I write to tell you about RootsAction.org http://rootsaction.org/ -- an exciting new INDEPENDENT online group promoting genuinely progressive issues, including ones opposed by Obama and the Democratic leadership.
We want to build RootsAction.org as quickly as possible. Please forward this email to your e-list of friends/supporters and encourage everyone to sign up at the upper right of the homepage at http://rootsaction.org/.
The launch of RootsAction is supported by such respected, independent-minded progressives as Jim Hightower, Cornel West, Naomi Klein, Glenn Greenwald, Daniel Ellsberg, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former Sen. James Abourezk and Coleen Rowley. Norman Solomon is one of the founders; I'm on the board.
One of our first actions -- in collaboration with Daniel Ellsberg -- is a petition to Obama on Afghanistan. Please sign it: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6503/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2867
In the past decade, Netroots groups have built big e-lists, raised money and hell. But some squandered their power by overly close coordination with an often spineless Democratic leadership. RootsAction will be an independent force, taking action against Obama policies that sparked loud protests when they were Bush policies. We'll mobilize against government catering to Wall Street and the war profiteers, while the U.S. public suffers.
Please spread the word to activist friends.
--jeff cohen
RootsAction's mission statement: http://rootsaction.org/about-rootsaction
A column explaining RootsAction: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/18-0
Obama Pulls a Clinton
By Robert Scheer
Truthdig: January 19, 2011
Here we go again. When Bill Clinton suffered an electoral reversal after his
first two years in office, he abruptly embraced the corporate money guys who
had financed his congressional opposition in an effort to purchase a second
term. On Tuesday in his Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece, Barack Obama veered
sharply down that same course, trumpeting his executive order " ... to
remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy
less competitive. ."
He employed the same "creating a 21st-century regulatory system"
rationalization used by Clinton when he signed off on the sweeping
deregulation legislation that unleashed the Wall Street greed that ended up
being the biggest job-killer since the Great Depression. "Over the (past)
seven years, we have tried to modernize the economy," Clinton enthused as he
signed the Financial Services Modernization Act that repealed key New Deal
legislation, adding, "And today what we are doing is modernizing the
financial services industry, tearing down those antiquated laws and granting
banks significant new authority." Modernizing was the propaganda constant,
as in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that Clinton signed, thus
shielding financial derivatives from any government regulation.
That deregulation, as Obama concedes in his WSJ column, led to "a lack of
proper oversight and transparency (that) nearly led to the collapse of the
financial markets and a full-scale depression." But Obama now promises that
his deregulation efforts will be more sensibly targeted and will "bring
order to regulations that have become a patchwork of overlapping rules, the
result of tinkering by administrations and legislatures of both parties and
influence of special interests in Washington over decades."
When he wrote that he intends to accomplish this revamp "with more input
from experts, businesses and ordinary citizens," did he have in mind his two
new key White House advisers who were the most effective advocates for those
special interests? Tom Donilon, Obama's national security adviser, was the
Washington lobbyist for the housing behemoth Fannie Mae, which will cost
taxpayers $700 billion because of its marketing of toxic derivatives. Obama's
new Chief of Staff William Daley was the lead Washington representative for
a similarly afflicted JPMorgan Chase. These are the folks, along with many
other Wall Street alums in this administration, who will oversee the latest
update of already weakened regulations.
The first target will be the administration's puny efforts to protect
consumers: "The move is the latest effort by the White House to repair
relations with corporate America," the Wall Street Journal's report on Obama's
column stated, "Business leaders say an explosion in new regulations
stemming from the president's health-care and financial regulatory overhauls
has, along with the sluggish economy, made them reluctant to spend on
expansion and hiring. Companies are sitting on nearly $2 trillion in cash
and liquid assets, the most since World War II."
This is a case of corporate blackmail pure and simple. The economy is
sluggish because of a housing crisis that shows no sign of improvement. It
stands history on its head to blame government financial regulations that
had worked splendidly for six decades for the meltdown or the failure to fix
a housing market that is the key to improved consumer spending.
Fixing housing would require efforts to keep the 50 million Americans whose
mortgages are underwater in their homes. But the government bailouts under
both George W. Bush and Obama have not required any significant cramp-down
or reappraisal of mortgages by banks to enable people to stay in their
homes. Instead the Fed and Treasury have flooded the banks and top
corporations with cheap money and bailouts but, in the classic problem of
pushing on a string, the corporate ingrates are hoarding that money.
Obama, and the party he heads, failed to provide a progressive narrative
during November's election holding the financial elite that created this
mess responsible. The key issue is not big government or onerous regulation
but rather transparency and fraud prevention. When you are evicted, it is a
government agent, a marshal or sheriff, who will force you out, so shouldn't
the government also be involved in assuring that the consumer is protected
by a properly vetted contract? Instead the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
spearheaded the marketing of an alternative narrative, as successful as it
was devious, by Republican candidates that held regulation-rather than
deregulation-responsible for the mess. Now Obama seems poised to join their
ranks. As the WSJ reported:
"On Feb. 7, Mr. Obama will visit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce-a chief
opponent to his administration's regulatory approach-for a discussion on how
the White House can work with the group to create jobs. The efforts are
designed to give companies more confidence in the president's stewardship of
the economy, and bolster his re-election prospects among a wealthy
constituency not traditionally allied with Democrats."
A constituency that Daley, Obama's new chief of staff, can faithfully
represent, having received $5 million a year from JPMorgan Chase. And so
ends the season of hope for the less wealthy constituency traditionally
allied with Democrats.
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