by Scott Creighton
President Obama has sold out again. Seems to be a pattern for the man.
It is being announced today that Obama is replacing Paul Volker with GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the head of a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
MSNBC served in the capacity of the “All Obama All the Time” channel in the run-up to the 2008 elections. They were heavily criticized for being blatantly one-sided when it came to coverage of the candidates, giving preference to Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama during the primaries, and then almost exclusively producing positive coverage of candidate Obama during the general election.
Some Democratic Party supporters, most notably Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Clinton advisor Lanny Davis, criticized MSNBC during and after the 2008 Democratic Primaries, as covering Barack Obama more favorably than Hillary Clinton. A study done by the Project for Excellence in Journalism showed that MSNBC had less negative coverage of Obama (14% of stories vs. 29% in the press overall) and more negative stories about Republican presidential candidate John McCain (73% of its coverage vs. 57% in the press overall). MSNBC’s on-air slogan during the week of the 2008 presidential election, “The Power of Change“, was criticized as being overtly similar to Obama’s campaign slogan of “Change.” Wikipedia
Jeffrey Immelt has been chairman and CEO of General Electric since 2001 and so he was head of GE while they were blatantly using their news services on both MSNBC and NBC News to shill for Obama during the elections. In an amazingly obvious conflict of interest, Immelt will stay on as CEO of GE while serving in the White House in this capacity.
“This role is a part-time gig for Immelt, as he will stay on as CEO of GE as he serves as the council head.” The Atlantic
Just try to imagine if George W. Bush had appointed Rupert Murdoch to head some council after Fox shilled for him in 2000 or 2004. Especially if he had done it during his first term, ensuring more positive coverage on Fox prior to his re-election bid in 2004. The Left would have been livid. Now try to imagine if Cheney had kept his job at Halliburton while serving as vice president. That’s pretty much where Obama has gone with this.
MSNBC is owned by NBC Universal, a joint operation of GE and Vivendi.
“NBC Universal was formed in May 2004 by the merger of General Electric‘s NBC with Vivendi‘s Vivendi Universal Entertainment. General Electric (GE) owns 80% of NBC Universal with the remaining 20% owned by Vivendi” Wikipedia
General Electric is one of the biggest defense contractors in the world. Does it really serve the interests of the Obama administration to appoint a defense contractor’s CEO to a key advisory position in the White House?
Immelt is also a globalist and a supporter of free trade/neoliberal policies. His task is going to be to spur “growth” and make the U.S. more “competitive” in the global economy, which is code for reducing the wage structure, benefits, and the standard of living for most U.S. workers by bringing our wages down to something more online with that of Indonesia, China, or India.
“Obama, in a statement after midnight, said the council’s mission will be to help generate ideas from the private sector to speed up economic growth and promote American competitiveness.” Huffington Post
This is not just horrible news for the few of us liberals left in this country, but it’s horrible news for the entire country.
Since Obama’s betrayal on the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich bill, he and his staff have been doing everything they can to take advantage of every single opportunity to rebuild Obama’s declining approval ratings. The First Responders bill should have been passed in the lead-up to the 2010 elections, just as the extension of the unemployment benefits. But instead, the Democratic leadership postponed both of those initiatives so that they could be used to gin-up approval for the party and its leaders after the dreaded Bush Tax Cuts were extended. Similarly, Obama’s manipulative usurpation of the memorial for the victims of the Arizona shooting, was nothing more than an opportunity for more presidential grand-standing and planted stories about his amazing rhetorical flourishes.
Obama and his staff have manipulated any opportunity they could in order to boast his sinking numbers even to the point of taking advantage of the death of a 9 year old girl to do so. And this is what he does with that massaged approval rating: he spits in the face of his liberal base, yet again.
Filed under: Fuck Obama, Globalization, Obama™, Scott Creighton, Team DLC Obama™ Brand
The two billionaires that got Obama appointed, Jeffry Immelt and James Crown, both got that way by looting the taxpayers.
Since Immelt took over GE, their percentage of US workers has dropped from 52% to 44%. There is a GE India, GE Pakistan, and probably lots of other GEs. Now GE announces another outsourcing scheme taking Avionics Technology (and jobs) to China.
IF corporations are persons as the Supreme Court seems to think, then this person is clearly more foreign than domestic. Yet he can continue to buy elections as if had any loyalty to the US.
It figures that the corrupt wonder from Chicago would appoint him head of the Economic Advisory Panel. What a joke. If this doesn’t rouse the Left from their coma, nothing is going to.
That us true, G Street.
More trouble for Americans. don’t think we can stand much more…. people are getting very depressed and seem to be waiting for something…
strange world out there now.
States are preparing to take State pensions away and void on State bonds…. another big hurt…
Yeah Jan, it’s like,,,,were waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not to mention the rhetoric going back n forth between the left and the right. Now Jan, if both sides seek a second Amendent solution, to settle their greivances, Jan,,,,Don’t forget to duck.
Well, “B” WAVES, I’ll try to duck….. don’t know if it will do any good….. probably should just dig a deep hole and hid….. (and I should remember to hid the dirt from the hole so they can’t bury me with it ) always a problem…..