Obama Vote Forgives Corporate Crime

According to the New York Times, Senator Obama voted for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a bill that expands the U.S. government's surveillance abilities and gives legal immunities to phone companies who broke the law and assisted the National Security Agency's post 9/11 wiretapping program. Supporting a law that sets a precedent giving corporations the right to violate constitutional rights, Obama demonstrated his commitment to an authoritarian state, corporate-state complicity, and an inability to stand up to corporate and government power. While John McCain failed to vote, as he was busy schmoozing on the campaign trail, he has been an outspoken supporter of the bill. Both leading candidates want to appease corporate criminals and government criminals alike. This alone is a reason to reject our criminal state and the two capitalist parties that lead it.

When I am asked why I am not an unconditional supporter of Obama, his Free Market rhetoric, vote for wiretapping, and vote for the War in Iraq all demonstrate a commitment to corporations over human liberties and lives. Such commitments fail to attract me.

Creepy Capitalist Candidates: Obama Vs. McCain

Well, the Presidential Farce begins and the creepy candidates are running out of the gate! McCain is appealing to people who believe in the privatization of education, war mongering, Anti-Arabic racism, anti-immigrant policies, the defunding of key government programs, the destruction of individual civil liberties, the right to reproductive choice, the bolstering of NASA/NSA style spying, and the further privatization of the health care system supporting Big Insurance companies. On the other hand, Obama is fueling his campaign with so much "hope" and "belief" that many smart thinking people wrecked by neoliberalism are ignoring his unfettered belief in the so-called "free market." When you look at the number of homeless folks on the street, poor people around my neighborhood, and ever wealthier rich populations it is quite clear that the "free market" system is screwing most people over. Just because the savagery of capitalism is packaged in a rhetoric of hope and belief does not make it any less damaging to the wage-slaves dying throughout the world for the profits of a few CEOs. Until we have a candidate demanding an end to the barbaric system of capitalism, I refuse to entertain false hope. Furthermore, I will not call a person president who believes that some people should earn more than other people. The hording of wealth and power, in and of itself, is violence. I will take my leadership from those most victimized by the violence of our oppressive system.