The best short characterization of the current banking/foreclosure mess that now threatens us with another episode of “shock doctrine” capitalism is Randy Wray’s. Here it is:

cross posted article from Alternet and Huffpo on why Obama’s base doesn’t like him

I was just going to write about how we should rally the troops to fight for strong progressives (as I did in this video), when Obama dragged me back into the fight between real progressives and the Obama administration. As Al Pacino said in Godfather III, every time I think I’m done with it, he keeps pulling me back in.

Lawrence O’Donnell ropes FDL Newser David Dayen into some high-flying hyperbole, announcing the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is joined! Between, according to Lawrence, the Leader of the Free World and his Vice President of the United States on one side — and a blogger on the other. Good luck, David!

Hey Barack & Joe: A quick note to let you know that I have solved your problem of the unenthusiastic Democrat!

Unless progressives can find ways to counter the false images that our detractors are crafting, we will miss the opportunity to attract people who would be very sympathetic to our agenda. And once the Democrats get their coats handed to them in November, they will see us as a greater threat and will work even harder to distort and discredit our message.

Well, Uncle Joe is all-in on the ‘griping, groaning’ ‘professional left’ that needs ‘to be drug-tested’ messaging that’s sure to inspire the supporters of Barack Obama to get out there and help voters to the polls, get their by-mail ballots in on time, and volunteer at phone banks in the next 35 days before the mid-terms.

A story at Truthout reports that a Department of Defense Office of Inspector General investigation into allegations of drugging of detainees, completed almost exactly a year ago, was nevertheless hidden from public knowledge for months. Its results remain hidden, labeled classified. This is especially strange as this document was publicly requested by no less than now-Vice President (then Senator) Joe Biden, along with Senators Carl Levin and Chuck Hagel, after a couple of articles — one by Jeff Stein and one by Joby Warrick at the Washington Post — blew the whistle on dozens of reports of alleged drugging of detainees.

In an interview on the PBS NewsHour last Wednesday, Joe Biden was unwilling to contradict the official narrative of the Iraq War that Gen. David Petraeus and the Bush surge had  turned Iraq into a good war after all.  That interview serves as a reminder of just how completely the Democratic Party foreign policy elite [...]

Weekend Art: Art of the Economic Collapse: Prophet of Doom vs. Triumph Over the Banking Blues — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)