Obama Picks Bill Ayers as Secretary of Defense!
by Susie Day
(PU) Barack Hussein Obama, newly elected President of the People's Republic of America, today announced his choice of William Ayers, a former leader of the 70s militant antiwar group, the Weather Underground, for U.S. Secretary of Defense. The appointment allays concerns of many peace movement progressives who had feared that Defense Secretary Robert Gates, overseer of the military surge in Iraq, would be asked to stay on.
"Man, oh, man -- socialism has finally come to America!" sobbed Mr. Ayers, when reached by telephone. "I've waited so long -- now I'll show them who's washed up!"
Mr. Ayers was referring to attacks by John McCain's presidential campaign, which alleged that Barack Obama harbored some sort of nefarious, anti-American ties to the 63-year-old Ayers, whose organization in the 1970s bombed government sites and staged confrontational rallies to stop America's war in Vietnam. As Mr. McCain became more desperate for support, his insinuations of an Ayers conspiracy became increasingly common. The final presidential debate contains a McCain reference to Mr. Ayers as a "washed-up terrorist."
Bill Ayers is, in fact, an elementary education theorist who has spent his last few decades above ground, infiltrating the University of Illinois at Chicago as a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar. In 1997, he won Chicago's Citizen of the Year award for his work on a public school reform project. Today, he says his past activism would make him the perfect advisor to the President in matters of "armed struggle."
President Bush says the $700 billion bailout of Wall St. necessary because he's worried about "Main St." Democrats say this plan has nothing in it for Main St. and needs changes. Ron Blackwell, Chief Economist at AFL-CIO says the neo-liberal policies of the last 35 years have failed. Economis Prof. Ellen Frank of the University of Massachusets adds: "This is clearly socializing risk with returns still privatized"
Bio
Ron Blackwell is Chief Economist for the AFL-CIO, where he has also worked as Director of Corporate Affairs. Before coming to the AFL-CIO, Blackwell was assistant to the president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, and chief economist of UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Textiles and Industrial Employees). Prior to joining the labor movement, Blackwell was an academic dean at the New School for Social Research in New York (now the New School University), where he taught economics, politics and philosophy.
Ellen Frank , Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, a member of the Dollars & Sense collective. She is the author of The Raw Deal: How Myths and Misinformation about Deficits, Inflation, and Wealth Impoverish America , was published in 2004.
I heard some great segments (as usual) on today's Democracy Now! program. I wanted to draw particular attention to this one, because there is some choice testimony.
Ramsey County prosecutors formally charged eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism. On Thursday, other members of the anarchist group held their first press conference. One local activist accused the police of beating and torturing him in jail. [includes rush transcript]
WILLIAM GILLIS:... I want to see a world of anarchy without domination, without thugs, without warlords, without tyrants and without politicians. And as an American, I believe in actively resisting those who would rule us all.
The brutality and the lies of the state this week are not a surprise, but they are still deplorable. Police kicked down doors with guns drawn on families with their children at dinnertime. Reporters and the media at large have been repeatedly target for repression. Activists have been abducted off the street in unmarked vans and political prisoners held without access to medical attention.
The state has never really bothered with ethical justifications for its violence. But now we see that the agents of the law don’t even bother with internal consistency, ignoring the few rights they have pledged not to violate. Sheriff Bob Fletcher has unleashed a degree of repression that should embarrass and anger us all.
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