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The Obama White House—full of supposedly smart political advisors led by the President of the “Change You Can Believe In” campaign movement of 2008—is in disarray. Worse, multiple, confusing varieties of disarray provoking public confusion, internal Democratic Party strife, and the slow withdrawal of belief in Mr. Obama by his strongest supporters around the country.

Two of his most steadfast supporters in the media—columnists Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert of the New York Times are wondering about Mr. Obama’s plans. Krugman repeated his fellow Sunday Times essayist Frank Rich’s observation who wrote about Obama “punking” his supporters with his waffling, reversals and frequent astonishing adoption of Bush’s worst corporatist and military policies.

While Bob Herbert, taking to task his political hero for waffling and vagueness regarding health care, issued this reluctant appraisal:

“I hear almost daily from men and women who voted enthusiastically for Mr. Obama but are feeling disappointed. They feel that the banks made out like bandits in the bailouts, and that the health care initiative could become a boondoggle. Their biggest worry is that Mr. Obama is soft, that he is unwilling or incapable of fighting hard enough to counter the forces responsible for the sorry state the country is in.”

There has rarely been a more auspicious time for a transforming Presidential leadership. Disgraced corporate capitalism has shattered the economy. The living conditions of millions of workers and pensioners whose taxes were taken to bail out these Wall Street crooks and gamblers are dismal.

Rather than expressing remorse, the arrogant corporate lobbyists are working over Congress with ferocious demands, fueled by cash-register politics and paid Astroturf rallies back in the Congressional Districts.

The giant corporations and their trade lobbies want no real health insurance reform that will reduce their monopolies and profiteering. They want no renewable and energy efficient standards interfering with their massive waste, pollution and inefficiency. They want no reductions in the bloated military budget surrounded by the waste, fraud and abuse of what President Eisenhower called the “military-industrial complex” in his farewell warning to the American people.

The corporate supremacists want no changes in the deliberately complex and obscure tax laws favoring the corporate evaders and avoiders and the tax havens for the super-wealthy.

In short, the global corporations want Washington, D.C.; to continue being their massive deregulator and cash cow perpetuating the abandoning of American workers, the pillaging of the American taxpayer and the defrauding of the American consumer.

Forget about corporate law and order to restrain the corporate crime wave. The harmony, bipartisan President Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, have outsmarted themselves. What worked to defeat Hillary Clinton last year has succeeded in splitting the Congressional Democrats into progressives, corporate liberals and Blue Dog Conservatives Republicans can scarcely believe their luck and are busy exploiting these schisms.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, the number two House Democrat, undermines his Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s “public option” plan for health insurance. Senator Max Baucus—a closet Republican masquerading as the Democratic Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is working hand-in-glove with right-wing Republicans and the White House to craft a weak “bi-partisan” bill that keeps getting weaker as the corporatist Republicans sniff increasing weakness in the White House.

Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, the more progressive legislators are accusing their former colleague, Committee Chair, Henry Waxman of selling out to the defiant Blue Dog Democrats on his Committee. While Mr. Waxman himself has to be worried that even his compromised “public option” (which Democrats should be calling “public choice”) will be derailed by the bill that the Baucus/Grassley/Obama axis will soon reveal in the Senate.

The Obama voters do not know what they are supposed to support. Obama never did identify with a clear health insurance proposal—not to mention the single payer approach (full Medicare for all) he says he would favor if he was “starting from scratch.” There has been nothing upstanding for his supporters around the country to rally around.

It is sad to say that all this could have been predicted by Obama’s political record as an Illinois and U.S. Senator. He rarely has taken a stand and fought against his adversaries. Even after he cuts a deal with them, they continue to undermine his agenda.

Once again, Bob Herbert senses the disturbing trend: “More and more the president is being seen by his own supporters as someone who would like to please everybody, who is naïve about the prospects for bipartisanship, who believes that his strongest supporters will stay with him because they have nowhere else to go, and who will retreat whenever the Republicans and the corporate crowd come after him.”

Mr. Herbert can speak from authority. He has written many columns over the past 18 months reflecting that “nowhere else to go” attitude. If he is going off the bandwagon, more will follow. Mr. Obama better wake up and pay attention to his base before they either have somewhere else to go or simply stay home. It happened to Clinton in 1994.

Ralph Nader 8/24/09

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Maine Central Power Outages

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:15:50 -0700

Maine Central Power Outages - Is Your Power Out?

Here is the information you need to know if you are experiencing power outages in Central Maine

If you are experiencing a power outage, please call CMP at 1-800-696-1000, or click below to report your outage online. You can also see whether other CMP customers have reported outages on your street. If you anticipate an outage due to an incoming storm, please review our storm preparation tips. Note: In the event of a major storm or natural disaster, CMP will suspend its regular meter-reading activities. Your bill will be estimated until restoration efforts are complete.

Via (Link)

Hope this helps!

Brad Fitzpatrick
http://www.bradfitzpatrick.com/
Ph: 207.873.7172

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A Sweet Red El Camino!

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:02:59 -0700

Man I's love to have this baby. I love this style of el camino

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AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:55:23 -0700

via awkwardfamilyphotos.com

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AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:47:04 -0700

Group Hug
May 22nd, 2009

via awkwardfamilyphotos.com

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Testing Posterous Posting Via Email

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:33:08 -0700

I must say that if this works it will be awesome... I wonder if I can embed an image?

Anyone see the special picture I attached?

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3 Coolest Ancient Air-Conditioning Devices

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:55:55 -0800

Unlimited Wind Tower Image: mishox

Modern air-conditioning has become an essential commodity in many parts of the world, and guzzles more than its fair share of energy as it shifts heat around buildings. But while scientists sweat to find solar solutions to cool this burning energy issue, over a thousand years ago ancient cultures had discovered sustainable precursors to air-conditioning, albeit by and large just for the privileged few. Here are three of the coolest indoor-cooling innovations from those environmentally-savvy ancients – and not a chemical in sight.

via environmentalgraffiti.com

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Food Clip Art by Fitz

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:53:15 -0800

Are you looking for some nifty, cool & original food clip art? Well, look no further! Below are just a handful of samples from my royalty free food clip art library.

via bradfitzpatrick.com

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How to Get Retweeted

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:44:35 -0800

Forget imitation as the sincerest form of flattery—it’s as twentieth century as ripping off interfaces, songs, photos, and books. Today, the sincerest form of flattery is retweeting—the process of forwarding someone else’s tweet to your followers on Twitter. (I assume that you know about Twitter. If you don’t, take a minute and readwww.answers.com=""> this description at Answers.com.)

The reason that retweeting is so flattering is that every time people do it, they are putting their reputation on the line. If their followers don’t like the retweet, their reputation is reduced. So whenever someone retweets your tweet, they are expressing confidence that what you’ve tweeted is interesting and good. Thus, the best measure of someone’s quality as a Twitter user is not the number of followers but the amount of retweets.

via blogs.openforum.com

This is great advice on getting retweeted on twitter. Lots of recent articles lately on retweeting but this is about the best IMO. Enjoy!

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