The Hufpo/Geffen/Olbermann/Whole Foods pot heads went rabid last year on the Clintons like the far right did in the 90s. And for what? This half baked narcissist who is in bed with gay bashers, Goldman Sachs, and Big Pharma. Good call, Liberals!
Generally I am not a fan of David Brooks. But his recent column is the latest I've seen that backs up my assertion that Obama is poisoning the Left - and will kill it.
The party is led by insular liberals from big cities and the coasts, who neither understand nor sympathize with moderates. They have their own cherry-picking pollsters, their own media and activist cocoon, their own plans to lavishly spend borrowed money to buy votes.
My thought on this is simple enough: Obama is not a liberal. At least in the FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, LBJ, Bobby Kennedy sense. Or a progressive like Teddy Roosevelt. Those leaders used their bully pulpits to put forth an agenda - a government agenda - that was geared toward helping people. Obama's agenda is geared toward paying off constituencies and is sheep dipped in the disastrous identity politics of the last 40 years. Corruption on the Right eventually morphs into corporatism - which we saw under Cheney. Corruption on the Left drifts into more obvious and cynical payoffs to specific groups. The "stimulus" bill being the latest grand example.
Obama compounds the problem by being a surprisingly weak executive - proving Hillary right again. He's allowed congress to mold his major agenda items - keeping a distance that looks not like wisdom, but sloth. I'm more convinced than ever that unless Obama will be adored in the process he doesn't invest much effort. One simply cannot imagine LBJ disengaging from Congress on any of his Great Society legislation. Then again Obama's never done any heavy lifting - always merely showing up at the last moment for the credit. Presidents can't play that game and and expect any respect from the hundreds of over sized egos on Capitol Hill. I am even a bit shocked at Obama's foolish decision to be so hands off. It is more akin to Coolidge than either Roosevelt.
The result: The stimulus is a galling display of wasted money. Cap and trade is a convoluted mess. The House health care bill contains some provisions that seem to actively seek to destroy the Democratic party. Please read A Toxic Health Care Proposal for more information.
The nation DID NOT GO LEFT last November. It didn't go Right either. The direction was simply - away from Bush. Pelosi, Reid, Obama and their handlers gravely mistook the election results. Or, they are too arrogant to care.
Now that the House and Senate bills are nearly complete Obama has decided to campaign. This is...well, how shall I put it? ...inexperience with a big dollop of arrogance on top. In fact, he may have made the exact same mistake as Clinton. Mrs. Clinton shut herself off - removing us and her husband's bully pulpit from the process until it was too late. Obama let congress do the work, removing himself from the process until now - and it may be too late. The latest polls are not good.
On the other hand - he may pull it off. If he fails to get something that looks vaguely like reform - for him at least - the ride down hill will be bumpy, steep and fast.
Regardless, if the health care is as big a jumbled mess as the other two major Obama bills so far - the Left is dead...dead...dead...and it should have seen the grim reaper coming....all the way from Chicago.
Freemenow has all the Letterman advertisers contact info listed here. I link it for this reason: If - for example - Jon Voight were making the rounds mocking the children of say...Joe Biden...in a blatantly bigoted way the alleged Left would be insane with rage. The fact that Letterman's continued jokes have to do with - there is no other word - rape- triples the fury that real liberals, - and conservatives, and libertarians, and all decent people should be expressing.
I repeat: The Left sold its soul last year utterly and completely - at a bargain rate I might add. What it got in trade was a confused, narcissistic, statist who doesn't give a shit about any "social justice" that might lower his poll ratings. The attack on gays in the military goes on with the help of his Justice department, mountains are being blown up in West Virginia, hundreds of civilians have been slaughtered by Obama approved drones in Pakistan.
Good call "liberals". Sure glad you "won." Boy Howdy, I'm glad that evil McCain/Palin ticket didn't win. Maybe then 43 mountains would be blown to hell and back and not just 42.
Let us call the Obama Pod People what they are finally and forever: fucking amoral morons.
The Left has castrated itself with eyes wide shut and a smile on its face - and yes, I get the irony of the male metaphor in this case.
During the course of 2008 the media and the Obamablogs made it perfectly acceptable for people who claimed to stand for "social justice" to attack, debase, insult, and degrade any woman they did not agree with. Mostly - but not exclusively, and let's be clear here, they insulted working class women. Which is why Palin - who could actually feed her family if she had to with a rifle and a knife and has no Ivy league degree on the wall - was such a juicy target for the Huffpo/Kos goons. The atmosphere of degradation was re-created last year during the mindless, sexist assault on Clinton.
Every bit of my belief system regarding true egalitarianism is now affronted by the Letterman debacle. The silence on most of the Left is grotesque. So where are they? The most disheartening truth may be that many women and men on the Left don't see any problem with the verbal assault on a 14 year old girl who happens to be the child of a conservative. Also please remember this: It is not merely about sexism - it is about class as well. It is open season on poor and middle class whites. If the economy continues to stagger the attacks on and demonization of the poor and middle class will increase.
The entire point of all progressive movements has been that everyone get a place at the table. This has now been completely submerged - if not destroyed. Which, of course, was probably the point of Soros creating Obama in the first place.
The Left attacked women last year with the glee of the racists who watched lynchings in the 1930s. An don't let the bogus "she's 18 now" excuse cloud the point. Sullivan and his ilk went nutters on Britol Palin when she was 17. Letterman's excuse that he meant the 18 year old Palin daughter and his appalling "apology" are despicable. He is either lying to get more Palin punching mileage in or is not man enough to own that the original vulgarity demanded that he make a sincere apology.
Again I repeat: It is not the Right that is lost. In fact, the Right has its bearings in hand. They are weakened now - but not lost. The "Left" is in power but utterly without a core. It is Left that is staggering.
Politics is no longer a matter of Lying vs. Truth but Which Lie Do You Like? - Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire
Politics and Media News
Obama on National Security: I Am Doing the Right Things; I Have Not Broken Campaign Promises (by Prof. Darren Hutchinson at Dissenting Justice) Ironically, Obama, who ran as the antiwar candidate, is now the "war" president. He is the commander-in-chief in two ongoing offenses, including one in which he has authorized a "surge." As proof that his antiwar rhetoric is a distant memory, Obama has delivered a speech to justify his Bush-esque national security policy against liberal (and Cheney's) criticism in a building that houses the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, which rank among the most enduring of American symbols. This is a long road from the flag pin controversy...
Obama is, as Reverend Wright accurately stated during the campaign, a politician. All presidents before him were politicians as well. I was stunned that liberals refused to see this. So, to the formerly effusive and uncritical Left: I told you so.
New GOP Ad Compares Threat Of Closing Guantanamo To Nuclear War (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line) The Republican National Committee has a new Web ad that appears to suggest that the stakes of the Guantanamo issue are as high as those of the Cold War nuke standoff...The ad references the famous 1964 "Daisy" ad that Lyndon Johnson ran against challenger Barry Goldwater, which featured a little girl plucking daisy petals while a voiceover counted down to a nuclear detonation...Dems...have fallen into the GOP's trap by letting them drive the Gitmo debate. Those of us who voted for Goldwater (yes, it was a lifetime ago) used to say, "They told us if we voted for Goldwater there would be war, and I did, and there is."- Caro You may not be surprised to learn that fear has won the Guantanamo battle: Supermax Prisons in U.S. Already Hold Terrorists (Washington Post) In news conferences, speeches and debates this week, lawmakers from both parties, as well as the director of the FBI, have sounded alarms about moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to federal prisons, where they could launch riots, hatch radical plots or somehow be released among the populace...But the apocalyptic rhetoric rarely addresses this: Thirty-three international terrorists, many with ties to al-Qaeda, reside in a single federal prison in Florence, Colo., with little public notice. The apocalyptic rhetoric doesn't have to bear any relation to the real world, although it tends to be more effective when there is some tiny kernel of truth in it somewhere. The rhetoric is intentionally apocalyptic and would be just as loud if those spouting it were yelling the opposite of what they're screaming about today. In fact, tomorrow they may well be shrieking the exact opposite of what they're bawling today. Because the purpose is not to bring understanding, or to persuade, but to intimidate. The right wing has been doing it for a very long time and has been pretty successful up until they practically destroyed the country with their version of governing.- Caro Obama's civil liberties speech (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon) Obama's speech [Thursday] … was fairly representative of what Obama typically does: effectively defend some important ideals in a uniquely persuasive way and advocating some policies that promote those ideals (closing Guantanamo, banning torture tactics, limiting the state secrets privilege) while committing to many which plainly violate them (indefinite preventive detention schemes, military commissions, denial of habeas rights to Bagram abductees, concealing torture evidence, blocking judicial review on secrecy grounds). Like all political officials, Obama should be judged based on his actions and decisions, not his words and alleged intentions...
Judge Obama on his actions???What, WHAT, WHATTTT? Wow...I sure wish the Left had thought of that last year - JSOM
The Thought Crimes President (by Ian Welsh, thanks to Alegre) People who have committed no crime which can be proved in a court of law, including the crime of conspiracy, will be held indefinitely without a trial. Note that Obama wants to use military commissions to try some detainees, which means that these detainees can’t be found guilty of anything even under military law. This is punishment for a thought crime...
Click here for more politics and media news headlines. Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com
"Common Dreams" a heretofore whiney but nevertheless sometimes good left wing site with an truly ironic name - sent out a fundraising email that includes a pic which claims "Tim McVeigh would love The Tea Party"... taken furtively at the Oklahoma City Tea Party. Screen grab posted here. Apparently they think invoking Tim McVeigh in Oklahoma City is cute...cuz you know - those who attended Tea Parties also support this....duh.. everyone in Brentwood, at Arriana Huffington's cocktail parties, and in Rachel Maddow's green room knows this.
Funny, I just perused Common Dreams and see nothing on the Obama Justice Department's destruction of civil liberties... but hey who has time for principles?!! Obama gives me a hope hard-on and he won! That's all that matters! Whoo Hoo!
It is hard to express just how cold blooded and brain dead these "tolerant", lazy, fatuous,entitled, rich, liberals at Common Dreams are in equating a mass murderer to those exercising the right of assembly - in Oklahoma City, no less - and then using the pic to raise money!
Look down, "liberal" mallet heads- what you see slipping away beneath you is the moral high ground....forever...You have become what you once loathed.
My God, I wish some liberals would emerge that were not full of steaming shit. I'd take Hubert Humphrey at this point. Paul Wellstone... Bella Abzug.... anyone???
No Lunch Break today.... had to get this piece posted...
About those tea parties....The muddled confusion on the Left about Chicago Slim was in evidence today. The sad turnout for the D.C. "protest" is posted below. A New Way Forward organized the "events". The D.C. protest looks more like some baked potheads wandering around with signs. The necessity of a bullhorn escapes me. Standing around chit chatting does not need amplification. Jane Hamsher dutifully makes herself look foolish with a foolish claim about Fox News.
Sadly, I agree with some of this group's stated goals. "If it is too big to fail, it is too big to exist." is as precise as it gets. I don't know how the other protests around the country turned out. I suspect they were all pathetic. It is too late for the Left. The reason is simple: Those most likely to agree with A New Way Forward just spent a year in a delusional dither about THE ONE, who, to his credit, never embraced their thinking. He merely tricked the gullible into believing he had. Alas, they never bothered to do enough rudimentary investigation into him to realize he was a part of the problem and had no intention of confronting bankers in any real sense. Part of me believes Obama's entire purpose is to neuter the Left - as I've stated many times before.
Until the Left realizes that Obama IS the enemy - nothing will come of A New Way Forward. Even then, it will be a long slog for anything like a liberal opposition to regroup. The down side of subsuming one's values beneath an orgy of identity politics is that sometimes the "identity" wins. A black guy does become President. He's not really on our team - but hey, he's black...WE WON!
So this "identity politics" Left has nowhere to go - unless they fess up and admit they've been had. They gave their all for a man who does not have their values. It is a farce with a tragic Hamletesque third act. No one in the family is left standing.
Given the egos of Obama's blind cheerleaders is not likely that they will come out of their coma soon enough to counter act the much more in tune and organized "Tea Parties" the Conservatives have been planning and carrying out. Newt Gingrich will speak at the one in New York on the 15th. Can anyone imagine the Left getting a comparable national figure to show up? No. Pelosi, Frank, Dodd and now Obama ARE THE PROBLEM. As was W, and Paulson and that crew.
Cindy Sheehan will have to do.
We need a third way.
For the record: I support the "tea parties". Less for ideological reasons than because of the clear need to take action. Chicago Slim is not just another politician meandering down "moderate road". He is a shape shifter - who will play the Right off the Left off the Middle - to get what he wants. Which is anyone's guess. A sort of Goldman Sacks run limp neo-socialism - that is rudderless and ruinous - is my best attempt at a guess now. Mostly what he wants is to be venerated. To be seen as the most valuable player. Nothing in his history indicates that he cares deeply about anything past his next win. Ask Alice Palmer or Rev. Wright. 20 years in that church - and he ditched the place without looking back.
The "smart" veneer is a cover for calculation and fear based in inexperience.
The oratory is cover for a lack of conviction.
Much of the showmanship is cover for a deep contempt for the country he is President of. And yes, I have come to the conclusion that many like him, but he does not like us. Not aspects of us - he does not like us. He doesn't think the country he leads has problems. He thinks the country he leads IS the problem.
He does not want to remake America so much as he wants to make Obamaland. This may or may not include values we recognize.
It baffles me that even a few "liberals" would protest the banking bailout while ignoring those who are ensuring the crooks are paid handsomely. Are they really THAT stupid?
Yet that's just the sort of "big change" Barack Obama has provided in the two months since winning over the man Democrats derided as "McBush." Even worse for the Left, Obama advisers are now signaling, says the New York Times, "that they may put off renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, overhauling immigration laws, restricting carbon emissions, raising taxes on the wealthy and allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military."
Add in the flip flops we've already seen and on all major policy fronts, Obama has lied, will lie, or is lying as I type.
I want to make clear 2 things:
1. I AM NOT surprised by Obama's rightward shift. I knew he was a fraud months ago. Therefore I never expected real policy changes. Obama was hired to put a new face on protecting the same elites. His behavior fits the D.C. mold perfectly. He is an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks... etc etc
2. As a mostly unreconstructed FDR/Scoop Jackson liberal I am, in fact, gleeful to see the Geffen/Huffington/liberal white guilt/cocktail party/I love the workers- I just don't want them near me/Maureen Dowd types - get mugged and ditched in the alley.
It is so easy to mock this bunch now. They behaved childishly for over a year. It is satisfying to see the fools get thrown into the cold moat.
