Attached is a great article published in the Juneau Empire by longtime activist, friend, and loyal coffee drinker Albert Petrarca. Albert continues the struggle in far away Juneau Alaska.

My turn: Democrats’ rhetoric raises more questions
By Albert Petrarca | Juneau Empire
While the turnout and winning percentage for Sen. Barack Obama at the Feb. 5 Democratic caucus was undoubtedly impressive, his campaign for “change” continues to raise as many questions as it does hope. Compounding this is the bitterness most Democratic voters feel over being betrayed by the party’s broken 2006 promise to end the war. To avoid being duped again, it’s incumbent upon us to begin mapping a response strategy for 2009.

Not surprisingly, the Democrats have shamelessly returned after two years to run the same scam, only this time, betting that our complete disgust with the Bush administration finds us only too willing to embrace them with no questions asked or demands proffered. What’s different is that the voters are fed up and fired up.

Since 2006, we’ve witnessed the mainstream media heap incessant ridicule on the only real anti-war/anti-corporate candidate, Dennis Kucinich, in an effort to marginalize and dismiss him. We’ve sat dumbfounded watching the ongoing debasement of our political culture by the likes of Wolf Blitzer and Tim Russert pawning off talk show chit-chat as presidential debates. Most disturbing, though, is the thought that this quadrennial charade will, once again, all be for naught once big business’ candidate is ensconced at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Should the neocons’ pit bull John McCain or the more refined warmonger Hillary Clinton win their respective party’s nomination then the next four years will indeed appear grim.

But let’s consider the possibility that the “change” agent wins the general election in November. Before entertaining this scenario, a dash of badly needed honesty appears in order. All of us who stood with Obama on caucus night aligned ourselves with someone who, by any moral standard, should be sitting in the Hague for having repeatedly voted to continue funding the illegal and nightmarish occupation of Iraq. We endorsed a man who has inexplicably remained silent about impeaching the universally despised and criminally indictable George W. Bush. We sided with a so-called leader who sat quietly complicit while the CNN and MSNBC propaganda machines arbitrarily excluded Kucinich and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel from the later debates (ignoring them when they did participate). Obviously, Martin Luther King he is not.

Our particular dilemma, though, is that the majority of Americans have not yet felt the need for a third party that genuinely represents our aspirations for a society based on peace, justice and sustainability. Until that time arrives, we’re stuck in a corner with a seriously flawed candidate mouthing naive and fatuous happy-talk about a “new bipartisanship” to put and end to “the old ways of Washington.”

Given this predicament, what action can the electorate undertake to prevent Obama from subverting the people’s desire for a new direction once the votes are cast? To begin with, Obama should immediately be put on notice that there will be no honeymoon period this time. We can’t afford to either take him at his word or trust the predatory intentions of his would-be superiors on Wall Street. One way to ensure this is for the country’s various social movements to mobilize to protect and enforce our victory after his inauguration. Imagine, for a moment, a city agreeing to engage in a 24 general strike the day after? No work, no school and no shopping. Suppose, instead, that in every major city a pre-selected hospital was encircled by citizen activists demanding the implementation of a universal single-payer health care system? How about every military recruitment office being subjected to a peaceful occupation that insists on an immediate withdraw from Iraq?

The unprecedented numbers that rallied at Centennial Hall on Feb. 5 understand that this country is in a mess. That fervent outpouring, however, will prove futile if we passively retreat and simply hope that “Obamamania” will be sufficient to resist corporate America’s deadly agenda. It, therefore, seems absolutely necessary that we all be ready to redirect this country through ongoing direct mass action following the inauguration.

Otherwise, whatever righteousness still resides in Obama’s heart will certainly be leeched and crushed by our own rapacious ruling class. Roll up your sleeves, Obama will need all the help you can muster.

• Albert Petrarca is a Juneau resident.

BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!