@ I(A)ntz: I agree 100% 100x over. Right Arm (or shall I say Left Arm)!!!!11!1

Not much will change with Obama.

I say "not much" as opposed to "nothing" because just yesterday he signed a bill to end the ban on funds that go to abortion clinics, doctors, etc. Which is definitely a good thing. However, we still have at least another 4 years of this person. All the good stuff happens in the first few weeks. Get the vaseline ready, folks; it's only a matter of time before we get screwed.

It's important to note that Obama wants less troops in Iraq but more in Afghanistan. He is pro-Free Trade. He is a politician, a capitalist, a religious zealot and an imperialist. The very definition of his position is to wield power over american citizens, and whomever else can fall prey to united state imperialism.

There can be no real freedom under The State, and no peace under capitalism. The one positive thing about the Bush administration is that it radicalized a lot of people. One thing I see with Obama is that some radical folks think that the battle is done, that there is nothing left to fight for, because they have fallen for all this hope/change bullshit. Don't kid yourself. Obama isn't going to end hunger and poverty, he isn't going to free political prisoners, he isn't going to end the war-mongering tradition of this country, he isn't going to save the crumbling economy that is based on the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. He will bring no real peace and justice to the country or the world.

And amidst all this, he sure isn't going to give a fuck about someone who set fire to an SUV or "conspired" to blow up a dam. He's not even going to give a fuck about the RNC8, who organized protests against his opponents, and who are currently being charged with bogus crimes with a terrorism enhancement on top of them. By the way, they didn't even go to the RNC to protest, they merely organized an infrastructure for those who were going. god bless america, indeed.

The choice between a black turd, a white turd and a female turd isn't any fucking choice at all. Liberate yourselves before you can liberate anyone or anything else.

(A)(E)
- lantz.

I look at the Cass Sunstein nod as substantive. While Mr. Sunstein does not accept a deontological rights view, he does prescribe -- and defend quite forcefully -- strong welfarist premises that would go to challenge some of our most basic assumptions about nonhuman animals. Mr. Sunstein's arguments and prescriptions are "radical" given our context, and his voice made public should be celebrated.

Brandon's argument about the CCF's motives is reasonable; however, I do believe that Mr. Sunstein does represent a distinct and forceful challenge to the industries that the CCF advocates for.

Obama wasn't a Senator when the PATRIOT ACT was passed. He later voted against expanding it and voted for a 3 month limited extension of current P.A. that was part of a package vote where it was snuck in. In one day he has already done more to end the Git Mo concentration camp than all the activists have since it was opened. There is much to critique the man for, but let's not draw from Hillary's propaganda in order to make problems where they are not necessarily present (the P.A. allegation was from her and was quickly refuted by the Obama camp).

Thanks for noting that Cass Sunstein isn't actually a rights advocate at all. The CCF wants everyone to think reformists are actually abolitionists to dilute the meaning of the term "animal rights" and make it consistent with "humane" exploitation. It is critical that we expose the lies of industry and their corporate-front groups.

Well said, Brandon. I hadn't considered it that way, that the point of CCF trying to label welfarist groups as rights groups is to not only smear the welfare groups, but to attack the animal rights groups at the same time.

I don't see why you're taking this as any more of a fact than his other "change" speeches.

Again, there's "hope"...

Carlos: I'm certainly not taking any of it as fact. If that wasn't clear in my original post, I don't think Democrats are any better than Republicans on these issues. And I've written quite a bit about domestic spying and Obama not stepping up on that as well.

wasn't he a senate when the animal enterprises and terrorism act was passed? If so then his vote on that bill should be public record and we should be able to determine his stance right away.
I know he voted for the patriot act.

He was. The problem is that the AETA was snuck through the Senate by unanimous consent in the middle of the night (much like the Patriot Act). So there's no roll call vote available, because, technically speaking, no Senator voted against it.

I highlighted that very same statement upon further review of his speech. I don't know either if Obama will do anything to change things, but lets reinvigorate this campaign, quit being scared to speak up, and find out. Sure the recent news about HLS going back to the UK is great, but is it really because we sent them running with their tail between their legs. I don't think so. And the most recently announced prison sentences for the SHAC UK activists speaks volumes. As far as I can tell the scare-mongering in the U.S. seems to be working. Maybe peoples' priorties have just changed. Eitherway its the animals who pay in the end.

I can't imagine anything past a black man being elected president to change. Obama is still a war-mongering politician backed by direct violence and threats as well as over 500 individuals that have their own agendas that don't have much to do with any others individual freedom and well being whether they being human or otherwise.
While change has to start somewhere I just don't think this is it. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I just expect it to get worse before the situation gets better at this point.

I sure hope he will since more shac activists were just jailed today for "terrorism":

http://arphilosophy.blogspot.com/2009/01/who-ar...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/AL...