center and moved the left-right debate to the right. Bush moved the country further right and now the new center is further to the right in Obamistan. Obama hired all the FOBs who have turned into SOBs. First they helped Bill and then Bush Che Bubble. They busted it and bailed out the bankers. The symbol of the era is lovely Chelsea, now married to an “Investment Banker.” Call her the bride of Wall Street.

Que Pasa, Cabron?

Contrary to the song, the revolution has been televised: it was a top-down coup done in plain sight presented as “Obamarama.” We have become a national sacrifice zone for Big Coal, Big Oil, and the Big Banks. Welcome to Orwellian America.

While the CIA et al created a straw-man in the person of the devilish Osama Bin Laden, fake messages about WMD, and false strategies for nation building, our best and closest neighbor—Mexico—has turned into an unstable Narco state. In Arizona, the populist outcry supports the outlaw Sheriff–Joe “Pinky” Arpaio as the last best hope against potential terrorists streaming across the desert from Pancho Villa country. Despite their sophisticated hardware, the National Security state must rely on citizens—street vendors, Flying Dutchmen, and Pink Cops—to stop terrorists.

Here in New Mexico, two gubernatorial candidates fiddle with their “he said—she said” campaign ads like schoolyard children. The real children suffer from the ills of poverty, bad schools, and general neglect. Neither the democratic candidate nor the republican candidate can understand how to create an ethics commission. They want to train folks—politicians—in the vagaries of “right and wrong”–something learned by normal folks at their Mama’s knee.

Ethics can’t be taught to old dogs.

In Taos citizens are safe from most federal and state abuses due to their status as members of the “Witness Protection” program. The program functions countywide due to a reputation by local folks for eccentricity and the lack of local law-enforcement (overweight females and fireworks watchdogs excepted). If you’re a friend of a politician—FOP–you can avoid planning regs and zoning ordinances at the Town or County.

“You gotta get your mind right, Luke!”

Local pols mostly fight over turf and avoid serious issues. Talk of equal representation at the Coop or fair dealing with the public dollar when it comes to raises for executives or travel for elected officials is off the table. Rather los politicos choose up sides and protest against reformers at the schools or delay ceremonies because they don’t like this year’s list of “living treasures.”

Taos seems refreshingly quaint and entertaining, compared to the perils and policies promoted by the occupiers streaming forth from Obamistan. Google can listen and the Spy Satellites can watch us all day long and learn nothing of significance about our way of life. (Taosenos practiced using medical marijuana long before the term existed.) Until you’ve lived here a longtime, you just can’t understand or accept the Paradox of living in Paradise—where the sacred and profane exist side by side in this, the last best place we all hate to love.

From the ACLU:

Obama Administration in Danger of Establishing “New Normal” With Worst Bush-Era Policies

The Obama administration has repudiated some of the Bush administration’s most egregious national security policies but is in danger of institutionalizing others permanently into law, thereby creating a troubling “new normal,” according to a report released by the ACLU last week.

“Establishing a New Normal: National Security, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights Under the Obama Administration,” an 18-month review of the Obama administration’s record on national security issues affecting civil liberties, concludes that the current administration’s record on issues of national security and civil liberties is decidedly mixed. President Obama has made great strides in some areas, such as his auspicious first steps to categorically prohibit torture, outlaw the CIA’s use of secret overseas detention sites and release the Bush administration’s torture memos. However, he has failed to eliminate some of the worst policies put in place by President Bush, such as military commissions and indefinite detention. He has also expanded the Bush administration’s “targeted killing” program.

“In its first days, the Obama administration took some important steps to restore civil liberties and the rule of law,” said Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU. “It has not, however, abandoned the ‘global war’ framework that was the basis for many of the last administration’s counterterrorism programs. Indeed, some of the Obama administration’s policies like the policies on indefinite detention, military commissions and targeted killings are entrenching this framework, presenting a profound threat to human rights and the rule of law. We urge the Obama administration to recommit itself to the ideals it articulated in its very first days. President Obama should not make ‘global war’ the new normal.”

 The 22-page report, which was researched and written by staff in the ACLU’s National Security Project and Washington Legislative Office, reviews the administration’s record in the areas of transparency, torture and accountability, detention, targeted killing, military commissions, speech and surveillance, and watchlists.

 >> Read the full “Establishing a New Normal” report.