Category: Barack Obama

When the neo-con-man Barack Obama opens millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere for offshore drilling, he isn’t really an anti-environmental shit-head like George W. Bush.

He’s only appeasing “moderate Republicans,” who may vote for his ridiculously weak climate bill.

(Except they won’t.)

And when the neo-con-man Barack Obama intensifies our hopeless war in Afghanistan, he isn’t really a chicken-hawk mass-murderer like George W. Bush.

He’s only making peace by making more war, or withdrawing our brave soldiers from Afghanistan by sending in tens of thousands more of them, or some other self-contradictory bullshit!

And when the Harry-and-Louise-lovin’ con-man Obama takes single-payer off the table before debate about healthcare reform even begins, because it would be impossible to override a filibuster of single-payer, and Democrats would have to resort to passing single-payer by “reconciliation,” and then…

Obama and the Democrats pass their turd of a healthcare reform bill by “reconciliation” anyway…

Democrats aren’t really Republicans Lite who ran an anti-government shithead like George W. Bush for President.

Democrats are defenders of the people, and Obama is our hero!

And even though Obama’s main financial backer for the US Senate and Financial Director of his Presidential campaign is a multi-billionaire banker even crookeder than Kenny Lay…

Obama isn’t really a devious and corrupt corporate flunky like George W. Bush.

Obama is not what he is, and he is what he ain’t!

Hat tip to crooksandliars.com

Someone email [email protected], stat.

If you have seen or heard of the “I Need A Freaking Job” billboard in Buffalo, NY that small business man Jeff Baker and his brother put up or the “movement” website they have started, you might have taken it for a grassroots movement.

   And if job creation grows at the rate it is at through the end of the year, More Jobs Might Be Created This Year Than During George W. Bush’s Entire Presidency

   So, the “I Need A Freaking Job” thing might seem genuine, even, dare I say, grassroots.

Except it isn’t, and Jeff Baker’s brother, Scott Baker, works for Andrew Breitbart of Brietbart.tv..

   Houston, we have Corporate astroturf FAIL.

More below the fold

     

    I am greatly saddened to report the following . . .

    Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says that US forces in Afghanistan are carrying out what he referred to as “battlefield executions” of prisoners.

   “One of the great tragedies of my country is that Mr. Obama is looking the other way, because equally horrible things are happening to prisoners, to those we capture in Afghanistan,” Hersh said during a discussion at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference last month in Geneva, where he was also the keynote speaker. “They’re being executed on the battlefield.”

HuffingtonPost.com

Bold text added by the diarist

    Video and more below the fold

Clarifications, please:

“We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties because I don’t want civilians killed. And we are going to do everything we can to prevent that.”

What about the civilians’ interest?

“We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties because I don’t want civilians killed. And we are going to do everything we can to prevent that.”

How about eliminating them altogether?

“We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties because I don’t want civilians killed. And we are going to do everything we can to prevent that.”

Who’s “We” white man?

“We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties because I don’t want civilians killed.  And we are going to do everything we can to prevent that.”

Who’s ordering the killings?

“We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties because I don’t want civilians killed.  And we are going to do everything we can to prevent that.”

Everything?

“We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties because I don’t want civilians killed.  And we are going to do everything we can to prevent that.”

If it’s not killing civilians, what is “our interest?”  It’s been more than nine years, and “I” think “we” deserve an answer.

(Written in response to meta at Daily Kos, and published here for your enjoyment ~ Cheers)

That’s right! Your belly button, whoever you are or think you may be

With all respect due to the many, many, many diarists who have already touched upon this subject, I felt the need to masturbate, and since my girlfriend is looking right at me (Sorry, Shiz), a meta diary is as close as I can get.

So here is what is wrong with Elena Kagan in a nutshell, your belly button.

More navel gazing below the fold.

The Iraq War has been officially extended with the issue of this Notice to Congress (warning: pdf file):

   I have sent the enclosed notice to the Federal Register for publication, continuing the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq. This notice states that the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, as modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13438 of July 17, 2007, is to continue in effect beyond May 22, 2010.

   Obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Accordingly, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to this threat and maintain in force the measures taken to deal with that national emergency.

h/t emptywheel @ FDL

Crossposted at Daily Kos

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

:: ::

Clean Up Crew by Cam Cardow, Ottawa Citizen, Buy this cartoon

There used to be a day when the ‘Blame Game’ was just NOT an option. There used to be a time, WHEN Action was called for, Action was taken.  

My oh my, how times have changed.

“The buck stops here” is a phrase that was popularized by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who kept a sign with that phrase on his desk in the Oval Office. (Footage from Jimmy Carter’s “Address to the Nation on Energy” shows the sign still on the desk during Carter’s administration.) The phrase refers to the fact that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B…

Last week I livestreamed the first closed door meeting of the president’s fiscal commission. I did this out of frustration that we received no response to a letter that we sent from 81 organizations representing over 61 million Americans, asking that all the work of the commission be done in the open. Letters were also sent by Chairman John Conyers and Minority Leader Boehner asking for transparency.

Dan Froomkin sums up the problem with closed door meetings for the commission at the Huffington Post saying,

The move only heightens suspicion that rather than forging a national consensus on future spending priorities, the commission’s work will consist of backroom dealings in which members of the Washington aristocracy find high-minded excuses for cutting the social safety net.

You can watch the highlights of our previous livestream here

Have you wondered why the antiwar movement seems to be so co-opted since the 2008 election? Have you wondered why Obama seems unable to move forward with any substantive changes in US Foreign Policy, or make any headway in winding down the middle east wars?

Via Michael Moore:

Seymour Hersh on Obama Being “Dominated”
by the U.S. Military

Seymour Hersh spoke at the 6th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva on April 24, 2010

REPORTER: You didn’t include Obama in your list of liar presidents. I’m wondering if you would include him also?

HERSH: To use a basketball or a football analogy, American football, fourth quarter – he may have a game plan. At this point he’s in real trouble. Because the military are dominating him on the important issues of the world: Iraq, Iran, Afghan and Pakistan. And he’s following the policies of Bush and Cheney almost to a fare-thee-well. He talks differently. And he’s much brighter, he’s much more of the world. So one only hopes he has a game plan that will include doing something, but he’s in real trouble, in terms of – he’s in real trouble.

In Iraq I don’t have to tell anybody the prospects – in the American press they never mention Moqtada Sadr, but look out. He’s going to be the kingmaker of that country. He’s now studying in Iran. And he’s going to be the next ayatollah-to-be. I don’t know how he’ll work it out with Sistani. But he’s going to be the force, the Shia.

And so this is going to be very complicated for us because the two men we talk about, Allawi and Maliki, have about as much to do with the average Iraqi – they’re both ex-pats. Allawi, let’s see, he was certainly an American agent and a British agent, the MI-6, the CIA, the Jordanians ran him probably for Mossad. I’m not telling you anything that is not a fact. So who knows?

So Iraq is very problematical. There’s going to be much more violence. Whether it’s civil war or not it’s going to be much more violence.

He’s never going to win, whatever that means, in Afghanistan. The only solution in Afghanistan is a settlement with the Taliban. And the only person to settle with is Mullah Omar, and he’s become another Hitler to the American public. So how we’re going to do that and survive politically?

And the same in Pakistan. He’s got the wrong policy there. So it is – and again for Obama, Iran’s not resolved, in terms of, the Iranians have come out of this crisis stronger than ever. We don’t want to believe that.

Remember Blue Popsicles ?

 The Pipes on the Outhouse Froze.    photo, Navy.  color, ARC.

US oil regulator ‘gave in to BP’ over rig safety

Firm allowed to drill without devising plan to cope with blow-out

By David Usborne, independent.uk, US Editor — Friday, 7 May 2010

As crude oil continued to pour out of control into the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, questions were being asked over the relationship between BP and regulators in Washington amid allegations that the company was allowed to drill the deepwater well without filing plans for how it would cope with a blow-out like the one now in hand.