CNN iReport

CPUSA, National Chair Ldr, Jim Webb

June 20th, 2009

excerpt from the following mtg notes:

“Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.

“In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.

“We can visualize passing tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry, which brought the economy to ruin.

“…In the current political climate, the expansion of union rights becomes a real possibility.

“Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still-rising rate, and likely long term persistence, of unemployment.

“Isn’t it possible in the Obama era to create millions of green jobs in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy in tandem with an attack on global warming?

“…The new conditions of struggle are possible only – and I want to emphasize only – because we elected President Obama and a Congress with pronounced progressive and center currents.

“Yes, socialism is our objective and, according to recent public opinion polls, it is increasingly attractive to the American people. But clearly it is not on the immediate political agenda.

“…As for our radicalism, we should be as radical as reality itself. And reality strongly suggests that our main task is to bring the weight of the working class and other democratic forces to bear on the reform process with the aim of deepening its anti-corporate content and direction.

“…Let’s be aware that he [Obama] has to keep a coalition together for his long-term as well as immediate legislative agenda. Let’s give President Obama some space to change and to respond to pressures from below.

“…The Right Wing, the American Medical Association, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have drawn a line in the sand on health care.

“…The core of this struggle, whether we like it or not, turns on the inclusion of a public option in a health care bill.

“…Months ago it was said that the downturn could be “L-shaped” rather than “V-shaped.” In other words, the crisis begins with a steep decline in economic activity followed by long period of economic stagnation.

“I suspect that this is what will happen, thus making sustained government and people’s intervention an imperative. In my view this should take at least three forms:

“First, more economic stimulus: the economy is underperforming and nearly 30 million workers are unemployed or underemployed and that number hasn’t peaked yet.

“Second, restructuring is imperative. The old economic model that rested on bubble economics, cheap labor, financial manipulation and speculation, deregulation, capital outsourcing, environmental degradation, and so forth, has to be replaced by a new model that expands and restructures the productive base and is “people and nature” friendly.

“Finally, the economy has to be democratized. The wizards of Wall Street and inside the Beltway failed miserably, in fact, so miserably those economic decisions that affect the welfare of millions shouldn’t rest in their hands.

“…In the meantime, the struggle for immediate public sector jobs and relief should command our attention.

“…President Obama … has expressed a readiness to engage with countries that during the Bush years were considered mortal enemies – Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and others.

“…In Iraq, the U.S. withdrawal plan is proceeding, with the first stage being withdrawal from Iraqi cities by July. President Obama has reiterated his intention to stick with the pullout deadlines. Even with the caveats about what U.S. forces might remain, this is a major victory for the peace movement.”

(1) Obama’s policy agenda and that of the CPUSA are in perfect alignment: more stimuli; green jobs; global warming; public sector jobs; more regulation and, in fact, restructuring of the entire economy; eventual single-payer health care, with the public option being critical to any immediate plan; union-friendly legislation; cutting defense spending; engaging and normalizing relations with the US’s mortal enemies like Hugo Chavez, the Castro brothers and the reigning mullah’s of Iran; claiming victory in Iraq as their own.

(2) Obama’s political approach is also in perfect harmony with that of the CPUSA’s. The method is gradualism. Overall, Obama is doing pretty well at achieving CPUSA’s goals under the current political circumstances. The Left should not expect immediate and radical changes. And of all things, the Left should not “define the current struggle as one that arrays the people against President Obama. That’s not Marxism; it’s plain stupid.”

(3) Mr. Webb expects a lousy economy to continue. Specifically, he expects the “L-shaped” recovery. But this “long period of economic stagnation” will be an excuse for continued government intervention. As Lenin supposedly said, “the worse the better.”

(4) Socialism is the objective.

http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/493/1/104/

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/obama_and_the_cpusa.html

Obama's 'Green' Czar, Mr. Van Jones in his own words:

“I met all these young radical people of color – I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, ‘This is what I need to be a part of… I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary…I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th.. By August, I was a communist.”

Mr. Jones (whose name is Anthony Jones) was also raised amongst the church of black liberation theology, which reinterprets the Christ story as an anticolonial struggle. This is the same type of church of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_liberation_theology

Mr. Van Jones is a blogger/contributor to Huffington Post:

"Van Jones is working to combine solutions to America’s two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction."

Obama recently (on 7/20/09) completed a Conference Call to "Liberal" bloggers, including Huffington Post where he said, "I know the blogs are best at debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets," he said. "And that is why you are going to play such an important role in our success in the weeks to come."

Obama's 'Science' Czar, John Holdren

summation of his publicly / himself unrenounced book, EcoScience

Co-authored in 1977 by Mr. Holdren and his close colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich:

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;

• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food;

• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;

• People who "contribute to social deterioration" (i.e. undesirables) "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" -- in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.

• A transnational "Planetary Regime" should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans' lives -- using an armed international police force.

Direct passages/quotes from the book:

Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society.

One way to carry out this disapproval might be to insist that all illegitimate babies be put up for adoption—especially those born to minors, who generally are not capable of caring properly for a child alone. If a single mother really wished to keep her baby, she might be obliged to go through adoption proceedings and demonstrate her ability to support and care for it. Adoption proceedings probably should remain more difficult for single people than for married couples, in recognition of the relative difficulty of raising children alone. It would even be possible to require pregnant single women to marry or have abortions, perhaps as an alternative to placement for adoption, depending on the society.

Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control. Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today, nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people,pets, or livestock.

Involuntary fertility control

...

A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men.

...

The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births.

If some individuals contribute to general social deterioration by overproducing children, and if the need is compelling, they can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility—just as they can be required to exercise responsibility in their resource-consumption patterns—providing they are not denied equal protection.

Toward a Planetary Regime

...

Perhaps those agencies, combined with UNEP and the United Nations population agencies, might eventually be developed into a Planetary Regime—sort of an international superagency for population, resources, and environment. Such a comprehensive Planetary Regime could control the development, administration, conservation, and distribution ofall natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable, at least insofar as international implications exist. Thus the Regime could have the power to control pollution not only in the atmosphere and oceans, but also in such freshwater bodies as rivers and lakes that cross international boundaries or that discharge into the oceans. The Regime might also be a logical central agency for regulating all international trade, perhaps including assistance from DCs to LDCs, and including all food on the international market.

The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries' shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits.

If this could be accomplished, security might be provided by an armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force. Many people have recognized this as a goal, but the way to reach it remains obscure in a world where factionalism seems, if anything, to be increasing. The first step necessarily involves partial surrender of sovereignty to an international organization.

Student Loan Measure Clears House Panel

Washington Post, July 22nd 2009

A bill that cleared a House committee Tuesday would largely remove private lenders from the federal student loan industry, generating an estimated $87 billion savings over 10 years to fund more government grants and loans.

Republicans opposed to the legislation say it amounts to a federal takeover of student lending.

“I have to ask: Is there any industry not on the verge of federalization?” said Rep. John Kline (Minn.), the senior Republican on the committee. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said he wasn’t “comfortable with the idea of the federal government acting as a profit-making bank.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072103409.html

and

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124761230501341829.html

When government owns the Student Loan market, Students may be required to serve the State in order to receive loans. Details may shape in time as nationalization legislation works through Congress.

"Obama and Biden will call on citizens of all ages to serve. They'll set a goal that all middle school and high school students engage in 50 hours of community service a year, and develop a plan for all college students who engage in 100 hours of community service to receive a fully-refundable tax credit of $4,000 for their education."

http://change.gov/americaserves/