Tag: Obama

Feb 13 2009

Obama, long may he wave.

PhotobucketI have but one question for the Obama loyalists.  Do you guys ever get tired of saluting the flag?   Just because we support Obama and all agree he was 1,000 10 times better than anyone else running doesn’t mean we have to put our brains on a shelf.  

Why did he lie to us, and why aren’t the Democrats holding him accountable?  We are not stupid.  We can see what is going on.   All this distraction about bi-partisanship as if millions of unemployed, broke, and homeless middle class Americans care.

No salary caps for CEOs.  No torturers, war profiteers, or WS crooks going to jail.   Just lots of hot air surrounded by smoke and mirrors.

How about a truth commission on the bailout?

I shouldn’t be surprised by now. But I still was when I read the article this morning in the Washington Post explaining that the cap on executive pay has been removed from the stimulus bill. I knew what Congress was doing yesterday by bringing the Wall Street executives in and scolding them in public was a dog and pony show. But I had not realized how profoundly full of shit these politicians are.

 

Nationalize the damned banks already.  They’re stealing us blind.  Geithner is a WS insider, and the wrong man for this job. If we aren’t getting tax dodger and Republican appointments, we are getting the cat assigned to guard the canary.  If I have to bailout their sorry asses, I want to own them.  

While we are at it, who did us this favor?

A Sanders-Grassley amendment to demand TARP recipient banks stop firing U.S. workers and replacing them with foreign guest workers was ripped out of the bill.

Last but not least, what’s all this noise about Obama and Social Security?  We can pay for  the Bush war profiteers and the ongoing WS bailout of Washington’s financiers and cronies, but they, by god, are going to save us from the burden of  social security.

You have no idea how bad Democrats are starting to look on the heels of all that campaign rhetoric.  Change  my ass! I am getting sick and tired of all of them and the horses they rode in on.  

Feb 12 2009

Seamus O’Bama

Crossposted from the Wild Wild Left

Filed under “No shit, Seamus”…

“If stuff hasn’t worked and people don’t feel like I’ve led the country in the right direction, then you’ll have a new president.”

Obama’s statement is refreshingly bold for a politician, who rarely take responsibility for anything. Anything that fails that is. I’m positive that statement made people on the brink of losing everything feel like Obama himself is risking everything in his personal life too. This week he repeatedly made sure the blame for the current situation lay directly on the previous administrations lap. These darn bad guys messed us up, and you and I have it all on the line, folks!

Brilliant framing all around, doncha think?

However, he reserves the right to say, in the future, “Well the Republican’s way brought us here, the Democrats tried to restructure the economy with a bill and the Republicans watered it down with more of the same, and that’s why it failed. Now lets try it our way.” I predict within a year we will be hearing THAT speech. Pass the buck one-oh-one. Always leave yourself an out.

Mandatory lyric:

(…set up like a bowling pin,

knocked down,

it gets to wearing thin…)

The truth of the matter to me? He has been hard selling a watered down bill, yes, but rather than push the one we asked for; he is setting up the Republicans for more fall-guy blame. He is Campaigning already.

A new president, indeed.

Feb 09 2009

Chump Change You Can Believe In



Photobucket

The more things change…

Feb 08 2009

Heads I win, tails you lose.

No matter what one’s point of view is on Obama or his policies, there is no doubt that he is under estimating his mandate for change and in real danger of losing the war for the hearts and minds of the people that gave him that mandate.

Frank Rich

Slumdogs Unite!

The tsunami of populist rage coursing through America is bigger than Daschle’s overdue tax bill, bigger than John Thain’s trash can, bigger than any bailed-out C.E.O.’s bonus. It’s even bigger than the Obama phenomenon itself. It could maim the president’s best-laid plans and what remains of our economy if he doesn’t get in front of the mounting public anger.

While I don’t think an old dog can learn new tricks, I’ll concede that Obama felt a need to at least “try” for bipartisanship so that he could say he did.   So now that it has failed and Republicans and Blue Dogs have seen how easy it is to beat him, what next?  

Maureen Dowd

Face facts: Republicans cleaned Obama’s clock this week.

In his first weeks padding around a White House that still has nails on the walls waiting for new pictures, and phone and e-mail kinks, Barack Obama could not locate the bully pulpit and ended up being bullied.  –snip–

The lawmakers had been feeling disillusioned that they were carrying Mr. Obama’s water on the bill, while Obama aides triangulated and promised that the bill would “improve” in the Senate.

Nancy Pelosi told her leadership team that she had told the president, “I don’t mind you driving the bus over me, but I don’t appreciate your backing it up and running over me again and again.”

The same way the man made levees in NOLA were no match for Katrina, the stimulus bill, no matter how big, is unlikely to hold back the destruction brewing in the American economy and just waiting to hit millions of American families across the land.

Feb 07 2009

Barack Obama is @#$% tired of this @#$%!

Note: The MP3 links will open in Windows Media Player, or your default MP3 player.

Barack Obama is @#$% tired of this @#$%!

Published Feb 05 2009, 04:16 PM by Mike Miliard at The Boston Phoenix

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2009/02/05/barack-obama-is-tired-of-this.aspx



(Or, a NSFW plan to ram the stimulus bill home, told via downloadable mp3 ring tones.)

In his bestselling autobiography, Dreams From My Father, President Obama introduces us to his high school friend, “Ray,” who, like him, is bi-racial. Who, also like him, is casting about to find his place in the world. But, who, unlike him, has a potty mouth that would make a sailor blush.

Best of all? When reading the audiobook version of his bio, Obama does impressions of Ray’s manner of speech. Swear words and all. It’s fucking awesome. And it’s a way of talking we probably won’t be hearing from him now that he’s POTUS.

Or will we?

In case you haven’t heard, it’s becoming clearer by the day that Obama is losing the communication war, and ceding this stimulus battle to the GOP. (If that article doesn’t get the point across, read this one too.)

He’s starting to amp up the rhetoric. But it’s not enough.

It’s time to stop this mealy-mouthed stuff about bipartisanship altogether. It’s pointless. Those flat-earth neanderthals are just gonna throw it back in his face.

No, it’s time for Obama to lay it all out on the table.

Time to start talking tough.

What’s he got to be afraid of? Rush Limbaugh?

Fuck no! Say it loud!

“You know that guy ain’t shit. Sorry-ass motherfucker ain’t got nothing on me.” (MP3)

So let’s roll up our sleeves and cut to the chase.

Feb 07 2009

Panetta: No Prosecution Of… CIA Interrogators

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will not prosecute CIA officers who participated in harsh interrogations that critics say crossed the line into torture, CIA Director-nominee Leon Panetta said Friday.

Asked by The Associated Press if that was official policy, Panetta said, “That is the case.”

It was the clearest statement yet on what Panetta and other Democratic officials had only strongly suggested: CIA officers who acted on legal orders from the Bush administration would not be held responsible for those policies. On Thursday, he told senators that the Obama administration had no intention of seeking prosecutions for that reason.

Panetta, in an interview with the AP after a second day of confirmation hearings with the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that he arrived at that conclusion even before he began meeting with CIA officials.

“It was my opinion we just can’t operate if people feel even if they are following the legal opinions of the Justice Department” they could be in danger of prosecution, he said.

Panetta demurred on saying whether the Obama administration would take legal action against those who authorized or wrote the legal opinions that, for a time, set an extremely high legal bar for an action to constitute torture.

“I’ll leave that for others,” Panetta said

There’s more…

Why Panetta? Since when does Panetta make the call for DOJ? Where is confirmation from Holder?

Feb 06 2009

Will Obama Act to End Darfur Tragedy?

I wanted to take a couple of minutes to share an op-ed that I co-aurthored with my friend Howard Salter.

It ran in the Baltimore Sun today (link here) and suggests that the Obama administration use the pending ICC arrest warrant of Omar al-Bashir to push for international action to end the killing in Darfur.

We note that:

The expected warrant also opens a door for Mr. Obama and his talented foreign policy team. They can leverage the arrest warrant to work with influential partners across the globe to stop the killing and solidify a concrete peace agreement. By doing so, Mr. Obama would address a serious human rights crisis at the dawn of his presidency while also sending a clear signal that the U.S. is ready to once again lead by example.

and remind readers of the failure of the last administration:

Feb 05 2009

NIAGRA

Someone whispered “Niagra” didn’t they?

Or was it “Poko Moko“?

“Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch…”

Like a burlesque show’s post-hypnotic suggestion, the revenge has begun; they will not stop until they wring the last breath out of our scrawny necks.

Just as predictable as this well-worn skit, both the Republicans and the Democrats are treading the boards in their anticipated role, as type-cast as Shatner…. only, if it can be imagined, far less likable.

I mean, who would have thought that the Republican’s would be looking for any or all inane bullshit scandals to bring down people in an Obama administration? Are you shocked?

Are you shocked any less that President Obama stepped into his victim’s role like a brilliant second dying to fill the shoes of an aging Democratic Party who have long lost their chops?

“I made a mistake.”

MY ASS!

Feb 05 2009

A Song for Obama

This is meant as encouragement.  Of course, he might want to pay particular attention to the second verse!

Feb 05 2009

More than 39,000 people have signed this petition

Formal Petition to Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.

Add your signature to it today, if you haven’t yet.

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It was about 21,000 Wednesday morning.


Will prayers help?

Feb 04 2009

Eric Holder Sworn In As Attorney General Tuesday

You may find VP Joe Biden’s remarks interesting here….

“Welcome back to the Justice Department. As we gather here to day it’s worth remembering the mission statement that guides this great department.”

“To enforce the law and defend the interest of the United States according to the law. To ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic. To provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime. To seek just punishment for those guilt of unlawful behavior, and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”

“There’s no mention in that mission statement of politics. There’s no mention in that mission statement of ideology. And that’s how it should be, because there is no place for politics or ideology in this building.”

“With the appointment of Eric Holder as Attorney General, we’re going to be returning to a standard that has governed this great department at it’s greatest moments in my view. No politics. No ideology.“

Feb 03 2009

Who Is This New Attorney General, Eric Holder?

This is a merging of two prior essays about Eric Holder


Eric Holder, Jr.
Photo: George Washington University

Barack Obama announced on December 1, 2008 his nomination of Eric H. Holder, Jr. to serve as Attorney General, to take over the running of The Department of Justice in Obama’s new administration from Bush appointee Michael Mukasey.

Eric Holder knows what Republican Senators Barrasso, Brownback, Burr, Coburn, Cochran, Cornyn, Crapo, Ensign, Kaybee, Hutchison, Inhofe, Johanns, McConnell, Risch, Shelby, Thune and Wicker, who voted against his confirmation by the Senate Monday, February 02, 2008, also know.

Eric Holder knows that Bush and Cheney deserve fair trials. Fair trials in courts of law, not crucifixion by media and bloggers.

One would hope that Mr. Holder will make a better and more honest Attorney General who will uphold the law than Michael Mukasey was, who like all representatives of Mr. Bush have done, has during his tenure waffled, spun, twisted in the wind, squirmed, sweated, excused, equivocated, and otherwise bullshitted America and the world as George Bush’s acolyte under hot lights and pointed interrogations from Congress over evidence of torture ordered at the highest levels of the Bush administration, the president and vice president, that the least informed people in the world all know is well defined, immoral, and illegal under international law, US law, and international treaties. (see addendum)

A war crime, in simpler terms. A war crime that Vice President Cheney has in recent days confessed publicly that the Bush administration intentionally engaged in.

Mr. Holder is the target of the Docudharma/Democrats.com sponsored Citizens Petition for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Bush War Crimes. Don’t forget to sign the petition if you haven’t already.

Who is Eric Holder? What are his views and philosophy on the questions of torture, war crimes, secret prisons hidden away from the rule of law, and Bush’s “war on terror”?

What can we expect his reactions to be to the petition for a Special Prosecutor? We have only his own words and background to look to for clues.

Mr. Holder has been a partner with the law firm Covington & Burling LLP since 2001.

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