Of course the military would stay forever, or until victory with honour as they used to say, whichever comes first. But with a presidential election next year and Afghanistan no more under control than ten years ago when the USA & friends invaded, …
Continue readingTag: Barack Obama
David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Stephen Harper’s Senate ‘reform’ scheme has nothing to do with democracy
Tim Uppal with your blogger, discussing something other than abolishing the Senate, about which we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. Below: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s bill to “democratize” the Canadian …
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: What in the Heck Has Happened to Barack Obama?
Each visit would begin in more or less the same way, usually early in the morning or late at night, as a CSIS agent would ring the doorbell and flash his credentials.Then the questions would begin: How long have you known Stefan Christoff ? Is Stefan C…
Continue readingLeDaro: Benjamin Netanyahu: The Most Powerful Man in the World
It looks like it’s Israel and its Prime Minister who are the most powerful in the World, and not the United States. When Barack Obama in his speech said that there is a need for a two-state solution (Palestine and Israel) with the starting point bein…
Continue readingImpolitical: Obama at Westminster
He’s getting his mojo back! Man, that guy knows how to deliver a speech. Said for the thousandth time…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Obama Gets it Right on Palestine
President Obama understands what I wrote three and a half years ago, that ending the Israeli Palestinian conflict depends on recognizing that “the solution essentially comes down to understanding the most and least that each side can accept”.We could a…
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Why Japanese Healthcare is More Efficient Than Canadian and US Healthcare
A recently published report by the Conference Board of Canada, a not-for-profit economics and policy research organization, indicates that Canadians are spending more on their healthcare and getting less than most advanced nations. Canada spend more annually per capita on healthcare – $4100/person, or 10% of GDP – than all but three advanced nations, but […]
Continue readingbastard.logic: Obama’s Citizenship & Race: Separated at Birth?
It never ceases to amaze me how eager some white liberals are to divorce race from political analysis when it comes to Obama. Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler (who seems to have settled nicely into his blogospheric role as … Continue reading →
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Why would anyone doubt the killing of Osama bin Laden?
So Osama bin Laden is now officially dead, okay.
Still there are tons of people out there who doubt the story. Some think he’s still alive and others contend he’s been dead for years. There are plenty of American citizens who doubt what thei…
Enormous Thriving Plants: Unsurprisingly, Canadian birther is…
…still birthering. Like Iraqi WMDs, a priori commitment to a claim always seems to trump (pun intended) reality for people like “Canadian Sentinel”, “WorldNetDaily”, and a goodly dose of FOX News fans. These kinds of things continue to say a lot about their critical thinking skills & reasoning.
Continue readingEnormous Thriving Plants: Unsurprisingly, Canadian birther is…
…still birthering. Like Iraqi WMDs, a priori commitment to a claim always seems to trump (pun intended) reality for people like “Canadian Sentinel”, “WorldNetDaily”, and a goodly dose of FOX News fans. These kinds of things continue to say a lot about their critical thinking skills & reasoning.
Continue readingEnormous Thriving Plants: Unsurprisingly, Canadian birther is…
…still birthering.Like Iraqi WMDs, a priori commitment to a claim always seems to trump (pun intended) reality for people like “Canadian Sentinel”, “WorldNetDaily”, and a goodly dose of FOX News fans. These kinds of things continue to say a lot about…
Continue readingliberal catnip: Olbermann: "Let Obama be Obama"
Olbermann: The witch-hunt vs. Sherrod, and those who made it possible
To paraphrase President Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, James Watt — Mr. Messina, and Mr. Emanuel, and everybody else in this White House who is gradually remodeling this President into something generic and safe and electable in 2012 by the slimmest of margins on the strength of being as media-circus-free and better suited to “this atmosphere” as possible.
Let Obama be Obama! And that advice must be heeded by one man above all others.
Let Obama be Obama?
Breaking news for you, Olbermann. This is Obama being Obama. Mr “No Drama” Obama who avoids confrontations at all costs until his back is against the wall and he has no choice but to respond.
What I find interesting here is that Olbermann is saying that Obama is simply a political puppet of stronger forces like Jim Messina and Rahm Emmanuel. So, I guess when he said, “The buck stops with me”, he really meant that it stops with him after he’s been directed by his advisors about what to do with it.
I suppose Olbermann had to include some excuse to cover for Obama in this shameful incident that saw a useless WH political machine throw yet another African-American under that now infamous bus to keep his Obama-loving fans happy. I doubt they even realize that Olbermann said Obama’s presidency is being managed behind the scenes just as Dubya’s was.
To top it off, Olbermann apparently believes that “Fired up?” was more than just some catchy campaign slogan.
The question used to be “fired up?” – and the answer: “Ready to go!” The question now is “fired up?” – the answer now is: “Not ready, because we cannot afford the impression of not looking sufficiently presidential and neutral and inviting a media circus in this atmosphere.”
And he doesn’t seem to realize yet that “hope” and “change” meant that starstruck fans like him would be hoping Obama would change all through his presidency to become this flaming liberal he never was during his campaign. That was blatantly obvious to anyone who was paying attention without fanboy blinders on.
There has been no gradual remodeling of Barack Obama during his presidency.
Obama is being Obama.
By stating, “Let Obama be Obama”, what Olbermann is asking is that he be anyone but who he really is. And that is obviously not going to happen.
As for what happened to Shirley Sherrod, the Leave Obama Alone! crowd which has insisted he had no part to play in this travesty and who didn’t think he owed Mrs Sherrod a damn thing because of that will now have to live with the fact that he has finally personally apologized to her – because he was ultimately responsible for the actions of his government.
Too little, too late considering just how quickly his administration jumped to get rid of her in the first place after (yet again) foolishly believing that right-wing nuts actually tell the truth. Some of his defenders even tried to claim that Vilsack wasn’t a part of the administration. Apparently, they don’t either don’t know how government is structured or they were just grasping at any excuse to place distance between Obama and Vilsack. Either way, it’s been quite the pathetic display of refusing to hold those responsible accountable.
Those defenders – comparable to Bush’s 20 percenters – truly believe he is not responsible for anything that goes wrong in his administration while heaping praise on him for absolutely everything that goes right. They gaze at pictures like him as if he’s some sort of teen idol – a phenomenon I never saw any Bush supporters engage in. Can you imagine the ridicule from the left if some right-wing blog had posted that kind of propaganda week in and week out during Bush’s presidency while adding only Good News™ about what their dear leader was up to because they couldn’t deal with reality?
That’s why they cannot fathom any criticism being lobbed Obama’s way. “Brand Obama”, as described by Naomi Klein, is too big too fail and must be bailed out continually at all costs:
Klein: One of the things in this-you know, a large part what I write about in No Logo is the absorption of these political movements into the world of marketing. And, you know, the first time I saw the “Yes, We Can” video that was produced by Will.i.am, my first thought was, you know, “Wow. A politician has finally produced an ad as good as Nike that plays on our, sort of, faded memories of a more idealistic era, but, yet, doesn’t quite say anything.” We think we hear the message we want to hear, but if you really parse it, the promises aren’t there, it’s really the emotions.
And, you know, I think that that explains in some sense the paralysis in progressive movements in the United States where we think, Obama stands for something because we-our emotions were activated on these issues, but we don’t really have much to hold him to because, in fact, if you look at what he said during the campaign, like any good super brand, like any good marketer, he made sure not to promise too much, so that he couldn’t be held to it.
Political consumers.
That does not bode well for a democracy that is supposed to be based on reason. And we’re watching as the results of that marketing are being played out while dignified people like Shirley Sherrod become victims of that emotional consumption engaged in by the right, the left and all of those in between. It has produced the same outcome as unchecked capitalism: moral bankruptcy.
Olbermann: "Let Obama be Obama"
Olbermann: The witch-hunt vs. Sherrod, and those who made it possible To paraphrase President Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, James Watt — Mr. Messina, and Mr. Emanuel, and everybody else in this White House who is gradually remodeling this President into something generic and safe and electable in 2012 by
Continue readingliberal catnip: Olbermann: "Let Obama be Obama"
Olbermann: The witch-hunt vs. Sherrod, and those who made it possible To paraphrase President Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, James Watt — Mr. Messina, and Mr. Emanuel, and everybody else in this White House who is gradually remodeling this President into something generic and safe and electable in 2012 by
Continue readingliberal catnip: Generally Speaking – About Afghanistan
There’s obviously no need to rehash what was written about General Stanley McChrystal and his aids in the now infamous Rolling Stone article that shook DC more than the very real earthquake that rattled Ontario and Quebec today.
McChrystal is out. A political no-brainer for Obama.
The other shoe that dropped, however, is that Petraeus is in.
And what did candidate Obama have to say about the man he just nominated to head the ISAF surge?
Obama Gives Petraeus Remarks Low Marks
By ELI LAKE, Staff Reporter of the Sun | September 11, 2007
WASHINGTON — Senator Obama, the Democrat from Illinois seeking his party’s nomination for the presidency, is giving the Iraq progress report of General David Petraeus low marks, going so far as to claim the one clear success in Iraq in recent months — the rout of Al Qaeda in Anbar — has nothing to do with the military surge the general in Washington is defending.
“I’m not sure that the success in Anbar has anything to do with the surge,” Mr. Obama said today at the first of two hearings featuring General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. “You yourself said it was political.”
And yet president Obama bowed to McChrystal when he publicly shamed him to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan for yet another military surge that’s bound to end in failure – something even McChrystal now acknowledges.
Obama today:
He urged the Senate to confirm Petraeus swiftly and emphasized the Afghanistan strategy he announced in December was not shifting with McChrystal’s departure.
“This is a change in personnel, but it is not a change in policy,” Obama said.
That policy is killing record numbers of soldiers.
That policy may well slow down the withdrawal of US troops while painting a rosy picture that counts on collective amnesia about just how “successful” Petraeus’ surge strategy was in Iraq.
Same war. Different commander. Same policy. Different outcome?
Not likely.
It wasn’t McChrystal’s policy implementation that Obama had a problem with. It was his insubordination.
Candidate Obama would have told president Obama not to have nominated McChrystal in the first place considering his track record. But candidate Obama and president Obama are two very different people – as we all know by now.
Generally Speaking – About Afghanistan
There’s obviously no need to rehash what was written about General Stanley McChrystal and his aids in the now infamous Rolling Stone article that shook DC more than the very real earthquake that rattled Ontario and Quebec today. McChrystal is out. A political no-brainer for Obama. The other shoe that
Continue readingliberal catnip: Generally Speaking – About Afghanistan
There’s obviously no need to rehash what was written about General Stanley McChrystal and his aids in the now infamous Rolling Stone article that shook DC more than the very real earthquake that rattled Ontario and Quebec today. McChrystal is out. A political no-brainer for Obama. The other shoe that
Continue readingbastard.logic: Obligatory WFT McChrystal?! Post
by matttbastard Cole drops an Apocalypse Now reference, while The Artist Formerly Known as Tacitus thinks shitcanning is imperative if the republic is to survive the impact of McChrystal’s insta-infamous still-unpublished Rolling Stone interview [h/t Ben Smith]. Perhaps. Laura Rozen usually has sound instincts and excellent sources: One early … Continue reading →
Continue readingbastard.logic: Israel & the Freedom Flotilla Assault: It’s All About the Gaza Blockade
by matttbastard Israel does it again. With one deadly commando raid of an aid flotilla bearing essential goods in violation of Israel’s (illegal) blockade of Gaza, the Israeli government has reasserted its expressed right to, essentially, defend its borders by … Continue reading →
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