Politics and Media News from Carolyn - Orwell edition

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.


RNC AD: Guantanamo - To close it? To close it not?

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

2012: The Obama Cult vs. the Wing Nuts?

A few posts ago I said I' be blogging my political evolution right here on the WWW. 2 mornings in a row I did. So here is the third post in that trifecta.

My entire theory about the need for a "3rd way" rests on 2 assumptions.

1. The economy is not going to recover in the usual manner.

2. Obama will slip below 50% approval by years end and stay there. He will not get what he wanted* on the big liberal issues and will be seen by more and more of his base as a disappointment. This will devolve into outright anger in many quarters. The natural size of Obama's "base" is about 20-25% of the population. If the economy continues to falter his "base" will shrink to its natural size - then shrink further as the disappointment sinks in.

* This is predicated on believing that Obama ever truly wanted what he sold last year.

If I am wrong in my "guesses" then this post is nullified. Maybe I am. We will all see.

Projecting forward: I believe a viable 3rd option will become more important than ever in the next few years. The economic "recovery", when it comes, will not look like the ones we are accustomed to. We are in for a long haul readjustment of our expectations. Neither party is prepared for this. However, the far right is positioned to take advantage of large scale social displacement. The far left will try - but fail - as their energies have been subsumed by the President's misdirection. Therefore the GOP is likely to present an uncomfortable but viable option in 2010 and 2012. The moderating influences in the GOP are weak and likely to become weaker as Obama weakens. The Glen Beck boys do not ignore blood in the water. Since my theory assumes Obama will, in essence, fail, any alternative voice within the Democratic party will be tainted and - largely - useless.

This leaves one section of one party standing. The reactionary impulses will be vast as people grapple with a changed landscape . Loud portions of the Democratic party will attempt to take the megaphone. But they will have no choice but to defend Obama in the end. When Obama becomes unpopular anyone remotely connected to him will be on the losing end of any argument. BHO's employees are every bit as tainted as W's. Please read the link. Summers is, for lack of more precise words, a panhandling crook.

So where does this leave "democrats in exile"? Here's where now: The Democratic Party or the GOP. 2008 should be the last time this constricted choice is forced on people.

There is another possibility. Obama will fail on such a catastrophic scale that his own party will dismiss him in 2012. A meteor striking the heartland tomorrow has approximately the same probability.

A "third party" does not top my list of things I'd like to see happen. It is my guess - though its not yet a conviction - that economic malaise will open the door WIDE for a slew of unsavory characters on the far left and more probably on the far right. Without an alternative to the soon to be tainted Democrats and the Glen Beck conservatives the energies of the population will have to choose between these unfortunate camps.

"Democrats in exile" (I am avoiding the acronym "P.U.M.A.") are a logical base - to start. As for the comments that insist I should get off my ass and start a third party all I can say is Thanks for the compliment. Even in my most grandiose moments this feels like an absurdity.

However, I will evolve some ideas about what a "third way" might look like in the next week or so. And state without equivocation that I will help should the energies of the immediate aftermath of last May's Obama coup be reignited.

The time to start thinking about stopping the coming right wing backlash is NOW.