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and it will not be rebuilt in a day. It's going to take time, and a great citizen activation and effort. Whatever qualms I have about Obama on policy, and about his "win/win" corporate P.R. bullshit, I can still enjoy an outsider getting inside--and Obama most certainly is an outsider as to the national political establishment. That is good all by itself--a change of leadership, with a leader who appears to be well-intentioned. And I can also APPLAUD WITH ALL MY HEART the coming to power of Obama SUPPORTERS--the PEOPLE--within the party and the country. It is a people-driven campaign. It is most of all about the war, though you'd never know it from the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. (That's the real driver of a lot of his support.) Whatever he really believes, and whatever he does, he is without question beholden to his SUPPORTERS, and that's quite a refreshing change. The grass roots catapulted him into power, largely because of their anger at the war and all that it represents.
I believe that Gov. Bill Richardson recently visited Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, to signal an important coming change for the better on U.S. policy in South America--a shift away from Bushite dirty war plotting to cooperation with the leftist leaders who have swept the continent's elections. Richardson said publicly that his visit to Chavez was strictly to enlist his help in getting three U.S. "war on drugs" contractors released by the Colombian leftist guerrilla group, the FARC, and that it was a private mission. But I'm as sure as I can be--on an instinctual level, having been a close watcher of events in South America (and of Bushite policy there)--that that is what occurred. He met wth Chavez for an hour and a half. Richardson--who notably changed his loyalties from Clinton to Obama, and recently endorsed Obama (just before he went to South America)--was acting as Obama's ambassador to Chavez and the South American left.
A key issue there is the Bush Junta's effort to instigate a war between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela, and its $5.5 BILLION funding of the fascists in Colombia, who have been murdering thousands of union leaders, small peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and journalists. The new left leaders very much want to see an end to Colombia's 40+ year civil war--and an end to the Bushite arming of Colombia. If Richardson/Obama can pull this off--and even if they do it not so much for its humanitarian value as to create a better business climate for U.S. interests--it will be a huge benefit to South America and to us. We DON'T NEED Oil War II: South America--which is what the Bushites have been trying to do. The South Americans have largely rejected U.S. dominated "free trade," U.S. ravaging of their resources, World Bank/IMF loan sharkism, and the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs." And they are fed up with Bush/U.S. meddling in their countries--something that Clinton's chief campaign adviser, Mark Penn, has been very involved in.
So, consider the value of a refreshing, new, cooperative, respectful, pro-democracy U.S. policy in South America, created by an Obama administration. I think that's what Richardson is working on, on Obama's behalf. And that would be such a huge benefit to the western hemisphere that it puts my reservations about Obama into perspective. It is not everything that we could desire from a new government in Washington DC, but Obama--who appears to be somewhat freer of the shackles of our war profiteers than Clinton--has that potential. He opens up possibilities. He gives us room to breathe and to work for real democracy here as well.
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