The last two presidential elections have really jaded me on our electoral system, but lately I’ve found myself increasingly excited to hop on the Obama band wagon.

Change we can believe in? Not anymore.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama supports the spy bill compromise passed by the House Friday, despite having opposed retroactive amnesty to telecoms that helped with the President’s secret, warrantless wiretapping.

The measure expands the government’s ability to install blanket wiretaps inside domestic communication infrastructure and frees the nation’s phone and internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of massive violations of their customers’ privacy. The Senate is expected to take up and pass the Bush-approved bill next week.

The bill is widely perceived as a victory for the White House, and was agreed to by Democrats out of a fear of being labeled soft on terrorism in the upcoming elections.

The most important political news seems to come out on Friday, which is why the media seems to have missed this. This is nothing new of course. The above news article also cites the statement released late last Friday by the Obama campaign where he attempts to explain himself. He was obviously hoping nobody would notice. I have noticed and I am angry.

I’m not simply angry about his support for this unconstitutional and, frankly, fascist bill. I’m angry that he lied and reversed his position on this bill. American’s have been consistently and overwhelmingly against this bill since the White House first introduced it in January. I’m angry that someone promoting “change” is playing the same manipulative political games that have turned our election process into a farce. Disillusioned and jaded once again.

A lot of people don’t see this telecom thing as very important, but it is. It’s Orwellian. He lied and is tossing aside our civil liberties so that he can appeal to a fraction of conservatives who won’t vote for him anyway. Bad move, Obama. Now you’re just another hypocritical politician.

I have a friend who heard about this and now plans on supporting Nader. I fell for that in 2000 and don’t plan on doing that. I still dig Cynthia McKinny, but if I’m going to “throw my vote away,” I might as well vote for my Dad. As for now, I’ll do my part to bring back Wavy Gravy’s campaign slogan. This isn’t a slogan promoting mass apathy. Rather, we shouldn’t be forced to vote between two unsuitable people. There is still a lot of time, but I’m not happy with Obama. Plus, he’s for nuclear power too. As Ani DiFranco said when she was here last week, “I can sum up my argument against nuclear power in two words: nuclear waste.”

…and if you think my criticism is harsh, you should scroll down and read the comments from this Wired article.

By now I’m sure everyone has heard about this racist button that a Texan, Jonathan Alcox, sold at the Republican Party Convention.

The Republican Party is, of course, trying to distance themselves from this guy as much as possible. They pledged never to use his services again and said that he would never be allowed to sell Republican merch at their conventions again. He also got a lot more of what he had coming to him.

He said after the blog post, his Web site was hacked, he was threatened, and the Texas Republican Party – his biggest customer — said it would never use his services again. He received so many abusive calls that he had to disconnect his phone. It’s the strongest reaction he’s gotten in 17 years in the business, he said.

The most interesting thing about all this was his explanation.

Mr. Alcox said he made 12 of the pins after seeing a comic strip where Barack Obama was standing in front of a sign saying “The White House,” with the building behind him. Mr. Obama is depicted thinking, “That’s the first thing we’ll change.”
“We just changed it around a little bit and everyone went crazy. I was shocked,” Mr. Alcox said.

When he “changed it around a bit,” he obviously didn’t (and presumably doesn’t) understand the difference between the two examples. I wish I could see the cartoon he’s talking about, but based on its premises, it’s clear that the first is a necessary attack on a dominant white patriarchy, not white people. Here, “white” is an ideology tied to social status, to power. His rendition, which he obviously feels is equal, is actually a reinforcement of that power structure.

I think studies on “whiteness” and “white privilege” is really interesting. I hope Alcox reads up on it.

The following was written by a friend, Mike Hobbs, president of the Denver Chapter for Trout Unlimited. As someone who works closely on these issues, he brings a unique and much needed perspective to the issue of land use/ownership. He touches on a lot of important and, often overlooked, issues that are tied to the institutionalized theft of public lands.

Our unique national treasures are in peril. The US government spends more money than it takes in each day and has been doing so for the past 7 years. The shortfall is covered by printing bonds and selling them with the promise of risk free interest. The average savings rate of US citizens is hovering around zero, yet consumers are exhorted each day to spend and save the economy. Social Security is approximately 40% under funded in the coming 40 years. Medicare shortfalls are estimated at 3-4 trillion dollars ($3,500,000,000,000). These entitlement program deficits never appear in budget calculations. Congress has cut Forest Service funding relentlessly, and new user fees do not cover the gap. The baby boomer retirement wave has just begun and will not crest for another 10 years. Life expectancies continue to rise. Many members of younger generations have never been out of range of WIFI access and have no interest in the outdoors. This is evidenced by declining hunting and fishing license fees across the west.

Politicians studiously decline to acknowledge these issues and will not do so unless the public or the media demand it. This short term mentality spells the end for our public lands. The Pombo initiatives of 2005 were just the beginning. Assuming that congress will not stand by while the aged go without basic needs, there will soon be a critical demand to raise cash. Having exhausted the demand for US Treasuries by saturation and lowering interest rates, the US will be facing bankruptcy sometime in the next 20 years. There is only one painless way to solve this problem and that is to liquidate America’s greatest asset. Billionaires and sovereign wealth funds flush with free trade cash and calls on US Treasuries will line up to bid on property along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Yosemite Valley will make a great location for an exclusive community featuring golf, fishing and sporting clays with incredible views. In short, the most beautiful places in our country will be owned by economic royalty and the public will be locked out. I think I hear Teddy Roosevelt groaning in his grave. As O’Reilly is so fond of saying, “Where am I going wrong here?”

I finally got the internet working at my house again. Last week, stupid NPR was my only source of news. Who will it be, Hilary or Obama? Hilary or Obama? Who will stand up to McCain? Every time I turned on the radio is was either a report about how Obama attracting black voters and Hilary attracting women voters….or the latest on the Roger Clemons case, which I am oh so sick of hearing about.

Our country desperately needs to a take third party seriously. The notion that 350 million of us can be divided up into two contrasting ideologies is nothing short of crazy. I have more options when I’m shopping for peanut butter.

The republicans are a pack of criminals and the democrats are a bunch of weenies. It’s been this way for too long. They have both let us down time and time again. If “change” is really what you seek, the person who has me fired up is Cynthia McKinney of the green party. She has everything I would want in a candidate all wrapped into one. She is in touch with normal people’s lives, a strong advocate for women’s rights, not building a wall at the border (take that Ron Paul supporters!), she is the only candidate with strong connections to working class people, she wants out of Iraq, and wants to “leave the oil in the soil.” Even if she can’t win, I’m glad she’s there. And I hope to see her in some of the debates.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Climate campaigner Al Gore urged world policymakers on Thursday to change laws “not just light bulbs” in tackling global warming, and a UN official said world market turmoil must not be allowed to delay action

I’m glad Al is realizing how useless these individual changes are and looking at the bigger picture. I would encourage him to think bigger though. Sure changing light bulbs is not enough, but neither is changing laws. Unless, I guess, they are BIG changes. BIG.

How does Bono show up everywhere like this? What kind of authority on global warming is he? Here he is again!

Iraqi oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

And I assume we’re to believe the revenue is going to rebuild Iraq?

Most of the interview is about his ongoing effort to impeach Cheney. 

JUAN GONZALEZ: “Congressman, I’d like to ask you, on another matter, a vote this week in Congress over the Peru free trade bill. Many Democrats supported the administration position on this. You’ve been outspoken in your opposition to many of these free trade agreements. Your perspective on this vote?”

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: “It’s a disaster for the people of Peru. It’s a disaster for farmers whose land is being poisoned by gold mining and the cyanide that’s used in that process. And American workers have absolutely no protection about jobs being moved out of this country. It’s basically a modeling of NAFTA sent to Peru. This is really a continuation of the stripping of rights of peoples of both nations. And a reason why NAFTA has to be canceled — and I’ve said that I would do that as President — that we must get out of the WTO — I said that I would withdraw from the WTO — and to have trade that is wholly and solely based on workers’ rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. And it’s time that we recognize that this whole trade model has been about nothing but a race to the bottom for workers. It’s time we stood up for workers, no matter if they’re in Peru or anywhere else in the world, but certainly in the United States. We should have some concern about what the effect of these trade agreements are on American workers.”

New York is rejecting millions of dollars in federal grants for abstinence-only sex education, the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, announced yesterday. The decision puts New York in line with at least 10 other states that have decided to forgo the federal money in recent years.

New York has received roughly $3.5 million a year from the federal government for abstinence-only education since 1998.

That is a whole lotta cash that could be better, more effectively, spent on nearly anything else. Now it’s Arizona’s turn.

Leaders of 80 countries are expected to attend a special UN meeting in New York to discuss the effects of global warming and the ways to combat it.

The meeting comes just days after scientists reported that more Arctic ice melted this year than ever before.

The UN climate chief says a breakthrough is essential.

US President George W Bush will not be present, hosting instead a meeting of 16 “major emitter” countries in Washington on Thursday and Friday.

However, the attendance of 150 countries and 80 heads of state makes Monday’s meeting the most high-level UN gathering on climate change.