Posted on Categories PBC Comments, Podcast Info

Obama’s Hypocritical Positions on Torture; PBC says “I’ll Stop Whining If….”; Ted Rall’s Anti-American Manifesto; Will Durst

Truthout’s Jason Leopold: Obama’s contradictory positions on torture; PBC’s memo to Obama and Biden–“I’ll stop whining when…”; Ted Rall talks about his new book, The Anti-American Manifesto; Will Durst on Democratic whiners.
Leopold is Deputy Managing Editor at Truthout, and his think piece hits Obama and H. Clinton for hypocrisy on torture: Obama announced sanctions against Iran for holding people without charge or trial, and torture, ignoring his obstruction of investigations into US torture and murder. His lawyers have succeeded in blocking all suits related to torture and human rights violations by the US, with a record that is even worse than Bush-Cheney’s. Read his article here. See the declarations we discuss at Center for Constitutional Rights or ACLU. At 40:27, PBC delivers a memo to Obama and Biden about “whining” Democrats, called “I’ll stop whining when….”; see the list below. Then cartoonist/writer/activist Ted Rall joins us at 44:37 to talk about his new book The Anti-American Manifesto. He makes a strong case that the capitalist/democracy of the US is broken, and says violence may be needed to provoke real change. Rall’s website is here. Finally, Will Durst checks in at 1:35 with a gentler view of Obama’s treatment of progressives.

Memo to President Obama and Vice President Biden:

I’ll stop whining when:

–you stand up to the spooks and the generals and get our troops out of Afganistan

–you end the illegal drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen

–you restore the Fourth Amendment and end illegal surveillance in the US

–stop obstructing investigation and prosecution of Bush-era criminals

–stop using “state secrets” to block legitimate lawsuits by torture victims

–stop using “state secrets” to cover up the plan to execute al-Awlaki without charge or trial

–stop playing us for idiots, that you “fixed” health care or Wall Street regulation

–end your silence on global warming, and offer real leadership

–deliver on your campaign promise to remove roadblocks to union organizing

–appoint a real liberal to the Supreme Court, to offset the rightward tilt

–stop attacking your base for offering valid criticism of your shortcomings

-when you speak up for the poor—now 4 million more—as loud as you do the middle class

Peter B. Collins