There is a growing meme with the Obama Pod People that criticism of the President's absurd Nobel Peace Prize is emanating from rage blinded, far right Obama haters. Rachel Maddow kicked this nonsense off with a clip making the rounds.
Know this: THE LARGE MAJORITY OF CRITICISMS AND CONDEMNATION OF THE NOBEL COMMITTEE IS COMING - AND HAS COME - FROM THE LEFT AND THE MIDDLE.
I must admit to a certain fascination with Pelosi's political suicide. Obama's self inflicted wound after releasing the torture memos is minor relative to Pelosi's repeated pot shots at her own feet.
She keeps making her predicament worse. Given the life of most D.C. dramas is about 2 news cycles it is a wonder to watch Pelosi continue to make her deceit more apparent. After railing against water boarding when the memos were released, she was caught when it became clear she knew all along. Now a sane politician would shut up for a few weeks and let the noise die down. Instead Pelosi, who has no support nationally, has challenged the CIA openly.
What an odd choice. Odd because she must know by now that her handlers in the Obi White House will fight tooth and nail against a congressional investigation. For which she should be grateful. I find it hard to fathom she feels a moral calling to push for an investigation. She has never demonstrated any moral fiber. Besides the GOP would put her on trial in any investigation.
Yet, there she was yesterday calling the CIA a bunch of liars. Coming close to "I did not have sex with that woman" and "I am not a crook." in the raw boldness of her lie. "I am saying that the CIA was misleading the Congress and at the same time the administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction,"
Nice conflation, Nance, the former and the latter being entirely different issues.
Even if I studiously avoid "black helicopter" talk, (Which I don't. I find many conspiracy theories interesting. ) one of the institutions I would hesitate to take on in D. C. is the CIA. Even Chicago Slim threw together a pep rally at Langley to make amends after the memos came out. Whatever else I may think about torture, rendition, and what ever else has been going on, I know we need the CIA and would hesitate mightily before lambasting the whole organization.
Either she has convinced herself that she knew nothing of the water boarding and feels she must defend her reputation or she has what amounts to a political death wish.
It is sobering to consider that the top four constitutional officers in the land have remarkably weak egos. Obama, Biden, and Pelosi's connection to facts is often whimsical - at best. Reid (the 4th in line for the presidency) may usually live in reality but he is such a pushover he is largely irrelevant. It isn't until we get down to position 5 - SOS Clinton - that we find a person with a reality based personality and the skill and experience to make that match matter.
One thing that has always distressed me about Obama - past all the obvious "Hope" Change" nonsense we all endured and continue to endure - is the neutering of any hope for real change. Obama is a front man. Oddly the 2 people tagged last year as agents of the status quo, Clinton and McCain, have both always shown more independence in their respective realms than Obama. To be sure, both McCain and Clinton were beholden to a number of special interests last year and are politicians - larded up with much of what that implies. All politicians "front" to a degree for those who pay their way.
What should be obvious to all now is that Obama not only fronted for those who paid for him - he concocted an entire alternative reality to cover for and distract from those who paid for him. A reality of moonbeams, rainbows, redemption, and the perfect slogan for a nation to tired, self -involved and scared to be bothered by difficult questions: "We are the ones we've been waiting for." A statement that collapses in on itself in any realm other than psychotherapy and came to mean "I am the one you've been waiting for" at every Obama rally. It is a sentence that sublimely deifies learned helplessness.
Much has been made of "Obama is trying to do too much." This is true. The reason is not the avalanches of spending and policy statements however. The "too much" on Obama's plate stems from simultaneously trying to govern for the benefit those who paid for himand satisfy those who believed his concocted reality. He being the essential believer.
So we get Goldman Sachs driven bank bailouts AND credit card reform. A trillion dollar deficit (in one year!) plan AND lectures about fiscal discipline. Immediate attacks on Pakistan, stepped up assaults in Afghanistan, AND apologies around the world...for previous attacks and assaults.
Nowhere is this Administration dual personality so evident as it is surrounding the Bush era torture abuses. Obama: We will not prosecute possible crime AND we will release the memos. This caused a rift with the CIA and continues to strip Pelosi of any credibility, if that is remotely possible. And so it goes when a President tries to play both sides to keep his poll numbers up.
Wednesday the balancing act stumbled. 2 weeks ago Obama insisted he would release another round of photos that the ACLU had sued over. Yesterday, Obama flip flopped and will now not release the photos. He gave reasons that are comforting and largely dishonest. The most prominent being that it would "inflame" Muslim extremists, hurt the military, and damage America further in the eyes of the world. These reasons were oddly preceded by "they weren't that bad, anyway"
Of course, not releasing the photos will also "inflame" the inflammable. The military is actually damaged by the "cover up" as well- if few participated there is nothing to fear and if it was systemic abuse then something should be done. Covering up merely promotes the cause of America Haters the world over. As for the alleged damage to the country - don't believe it. Obama is concerned about damage to himself. He's in the oval office now and does not want anything to interfere with the "reset buttons" he keeps pushing. He will be the saviour, by God, history and reality be damned. It may be hard for Obama and his deluded team to accept but history did not "reset" on January 20th. He does not get to shake the etch-a sketch in the real world.
The damage has been done to the country and it stems from policy not photos.
Avoiding a full accounting holds little sway with me. By that logical we ought not to have found out about the concocted "yellow cake" either. Or Powell and Cheney's misinformation about Iraq's connection to 9/11. Or the Downing Street memos. The wiretaps? Keep them secret. All did "damage" to the country. All enraged. They damaged the CIA, the military, and the White House.
Would it be better now for a majority to still think the Iraq war was about WMDs, Saddam was in on 9/11 and whatever is done in our name is A-Okay?
Obama, by not thinking through the release of the torture memos, realized too late the shit storm they would cause. His flip flop on this round of photos is nothing more than self preservation dressed up as considered thought. He does not want to be harangued into an investigation. That simple desire is the alpha and omega of yesterday's turn around.
Finally, I am sick of being treated like a toddler who has to leave the room when the grown ups make the big decisions. We are not infants. "You can't handle the truth!" is a great movie line - but it simply is not true for most of us. It is the excuse of the elite to excuse the elite.
We are still a vital people. We can handle the truth and we ought to know it.
Another Photo of Los Angeles before she dies: from my hood, Koreatown. Some protest march. Can't remember what it was about. War...Immigration...demands for free plastic surgery...something like that....
Obama's Health Care Charade (by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report) President Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress advocates of single-payer health care. He has choreographed a grand theater of faux-change, in which he "seeks to create a facade of unity along lines that do not threaten corporate power." The goal is to "sidetrack, possibly for decades, the most broadly supported idea in American politics, today." This "requires elaborate reconstructions of reality," starting with "methodically erasing single-payer advocates from the picture, with the enthusiastic collaboration of the corporate media." Thus, Obama and compliant Democrats on The Hill stage "summits" and "public roundtable discussions" on health care from which majority U.S. opinion is totally excluded.
POTUS Tells Health Care Groups to Show Him Progress on Cost-Cutting Next Month (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News) In a letter to the leaders of the six health care groups with whom he met Monday, President Obama says he appreciates their commitment to significantly reducing health care costs, but says he "will hold you to your pledge to get this done." The President writes that as he discussed with them Monday, "I would like you to update my Administration by early June on the progress you have made toward fulfilling this important commitment." Didn't Bush try this kind of jawboning?-Caro
Tax health care to pay for health care? (AP) Most people with job-based health insurance don't think of their benefits as a form of income. But Uncle Sam might just change that. Senators are considering limiting-but not eliminating- the tax-free status of employer-provided health benefits to help pay for President Barack Obama's plan to provide coverage to 50 million uninsured Americans. Employer-provided health insurance technically is considered part of workers' compensation, but unlike wages, it is not taxed. The forgone revenue to the federal government amounts to about $250 billion a year
Obama sees a world in which doctors and hospitals compete to offer quality service at lower costs, and the savings help cover the uninsured. Turning that vision into reality remains the biggest challenge for the president and his backers, because hard cash-not just ideas-is required to cover upfront costs of expanding coverage. Wrong, AP, hard cash is not REQUIRED to cover upfront costs, except in the minds of those who never balked at the profligate expenditures of the Bush administration.-Caro
Alarm Sounded On Social Security (Washington Post) The financial health of the Social Security system has eroded more sharply in the past year than at any time since the mid-1990s, according to a government forecast that ratchets up pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to stabilize the retirement system that keeps many older Americans out of poverty. The report, issued yesterday by the trustees who monitor the government's two main forms of help for the elderly, shows that Medicare has become more fragile as well and is at greater risk than Social Security of imminent fiscal collapse. Starting eight years from now, the report says, the health insurance program will be unable to pay all its hospital bills.
The findings put a stark new face on the toll the recession has taken on the two enormous entitlement programs. They also intensify a political debate, gathering strength among Democrats and Republicans, over how quickly President Obama should tackle Social Security when health-care reform is his administration's most urgent domestic priority. Health care reform IS entitlement reform. Why aren't liberals pounding that information into Americans' brains?-Caro
Two Statements by Robert Greenstein on the New Social Security and Medicare Trustees' Reports (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Medicare Report "The Trustees' report on Medicare underscores the urgency of health care reforms to slow health care cost growth, starting with President Obama’s proposed Medicare reforms."
Social Security Report "The Trustees' report shows Social Security doesn't face an immediate crisis but does require changes, and the sooner they’re made, the better."
Click here for more politics and media news headlines.
Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com
Random Tweet Oh the Day:
"I just farted."
Simple,elegant, brimming with humanity. Who says the world wide web is only good for porn and bloggers in boxer shorts ranting at 3am?
Biden on The Today Show Thursday: I would tell members of my family-and I have - I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said on NBC's "Today" show.. "It's not that it's going to Mexico. It's (that) you're in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.
Later in the day W.H. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told this whopper about the above comment: I think what the vice president meant to say...if you feel sick, if you are exhibiting flu-like symptoms-coughing, sneezing, runny nose-that you should take precautions, that you should limit your travel..."
This is, of course, not at all what Biden said.
Now, I wonder if a McCain W.H. press secretary would have been forced into such a bald lie on the 101st day about anything his V.P. might have said.
On an adjacent point I must say I don't trust any of these people regarding swine flu. The Australian Government is now calling on citizens to stockpile food and water for an impending pandemic...while also saying "don't panic". Admittedly these two instructions are not mutually exclusive. However, the mixed signals are becoming distressing.
While money doesn't buy love, it puts you in a great bargaining position.
Christopher Marlowe
No, I did not watch: I like the speech on paper. It does strike me as excessively derivative of other big presidential speeches. That might come with the turf. But he did not break any new ground, poetically speaking. Unless I am missing something...
Favorite bit: As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.
Rewrite: This sentence missed its own payoff: "what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage." Shouldhave been "when imagination is joined to necessity, and courage to common purpose.
Clip: So Barry, is the first brigade coming home from Iraq right now? Like you promised? A pod is emailing me that BHO has been consitent on Iraq. I mentioned this to my very pro Obama lefty neighbor and even he laughed explosively. Here is a McCain video - yes MCCAIN - but it is all Obama talking. It's painful and funny to see what a liar the man is.
Music: This clip makes me reflective and sentimental. I have no idea why and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.
Most under reported scandal of the year. The nominees are:
The inner workings of the DNC to promote Obama over Clinton Obama's repeated dishonesty about his past and present. Obama's 1 million dollar earmark for a hospital while Michelle sat its board. MSNBC's employment of small rodent like mammals to host television shows John Edward's affair. Penny Pritzker and the collapse of Superior bank. The government's complicity in Fannie Mae corruption
The Winner is: The inner workings of the DNC to promote Obama over Clinton. Hard to miss this little elephant in the room - from the wild over reaction of Donna Brazille to the impossible situation the Florida GOP put the Florida Democrats in, thereby removing any possibility that that a massive win might give Clinton momentum. Then there is Michigan. My God the plan was thorough - these people were going to defeat Clinton no matter what. The removal of Michigan - another large state, certain Clinton win, which also held its primary in all important January - was only topped by the supremely arrogant insult of re seating the MI delegates and handing Obama 4 of Clinton's though he had taken his own name off the ballot. The chutzpah was astonishing and vulgar. The amorality was breathtaking. The disappearance of the media appalling. Guess, they were packing to head to Alaska en mass to viciously attack a teenager.
The nominees for hypocrite of the year are:
Barack Obama The National Organization for Women 70% of Black Voters in California Gloria Steinem The Mormon Church Rod Blagojevich
And the winner is:
Barack Obama
The P.R. was hope change hope change hope change, I am new. I am different.
The reality was a politician who had risen through the most corrupt city machine this side of Tijuana, who deceitfully removed all record of his actual past and replaced it with a flimsy, loosely constructed cornucopia of imaginings. After railing against the system Obama chucked principle overboard and opted out of public financing. A galling move, only topped by the FISA flip flop. Let's not forget the race card 52 pick up and the lies about NAFTA and Canada. All this, plus the remarkable string of creepy crawlers Barry and Michelle have cavorted with over the years from Wright to Ayres to Rezko made BHO the hands down winner for Hypocrite of the Year.
For more on the rank corruption of Obama please see this piece in the Black Agenda Report I found through the always thoughtful Cannonfire.
Since the election Obama has come out of the closet. As with Clay Aiken, only the most delusional teens denied what was self evident.
He is what is Obama really is: 1. A narcissistic power monger. As L.R. predicted months ago - "Geffen" limo liberals and their adolescent enablers would be the first under the bus. This is now as clear as it can be. Obama used you guys. Obama does not need white liberals any more. So SEE YA! Please come back to Iowa and New Hampshire sometime in late 2011. Oh, and he never liked you. You are envelope stuffers. Always were - from the moment he robbed Alice Palmer... 2. A Neo-Liberal warrior. The anti-war lie has finally evaporated. The foreign policy team is as right wing as we've had in a Democratic Administration since Lyndon Johnson. Obama - now unfettered - is clearly signalling more war in Afghanistan. Code Pink had better call a Code Red. Yes, Clinton is on the team. But she NEVER, not once, presented herself as anything other than a realist hawk. All the while being roundly trashed by trollops like Huffington and Avarosis. 3. A man who looks favorably on Milton Friedman economics. His team is populated with "Chicago School" types. One caveat: "Big government" will make a come back. It would have under McCain as well. The situation is dire - the only institution left standing with access to currency (not money, really - just the illusion of it. ) is the U.S. government. So the government will spend. But don't expect any cash infusions for anything other than what will help Obama win re-election. The spending will not be based in any principle of fairness. It will solely be based on keeping Democrats - and himself - in power. From Cannonfire: The Shock Doctrine will be the guiding light here. 4. A man who has no use for Gay rights. He never has. He's been clear. I hardly fault him. Again, the skill with which he manipulated the delusional liberal wing of his party was something to behold. Regardless of evidence that clearly tagged Obama as a homophobe, the John Avarosis-es and and the Andrew Sullivans kept puckering up to kiss THE ONE's rump. I can't help but remind everyone that nothing short of bile spewed forth from the Pods about Palin's church. Well, Rick Warren is now giving the invocation at a Presidential Inauguration. Put that in your sexist pipe and smoke it, Andrew.
The crash and burn of other sections of his coalition is coming. The environmentalists are holding their collective breath. N.O.W. is squirming as the Obama boys elevate Caroline Kennedy - not because she's the best choice - simply because she carried the most water - for the boys.
None of this should be written in stone, of course. Obama will maneuver to the Right and Left as only a man with no principles can. The driving force here is his own power and the power of his handlers - the Soros crowd.
The biggest lie of all is that Obama represented change and McCain and Clinton did not. What the petulant "Yes We Can" minions refused to acknowledge all along is that McCain and Clinton both were independent operators - having won a degree of independence based on having already paid their dues.
McCain or Clinton would have been beholden to certain groups. But their campaigns were not centered around a BIG LIE. Obama's was. Both Clinton and McCain would have made choices that aggravated many. But it is hard to fathom either ferociously thumbing their nose at their own base like the manchild Obama has these past 6 weeks. Deceit allows - invites - duplicity.
Like the months after 9/11 - this period has been a waste. Bush could have rallied the country to a new and better place after the attacks. Instead he manipulated our basest fears to conjure a wasteful war. After the election, Obama could have used the moment to lay out a challenging vision. Now the moment is almost gone. Mr. Obama is paying off friends, trying to contain a scandal, and playing patty cake with the Right.
Obama is Bush 3. Obama is a fraud. Obama is poison.
Obama throws another middle finger to liberals. And finally the most ardent pods are coming to. Rick Warren will be giving the invocation at the inauguration. John Avarosis, one of the most flatulent, fraudulent, liberals on the scene wrote this. "Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness. In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California..."
My sympathy for bozos like Avarosis is...wait...I have no sympathy for bozos like Avarosis who spent a year of their lives jacking off Barack Obama, deluding themselves, and rampaging with the relentless, woman hating fury of Huns at a brothel full of virgins.
There will be no new age of progressive thought in D.C. There will be no inclusion of Gay Americans. There will be no new feminist majority. We already know there will be no public financing - the only real way to clean up elections. We already know that spying on Americans will go forth unfettered by pesky search warrants. The economy will be overseen by Wall Street imbeds. Foreign policy by hawks that Cheney approves of...
The ongoing right of women to end a pregnancy should they choose- something thrown at those of us who opposed Obama all along with insane rants about the Supreme Court- will be THE ONLY remotely left wing ideal that should stay in place during the next four years.
Unless health care is dealt with within 3 months don't expect anything to change on that front either. We have no money.
Obama is a fraud. He is pathological in his need to throw the bird to those who help and those who oppose him. Another way he is just like W. At least W came from somewhere. Obama is merely an errand boy sent by grocery clerks. The bill will be collected - in the form of inflation.
There are inclusive Chrisitan ministers by the score in this nation. (Ed Bacon at my church is a fine example of a man who leads a large flock and understands Jesus's message of inclusion. )Anyone of them giving the invocation would have been a brave and forward looking statement. Instead Obama chose a Right Wing ideologue. A man who uses religion to denigrate 10% of the population. Sure he dresses it up - but this only makes the pain inflicted by his retrograde views worse. Obama choosing Warren is a purposeful attack on his Left Flank.
Would McCain/Palin have been worse for liberals? No. Absolutely not. We know exactly who they are. Idiots on the left who never examined Obama, who never questioned Obama, now have four years of excuse making and disappointment to look forward to.
Gee, at least he's black.
Obama fooled the morons on the Obama Left. And those morons bought it.
I've been saying it all year. Obama is a liar. There are various types of lies. Big ones, "white" ones, ones that people are forced into, some protect security, some are actually helpful, some lead nations into war, some end marriages, some are told out of sloth, some fear, and there is a special group of lies that are for one purpose and one only: Lies to protect one's inflated ego. Many lie by omission and commission to protect and defend an inner narrative. A tale one tells oneself about oneself.
Obama's lies often fall into this category. "My parents met in Selma." "The Kennedys helped my father come to America" "My banking committee..." "I was a law professor..." They have the texture of truth and have never been extensively vetted . None of these Obama statements are true. But they suited Obama's narrative - and the media, unwilling to accept that Obama was anything but a blessing to the nation, refused to call him on these lies, all of which fed Obama's narrative of redemption. The narrative itself is a lie.
This is, of course, bullshit. Emmanuel supplied Blag with a list of replacement Senators acceptable to Obama's campaign . The list came from somewhere. Are we to believe that Obama had no say in this list? Of course not. It is unbelievable. Obama approved the list and Emmanuel gave it to Blag's office. THIS IS CONTACT. Further it is contact that goes to the heart of the scandal now engulfing Illinois. It was not contact about the Cubs ownership...or the weather. Why did Obama lie on this point? It makes perfect sense for Obama to have had contact with the man who would choose his replacement. But we have been, and continue to be, harangued with a distorted tale that Obama is our great hope. THE ONE. Without that distortion Obama is just another politician about to make some grim decisions as President. Many of those decisions will directly contradict his campaign's alleged promises. Many already have. Being in anyway involved with a huckster like Blag. violates Obama's narrative.
The distortion is all he has - really. This is not a problem unto itself. All Presidents project an image that does not quite jibe with their reality. However, the gulf between the Obama distortions and the Obama reality is gargantuan. Obama is fresh and new. He will be different. He is not sullied by politics as usual. He is HOPE and CHANGE.
I fully expected the veneer to be striped off this nonsense a few months into 2009. But now we don't have to wait months. It does not look to me like Obama himself was involved in any illegality...we shall see...But what already stinks to high heaven is Obama's closest staff's involvement. The myth of Obama is taking on water. It now appears that Obama's staff was very involved with Blag's office regarding the empty Senate seat. Which goes to his judgement. Good judgement is a pillar of the Obama distortion.
He could learn from this scandal and move into the White House resolved to ditch his Chicago political upbringing once and for all. It would be quite a feat, though. His entire career is smoke and mirrors. Should he dump everyone who brought him to the party he has almost nothing left. Fantasy and corruption are the tent poles of his professional life. The speeches have all been geared to fuel our projections, His "resume" as such, from Excelon to his miracle final year in the Illinois state senate, is composed of back room deals and well timed "present" votes - all a delicate balancing act abetted by the media.
I believed then and believe now that the most incisive moments we had for seeing into the reality of Obama were in June when he flipped on FISA and public financing. In both instances he moved 180 degrees on core principles. This should have been to liberals what Bush 1's flip flop on "no new taxes" was to conservatives: a moment of clarity, a moment everyone saw the man behind the curtain.
Most disturbing as the Blag story unfolds: The Obama cabal will no doubt ramp up the distortions in the next month. The media, full partners in the endeavor so far, will help.
Fundamentally, this is unhealthy. My strong dislike of Obama aside, we can't afford a mythological President. Reality bites too hard.
Forget FDR and JFK, Barrack. Start looking to Truman, a man willing to to suffer unpopularity and make the tough choices. I know being unpopular is a violation of your sacred inner narrative - but, you sir, are all we've got. Be real.
Of all the Obots Andrew Sullivan is clearly the most deranged. Which is saying quite a bit since Kos was routinely populated with death threats against Hillary Clinton all year. Cannonfire has already handled this story - but I need to chime in on a few points.
A. I don't care who Trig Palin came from. The rumour that Trig is actually Britol Palin's baby barely rises to the level of interesting. Even if it IS true that Sarah Palin faked a pregnancy to cover for her daughter I'm not sure how it mattered then or matters now. Families carry all sorts of secrets. It seem to be one of there functions. Let's say last spring she lied to protect her family and standing in Alaska - so what. I wonder have any male politicians covered for their families? Hmmm.
To me the photo Sullivan presents of Palin looks more like she's chunky than pregnant. So what. What she does not look like is the slender Palin we came to know this Fall. So let's say she covered up a family embarrassment for ambition's sake. Okay. This matters to Sullivan for two reasons: She's a she and she opposed his saviour. Obama's ambition cannot be questioned - only Hillary's or Palin's are suspect.
B. Sullivan can not abide strong women in power. He is so thickly enmeshed in his sexism he can't let this story go. Saying remarkably that: maybe we have witnessed one of the biggest frauds in American political history and the biggest failures among the American media in a very, very long time.Wow - that sentence is so unconcious it boggles the mind. I can't help believe that this sentence is Sullivan's unconscious screaming about OBAMA not Palin. Feel free to check this site in a year to see just how complete the media cover up of Obama has been.
Since at least last year the media has covered up anything and everything that would damage Obama. We still don't know what they hell he was up to in New York during the "Columbia years". He was allowed to lie with impunity about his church attendance. No long form birth certificate has been produced. (I believe he WAS born in Hawaii - but the real birth certificate contains some sort of embarrassing information.) The whole sale creation of a state senate career on the backs of other senators' bills in his last 2 years there? Unexamined. His blatant lies about his parents and Selma? Ask about it and you're a racist. The list is so long it would take the better part of a week to catalogue how complete the media malfeasance regarding Obama has been this year.
So once again Pods like Sullivan refuse to hold the great and powerful Wizard of Chicago to the same standards as other politicians - especially women.
The Obama Left's and the media's lynching of Sarah Palin is obscene. That is pretty much all I really want to say here. But I'll keep going. I am not referring to arguments about policy - that is always fair, and it would be nice to hear Obama yappers stick to policy arguments. Their candidate either says nothing of note or flip flops so this is admittedly difficult for them.
A series of out right lies have been spread about Palin by Obama Pods. These lies have been repeated in the MSM so widely that they now pass as fact.
Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She did't cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.
She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.
She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She's been registered as a Republican since May 1982.
Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a "courtesy" when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.
Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."
Palin never required victims to pay for their own rape kits.
Palin has also been attacked by the Obama Left in the same way they attacked Clinton in the spring. This bullshit has also been widely reported on by the MSM - having the effect of giving propaganda the weight of fact.
Her pregnant 17 year old daughter was vivisected by the Obama Left.
Andrew Sullivan called for a paternity test on her youngest son.
Hypocritical statements about her presumed inability to work and maintain a family came from LIBERALS. Or rather alleged liberals.
In one month her entire life has been dug up, examined, and trashed. Yet, almost anything that questions Obama's narrative is off limits. Even connecting Obama to Fannie Mae's former President is called "racist".
Echoing Randie Rhodes last Spring (who called Clinton a "fucking whore") Sandra Bernhart gleefully called for the gang rape of Palin.
If the MSM had ripped into Biden's numorous idiocies and corrupt familial and credit card company ties I might call this a case of ugly politics as usual.
If the MSM had ever questioned Obama the way Gibson did Palin, I might call this part of the game that must be played.
If the MSM had forcefully reported on the failings of Trinity or Biden's Catholic church I might call this nasty, but fair.
None of this has occurred. The Obama Left and the media have set out to destroy Palin.
I won't put the ad itself in this post because, frankly, it makes my skin crawl. You can see it here. But in BHO's first national buy of the general he claims credit for "Extended health care for wounded troops."
Lie.
91 Senators voted for this bill. Obama was not one of them. That is the truth. Obama did not show up to work that day.
When will the media begin to call this fraud out on his relentless lies? The Presidential Seal flap - now this - either his campaign is stupid or it is arrogant, or both. I thought his campaign against Clinton was his first real contest - but in retrospect it was clearly fixed. The General Election is probably the first time Obama has ever had to run a contested campaign - in which he was not "chosen" by the elites or able to remove opposition from the ballot.
A number of factors have driven this blog toward its harsh criticism of Obama and his campaign. 1. His supporters. 2. The Candidate. 3. The media bias. 4. The stupidity of Howard Dean and the DNC.
Tonight I will write about the first reason:
His supporters
I have been upset by his supporters for a good, long while. In the olden days - before Keith Olbermann blew a cog and it became clear the media was going to massage Obama and attack Hillary shamelessly - it was, in fact, only his supporters who bothered me. I was still open to the man and what everyone kept repeating was his "transformational" message.
It was his supporters that began the end of any romance I might have had with Obama. As early as last spring any good words for Hillary on message boards at places like the Huffington Post were quickly and viciously attacked by swarms of Obama fans. Often they amounted to "our guy is better" and "it's time for a change" - both are fair enough assessments if you feel that way. Then -with ample coaching from the writers on these blogs - the comments turned overtly hateful toward Clinton. Again - if one must come up with reasons - this too seems within bounds for blogs. They are the Left's answer to Talk Radio - and the "callers" had much pent up frustration with the war and everything else. If you can't stand being hated you had better not get into politics. I still believe the comments then were contextualized by an overriding desire for a clean break. This is another sentiment I don't adhere to (there are no clean breaks in history, believing there are or can be is a delusion) but it is a legitimate impulse. Every leader is a reaction, in some measure, to the one before. Besides, Obama has proven he will not be a "clean break" with his wavering on the war and support for its funding as a Senator. So the "clean break" Obama seems to represent is another amorphous illusion based entirely on - wait for it - HIS RACE. The honest answer would be: If he wins I won't be embarrassed by our President anymore. That is what they were saying.
Then Obama fans became a mob. I am not sure exactly when. For me it may have been one night not long ago that I posted this on a large liberal blog: Can anyone tell me why they think Obama would be a better Democratic President than Clinton? The comment conversation was flying that night but I got no bites - so I wrote it again. Soon the roof fell in. I used my last name (Smart) so the obvious insults were first. Then the long knives came out on Hillary. It was no longer dislike or even hate - it had solidified into mindless fury. "Bitch" "Liar" "Murderer" and the cute, yet smug as shit, "Billary". Bitch and Billary are insults based squarely in sexism. Sexism exists in America. Everyone with a brain knows this. What was startling is the glee and unconsciousness these liberals - men and women - indulged in rampant gender hatred. One person did write a long list of BHO's "accomplishments" - fine - but even if true (many were not) they simply were no comparison to Clinton's, so it hardly answered the question. I was, of course, told I was a Republican ("troll" in the Americablog vernacular)so I should go directly to hell. I am not a Republican - but even if I was I asked a legitimate question. The nastiness kept up. I have done this on other blogs at other times and the result is the same. No answers, just bile. Insane, baseless attacks. The cognitive dissonance between the "message of hope" these Obama supporters said they adhered to and the crap being thrown on the walls of liberal blogs was obvious to anyone who could reason. Thank God, a backlash began. The Daily Kos was boycotted by pro Clinton writers. Taylor Marsh said, in essence, hold on a minute! No Quarter USA is doing fine work on the Obama cabal and its deceits.
Still, the Pro Obama wing of the "Democratic" party became nastier and more strident. ( I use quotes here because I have come to believe that except for African Americans, Obama's support among rank and file Democrats is clearly a "Deanite" rump minority and does not represent the Democratic Party's values and voters. Final voting tallies will support this.) Again, "nasty" and "strident" are not deal breakers for me. This became the deal breaker: beyond the amorphous slogan "hope" and the fallback slogan "change" there is STILL no intelligent rational for Obama's support. No centering issue. No "New Deal". Nothing. The speeches are not part of the campaign. THEY ARE THE CAMPAIGN. The "uplifing" race speech has inspired us indeed- to stop talking about race and by default stop talking about Wright and his influence on Obama. But that's where that "major" speech ended.
The more strident the Obamites become, the more this lack of policy ballast becomes clear. Which is why attacking Clintonis the rational for supporting Obama. Arianna Huffington was first out of the gate here. She began the slow, smug burn of Clinton in 2006 - or before - for reasons I strongly suspect are about her psychological make up. I saw her on the campaign trail for her ex husband in 1994 when he ran against Diane Feinstein. The contempt for any strong women beside herself was evident then as it is now.
But for me the show stopper and final straw was Olbermann's idiotic rant about Fererro. More than Chris Matthews smarmy sexism, it defined the lack of reason, fairness, decency and proportionality that are the Obama supporters currency. That "special comment" was the moment I realized that Obama fever was a sickness that had spread far and wide. The fact that the Wright tapes broke the next day and Keith busied himself with excuses for BHO drove the point home.
As Lynne wrote about this morning: The Obama sickness's main symptom is an utter and complete inability to see reality clearly. Whether it be an obvious, and harmless, observation about race to a small newspaper, or the snide dismissal of the last Democratic President, or even the disconnect between Obama's statements about Iraq and his actions regarding the war as a U.S. Senator. Reality DOES NOT MATTER to Obama's supporters. The clear antecedent here is Cheney/Bush and WMD's.
Thought experiment: Compare what they said about Ferarro with the excuses they fling about BHO's 20 year tenure in his church. I think Obama can and should go to any church he wants to for 20 or 200 years. I also WILL NOT BE TOLD THAT IT DOES NOT MATTER what went on in that congregation. I will not check my brains at the door for Obama's or Olbermann's convenience.
Or try this: Randi Rhodes verbal vomitting is being excused under the banner of "freedom of speech" - as if anyone said she did not have the RIGHT to say what she said. She does. Now imagine this: Rush Limbaugh is speaking to a crowd of the like minded and says "Obama and Jesse Jackson are a couple of lazy spooks." Would anyone DARE make excuses for this based on "freedom of speech"? Of course not. There would be hell to pay.
Yet the Obamites march on - calling themselves "liberals".
And before anyone screams "unfair!" I say bullshit. THEY ARE THE SAME REMARKS in spirit and intent. Calling 2 women "fucking whores" and calling 2 black men "lazy spooks" is directly analogous in this society given its history. To say that the long fight for women's equality is less important in this election year than the long march away from chatel slavery based on race is bullshit. On a stick. If you think not it is because sexism is more deeply imbedded than racism. Period. "Whore" and "Bitch" still get thrown around with ease. This is not because they are less hateful - they are simply still acceptable.
So the beat goes on.
Say this to an Obamite: Rezko - the answer is "does not matter"
Say: He lied about his law teaching resume: Does not matter.
Say: He lied about the Kennedy family and the Selma march: Does not matter.
William Ayres: Does not matter.
Race baiting in South Carolina: Doesn't matter, she deserved it.
20 years in that church: Get over it! We have to get past it. We're not going there. He made a speech...etc, etc.. (again the SPEECH is what is held up as absolution. Not the reality of 20 years in that church and overtly lying about his presence there.)
Bosnia: OH MY GOD SHE'S A LIAR!!! She has problems with the truth. Usually ending with "controlling" which is code for bitch.
Xanax is a marvoulous drug. It directly obliterates one thing and nothing else: anxiety. There are a few side effects: drowsiness, and memory problems. Obama is the Xanax candidate. He relieves his supporters of their fears and all they have to do is take a dose. But once the drug wears off nothing has changed. The problems that caused the anxiety remain.
Finally, I can only assume that Obama's supporters cannot answer the simplest question - why him? - because they cannot afford to. They know, and we all know now, there is no answer. He's not better on the issues, he loses on the leadership front (he has shown no ability to lead without a large crowd and a teleprompter. There simple is no comparison between the 2 candidates on leadership. ) there is no contest when it comes to work ethic, and there is nothing in his history, once vetted, that indicates an ability to follow through and achieve stated goals. His experience - and there is some - adds up to mayor not President.
He can't win a campaign based on reality. His supporters know it so they avoid it.
One PS: whether it is now or in the fall - Rev. Wright and his connection to Obama will not go away. This is the defining event in this campaign. It defines him. He even says so. In print. The media has put up a protection shield around Obama and Wright- but it will be broken. If anything proves the unfairness of the media and the free ride Obama has gotten it is the Wright tapes.
First things first. There is a man out there (hardly a gentleman)who has been writing me since last week asking if he can grab MY bags. To quote the immortal words of Senator Ted Stevens
"NO!"
Isn't Ted a charmer?
Now that that is off my chest on to business:
Darlings, I am so glad L.R. is proving to be a refuge for Real Democrats. I am afraid we may be tasked with heaving the Barackarazzi overboard when this election is over. The Arugulas are so annoying. They just don't understand real Democrats. Now we are being called Jacksonian Democrats. Hmmm? Is this for Michael Jackson? Action Jackson? Of that darling who splattered all the paint on the floor? Another good thing about this election: I am over Oprah for good. Bye. Bye. What a relief! She was getting tiresome anyway. Glad she showed her true colors.
For any of you dears who eat: there is a problem with the foods.
Are you Lonely? Confused? Lost and all alone? Pathetic? Needy? Overbearing? Trapped between your dishonest self image and your brittle, yet still fat, ego? You need advice. Send me any questions or concerns you may have. Post them in the comments. I answer on Thursdays with love, compassion, and a hatchet. Darlings.
Say anything bad about Senator Obama and you will be called a racist thus effectively ending any opportunity for an actual conversation.
Here are a few more conversation stoppers:
Jacksonian Democrats might as well be Republicans. I have utter contempt for the uneducated masses - they might as well go raise tobacco and cotton on their plantations and wallow in self-pity for losing a job and being too stupid and unmotivated to find other work.
As for the correlation btw. Hillary and the Jacksonian Democrats - she's a Republican anyway, so it's a natural fit. Bob of NJ Apr 03, 2008 10:55:06 AM
Is it not funny that Mr. Barone reaches so far into our past to find a respectable-sounding label for these voters - who could much more easily and accurately be called hillbillies, rednecks, yahoos, flat-earthers, or bigots?
Why treat these goobers with more respect than they deserve? (Oh, right, because they help your candidate win...) Mike of WA Apr 03, 2008 11:10:24 AM
Both of these comments were on an article dissecting the campaign in US News and World.
Can't you just feel the love? Senator Obama spreading his magic of bringing people together.
I read an article and one of the comments called Senator Clinton a liar then went on to say how honest Senator Obama had been about the Wright Stuff. I suppose you hear what you want to hear. He said he had never heard any of the sermons in question then said he did. That's candor!
If you support Senator Clinton don't bother going on Kos or any other Obama blogs - you will be vilified and forced away. I hope we at Liberal Rapture will let everyone say their piece, question and still maintain civility. Ironic that Senator Obama represents a new way for politics, a civil way and his supporters think Randi Rhodes was not only right but should be sainted for "speaking the truth." Her freedom of speech is being infringed upon. She can say anything she likes while lambasting Geraldine Ferraro for saying what she believed. Agree with us or shut up. Keith Olbermann had a special comment for Ms. Ferraro, did he do the same with Ms. Rhodes? I don't know because I no longer watch.
When the Wright story came out Norah O'Donnell lamented, "How can we move on from this?" Anderson Cooper thought we should be talking about the issues instead of "politics as usual." (By the way, Mr. Cooper, Reverend Wright in in NO way politics as usual.) When the Bosnia story came out it got more attention than Natalie Holloway and the Duke La cross story combined. No need to talk about issues when you can magnify Senator Clinton's faults for hours and hours!
It's so Bushian. Until his poll numbers dove under 50% nothing he said or did mattered to his supporters because he was "strong." Hooker in the White House press corps there to lob soft ball questions - who cares? Obama lies about his parents? So what, he gives us hope. He's not just likable enough, he's lovable. His dealings with Rezko, what dealings with Rezko -Hillary lied about Bosnia.
Well at least she went. More than 300,000 people have been displaced in Kenya and are living in tents or with relatives. What has their favorite son done for them? Has he gone over to bring the parties together? No, that might involve actual work and what if he couldn't make a difference? How would it look?
Because it's all about perception. There's a scam email going around stating that Senator Obama has done more in his four years in the senate than Senator Clinton has done in eight. It's wrong but you'll see it quoted everywhere. Go to FactCheck.org and it's completely disproven but who wants to bother with facts?
Lynne pointed out this extraordinary piece by Joe Wilson linked here. The compilation of recent Obama lies and distortions about foreign policy - all aided and abetted by the press - is shocking even to me. But as an epileptic myself I highlight the quotes below. They go directly to the biggest lie about Clinton of all: That she's is a cold, controlling and will do anything to win. And they indicate the truth about who Obama's advisors really are at the core:
David Axelrod, the top Obama political strategist, for one, knows better. After all, he and his wife were direct beneficiaries of Hillary Clinton's personal kindness and public policy experience when, in the midst of the impeachment trial of her husband, she travelled to Chicago to support Susan Axelrod's efforts to raise money for her foundation, Citizens United for Research on Epilepsy (CURE), established by her after one of the Axelrod children was afflicted with the malady. Later, at Hillary Clinton's behest, the National Institutes of Health convened a conference on finding a cure for epilepsy. Susan Axelrod told me it was "one of the most important things anyone has done for epilepsy." And this is how politics works: David Axelrod is now dedicated to derailing this woman's career."
Finally: I am telling you now: when historians write about this campaign they will study America's deep problem with sexism, not racism. We are in the midst of a GENDER RIOT by many an unconscious man from John Kerry to Chris Mathhews to Keith Olbermann. Fear of the female is running rampant in the media culture. It always does, actually, but now it has a political focus.
