While the president is getting bashed by Republican wannabe presidents for “big government” bailouts, his former chief of staff is experimenting with anti-democratic elements of neo-liberal “shock doctrine” in Obama’s home town. 

Naomi Klein’s 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism describes how the Chicago School of Economics’ free marketeers have roamed the globe, honing in on crises to exploit in the name of maximizing profit. 

What “crisis” is Mayor Rahm Emanuel seizing upon to ensure that pesky protesters will not be in a position to make their voices heard as he hands over city services to private corporations? The forthcoming G8 and NATO summit meetings that Obama is bringing to Chicago in May of this year provide the opportunity for the Mayor to take up the cudgels against the Specter of Disruption.

For Emanuel’s blueprint on how to clobber the First Amendment and the right to dissent, read this excellent UK Guardian piece by Bernard Harcourt.