Ambush in the night: Does all the truth in Barack Obama add up to one big lie?

December 12th, 2009

I hate

to speak ill of

Barack Obama in more

ways than I can tell you.

That smooth cat stroked so many

things so close to the center of my soul,

it’s ridiculous. I grew up in the shadow of Dr.

King, the son of relatively enlightened parents, being

bussed across Chattanooga to a black elementary school,

and I’ve seen and closely studied and deeply appreciated how

one man can change the entire world. A writer and a student in

particular of the language of spirit, I know the power of words, and how

exponentially that power can be amplified by an able orator. A powerful mind

harnessed to the senses of humor, justice, and possibility makes me believe

in God Herself. So Barack Obama had me at “hello”. I’ve been on board

the Barry train since mid-2004, when I first began to read about

him. I donated to him, I campaigned for him, I lobbied my

family and friends and everyone I could reach with voice,

laptop, or Hush Puppies to vote for him. But I’m

coming to the conclusion that — to borrow

from Bob Dylan — all the truth in Barack

Obama adds up to one

big lie.

The fact

is we live on a

Mafia planet now. What the

mob does, has always done, will always do,

is sell violence, sex, drugs, death, and protection.

They take the dough and buy their version, their comical

version, of the good life. That’s what happenin’ on the planet,

too. Some silver-haired old guys who like to gather

in paneled rooms are selling us every

imaginable form of violence,

sex, drugs, death, and

protection.

They own,

lock stock and barrel,

the two biggest (and most useless

and unenlightening and destructive) drugs

on the planet, alcohol and tobacco. They own the

hospitals that treat you for what they do to you and

the joints that bury you after that fun is done.  They own

almost all the other drugs, too, and they’ll give you access to

them if you go through proper mob channels and get a prescription,

or you buy the government-approved Karzai cartel heroin. The porn is

theirs. They make and sell the guns, the cheap ones you buy to put under

your pillow in the hope you can keep the scary brown people at bay, or

the really expensive ones they convince you to buy and put in the sky

to smoke 19 year old Pashtun kids in Pakistan who they claim are

a real threat to our country.  They own and sell the protection,

be it cops or Wackenhut or Xe Services or the U. S. Air Force.

There isn’t a racket they don’t own, nor one they aren’t

exploiting to the hilt by either making you

buy into it or making you

buy protection

from it.

The

Five Families who run

our Mafia Planet are described

pretty well in David Rothkopf’s book Superclass.

Rothkopf would seem to be a strange candidate to write such

a book — anyone who worked in the Clinton White House and gets to be

managing director of Kissinger Associates has been thoroughly jumped-in to

the ruling class — but conscience occasionally flares in curious corners.

His book is about the 6,000 or so people who puppet-master

our planet for profit and pleasure. It’s not a

conspiracy theory, it’s a fact.  Go ahead,

read all about it.   Or listen to the

capsule description

from Bill

Hicks:

President

Barack Hussein Obama

is now consigliere to the Superclass Mob –

Barry O’Blarney, the scrappy kid from the neighborhood who

went to law school and turned out to have a knack for meeting

the press, laying down the patter, smoothing things over.

Tom Hagen was a bumbling hayseed

by comparison.

Obama,

“Change”? America and

the world are eating the same plate of woe and

death that’s been fed to us for so long. Read Matt Taibbi

on finance and how Barry Magic greased the skids for Goldman and

their ilk. Or read the tea leaves of health care — it’s about to change, all right,

but only in the respect that paying premium prices to private forces who

profit from prescription products and piss-poor care will be

pay-us-a-fine-you-unenrolled-bitches mandatory

from now on.  And the missiles are flying

faster and furiouser

than ever.

Way

of the world, you say?

Perhaps. But what’s really raw in this for me

is the Martin Luther King connection. Barry O’Blarney likes to invoke

Dr. King. He invoked him to get known and elected; yeah, okay. But he also stood

where that great man once stood and invoked him the other day to say

something unholy to the world, which was, in effect, “Props to old

Doc, but I’m bustin’ some heads.” Here’s how he said it

(careful, don’t get lost, this is a long side trip,

and the patter is painfully

purty):

“I do not

bring with me today

a definitive solution to the

problems of war.”

(I am but a

man).

“We

must begin by acknowledging

the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict

in our lifetimes.” (Let’s get one thing straight

right up front: we cannot fix

what ails us.)

“As

someone who stands

here as a direct consequence of

Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to

the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak —

nothing passive — nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of

Gandhi and King.” ( I’m their learned and erudite

heir.  Now listen up while I lay some Moral

Authority on you, and ever mind that it

directly contravenes their teaching

and example that non-violence

is the greatest power in

the world.)

“To say

that force is sometimes

necessary is not a call to cynicism —

it is a recognition of history.”

(Don’t be naive, idealistic

children.)

“Negotiations

cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders

to lay down their arms.” (We never had a minute’s

conversation about what put such a hair up

our enemies’ asses, and we never will,

and we ignore their every entreaty

to get out of their holy lands,

but goodness, let’s move

on, can’t we?)

“I raise

this point because in

many countries there is a deep ambivalence

about military action today, no matter the cause. At times,

this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the

world’s sole military superpower.” (Apparently

the collective intelligence of humanity thinks

it knows something, but golly,

why is it looking

at us?!)

“Whatever

mistakes we have made, the

plain fact is this: the United States of America

has helped underwrite global security for more than six

decades with the blood of our citizens and

the strength of our arms.”

(You ungrateful little

fuckers mind your

manners.)

“We

have done so out of enlightened

self-interest — because we seek a better future for

our children and grandchildren.” (Whom we keep warm

by setting other people’s children on fire –

war is exactly half our entire

economy.)

“So yes,

the instruments of war

do have a role to play in preserving the peace.”

(Ah, “military intelligence”, “peace through

war” — even the wackiest oxymorons

sound good when I lift my chin

like this.)

“We

must direct our effort

to the task that President Kennedy called

for long ago. ‘Let us focus,’ he said, ‘on a more practical,

more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature

but on a gradual evolution in human institutions.’” (Another

revered figure I resonate with!  And he said, “Let’s

not get in a big hurry about this ’change’

thing, and that’s good

thinking.”)

“To

begin with, I believe

that all nations — strong and weak alike –

must adhere to standards that govern the use of force.”

(This is some bald shit for me to be saying as the master of  the

unclosed Gitmo and the black prison at Bagram and the

drone wars, but I’m Barry O’Blarney!

Even bald works when

I sell it right.)

“Furthermore,

America cannot insist that others

follow the rules of the road if we refuse to

follow them ourselves.” (See

what I mean? )

“Inaction

tears at our conscience

and can lead to more costly intervention

later.” (Don’t look too closely at this formula,

I’m going to work the other side

of it in Iran and Korea

and Somalia

soon.)

“Peace

entails sacrifice.”

(Guess whose, Samar

Hassan?)

“Where

force is necessary,

we have a moral and strategic interest

in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct.

And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides

by no rules, I believe that the United States of America

must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of

war. That is what makes us different

from those whom we fight.”

(Oh, the mirth!)

“Only

a just peace based

upon the inherent rights and

dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.

It was this insight that drove drafters of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights after the Second World War…And yet all too often, these

words are ignored.” (Like when I refuse to apply them to the gay men

and women who could serve openly in my mighty military if I’d

pick up a pen and signed my name once, which is all

that’s required to end don’t-ask-don’t-tell, our

infantile bow-and-scrape to insecure little

men with scrambled eggs on their

shoulders which humiliates

hundreds of thousands

of decent human

beings.)

“I do not

believe that we will have

the will, or the staying power, to complete

this work without something more – and that is the continued

expansion of our moral imagination.” (Ima let you finish

with that project , too, as soon as I bust up these

Qaeda cats who ain’t even where

we’re shooting.)

“Adhering

to this law of love has

always been the core struggle of human

nature. We are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall

victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil.

Even those of us with the best intentions will at times fail to right the

wrongs before us.” (Remember what I said in the beginning about

not being able to fix what ails us? Callbacks, baby,

callbacks — the foundation of good

speeches, and good

comedy.)

“As

Dr. King said at this

occasion so many years ago,

‘I refuse to accept despair as the final response

to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that

the ‘isness’ of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable

of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness’ that forever confronts him.’”

(You thought you were confused ten paragraphs ago? Let me

dust you off with a little King, kid, now that I’ve

set you right about how what always

was, and what presently is,

is what ever

shall be.)

“We

can understand that

there will be war, and still strive for

peace. We can do that — for that is the story of

human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at

this moment of challenge, that must be our work

here on Earth.” (You did catch the

first phrase, didn’t

you?)

Yes,

Mr. Obama, we

caught it: there will always be war.

Especially if the person with the greatest bully pulpit

that has ever existed on our beautiful

blue planet tells

us so.

Brian Browne Walker

History

is the story

of a negotiation

between the rich and

powerful and the less

fortunate but still dangerous:

a bargaining over the price that

must be paid for stability. The poor

and weak are never at the table. In era

after era, the deals brokered have been

inadequate, with the rich winning today

and gaining an advantage in the future, while

the poor get crumbs today and only the promise

of a better life generations hence. It is a lousy deal

and it has never held for long. The questions, then,

that we and the superclass must ask are, Who will make the

first moves for change this time? What form will they take?

Will elites once again be deposed by other elites, acting in

the name of the people but actually representing their

own narrow interests? Or will progress finally offer

lasting proof that true stability lies in balance:

between freedom and justice, between

growth and equity, between market

and state, and between the few

who would lead and the

rest of us from whom

the legitimacy of

leaders must

flow?

David Rothkopf

The

general is

the bulwark of the

nation. When the bulwark is

strong, the nation is strong.

When the bulwark is weak,

the nation is

weak.

The

Art of War:

Sun Tzu, Barack Obama,

and the Modern

Moment

(That clusterfuck is a Pentagon chart explaining how we’re going to sort out Afghanistan.  I ain’t funnin’ you, either .)