Am I the only one troubled by Obama's picks for his economic advisory team? Well, no, actually. Inititally, I was struck by the choice of Clinton administration retreads, but it was only after listening to Kevin Phillips observe that this team was comprised of multi-millionaire CEOs and DC insiders, but not a single voice to represent "labor", that I became somewhat concerned. Then, after listening to Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill on CSPAN2 this weeekend, I became convinced that having menmbers of the financial "Establishment" comprise this team - the very people like Lawrence Summers who aided and abetted the financial meltdown - I began to think that the change I voted for was being co-opted by the very "Establishment" we voted overwhelmingly AGAINST. And this will simply not do. I didn't vote for Clinton administration economic advisors and I certainly didn't vote because I want the financial wizards who caused this meltdown to have any say whatsoever in how we extricate ourselves from this calamity. As Klein and Scahill pointed out, the seeds for this collapse were planted during the Clinton Administration. Having the foxes in charge of the henhouse is no way to reform business as usual.
And then, of course, the appointment of warhawk and consumate "Establishment" spokesperson Madeleine Albright to represent the US at the farcical G20 economic summit demonstrated a commitment to expediency and not progressive ideals.
Barack Obama represented himself to the electorate as the agent of change. So far, the only change is the exchange of one political establishment for another. So far, Obama is meekly following the dictate of Nancy Pelosi who demanded that he lead from the center. No thank you, Ms Pelosi. After 8 years of GOP extremism, I would welcome some Progressive extremism. I vote NO to reconciliation and YES to the Truth regardless where it leads. If the Buzsh administration committed crimes, they must be exposed by an Independent Prosecutorial team and court (it that is what it takes) to hold these miscreants accountable to the American people.
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