[Peace-discuss] No enemies to the left

[C. G. Estabrook]

[The Democratic party, in the hands of an administration as right-wing as Bill 
Clinton's, is moving to consolidate its co-option of the anti-war movement, 
a.k.a the US Left, before it says anything untoward about the war or the 
economy.  The usual Democratic party apparatchiki are involved -- persons and 
organizations -- and they're working hard to make sure that there will be no 
embarrassment for the administration as it increases the killing in its Central 
Command war, from Palestine to AfPak. The enemy that the Obamans are determined 
to destroy -- by buying or bombing -- is the resistance (a.k.a al-Qaeda, 
Taliban, insurgents, Hezbollah, Hamas, terrorists, et al.) of whatever stripe 
against US control of the Middle East and its energy resources.  Using classical 
colonialist means, the US will control through comprador governments wherever 
possible, directly wherever necessary.  That's the point under debate in 
Pakistan at the moment. The US is currently suffering from quisling-inadequacy 
there.  But the Obamadmin is willing to kill a lot of people to make up for 
that. And it wants to make sure that economic collapse will not hinder it. --CGE]

	Unity '09: Dem groups quietly align
	By BEN SMITH | 3/14/09 8:48 PM EDT

Left-leaning groups [SIC --CGE] are quietly closing ranks into a new coalition.

A broad coalition of left-leaning groups is quietly closing ranks into a new 
coalition, "Unity '09," aimed at helping President Barack Obama push his agenda 
through Congress.

Conceived at a New York meeting before the November election, two Democrats 
familiar with the planning said, Unity '09 will draw together money and 
grassroots organizations to pressure lawmakers in their home states to back 
White House legislation and other progressive causes.

The online-based MoveOn.org is a central player in the nascent organization, but 
other groups involved in planning Unity '09 span a broad spectrum of interests, 
from the American Civil Liberties Union to the National Council of La Raza to 
Planned Parenthood, as well as labor unions and environmental groups.

The group is still in its early stages, and its organizers have adopted a 
secretive posture: Several of the people involved did not respond to emails over 
the last two days, even though one of them, former MoveOn executive director Eli 
Pariser, has programmed his MoveOn email account to assure correspondents that 
he is using the account for messages "including Unity '09 work."

People familiar with the planning said that the White House is not directly 
involved in the group's formation, though Unity '09's main day-to-day staffer, 
Aaron Pickrell, was a senior aide on Obama's presidential campaign. Aides to 
Obama and to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel didn't respond to inquiries about 
whether they were familiar with the group.

Unity '09 comes at a time of increasing coordination on the left, including an 
effort this week by the Democratic National Committee, Obama's grassroots 
network and other groups to defend Obama's budget and attack the GOP as 
obstructionists.

But Unity '09 is setting a broader, and longer-term agenda, aiming to exert 
grassroots pressure on lawmakers in their home states over the next several 
years on the entire spectrum of political issues.

"When progressive activists are working in concert and the right is forming a 
circular firing squad, you know it's a new day," said consultant Paul Begala, 
who said he's not involved in the new organization.

Unity '09 is, informally, the field organizing compliment to another new 
organization, Progressive Media , which launched a month ago to coordinate the 
liberal groups' messages and their attacks on Republicans and on critics of 
Obama's policies. That group's 8:45 a.m. daily conference call has helped bring 
such unlikely groups as the League of Conservation Voters into an effort to cast 
Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party, and has coordinated attacks 
on two leading critics of Obama's health care plans.

But while Progressive Media is an in-house project of two existing 
organizations, the Center for American Progress and Media Matters, Unity '09 
requires more commitment from its members in the form of a $25,000 contribution 
to the group's future organizing campaigns, a source said.

Unity '09 is conceived as ultimately including 20 to 30 organizations, people 
familiar with the planning said. The groups have overlapping, but different, 
groups of members and financial resources at their disposal, and the idea behind 
the organization is that they can share resources to fill in geographical and 
organizational gaps. Labor unions could, for instance, put their weight behind 
environmental campaigns in regions where environmental groups are relatively 
weak, and vice versa.

Along with the groups previously mentioned, others involved in planning 
discussions include the Sierra Club, Media Matters for America, and Health Care 
for America Now.

Unity '09 is not to be confused with Unity '08, a bipartisan group of political 
operatives that sought to nominate New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg as the top of 
an independent presidential ticket last year.

The new organization is likely to stir fears among conservatives already feeling 
organizationally outgunned and flatly alarmed by the new progressive infrastructure.

"This, ladies and gentlemen is, a threat to America," Fox News's Bill O'Reilly 
said, responding Saturday night to POLITICO's report on the birth of Progressive 
Media and its morning conference call. "The Obama administration would be wise 
to avoid this crew. If the new administration gets involved in this, it would be 
like the Nixon dirty tricks squad."

<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20008.html>

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