Saturday, August 6, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

This is my final letter to you. Yesterday’s letter was an epiphany. While writing it, I finally understood who you were and everything fell into place, all your deals, capitulations and broken promises. You’re not inept or weak or immature; you’re smoother than most with your smooth talk and false sincerity, a Machiavellian politician, cunning, amoral, without scruples or conscience, dangerous. You were a Trojan horse, Mr. President, posing as friend, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We believed you, embraced you, elected you. We brought that Trojan horse inside the gates and once inside, you turned on us and wreaked havoc. You knew right from the start, didn’t you? How long ago? Back in your college days walking the streets of Eagle Rock? When you got to Harvard and rubbed shoulders with the scions of wealth and power? Or was it when you learned about backroom deals and machine politics in Chicago? Whenever it was, you learned your lessons well, Mr. President. Learned patience and how to lie with conviction, learned to wear that mask of thoughtfulness and compromise while hiding your real agenda, and learned how to take advantage without remorse, to do whatever it takes. You plotted and planned and sold yourself as the best hope for America, a Saviour who would lead us back to the Promised Land, but it was all an illusion, the cynical manipulation of a people desperate for change and a better future, and as soon as that Trojan horse was brought inside, out trooped the Old Guard, the power brokers and the wealthy elite and it’s business as usual in America: tyranny over democracy, secrecy over transparency and repression over freedom. You are ruthless and without mercy, you order assassinations, brutalize those who expose the truth, promote wars of aggression, and ignore laws that restrict you. Most ominous of all, however, is your use of the CIA as your secret army, easily turned into your own private security force in case you need one. You have betrayed us, Mr. President, fooled us and conned us with your slick lies and sleight-of-hand. You’re a trickster and you’re as dangerous to democracy as anyone has ever been. Many are in denial of the truth but many of us aren’t and we are angry, disgusted and sick as we watch you tilt toward Fascism. Letters to you are futile cries in the wilderness and so, Mr. President, I’m done writing and I’m done with you. The future looks bleak from out here. God help us one and all. We’ll need it.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

For months I’ve been trying to figure out who you are. A weak president? Incompetent? A lousy negotiator? I know you’re not stupid. You’re a very smart guy, you give a great speech now and then and you come across as sincere, well-meaning, and committed to equality, justice and fair play. But then I look at your track record and I see a president who has expanded the war in Afghanistan, bombed Libya, authorized drone strikes and Special Ops incursions by the CIA into Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, persecuted and prosecuted government whistleblowers, bailed out the insurance industry by abandoning single payer healthcare, abandoned the environment and global warming crises, authorized drilling in the Arctic by Royal Dutch Shell, handed Monsanto a blank check to market genetically modified corn, beets and soybeans, extended and increased tax cuts for millionaires and corporations and acceded to every Republican/Tea Party demand that came along, even put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the table for cuts. I could go on, but you get my drift. The conclusion I keep coming to is that you are a continuation of the Bush regime, a Trojan horse for big corporations and the rich, that you are a master manipulator, con artist and radical rightwinger. I believe you are without morals or principles and that you have no commitment to the restoration of democracy and the rule of law. You have continued to shred what little is left of the social contract and you pursue a foreign policy that casts America in the role of an aggressor nation, a terrorist state. Your flaunting of the War Powers Act regarding the ongoing bombing of Libya without justification and your use of the InJustice Department to shut down WikiLeaks and prosecute Thomas Drake on trumped up charges, and your defense of the military’s torture of Bradley Manning, refusing to allow UN investigators or even a U.S. congressman to visit him without “minders” is the mark of a despot. I have come to the conclusion that you are without morality or conscience, and that your only master is power. We the People have been hoodwinked, conned and rolled, and I pray you will be defeated in 2012. At least with a Republican in the White House, we know the enemy; it is far more dangerous to have him in our midst, unrecognized.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday you called the disastrous debt ceiling bill a “compromise.” This bill was no compromise. It was a total capitulation to the rightwingnut Republican ideologues. It was what they demanded and what you agreed to behind closed doors, no Democrats allowed. While the rich are celebrating, flying their kids to summer camp in private jets, buying $1,500 shoes at Bergdorf-Goodman and $9,000 dresses at Nordstrom’s, the pensioners of Prichard, Alabama lost everything when their town went broke, the people of Central Falls, Rhode Island had their pensions cut in half so bondholders–more rich folks–could be paid off, and the rest of us are trying to figure out if we have a future or not and how to pay the bills right now. That “Select Commission” that’s going to come up with a plan for another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction? A sham. Twelve members, equally divided between Republicans who have vowed, “not a penny in increased taxes,” and Democrats who have shown no spine or inclination to fight for the not-rich, doesn’t have a hope in hell of agreeing on anything and the automatic cuts that will result guarantee that the notrich will get the shaft while the rich continue to fly around in their tax-exempt jets and buy luxury goods from Nieman-Marcus and Bergdorf-Goodman. You were right about one thing, though, Mr. President: The whole debt-ceiling-budget-cutting crisis was manufactured. But while you laid the blame at the Republicans’ doorstep, you were equally complicit. Remember the Bush tax cuts you extended last December? Republicans wouldn’t have had an opportunity to manufacture this current crisis if you’d done the right thing and vetoed that bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that letting those unjustified and immoral Bush tax cuts expire would raise $3.6 trillion over ten years. No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. $3.6 trillion! That’s $1.5 trillion more than the slash-and-burn Republicans are demanding. That’s almost as much as you proposed in your “Grand Vision.” You could have refused to extend the Bush tax cuts, you could have fought for We the People and fairness and equality and democracy but you didn’t. Instead, you not only capitulated, you gave them more than they asked for. Welcome to Obamamerika, land of the haves and the have-nots, land of equality, justice, and freedom for the rich. Who are you Mr. President? A lot of us would like to know. You’re sure not who you claim to be.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations. By signing the Republican job-killing democracy-killing legislation to gut the U.S. government and betray We the People, you signed the death warrant for democracy as we know it. The bill you just signed, guarantees years of recession/depression, years of unwarranted suffering and privation for the majority of Americans and a bleak future for our children and grandchildren. Once again your backroom deals with Republicans, cutting out your own party leaders from negotiations and caving in to every lunatic Republican demand has resulted in a disaster for America. You are at best a lap dog for the rich, the defender of corporate greed, and a smooth-talking con man. At worst you were a Trojan horse for the oligarchs and a betrayer of democratic government in the U.S. of A. Welcome to Obamamerika, the land of the lost, the home of the hopeless, the trail of broken promises. I have lost not only Hope but faith that eventually government will correct itself and do the right thing to restore the democratic principles this country was founded on. I am enraged, distressed beyond words, unable to adequately express myself. A pox on both your houses.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

I received your July 21 letter today. It was apparently generated by a computer since it used the same phrases and sentences I’ve seen in previous mail from The White House. In spite of that however, I felt compelled to respond. In your letter, you (or your computer) state, “I am taking immediate steps that generate job creation and economic recovery and I am determined to make investments that lay a new foundation for real and lasting progress.” Nice words but your actions speak the opposite. The debt-ceiling legislation you appear willing to sign is anything but “a foundation for real and lasting progress.” This Republican lunacy is a disaster for the American economy and for the American people. It reduces government spending at a time when spending needs to be increased, it cuts social programs when the need is greatest and it does nothing to balance the budget or bring down the debt, both of which can be done only by de-funding war and raising taxes on the rich. There is not a penny in increased taxes on the bloated rich and you’ve accepted that. This bill is both job-killing and democracy-killing. Once again you’ve caved in to the extreme rightwinnuts, sold We the People down the river. I keep thinking about that statistic in my letter of July 21: the 400 richest Americans own more wealth than the 150 million poorest. That’s half the population of the U.S. of A., Mr. President. 400 people own more wealth than half the population! I find that shocking, appalling, disgusting, obscene. That’s not democracy; that’s oligarchy.

The other phrase in your letter that bothered me is, “I am making my Administration the most open and transparent in history.” That is patently false, Mr. President. Your backroom deals with Republicans, your persecution and prosecution of government whistleblowers who expose misdeeds, corruption and war crimes, your attempts to shut down the free flow of information and your authorization of secret wars conducted by the CIA give the lie to “open and transparent.” Suppression of information, oppression of whistleblowers, wars of aggression, sanctioned assassinations and unauthorized incursions into foreign countries with whom we are not at war are not the actions of a democracy but rather, the actions of a rogue state, a terrorist nation. There is no justification for war and especially not for your quasi-secret wars. We need a leader to restore democracy. We thought we elected one in 2008. We did not.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Here’s more eye-popping statistics for you. The latest Pew Research Center report on who’s got what in America, shows that the median wealth of Hispanic households s has dropped by 66% since 2005, Asian households by 54%, black households by 53% and white households by 16%. And that’s not all. 33% of Hispanics, 35% of Blacks and 15% of Whites have zero or negative wealth, a sharp rise. We now have the largest wealth disparities in the 25 years that data has been collected. Median wealth of whites is 20 times that of blacks and 18 times that of Hispanics, double the disparity of ten years ago. Of course, if the White category excluded the very rich, I bet the decline in wealth of that category would be right up there with Asians, Hispanics and Blacks; what’s skewing that number is the richest of the rich who get the tax breaks while the rest of us get skewed. It’s all those tax breaks for millionaires that started with Reagan and continues with Obama. This morning I read about the debt limit debate in Congress and in that long article there was nary a mention of increasing taxes on the rich, the obvious solution to solving the financial problems of the U.S. of A. You gave one great speech on how the Republicans are holding America hostage for the benefit of the rich and then silence. You keep caving in to the Republicans’ outrageous democracy-killing demands and that’s not just disheartening, Mr. President, that’s infuriating. Over the past three years it’s become obvious you’re not a fighter and your notion of compromise is most people’s notion of immoral. More and more you’re looking like the Republican president We The People didn’t elect, not the Democratic one we did. We have less middle-class, less opportunity, less Hope, less equality, and less democracy now than we did in 2008. We have more greed, more corruption, more mean-spiritedness and more of a gap between the only two classes left in America, the haves and have-nots. Much of this is the result of the wars we have started over the past 10 years. All war is immoral but when war is based on lies and deceit, it is especially egregious. The never ending “War on Terrorism” that justifies every outrageous act also drains us in every way–spiritually, morally, financially. You were elected to end these unjustified wars and instead, you have expanded them. You have turned your back on the will of the people and on the founding principles of this country. Shame on you, Mr. President.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Here’s an eye-popper for you: “America’s richest 400 people own more wealth than the bottom 150 million.” Nicholas Kristof in today’s New York Times. That says it all: the maldistribution of wealth, the plight of the shrinking middle class, and the unfair and unjustified tax cuts for the wealthy. Our cities are going broke, pensions and services are being cut and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are under attack from all sides. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s state capital, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, is the first municipality that finally had the courage to reject the plan for “salvation” offered by Wall Street-controlled politicians which calls for slashing pensions and services, selling off city assets and freezing wages in order to pay bondholders. One council member who voted against the bailout for bondholders, in a moment of blinding clarity, said “When you take a risk on Wall Street, guess what? Sometimes it’s a loss.” That, Mr. President, is real capitalism, real common sense. It’s about time somebody said that. All over the country cities are struggling and there’s no help coming from Washington. The only people who can count on government bailouts are the banks, the big corporations and those wealthiest 400 Americans. What about the retirees in Prichard, Alabama whose pension payments stopped in 2009? How are they surviving? Or the pensioners in Central Falls, Rhode Island, another city headed for bankruptcy and under the control of a state-appointed receiver who put a gun to the heads of its pensioners by offering them the choice of cutting pensions by half or filing for bankruptcy and eliminating all pensions. As one of Central Falls’ citizens said, “It’s just insane that this is happening in America.” Yes, it is, Mr. President, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s the down payment on the wars you continue, the tax cuts for millionaires you’ve extended and the cave-ins to Republicans’ obsession with reducing government and dismantling our social programs. You’re willing to make “tough choices” on reducing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, you said. That may be just a tough choice for you, a millionaire, but to the rest of us, it’s what’s left of the social contract and the vision of an equal and just society, of what democracy’s all about. Think about that in your backroom budget deals with the Republicans. And if you don’t care about that, then think about your re-election chances in 2012.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Just a hint of the future costs of warmongering in today’s paper. The plight of Staff Sgt. Brad Eifert, a soldier who cannot leave war behind, who was trained to kill and did, sometimes innocent women and children, and who will live with that for the rest of his life. Several times he pleaded for help but none was forthcoming. One Army psychiatrist told him, “You’ll get over it.” So much for taking care of our own. The only concern of politicians, Democrats, Republicans and Republicrats alike, is to stay in power, help those who can keep them there and to hell with the rest of us, the throwaway society. Lies, empty promises and secret deals, the stuff of political life in this day of polarizing paralysis and hidden agendas. More than $427 million a day for war while 100,000 people are being cut from Medicaid in Arizona, $30 billion given to Libyan rebels to fight Qadaffi while you propose cuts to Social Security. $700 billion bailouts for banks and no one held responsible for the blind greed, fraud and incompetence that got us there while four million Americans have already lost their homes to foreclosure, many illegally seized by the same banks and bankers your boys at Treasury bailed out. On every important issue you’ve caved in to the Republicans, to Wall Street and the big corporations, chipped away at what’s left of the social contract and turned your back on those who put you in office. Your administration prosecutes and persecutes with full force and fury government whistle blowers, those you once declared so important for democracy to thrive, while the Staff Sgt. Eiferts fight their demons on their own without help from the same government who sent them to kill in Iraq and Afghanistan. War has brought the U.S. to the edge of bankruptcy and yet you continue to expand the wars, six by my count: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. (Is Iran next?) Maybe you think the drones and Special Ops teams operating undercover and under the control of the CIA will be cheaper than sending American troops to invade other countries but you’re mistaken, Mr. President. Wars are long term investments in human misery. Wars guarantee atrocities. War IS an atrocity. War corrupts the very soul of a nation. The evidence is right here, right now, in Staff Sgt. Eifert. Your record on war is an abomination. The only way to restore this nation fiscally, morally and psychically is to stop the wars. All of them. It is your duty to do that.