The truthiness of this has been blown way out of proportion for far too long. It’s so bad even 3rd party supporters even believe it. I’d like to just dispense with this nonsense once and for all, and be done with it.
Ralph Nader (Stephen C Webster / Flickr)
As the Obama vultures come out from hiding as November approaches, two of the few reasons they have for supporting Mr. Obama are the Supreme Court (which is BS too, but I digress), and that an alternative candidate will supposedly cause the Republican to win, as evidenced by 2000. We need to do away with the falsehoods that allow the latter argument to still be said without shame or embarrasment.
This is the first of a series that will disprove this myth; a myth that can be debunked in a myriad of ways. I hope this info helps Firedogs in their efforts to keep other progressives from voting for their own oppressors, and will let people vote their conscience guilt free this fall.
What is the point of being a liberal if we silence ourselves when our voices are needed most?
Why be a liberal when we fail to act exactly when our voices are needed most in the voting booth?
The best fauxgressives can do is offer a hollow, vain, narcissitic answer: they are afraid they will lose.
Even though it is painfully obvious that progressives have already lost long ago.
These questions were running through my head when I discovered The Avocado Declaration, initiated by Peter Camejo, a presidential candidate for the Socialist Workers Party in the 70′s.
Long weary of milquetoast excuses from sore losers, I was gripped by the strength and seriousness of the document. (Strength & seriousness is what I love about socialists)
The protest was originally called for by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign to demand that the giant mortgage company halt foreclosure proceedings against two Philadelphia residents in danger of losing their homes.
At 1pm today about 50 protestors gathered outside of Fannie Mae’s Philadelphia headquarters. They heard from Miss Fran and Rhonda Lancaster, the heads of two families evicted by Fannie Mae in its refusal to negotiate an alternative to foreclosure.
Fannie Mae executive Zach Oppenheimer had previously promised in writing to meet with the two women in order to discuss other options. Yet no followup meeting ever took place, and so protestors today entered the Fannie Mae building and vowed to stay until Mr. Oppenheimer’s word was honored.
At about 2:30pm, an hour after entering the building and beginning a sitdown protest, lower level Fannie Mae officials agreed to meet with Miss Fran and Ms. Lancaster.
These meetings proved inconclusive, ending only with promises of more meetings. With Philadelphia police on hand with six paddy wagons and plainclothesman, a smaller subset of protestors stayed inside the building and risked arrest. Five were arrested, including Dr. Stein and Ms. Honkala.
Noting that the Obama administration has only released 10% of the aid that Congress had promised to homeowners, Stein asserted that “There is much more interest in Washington in protecting the profits of banks than in getting this aid out to the families whose lives are falling apart.
President Obama held a big press conference to announce a program that would supposedly help 1.5 million homeowners and so far it has actually helped only 1 per cent of that number. Real help goes to the CEOs who play golf with the President and the people get lip service. This will change only if the people stand up and say we’re not going to put up with it anymore.
One woman, Miss Fran, who has been sleeping in her car since being evicted, had this to say about her situation:
I have lived in Philadelphia all my life, and in this house since 1988. Once when I was forced to file for bankruptcy, my mortgage holder, Chase Bank, suddenly came to court and objected to my bankruptcy plan. Although the law requires them to notify me in advance, I had no warning of their action, so I had no lawyer and no time to prepare my evidence. The judge dismissed my file for bankruptcy and Chase began foreclosure proceedings.
I participated in Philadelphia’s Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program, so I was able to keep my home off the sheriff sale list. Then they claimed I missed a Conciliation Conference even though they had never notified me about it. When I complained, the court rescheduled the sheriff sale of my home from July 1, 2008, to September. I attended that sale on July 1 and was shocked to hear them put my house up for sale anyway. I was in the back of the auditorium and ran to the front making so much noise the sheriff’s lawyer had to stop the sale. Finally they brought in a letter from the sheriff saying they had obtained a court order that same day to sell the house. They had gone to court without even notifying me. The same judge who postponed the sale in the first place had turned around and vacated his own order, all without telling me.
The sale of my home went through on July 1, but my battle was just beginning. Although Chase Bank foreclosed on my home, I found out the sheriff changed the name on the documents to Fannie Mae. There is no bill of sale from Chase to Fannie Mae and no record of any transfer. Fannie Mae has no legal standing to evict me. But that didn’t stop them from trying. They sued to evict me in April 2011. I filed an objection, it was overruled, I answered them, and we were supposed to go to trial in February 2012. Then they filed for a summary judgment against me, which is only supposed to be granted when there is no dispute in the matter. I told them we most definitely do have a dispute: a district court order was ignored and Fannie Mae has no standing. But the judge granted the summary judgment anyway. They obtained a writ of eviction and scheduled my eviction for June 12.
The other homeowner, Rhonda Lancaster was talked into a reverse mortgage to pay for her sick mother’s health care bills. After her mother died, the bank refused to accept her as the executor of her estate, although the proper papers had been filed at City Hall. From that point on it was a complete nightmare.
I would do a write up, but it would piss me off even more than I am now. If you can’t stomach it, I can understand. FWIW, Cornel West was interviewed in the first part of the show, and was excellent as usual.
“In many ways people consider the Greens the real Democratic Party that it used to be. … We have the unique liberty to act on our commitments. We don’t have to repay our corporate sponsors,” says Green Party candidate for president Jill Stein. Stein explains that the Green Party agenda includes creating jobs through a program called the Green New Deal. “It includes the usual spectrum of green jobs, but we also include social jobs that we need to meet our social needs,” Stein says, including teachers and firefighters.
Also, there’s a petition on change.org to get her in the debates:
Another major update from the Justice Party campaign:
Luis Rodriguez, a leading Chicano writer, speaker, gang expert and interventionist, and activist for justice in urban peace, the arts, labor, and human rights, has joined Rocky Anderson’s 2012 presidential campaign as Anderson’s vice presidential running mate. “The search for a highly competent, dignified, principled running mate has been arduous,” Rocky stated. “Luis exceeds any expectations I had. He will inform, uplift, and motivate in this campaign, just as he does every day in his inspirational work.”
He is a co-founder of the Network for Revolutionary Change, trying to fill the gap of strategic and unified leadership among the poor, the pushed-out, the dismissed, and forgotten.
Regarding his role oh the campaign and the Justice Party in general:
Rodriguez stated, “I’m honored to be on this ticket with Rocky Anderson. It’s important to find a politically independent means to voice the real issues of justice in this country. The Justice Party comes at a crucial time, when the truth about who holds power and wealth in this country is daily more evident and the failures of the two-party system become increasingly irreparable. This is a vision for a new America, new ideas, new forms of struggle–of true justice in our time and for generations to come.”
The convention is in my neck of the woods this year, so I went.
I doubt it’s going to get much coverage, so I thought some Firedogs here would be interested on the goings on. The only outlets that were providing quarter-way decent coverage were Indecision2012 (which scares me, honestly), and C-Span. Today was the big formal day of the convention where everyone nominated our candidates. A lot happened, so I’ll do what I can to break it down…
They had some awesome speakers! I don’t have photos or videos from the actual event, but I’ll link to ones from other events, so you know what their style is like. They might be on livestream or CSPAN.
The MC was David Cobb, who’s recently come into his own as a speaker, from what I understand. He’s a loud, compassionate, funny, angry Texan (he clearly takes pride in the word “y’all”) who is a great host. He’s also one of the minds behind Move To Amend.
The opening speaker was Colin Beavan, who is running for Edolphus Towns’s old seat in Brooklyn. (At one of the after parties, I told him I joined the Greens about two years ago. He told me I was a veteran, b/c he joined about 4 months ago!) He’s a really cool, bright, sophisticated guy; he’s really the future of the party; they’re really excited about him.
He was on The Colbert Report a few years ago: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/252016/october-08-2009/colin-beavan
After that was George Paz Martin, an incredible activist & former Black Panther from Wisconsin (Wisconsin Greens are the shit, BTW. They do not fuck around)
In the wake of the financial fraud, he implemented the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets (PPIP aka TARP 2.0) and signed The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform Act.
PPIP was used to prop up failed banks, and transfer losses to the taxpayer. Dodd-Frank set up new regulations and loopholes to commit fraud.
Regulators who were complicit with colluding with bankers (Geithner, Summers, Bernanke, et al) were publicly promoted and enacted “stress tests” to further disguise banking issues.
Elizabeth Warren became a well known Dem shill & mascot during this period.
In the 1991 recession, Bush reversed some of the Reagan tax cuts, & raised taxes disproportionately on the wealthy. These tax hikes were made after making a famous campaign pledge not to. The payroll tax rate increased. Many government programs, such as welfare, increased.
Democrats had a majority in both houses of Congress, but the liberal point of view held sway.
Obama:
In the 2007 recession, Obama continued all of the Bush tax cuts, & cut taxes by a trivial amount for low and middle class workers. These tax cut extentions were made after making a famous campaign pledge not to. The payroll tax rate decreased. Many government programs, such as UI benefits, decreased.
Nominated Vaughn Walker to the Federal Bench, who would later be revealed to be the earliest known gay federal judge. He is known for striking down California Proposition 8, a voter initiative constitutional amendment that eliminated the right of same sex couples to marry.
Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased legal immigration to the United States by 40 percent. The modifications also removed homosexuality as a grounds for exclusion from immigration.
You know, when I first started writing this, I thought there was only one difference between the two.
By the time I finished, I realized I was a little wrong; they’re about the same, though one is slightly more progressive (and more popular) than the other.
Some would say Bush Sr. is practically a pinko commie socialist fascist gay lover.
So thus, the choice is obvious this fall for all liberals in the country:
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