Thread for President Obama's 6/15/10 Address to the Nation on the Oil Spill

Know your enemy.

Fighting the Hostile Takeover
By David Sirota
San Francisco Chronicle - 5/1/06 (Permalink)

Amid all the consultant-packaged rhetoric about America being the “greatest democracy in the world,” it often seems impossible to figure out exactly who controls our government. But every now and then, the public gets a fleeting glimpse into who is really running the show.

We get to see how there no longer is a boundary between Big Business and government, and how our politicians are wholly owned subsidiaries of Corporate America. We get to see, in short, exactly how our government has been the victim of a hostile takeover.

Last month, in three little-noticed stories buried in the business press, the hostile takeover was on full display. The first story was a tiny one buried on the inside pages of the Wall Street Journal about how the U.S. Treasury Department worked hand in hand with IBM to kill bipartisan pension legislation in 2003. The bill would have outlawed pension schemes employed by IBM and other big companies that give workers less than they were originally promised. The report noted that at the time, “a Treasury official disclosed nonpublic information to IBM and failed to report expenses paid by a lobbyist for a pension-industry trade group” — all while allowing the company to circulate documents on Capitol Hill claiming the U.S. Treasury officially was working with IBM to kill the legislation. Clearly, the behavior ran afoul of the lobbying laws supposedly creating a boundary between business and government. But as the Journal went on to note, “The Justice Department didn’t pursue criminal or civil charges in the matters because they didn’t meet the agency’s ‘prosecutorial threshold.’ ” The legislation was ultimately killed. In effect, a major federal agency — in this case the Treasury Department — was the victim of the hostile takeover, serving as an arm of Corporate America, rather than a regulator.

A few weeks later, the well-respected trade publication Manufacturing & Technology News reported that the Bush administration continues to refuse to fully release a congressionally mandated report on the effects of outsourcing. Federal law required the White House to release the Commerce Department report well before the election in 2004. But the report “was delayed for clearance by the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress due to the controversial nature of the subject,” the publication noted in an earlier story. Put another way, the White House and its corporate benefactors who were profiting from outsourcing didn’t want to even talk about the pesky issue during the president’s re-election campaign.

The only thing made public was a 12-page summary, released after the election, which “focuses on the allegedly positive impacts for the U.S. economy of the offshore outsourcing.” The original report’s findings from career civil service professionals was scrubbed from this shortened summary, and instead “quoted research conducted by organizations and individuals that have been funded by corporations that benefit from shifting jobs overseas.” Again, a major federal agency — in this case the Commerce Department — was the victim of a hostile takeover.

Now, just a week ago, Business Week reported that companies are beginning to use America’s bankruptcy laws not only to avoid fulfilling their pension, wage and health-care promises to workers, but to actually wholly eliminate U.S. jobs and ship them overseas. You may recall that last year, every bought-off Republican and Democrat in Washington was running around trumpeting the credit-card industry-written bankruptcy bill. They claimed that it would put an end to bankruptcy “abuse” — but all it did was gut bankruptcy protections for individual citizens, while deliberately preserving critical loopholes for Big Business. It was the hostile takeover of Congress, whereby corporate-campaign donors convinced lawmakers to stiff their own constituents — and then brag about it.

Not surprisingly, the corporate loopholes are being exploited. The magazine reports that Delphi CEO Robert “Steve” Miller — the same guy trying to cut workers’ pay by 40 percent while preserving executives’ multimillion-dollar pay packages — “wants to use the bankruptcy courts to drastically slash Delphi’s U.S. presence, thus freeing it up to focus on its already vast overseas production.” Delphi would be allowed to get out of its labor contracts, and slash its U.S. workforce by more than 70 percent — all while preserving (and perhaps increasing) its workforce in cheap overseas labor markets. Additionally, as Business Week notes, if Miller gets his way and is able to use bankruptcy laws as a means to outsource jobs, other companies are expected to follow suit.

The fact that these examples received so little attention is no commentary on their significance. It is, instead, a commentary on how mundane the hostile takeover of our political system has become. It is no longer big news when our own elected representatives aid and abet monied interests that are trying to crush ordinary citizens. Only when we start to consider it big news — and fight this takeover — will we finally get a political system that starts working for the public good.

David Sirota is the author of “Hostile Takeover” (Crown Publishers, 2006)

Source: www.davidsirota.com...

The "enemy" are the large corporations that are outsourcing jobs off American Soil and now wrecking havoc and destruction all over our once beautiful planet".

The few elite that own these companies and the few morons that run these companies that have managed to bribe Washington (campaign $).

If a company pays your campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect you, where do you think your loyalties will lie. Not with the common man who may, if possible donate a measley $50.00

Our government, our Republic was bought out a long time ago.

Want to know who our real enemy is? Put down that remote and Twilight Novel and start educating yourself.

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[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b21ec4c90fc3.jpg[/atsimg]

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Any organization that centralizes power beyond a certain scope in both space and time, begins to express tyrannical responses to problems beyond their ability to control.

Governments and Corporations exhibit this critical flaw. They are simply too big to function efficiently and are incapable of changing in response to quickly changing events.

And at the very top of the very big organizations are very rich, very egotistical, and criminally oriented men who will kill to keep what they have.

So while the Very Big Government pits us against the Very Big Corporation, the only real loser is us. The money and power simply flow from one Very Big Entity to the other. Until there is tyranny.

To solve the problem, break up the Very Big Corporations and break up the Very Big Governments. They serve no purpose.

MSNBC Trashes Obama's Address: Compared To Carter, "I Don't Sense Executive Command"

When MSNBC trashes Obama we have issues.

Highlights of video...

Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman react to President Obama's Oval Office Address on the oil spill. Here are the highlights of what the trio said:

Olbermann: "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."

Matthews compared Obama to Carter.

Olbermann: "Nothing specific at all was said."

Matthews: "No direction."

Howard Fineman: "He wasn't specific enough."

Olbermann: "I don't think he aimed low, I don't think he aimed at all. It's startling."

Howard Fineman: Obama should be acting like a "commander-in-chief."

Matthews: Ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. "I'll barf if he does it one more time."

Matthews: "A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk."

Matthews: "I don't sense executive command."

www.realclearpolitics.com...

Posted this in an old RAP thread but don't think anyone reading it anymore so I will try it here;


Apparently if the gold fringe was not on display on the stars and stripes in the oval office when Obama made his speech yesterday he had lost his power and RAP are in control.

I have checked older speeches and have seen the gold fringe visible in clinton,bush and regan videos in oval office.

The gold fringe was not on display last night. If there was a gold fringe on the flag it looked intentionally hidden.

Is there anything signifcant in this? Is this some old myth or is there some truth in this.

Originally posted by JohnySeagull
Posted this in an old RAP thread but don't think anyone reading it anymore so I will try it here;


Apparently if the gold fringe was not on display on the stars and stripes in the oval office when Obama made his speech yesterday he had lost his power and RAP are in control.

I have checked older speeches and have seen the gold fringe visible in clinton,bush and regan videos in oval office.

The gold fringe was not on display last night. If there was a gold fringe on the flag it looked intentionally hidden.

Is there anything signifcant in this? Is this some old myth or is there some truth in this.

That makes me go hmmmm!

Originally posted by googolplex
This whole thing with the world is like that movie the guy went into the future and the world was being run by morons, well that future is now.
Good Luck and Best to All
We are all Doomed I say Doomed

Yep. The Idiocracy is here. God help us.

Originally posted by silent thunder
Is it just me, or did the speech contain more religious talk than is usual for Mr. Obama?

I absolutely thought so too and it scared the crap out of me on some level.

I found myself wondering - Is the situation behind the scenes so dire that even Barack Obama, who is typically pretty secular and doesn't go to church anymore, is having a "come to Jesus" moment!?




[edit on 16/6/2010 by kosmicjack]

Yep, never let a good disaster go to waste. Look for the administration to ram "cap and tax" down our throats. Maybe they can afford $10/ gallon gas, but I can't. 90% of this speech was about "cap and tax. Look for energy costs to skyrocket if this thing moves forward. Don't blame the power companies when your energy bills double, then triple.

reply to post by JohnySeagull


Look up Jordan Maxwell he would know he has spent 30+ years researching symbols.

Yes I remember something being mentioned about the gold fringe on our flag.

Also, for the record. Our Presidents are nothing more than puppets and the puppet masters are the corporations.

Doubt me, okay let's see if BP really gets held accountable and punished for this latest "accident".

BP = Beyond prosecution.

Originally posted by kosmicjack

Originally posted by silent thunder
Is it just me, or did the speech contain more religious talk than is usual for Mr. Obama?

I absolutely thought so too and it scared the crap out of me on some level.

I found myself wondering - Is the situation behind the scenes so dire that even Barack Obama, who is typically pretty secular and doesn't go to church anymore, having a "come to Jesus" moment!?

[edit on 16/6/2010 by kosmicjack]

I think he was giving us a hint about who the "third party" handling affairs might be. Maybe it was meant to provide some foreshadowing on the identity of the third frog in the croaking trio. The three great powers: commerce, government,....and...religion.

I have to agree with kosmicjack.
I was very tired when I watched the speach, and I just thought that what I took away from the speach was just my brain not functioning at full capactity. It wasn't until after the speach, my seventeen year old said to me. " Man that sounded like a movie where then think it's the end of the world." I felt a little nervous afterwards and I didn't sleep well at all.
I'm starting to think that some that say "If there was a serious danger, our government would not tell us for fear of mass panick." are right.
Yea I'd say I'm feeling alittle more concerned about this situation.

As a result of these efforts, we've directed BP to mobilize additional equipment and technology. And in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that's expected to stop the leak completely.

Should capture up to 90% of the oil? So instead of the 2.5 millions gallons a day blowing from that hole, we'll only have 250,000 gallons a day pouring into the gulf for the next two months. Wel that makes me feel sooooo much better.

voted for Obama simply because the alternatives were frightening beyond measure. However, my feelings are that he is all about himself and "appearances" of things being on the up. We need a president who will make hard choices even if it pisses off half the country. Like..
- No more offshore drilling!
- reigning in industry that is polluting and adding to climate change
- FRICKEN ORDERING BP TO ALLOW WORKERS TO WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR (that is were I lost complete respect for him last night!). Also, mandating that independent parties, scientists, photographers have free reign of area.
- His speech was full of 'religious/God mularky.
- His environmentalism is really just for show, as is his war on terror (note trillions of dollars of minerals in Afghanistan).

Anyhow, that is my rant, and go ahead and flame me ATSers for being one of those dreaded environmentalists. There really is no party out there currently that jives with my ideas about things.


[edit on 16-6-2010 by whatsup]

earth will fix it self
with or without human survivors does not matter

behind de camera: ...and please Mr president, dont use your hands too much,dont ever put your eyes down,look at the camera and dont ever ever da da ehh the tha dont do that okay hmm ?? everything will go fine...

So seeing on the news lately(which Ik is not trustworthy) I have heard that BP is going to give money in return to help clean stuff up or w/e. I cant remember how much but it was over 20billion. To me it seemed like on the news they were thinking oh yeah give money and everyone is happy. All problems solved. No problem not solved because the oil leak is still going on.
Yeah sure money would be nice in return but I think people would rather have the gulf back.
Just my two cents

reply to post by macssam


That is very true, the earth will heal itself.

Last nights speech was a waste of the peoples time!

Obama didn't want to make the speech in the first place and was probably pressured into having one so he just uttered junk like a little boy in a suit playing pretend.

We are all trying to be patient and are expecting our leaders to lead and be in control but they aren't and won't.

He spoke to us like we are morons. We weren't even fed a morsel of comfort.

What is going to happen when we the people have had enough?

Is that their plan? To get us past boiling point? Is that when their real plans come into play?

So I guess we are just left in the dark to bump around until something or someone shakes things up enough.

We have no say. Our voices fall upon deaf ears.

Originally posted by crappiekat
It wasn't until after the speach, my seventeen year old said to me. " Man that sounded like a movie where then think it's the end of the world."

How's this for a movie script:

"And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings;and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." (Rev. 16:18)

But wait! It's not the end of the world yet!

If the methane cloud rises and ignites it will be like lightning. And Matthew 24:27 alludes to the son of man riding in on clouds of great glory and like lightning from east to west.

But wait! The ending may not be what you've been led to believe!

The only "Jesus" coming will be a group of men who will claim they have been "chosen" to speak on behalf of Jesus and give the orders now.

Men have always spoken on behalf of god in order to manipulate others to their own purpose.

But wait! The end is actually the beginning...all over again.



[edit on 16-6-2010 by Alethea]

My Fellow Americans...uh...I...Am...adressing the nation about the BP oil spill...Uh...There is ah gun pointed at me off camera, if I try to tell what I know I will be immediatly asassinated, michelle and my childeren it has been promised to be will also be killed, so I cant talk about how the mossad has infiltrated our congress, ah... cause I will die.

Look at his face and at his posture, in all of the recent vids of him he looks beaten. whats up with Barry?

What is so bad he will only require BP to put up 8-10 billion dollars for the clean-up whan it will cost well over 100 billion to do it. Who foots the other 90 Billion? Americans? BP will probably file bankruptcy and stick the U.S. with the total bill. You watch.......