This is what we get, with an “intellectual” in the White House and ironic also - just as bad as that winter of 2003.

What do so-called leaders do when they’re “trapped”?
(Hint: they wiggle….)

May the ghosts of all of the impending faithfully departed troops, nabobs/naive & innocent victims alike, crawl across your skin forever, OBush.

In my story, the Chinese commandos parachute in thinking they parachuted into Bolivia.  They call us all Bolivians and pretty much clean us out and then put us all on reservations with casinos and plenty of booze.

I suppose you are going to tell me that story is taken up already also.
********************************************

Yeah, but it’s not gonna give the belly laughs.

Inherit The Wind, November 16 at 1:29 am

“I think that would make a GREAT movie:
“The Chinese are coming, The Chinese are coming” about a group of stranded Chinese parachute commandos who make their way into this small town that thinks it’s being invaded and end up as…friend!”

How is a guy supposed to make a buck if you are giving the plot away already!!

In my story, the Chinese commandos parachute in thinking they parachuted into Bolivia.  They call us all Bolivians and pretty much clean us out and then put us all on reservations with casinos and plenty of booze.

I suppose you are going to tell me that story is taken up already also.

Dave:
I think that would make a GREAT movie:
“The Chinese are coming, The Chinese are coming” about a group of stranded Chinese parachute commandos who make their way into this small town that thinks it’s being invaded and end up as…friend!

Wait—didn’t they make a similar movie in the 60’s about a stranded sub off New England, called “The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!”?

OTOH, Dave may WELL be right but wrong in his dimensioning-but they aren’t Chinese, they’re Venusians!

“Let’s start with the first premise of the this thread: That Obama has been President for a year.  That’s patently false—he has been President for 9 months and 3 weeks.”

It has now been more than a year since Obama found out he had won the presidency.  I hope we can assume that he was thinking about and considering, from that date on,  what he would do once inaugurated. Furthermore, he was in the U.S. Senate when much of the disintegration of the financial markets was beginning to be noticed. Hillary Clinton repeatedly spoke out about the need to protect homeowners from foreclosure on their homes; Obama was pretty silent during that period on that issue.

So, the Obama defenders here wish to make a case that Obama’s been president for “only” nine months and three weeks. Do ANY of the Obama supporters read history?  Do they grasp what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did within his first 100 days to save this country, protect people’s bank savings accounts from disappearing and to put people back to work?  FDR did more in his first 100 days to stabilize this nation than Obama has done in his nine plus months.

But it is not just a question of what Obama has not done, it is also a question of what Obama HAS DONE to continue and enlarge upon the worst of George W. Bush’s policies: warrantless wiretapping, rendition of prisoners to a foreign country, expansion of federal funding for faith-based organizations, expansion of the “state secrets” ruse to keep the American people from knowing what our government is doing, and Obama’s policy that the prisoners in Bagram prison (in Afghanistan) have no rights that we ought to respect. Those were all policies we Democrats and liberals condemned Bush for, but the Obama supporters apparently now feel those are good policies (since their messiah is implementing them).

I have posted below details on some of these policies; too bad the Obama supporters have chosen not to read the facts about the bad things Obama has been doing.

He also made a deep bow to the king of Saudi Arabia (a true despot) and more recently to the emperor of Japan. In Japanese culture, whoever bows the lower in the more subservient person; Obama bowed low to the emperor and the emperor merely nodded his head, which means the emperor of Japan accepts Obama’s subservience and acknowledges that Obama is inferior to the emperor of Japan. For 200 years, it has been the rule—based on the fact that our country stands for equality of all persons—that American presidents bow to no one. Obama is disgracing America wherever he goes with his Apology Tour of the world.

OK, maybe Beef Chow Fun…..

ardee, November 14 at 8:53 pm #

“Despite that lunatic conclusion I think it more likely that those “Chinese Soldiers” moving in and out of our southern border were actually delivering Kung Pao chicken to hungry Campesinos”

It is so easy to ridicule things you don’t know about or understand.  It is such a narrow space that some people’s minds exist in. 

Observation of the Lazaro Cardenas seaport in Mexico, controlled in part by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (hopefully you know who they are) the same company which has controled both ends of the Panama Canal since 2002, and has a presence at many other Mexican ports, would show some strange cargo being off- loaded.  No attempt is made to hide anything at that port.  No more than would be made to hide the disembarking of American soldiers in South Korean ports. 

I think it was sometime in 2006 that US Army General BJ Craddock of the US Southern Command briefed the Armed Services Committe that China is stepping up military training in Latin America because of a law that limits U.S. military support to nations in the region.

The movement of China into Latin America is ongoing and is highlighted by numerous public high-level visits by Chinese leaders to many leftist governments in the area.  China is building military and economic ties to the leftist governments of Latin America to further their own political and economic agendas. None of this is secret, nor surprising.  They will deploy forces to protect their trade routes, and if we let them, they will be all up through the Trans Texas Corridor, all the way to Kansas City.  They would like to bypass Western US ports if they can. 

Regarding episodes of Asian individuals dressed in Mexican military uniforms and Chinese desert-camo uniforms spotted on both sides of the border, these can be verified by residents of New Mexico living in the Las Cruces area within 20-25 miles north of the border.  Also, speak to border patrol agents in the area and, if you can, find some members of the US Marine units assigned to the area.

None of it is really a secret.  China is flexing its superpower muscles by doing what other superpowers before them have always done.  Get used to it.

ITW,

Whether Obama is in office for nine months or a year is not important. Just look at his DOD and economy teams, they are the same people who brought us to the current mess whether the economy or the wars.
What that tell you??
Look at his pathetic, have hearted and continuously shifting positions and not standing firmly on any thing in the health care “reform” fiasco, again, what that tell you.
That health care “reform” is nothing but a giveaway to the Insurance/Pharma/Medical industrial complex.
Just watch Obama in mostly scripted interviews, and even then, between each word and the next, there is a pause?? That is the performance of a guy who has no conviction of anything and just acting a role.
I know you are extremely partisan, but believe me, we have only a single party in this country which is the big money/corpo party.

Let’s start with the first premise of the this thread: That Obama has been President for a year.  That’s patently false—he has been President for 9 months and 3 weeks.

We HAD a President who made rapid, snap decisions…and they were ALWAYS wrong. Now we have one who really weighs his decisions—and he is “indecisive”.

Despite the fact that many Republicans and the Rightiss detested George W. Bush, they, at least, kept their mouths shut for several years until they couldn’t—but they gave him a chance to prove himself.

But on the Left? Demand the impossible from day one and heap on the criticism to help the GOPers get re-elected.  It worked to get rid of LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and to weaken Bill Clinton.  Now they are doing to Barack Obama.

Put the blame where it’s deserved: On Pelosi and Reid and the members of BOTH houses in their caucus who won’t back them—and they won’t back Obama.

Some people on this list seem to think that Obama is an astonished and innocent bystander, when it comes to the expectations we have for him.  Why on earth do all these people expect Obama to actually do something as president?  Incredible.  Aren’t presidents supposed to “appear” to agonize over every decision, and always come out favoring the rich and powerful over the common folk?  Yes, I suppose that’s the way things are.  But there’s one wrinkle in this story that screws up your argument.  Obama himself, lied about all this before the election, for the sole purpose of getting himeself elected.  That’s why your attempt to apologize for this clown, are pure bullshit.  He brought this on himself, and he’s the least of the losers in this game.

Despite that lunatic conclusion I think it more likely that those “Chinese Soldiers” moving in and out of our southern border were actually delivering Kung Pao chicken to hungry Campesinos..

The Chinese “scare” in addition to all other fabricated scares is good for business and keep the population in line and under tight control while Wall St. banksters loot the country and consolidate their hold on power.

I have heard of such nonsense about whole Chinese divisions somehow hiding in Mexico even though we have full satellite coverage and it is just logistically impossible for that to happen. But then it is of the school (lol) of the USA will be invaded by foreigners and taken over weirdness. Never happen but it is used to scare the most powerful nation’s populace into thinking that we are vulnerable. Only from the inside.

As Pope (borrowing as was his wont - good thing that copyright had not yet been invented !) told us, Folktruther, a little learning is a dangerous thing - especially when one spreads it ‘round. But I fear my brain is only capable of shallow draughts….

Henri

Dave, you apparently actually believe that media drivel and didn’t make it up yourself.  I will therefore modulate my comment to characterize you as unconscious racist dingbat.  That stuff is garbage.

Henri, thanks for the support.  I have to say,however, that I hold you responsible for showing Martha how to use bold face caps.  I think it was you.  If so, you are obviously an EXTREMIST, no matter how witty your comments.

«Why can’t I state facts about anything without having your hatred of the United States of America thrown in my face.  I was not talking about the US.  My comment, in case you care to reread it, is about the gross violations of human rights in the PRC.»

Here, DaveZx3 is the paragraph on which Folktruther seems to have been commenting :

«China readies themselves for a potential war with the US by being very active on our southern border with Mexico.  It has been reported a while back that Chinese soldiers had been observed by border agents crossing over into the US on recon patrols.  At this time, I believe most recon on the southern border is done by Chinese military posing as one of the thousands of Chinese illegal immigrants that pass into the US through Mexico.  Our porous southern border allows a way for potential enemies to gain access to a ton of strategic and tactical information about the US.  Most of this information has been subdued, but a good search will turn up as much as you need.  Best source is personal interviews with US Marines and border agents stationed in the area who may be familiar with this.»

If the above is your version of «stat[ing] the facts» (which, by the way, seem to have rather little to do with the human rights situation in the PRC), than I fear Folktruther has you pegged….

Henri

Folktruther, November 14 at 11:31 am #

“Chinese soldiers crossing the Mexican border, Dave?  Chinese imprisonment while the US has the largest prison population in the world?  China violating human rights while the US is killing, maiming, torturing, raping and terrorizing millions of people?  Your sense of Realism is certainly shared by the US media, Dave.  But not by most of the rest of the world.  Possibly because you are a racist dingbat.”

Why can’t I state facts about anything without having your hatred of the United States of America thrown in my face.  I was not talking about the US.  My comment, in case you care to reread it, is about the gross violations of human rights in the PRC.

This is not even a contested issue.  Even the Chinese admit it.  The world knows about it.  Amnesty International, which is not exactly a news organization publicizes it regularly.  It is well documented in Wikipedia, and about one million other Google hits from every conceivable source. 

China tortures their own citizens.  They have the highest capital punishment rate in the world, otherwise they would far exceed US prison population.  It is easy to keep the population down when you execute the prisoners. 

Don’t you remember the story on 60 Minutes about the delivery room nurse that fled China because she was being ordered to kill babies which do not die during abortion, but are born alive?  She could not do it.
Mothers who have babies at home above the legal limit have to hide them. 

The rest of the world agrees that China has a terrible human rights situation. 

I don’t think it is right to call me a racist and a dingbat just because I offer an opinion about why some people are very wary of China, especially when I did not make up the stories. 

If you would like proof, I will give it to you.

gerard

“You yourself can go through that list and check off things that Obama has little or no control over actually passing. “

Obama is the one who said those things and made those promises. Either he is stupid and didn’t know that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill those promises or he is dishonest and made those promises knowing he was making false promises. Too stupid or too dishonest, take your pick. Either way, he is not and never will be presidential material.

” I believe most recon on the southern border is done by Chinese military posing as one of the thousands of Chinese illegal immigrants that pass into the US through Mexico.  Our porous southern border allows a way for potential enemies to gain access to a ton of strategic and tactical information about the US.”

  Chinese soldiers crossing the Mexican border, Dave?  Chinese imprisonment while the US has the largest prison population in the world?  China violating human rights while the US is killing, maiming, torturing, raping and terrorizing millions of people?

  Your sense of Realism is certainly shared by the US media, Dave.  But not by most of the rest of the world.  Possibly because you are a racist dingbat.

GERARD, you’re missing the point.
The issue with Obama is not that we have unreaslistic expectations or timetables for action from him.  The problem is that he would not even remotely have been the president if he hadn’t bullshitted us so profoundly before the election.  As it is, it’s at least highly questionable that, aside from slightly edging out Hillary in the delegate vote, he even won the public vote, for the nomination, considering that CNN announced, at the end of the contest, that Hillary had come out ahead in 2 out of 3 scenarios, so doubtful was the voting population about this man, in spite of the near herculean efforts of media to promote an Obama win, against Hillary.  He lied about everything, some of the nonsense he directed against Hillary is still believed by his supporters, he promised the impossible, he invented a fantasy for the voter, which, aside from his barefaced lies, he certainly knew was a ridiculous concoction for mass consumption.  These monstrous lies clearly make him unsuitable for the presidency, let alone at a time when our country needed a seasoned, immensely qualified and experienced leader.  You’re just making excuses for a man that has shown himself selfish and unqualified for the job he sought to win by any means, however deceitful and manipulative of a trusting voter.  In spite of a tendency in many voters to constantly snipe at and smear Hillary, she was clearly the better candidate.

truedigger3, November 13 at 9:34 pm #

“There is no reason in the foreseeable future for a war between US and China”.

If America does not shore up the dollar soon by at least stopping to print so many of them, China will get extremely upset as their US Securites and Bonds become worthless. 

Though we are an important market for China, if we allow our dollar to be become worthless, everything could change.  When you can’t pay your mortgge, they repossess your house.  What will China do if we can’t pay? 

China readies themselves for a potential war with the US by being very active on our southern border with Mexico.  It has been reported a while back that Chinese soldiers had been observed by border agents crossing over into the US on recon patrols.  At this time, I believe most recon on the southern border is done by Chinese military posing as one of the thousands of Chinese illegal immigrants that pass into the US through Mexico.  Our porous southern border allows a way for potential enemies to gain access to a ton of strategic and tactical information about the US.  Most of this information has been subdued, but a good search will turn up as much as you need.  Best source is personal interviews with US Marines and border agents stationed in the area who may be familiar with this. 

China can forsee the possibility, if not probability, of a potential world war in which they would be on opposite sides with the US.  The US should not be so ignorant and naive as to not keep that in their mind themselves.

gerard, November 14 at 2:42 am

“I notice that almost automatically the mention of China brought up a competitive tone.  Why is that?”

Could be because of the serious, ongoing human rights problems in China. These problems include information control; the detention and imprisonment of lawyers, writers, Internet activists, and religious practitioners; crackdowns on civil society groups; disappearances; and illegal black jails, and worst of all, they abort children even after full birth. 

China is now the most powerful economy in the world.  Militarily they are not far behind. 

The largest employer in my neighborhood was bought out by the Chinese, and the Chinese flag now flies next to the American flag, equally, in my own neighborhood, one mile from my house. 

The Chinese are scary because they essentially own us based on the amount of American debt they are holding; they control the most important sea gate in the west, the Panama Canal; they do not share our human rights values; and they are getting much stronger, while we get weaker. 

If the world thinks America is bad, wait until they get a taste of Chinese domination.

I notice that almost automatically the mention of China brought up a competitive tone.  Why is that?
And then a referral to a previous list of 23 “broken promises”—“broken” in nine months’ time.
The impatience, the ignoring of the depth of the problems and the length of time it took them to accrue, is a display of unrealistic impatience, as I see it. 
  As just one example:  Health care (4):  “I’ll help families who are struggling under the crushing burden of health care costs by passing a plan that brings the typical family’s premiums down by $2500.”
  Surely, everybody saw what happened to that—and who kept it from passing. Not Obama, but the “health industries” ergo, insurance and pharmaceuticals.  The people upon whom Congress depends for campaign contributions (and whose fault is that?  Obama’s?)
  You yourself can go through that list and check off things that Obama has little or no control over actually passing.  All he can do is lead in that direction, but he cannot make the tremendous forces that control the country’s finances dance to the tune he suggests.  If he could, he would be a dictator, wouldn’t he?
  My beef is the unreality of the expectations given the limits of time and the refusal to acknowledge the financial clout of the companies and agencies that run this country, and about which Obama can do very little, actually.  That, plus the important consideration that the severity of the criticisms indicate an impatience that fits right in with right wing complaints and further undercuts with discouragement, passing along an unhealthy political anger.  If that would cure the country’s problems, I would say “go ahead.”  But I can’t believe that it will help. On the contrary.

“Besides, the US is MUCH MUCH MUCH stronger than China.”

Truthdigger, you have been reading the Wall Street Journal again.  It is true that the US has much more sophisticated militry equipment than China, but it is scattered all over the world.  And chinese soldiers are more motivated than Amerian soldiers, one of the reasons China defeated the US in Korea. 

But as Paul Kennedy the Yale historian argued in his seminal THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS, the ultimate determant of world power is economic, especially industrial production.

You won’t read this in the American media, which fabricates economic indexes like the unemployment index, but China produces about twice the industrial prodution of the US, and is increasing over five times as fast.  It has and is building a navy to protect its Pacific shore and now has bases in the Indian ocaan which the US has essentially ceded to them.  It is true that China is a regional power, but the region, Asia and Africa, contains four fifths of the world’s people.  And an increasing fraction of the economy.  In less than a decade, China will be the leading power in the world, replacing the US.

but for God’s sake, don’t tell anyone.  It is very unpatriotic to say so in the US.  So nobody does except for a few eccentrics.  And their truths will never be printed in the mainstream media.

Folktruther wrote:
“With Bush and Obama tying American military down in Iraq and Afghanistan, it bleeds the US so much that it doesn’t have the strength for war with China”
____________________________________________________.

There is no reason in the foreseeable future for a war between US and China.
China serves as a manufacturing plan for US corporations and own about 1 trillion dollars of US treasury bonds.
Besides, the US is MUCH MUCH MUCH stronger than China.
China has its own serious environmental and social problems coupled with endemic chronic corruption and nepotism.

I am surprised about all that hoopla about “Obama will not send more troops to Afghanistan”.
This was not verified and as they say the proof is in the pudding.
May be the whole thing about sending or not sending the troops is just a thearical bullshitting to make Obama look good and a decision maker and before that play started it was decided no more troops will be sent to Afghanistan after those 20,000 that were already sent few months ago.
This theatrical show serves also as a good distraction away from health care “reform” fiasco and Wall St. banksters robbing the country in broad day light.!!

—more on Obama’s continuation of Bush’s policy on warrantless wiretapping and, even, expansion of Bush’s policy:

- - - - - - -
Sad as that is, it’s the [Obama] Department Of Justice’s second argument that is the most pernicious. The DOJ claims that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying—that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes.

This is a radical assertion that is utterly unprecedented. No one—not the White House, not the Justice Department, not any member of Congress, and not the Bush Administration—has ever interpreted the law this way.
- - - - - - -

http://tinyurl.com/y8f23on

—from an April 15, 2009 column:

- - - - - - -
In the last week alone, the Obama DOJ (a) attempted to shield Bush’s illegal spying programs from judicial review by (yet again) invoking the very “state secrets” argument that Democrats spent years condemning and by inventing a brand new “sovereign immunity” claim that not even the Bush administration espoused, and (b) argued that individuals abducted outside of Afghanistan by the U.S. and then “rendered” to and imprisoned in Bagram have no rights of any kind—not even to have a hearing to contest the accusations against them—even if they are not Afghans and were captured far away from any “battlefield.”  These were merely the latest—and among the most disturbing—in a string of episodes in which the Obama administration has explicitly claimed to possess the very presidential powers that Bush critics spent years condemning as radical, lawless and authoritarian.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for honest Obama supporters to dismiss away or even minimize these criticisms and, especially, to malign the motives of critics.  After all, the Obama DOJ’s embrace of many (though by no means all) of the most radical and extremist Bush/Cheney positions—and the contradictions between Obama’s campaign claims and his actions as President—are now so glaring and severe that the harshest denunciations of Obama’s actions are coming from those who, during the Bush years, were held up by liberals and by Obama supporters as the most trustworthy and praiseworthy authorities on these matters.

- - - - - - -
http://tinyurl.com/cd734u

Below, I have posted the more than 23 promises or pledges Obama made on one single day in one single speech; that list does not even include all the promises Obama made on other days in other speeches to other groups.  (During the campaign, Obama was pretty much willing to promise or pledge anything to get himself elected.)

So, would the Obama supporters here pray tell us what Obama has done to fulfill all those many promises and pledges?

And, please recognize that no one speaks for all of the Chinese people any more than anyone in America speaks for all the opinions held by all the Americans. Furthermore, I doubt most Chinese people have done much serious research into Obama’s record, so far, or have checked to see how much of the wealth of the middle class Obama is redistributing to the giant corporate interests. To sum up: why do I care what you tell me a few Chinese people think when not even all the Obama supporters on this comment board seem to be knowledgeable about all of Obama’s broken promises and pledges?

Of course many of you guys wouldn’t like the China reference because it indicates a (perhaps) sophisticated understanding of the tremendous problems Obama inherited, and carries a tone of tentative approval.
Of course nobody can speak for “China”—a vast and ancient society that rushed pell-mell into modernity and is more or less beating the capitalists at their own game, and still providing millions and millions of people with health care and a fair degree of education.  Human rights are not the greatest—pollutioin is terrible, but—who’s talkin’?

Thing is:  Historical perspective (almost completely lacking here) and holding the mirror up to what may be a general overseas understanding of the difficulties America faces right now. And again I add—difficulties not of Obama’s making, difficulties caused by decades of profligacy and neglect.

Many of the comments appearing here are so nasty in tone that they are actually doing the work of the right wing, perhaps without realizing it. An opinion from “China” might serve as an antidote.

Except Obama is an instrument of change, a continuing one started with Reagan and proceeding uninterrupted to today. From a Republic to a theocratic-corporate state is in our cards. Once the economy finishes its fall, it has been arrested not ended, then the final take over will be complete. The oligarchs will be calling the shots and any who opposes will disappear or die or be character assassinated but it will be too late then. The economy must not fall but Obama is a willing agent in this endevour. [But like all traitors who aren’t part of the clique—he is expendable and an assassination of the president will do their job too, just as well for their plans.]

It is quite true,KDelphi,  that the Chinese leadership loves Obama; they loved Bush too.  China is currently replacing the US historically as the world’s leading power, and this is typically done historically by war.  As the rising powers of Germany and Japan exemplified. 

With Bush and Obama tying American military down in Iraq and Afghanistan, it bleeds the US so much that it doesn’t have the strength for war with China.  It is currently retrreating its bases in Japan, as Japan and the rest of the world moves away from the US and toward China.  Why Americans would consider Bush-Obama good American leaders on that account is the usual dingbat irrationality.

Virgina, apparently your primitive anti-Semitism is not amenable to change, and neither is your primitive notion that Obama is an instrument of transformation.  I hope your clinging to your childish fantasies is not typical of most Americns.

Virginia777:

Obama has continued Bush’s policies on state secrets (which Obama has even enlarged upon), rendition, indefinite detainment (Bagram prison in Afghanistan, where Obama say the prisoners have no rights we ought to respect), warrantless wiretapping, and a hostility to a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Further, Obama has delayed action on protecting women against sexism in the workplace (the Paycheck Fairness Act, which is NOT the same as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act).

Obama is dragging his heels on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and is opposed to gays’ right to marry.

(I might comment that you are a typical Obama supporter: you cannot come up with facts to defend Obama so you resort to insulting those who feel he is coming up short. I have been a liberal Democrat for decades, and I feel Obama is NOT protecting long-held Democratic values. He is transferring wealth from the middle-class to the giant corporations, and that is NOT a long-held Democratic value.)

to starfish:

just go on clinging to your underwater rock

(you are never going to see the stars from there)

and Folktruther, you have a lot of nerve talking about “neozionist support”

to beerdoctor:

YES, I am referring to the previous office holders!! How quickly we forget the Bush dynasty.

This “dynasty” left the country in tatters, and I’m not just talking about the war(s). The internal war waged on every single social justice issue, the dismantling of the banking regulation system I could go on and on and on.

If liberals want to stick their heads in the sand and blast Obama who hasn’t even been in office for one (count um) year yet,

then I can heard a BIG chorus of applause coming from the right.

They are playing right into their hands.

I seem to recall that during the campaign—when Obama was trolling for votes—he said the war in Afghanistan was a war of “necessity” and a war we “had to win.”

What happened to that bravado?  (Bravado is “a swaggering show of courage.”)

Was that all for show?

Yes, I believe it was all for show, as is almost everything Obama says or promises.

He is not a sincere man; he is not a truthful man.

And, just incidentally, why has Obama spent $millions to prevent the American public from ever seeing anything he wrote in college or law school?  What would we see in those papers we might find upsetting or alarming?

If his attitude toward America has changed now that it has elevated him to ultimate power, surely he can explain that to us, can’t he?

After all, his golden oratory charmed the gullible all over America to believe in him and vote for him; surely he can explain his thinking during his college years.

Here’s what The New York Times reports:

- - -
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the president had not rejected any of the four options, but was weighing how to mix and match elements from each of them.

“I would say it was more, how can we combine some of the best features of several of the options to maximum good effect?” Mr. Gates told reporters. A central focus in Mr. Obama’s deliberations, he said, was, “How do we signal resolve and at the same time signal to the Afghans as well as the American people that this is not an open-ended commitment?”
- - -

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/world/asia/13eikenberry.html?hp

ardee:

You didn’t listen clearly. What Hersh said is “if” this is what Obama plans to do.

The interviewer had misinterpreted the announcement from the White House, which was that Obama had rejected all four plans from the military and had asked for more options. Hersh did NOT say that he heard Obama say he wouldn’t send any more troops. Hersh took what the interviewer had said and then said, “if” that is so, it would be great.

The operative word here is IF.

On the first page at NPR, we read this headline - “Obama: Decision Soon On Troops In Afghanistan” - and if we follow the link,. we read this statement: “President Obama said Friday that his decision about how many troops to send to Afghanistan will come soon and he is bent on ‘getting this right.’”

In other words, there has been NO decision or at least no decision that has been announced. The speculation is that Obama will use some combination of options in the four scenarios presented to him.

starfish, November 12 at 11:00 pm #

Sepharad,

You may be right but I don’t think that is what Hersh said or what Obama has decided.

NPR.org and follow the link to Fresh Air…Listen for yourself.

Russian Paul—I heard that too. FT—I heard that too.

gerard—put this in your pipe and smoike it—-Obama is supposed to be the president of the uS, not win a populiarty contest with the leadeship of the Chinese leadership. I f I lived in China, I would proabaly think he was just fine..I dont and neither do you.

All these countries that love Obama so much should import his war-mongering, poverty producing policies and live under them.

Sepharad reported that Obama is not going to send any more troops to Afghanistan.  As she says, what a brave and righteous thing!  How wornderful! He has given us hope again!  Change We Can Believe In!

All complete bullshit of course.  He says he won’t announce a decision till he comes back from his Asian trip.  Seymour Hirsh, one of the very few honest American journalists, stated to Madow that Obama has finally “seized control” of the Afghan depate among his advisers, who are split.  He did not tell her that Obama had made any decisons at all.

Just Sehphard’s way of helping Obama delude the American population with neozionist support.

What is clear here, is that Obama’s supporters are a breed unlike we’ve seen for some time.  This man must succeed, even if he tears the country apart with his indecision, naievte and capitulation to the worst elements working against us.  The left is not permitted to call this man to account.  Obama, it seems you’ve forgotten, is the president, not a mayor in a small town, slowly feeling his way into big time politics.  He’s our employee, and he needs to come through for us, now.  He hasn’t.  We may be stuck with him as a figurehead, but we’d better have some other, true, leaders on hand, able to guide this country with a firm hand.

Didn’t we just hear, that Obama had “decided” to send 60,000 more troops than were asked for, or thought necessary, (40,000), as hawkish a move as could possibly be made?  Now we hear that a decision has been made to send “no” troops?  Could it be that he’s turning to and fro, responding to good political news followed by bad, followed by good, etc.  The man is worse than indecisive, he seems profoundly, hopelessly perplexed.

even if obama decides not to send any more troops, he already sent an additional
20,000, he is taking his sweet ass time in iraq, he is building a vatican-sized
embassay in islamabad. we aren’t getting out of the region any time soon. and
torture and rendition continues. for fuck’s sake, we are NOT being to “harsh” with
Obama. If anything the so-called “left” in this country is not being harsh enough.

Just to cheer some of you cynics up, I got a letter today from a friend living in China now and he says that “China thinks Obama is okay for the most difficult period in world history.” So put that in your pipe and smoke it, as we used to say years and years ago.

Sepharad,

You may be right but I don’t think that is what Hersh said or what Obama has decided.

I believe Obama has postponed making a decision and that all options are still being considered, including sending troops.

ardee, Just got out of my car and am pretty sure Seymour Hersch just said on the radio that Obama is not going to send additional soldiers to Afghanistan—an incredibly righteous and brave thing for a first-term President to do.

Here and now I take back all my expressions of disappointment about his performance (except maybe the economic/health issues) but this makes up for a whole lot. (Sodium was right—on another thread said yesterday we should give Obama some more time on the war thing.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Cyrena, it’s safe to come back now, and I am prepared to eat my words to the effect that I did vote for Obama but wouldn’t again.

During the campaign, Obama and his followers liked to say that Hillary would do and say “anything” to get elected, when in fact it was Obama who did do and say “anything” to get elected. This is a common tactic of Obama’s: to accuse someone else of doing exactly what he is doing. It’s called “distraction”; magicians use it to make you look over there when the sleight of hand is going on over here.

Here is a list of the campaign promises Obama made in a single speech in a single day, July 7, 2008:

1.) So when I’m President, I’ll shut down the corporate loopholes and tax havens,

  1a.) and I’ll use the money to help pay for a middle-class tax cut that will provide $1,000 of relief to 95% of workers and their families.

2.) We’ll also eliminate income taxes for every retiree making less than $50,000 per year, because every senior deserves to live out their life in dignity and respect.

3.)  if you’re a family making less than $250,000, my plan will not raise your taxes – not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.

4.)  I’ll also help families who are struggling under the crushing burden of health care costs by passing a plan that brings the typical family’s premiums down by $2500

  4a.) and guarantees coverage to everyone who wants it.

5.) I’ll establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights that will ban unilateral changes to credit card agreements;

  5a.)  ban rate hikes on debt people already had;

  5b.)  and ban interest charges on late fees.

6.) I’ll also reform our bankruptcy laws to make sure that if you can demonstrate that you went bankrupt because of medical expenses, you can relieve that debt and get back on your feet.

7.) To make saving easier, we’ll automatically enroll every worker in a workplace pension plan that stays with you from job to job. 

8.) And for working families who earn under $75,000, we will start that nest egg by matching 50 percent of the first $1,000 you save

  8a.)  and depositing it directly into their account.

9.) To make a college education affordable for every American family, we’ll provide $4,000 of tuition if students will provide community or national service when they graduate. 

10.) To make it easier for families to own their own home and stay in that home, we’ll crack down on predatory lenders,

11.) help more Americans refinance their mortgages,

12.) and provide ten million homeowners a mortgage tax credit that will take ten percent off their interest rate.
13.) To help those mothers and fathers who are juggling work and family, I’ll expand the Child Care Tax Credit,
14.)  extend the Family Medical Leave Act,
15.)  and make sure that every worker in America has access to seven days of paid sick leave. 
16.)  I’ll make sure that women get equal pay for an equal day’s work. 
17.)  And to help those families who own small businesses that are the engine of prosperity in America, I will eliminate all capital gains taxes on start-ups and small businesses to encourage more innovation and job creation.
18.) all my new spending proposals would be more than paid for by spending reductions. 
19.) I have a plan to responsibly end the war in Iraq
20.) and reduce overpayments for private plans in Medicare
21.) I would also curb subsidies to banks making student loans,
22.) return earmarks to their 2001 levels
23.) and reform no-bid contracts.

Starfish—yes—and he had those same two years and as much legal help and opinions, inside and outside the goverment, inside and outside the United States, to arrive in office with solutions and a plan of action to close Gitmo—which is an international embarassment.

Obama’s proposed “indefinite detentions” aren’t “as bad”—They are worse and even more inexcusable than the ad hoc, seat of the pants, Gitmo “solution” fashioned by Team Bush.

Closing Gitmo was always going to involve risks and compromise, backbone and boldness—which is why Team Bush, who I believe wanted to close it, left it for the new guy—the time to have taken those risks and demanded the cooperation of Congress and the international community was AS SOON AS POSSIBLE on entering office.

We’re told that that “within one year” promise is one that is already unlikely to be kept.

Today the news reports are filled with the “news” that Barack Obama has decided to ignore the advice of his National Security advisers and refuse to send further troops to Afghanistan. Further it is being reported that he is now seeking the best way to withdraw from Afghanistan.
And NO, this is not from The Onion!

If true then we have been unduly harsh and impatient with this man with regard to the impending escalations we feared. Moreover perhaps we might see a change in his approach to health care reform as well….Is he growing in his job? Are the reports true?

I know Anarcissie despises my optimism…..

The war in Afghanistan has been going on for eight years. Obama was running for president for at least two years before winning the presidency. He won the job last November—that’s almost a year ago. He must have been pondering the Afghanistan situation for at least three years now. How much more time should a rational person need to solve something that is hardly a new problem?

Clearly Obama, as president, has access to better, more complete and more up-to-date information that any of us could possibly have. He has information coming to him from his military field commanders, the CIA, the Defense Dept., the State Dept., foreign intelligence agencies, the diplomatic corps, humanitarian agencies, the UN, spy drones, and Afghan locals who are paid to give us information—and at least 100 White House advisors to spell out for him the available options.

So, what is Obama’s problem with making this decision?  I will tell you.

He already knows, based on all the information coming in to him on an hourly basis, what the best course is in Afghanistan. Sooner or later, things do become clearer. But the problem for Obama is not one of insufficient information; it is one of trying to “draw to an inside straight.” 

Let me explain. Obama is hunting frantically for a decision on Afghanistan that, if it turns out to be the wrong decision, he can blame it all on someone else; and conversely, if the decision leads to a favorable result, he wants to be able to claim credit for it. As I said, it’s a bit like drawing to an inside straight.

Obama knows, now, what the decision should be; how can he not? He will never have more or better information than he already has. But, he is still looking for the decision that he can claim ownership of or non-ownership of, depending on how things work out—so, this is going to take a bit more time than if he were just trying to make the right decision for the situation in Afghanistan (while not harming our country).

Obama is a weak president and the world is beginning to take note – especially the Bad Guys.

Virginia777, November 12 at 11:46 am #

“I find it to be a disappointing year on Truthdig”

~~~

Me too, which is why I seldom bother any more. But in this instance I cant resist ...

Ya-da-ya-da yada, blab blab blah. Unimaginative, same-ol same-ol, boring repetition of memorized clap-trap. Obama bashers lacking smarts, ambition, direction, goals, or a leader. Repeating old, often inaccurate news, misinformation and sometimes lies.

And for the most part quite incapable of doing simple math.

I have no question for any of them, but I do have a question for Robert Scheer. Is this really what you wanted?

Maybe the buck still stops in the Oval Office….but the SHUCK just goes on and on.

HokaHey!

When the warts are pointed out how is that “bashing?” Obama has had 11 months in office and so far he has kept things as they are or progressed them into regressive territory. That isn’t good is it? Why is he supporting what Bush/Cheney Axis of evil has done? Reports are that 100 al-Quiada in Afghanistan and 200 in Pakistan but they want to seen over 45,000 more troops there? Increasing the number to more that what the Soviets had during their 10 years there! Does that bother you? We are still occupying Iraq and will so for the forseeable future. Is that okay with you?

I am curious Virginia777, what do you mean by a DECENT man? Is that a reference to the previous office holders? Or is it just because you like the new suave manifestation, that looks and speaks like he is successful and educated?

Obama is a disaster. Obama is NOT presidential material and never will be—he lacks character, he lacks guts, he lacks wisdom, and he is short on honesty.

Poor Virginia..
    Yes, there is a Santa Claus..

  Is about the measure of your “hope” fantasy since your retort was based on attacking the messenger but totally devoid of substance.

I find it to be a disappointing year on Truthdig,

with its relentless, tiresome Obama-bashing. The trolls are having a field day, and we “get” to listen to all of their drivel. One has to literally step over their alligator backs to find space to comment in the pond they call “home” (Truthdig).

Meanwhile, we FINALLY have a decent man in office, who faces the huge obstacles the Republican death-squads sent his way (and ours).

Give me a break!! Is Truthdig liberal or not?

Are we going to RISE to the challenge of a mobilized Left?

or are we going to squat in the alligator pond with the trolls (and Mr. Fish)??

This is encouraging in that finally one of these liberals is telling it like it is instead of apologizing or excusing Obama while demanding Progressives push him.

  One of the typical excuses is that we need to “give him more time” while with the time that he has had thus far and with each passing hour he is ramming through regressive policy or elaborating on or continuing down the Bush road.

  The piece drops off though, hoping that Obama “thinks of something” That is not encouraging—and that is the reality that so many Obama cheerleaders and apologists are in denial about.
Hope & change was a lot of hype.

re: ardee

I recently watched with my older brother an episode of the TV series MASH, where Col. Blake laments having to make life or decisions that affect others. “Back home, the only decisions I had to make was did I really want a personal bowling ball, or whether or not I should get the cat fixed.”
This is of course that ‘heavy’ part of being in an exalted office. It must require what Robert J. Lifton calls “psychic numbing” to not let the inadvertent consequences of those decisions from completely covering over the normal, natural self. So in that very important light, I do pity Barack Obama, because all of the presidents I have lived through, no matter how stupid or evil, no matter how thoughtful or well intentioned, all, every last one of them, caused unnecessary deaths.
Most people in the United States live, and understandably so, under the illusion that this country, with its vast military apparatus, is a benevolent force in the world. “A global force for good” as the TV ads from the Navy announce. And yes, perhaps it takes a quantum leap in consciousness to become aware that President Obama presides over the greatest and indeed most oppressive military state that the world has ever seen. The United States government has its boot heel on everybody’s neck, complete with a radioactive arsenal that serves as the real iron fist, beneath any virtual velvet glove. The Pentagon knows this. The rest of the world knows this. It is only our citizens, who are constantly bombarded with pro-war pro-military propaganda, who refuse to acknowledge this fact.
Forgive this brutal frankness, but President Obama, in actuality, is the king meat puppet atop of the slaughter house, no matter what are his good intentions… since it is already known what road that provides pavement for.
Peace on earth begins with you? No. Peace on earth begins with me.

While {b]the beerdoctor and others make a strong case that President Obama is not what his speeches indicate him to be, a liberal, I prefer a kinder (?) assessment.

Obama simply hasn’t the political experience, the savvy, the know how to negotiate his way around the process. He has demonstrated, time and again that his wishes align themselves with those of the progressive but his actions place him otherwise. He abrogated control over the process of health care reform to the Congress when he should have used the power of the Presidency and his role as leader of the party, as well as his (then) overwhelming popularity, to force the Democrats into line. Once that party was unanimous in support for real reform they would have been forced to counter the basically insubstantial charges of the extremist GOP.

His lack of political savvy manifests itself in his waffling over what to do in Afghanistan as well. When we are losing troops daily, when we are slaughtering civilians as well, when the power of the Taliban grows larger and AlQaeda remains basically safe in Pakistan we should be seeing strong leadership, even if the wrong decisions are made.

Barack Obama may be a positive symbol to many Americans, but, in the end, his first nione months show him to be very weak.

thebeerdr—damn right! I sat here with a disabled vet and almost blew show…seriously…

trudigger3—me 3!

samson—we’re allowed to say “i told you so”, now?! Yes!

Dems! I told you so! Especially all the damn Dems in muy family who screamed at me over not supporting Obama!@ Its gonna be a rough Holiday seaosn all around…I’m gonna make sure of it—more rough than usual, if any of them have the money to fly around the damn country!!

johncp, I agree with you that Hillary was the better candidate, and that is because she spent her entire political career (beginning in college) trying to make life better for the people without power (i.e. most of us). Now she’s in State, for which she is qualified, and has the knowledge, but what she really cared most about was the economy and health reform. With so much blue-collar support—because the woman was sincere and it showed—I still find it hard to believe she lost the primary. And I find it even harder to believe that she would have let Goldman Sachs et al walk away with all that money. I truly think she would have fought very hard for a mandatory public health insurance. Obama is elegant and cool, always gives a good speech, but his concern for the majority of Americans, if it actually exists, does not show in his domestic policies so far, certainly not the kind of change he promised.

As for next time around, I think Samson is right. We have to get the independent third, fourth and fifth parties to unite as one and make sure they are on the general election ballot. But I’m afraid that they all also have huge egos and would not like being anything but the head of that one party. Still, it’s an option to consider. If they can’t get together then they can’t. But they should try.

James Madison, one of those “enemies” said it too. We have been taken over from within by those who liked the Pilgrim’s Pride and the stiff black collar Christians who forbade Christmas and kept women an indentured servants in their “places.” Only these are among the richest in our society that want such a monstrosity right here and soon. Too bad but I think they just may get it this time after failing in 1934. They can be their own Axis this time for the 21st century!

truedigger3, November 11 at 6:13 pm #

“So you say: Obama is a “nice guy” but he is doing and will do “bad things” and he is ineffective!!
So he is a failure as a president and whether he is a"nice guy”  or “means well” or not is unimportant.
What about the country and its people???!!! “

I meant to say he is not a bad president in relative terms.  A better way to put it is he is no worse a president than almost every one of his predecessors.  Meaning a Black man can do a job equal to a white guy.  Obama fits in among the mean, which can be used to say that he is not worse than average. 

An even better way to put it is this:  quit worrying about voting, you never know what you are voting for anyway. 

As for the people of this nation.  I think the shallowness and division that we show on a daily basis is delivering us all the things that we deserve.  America is being defeated exactly the way our enemies said we would be defeted a long time ago, from within.

SUSAN SUNFLOWER
You’re sadly mistaken about Hillary.  She was ahead of all her competitors for almost the entire campaign.  She held a commanding lead, never less than about 25% ahead of the others, until media lent their lies and Clinton-hate to the mix.  Hillary could easily have beaten Obama or Edwards if she only had them to contend with.  But with media attacking her as well, her “delegate” lead was slightly reduced enough for him to squeeze by the nomination.  Hillary won the “popular” vote against Obama.  It’s interesting, that media were so obviously supportive of Obama against Hillary, that even the masses were aware of the media bias.  Polls were taken during the nomination battle, showing the public by a clear majority, felt that Obama was favored by media. Obama would have lost by a wide margin if media had been unbiased in the race.  The hatred found in media, against Hillary was, in my estimation, clear proof that she was the better candidate.  Someone on this list said he wouldn’t support Hillary because she was a warmonger.  There is no factual basis for this view.  Obama pretended to be anti-war, during the campaign against Hillary, but now we see that he’s among the worst war mongers around.  Hillary had an incentive to appear “tough,” for fear that people would say her gender had a pacifying influence over her judgment.

Ah, but he’s been so perceptive in the selection of his financial advisors.

hello. foreign Hillary relations. let’s party. a year of befriending camel jockeys, and still no world peace. perhaps our leader would have been egged off a Vaudeville stage, and the world stage involves all those living, breathing people; and actual interactive involvement requires caring, and diplomatic courtesies, and mutual respect -far beneath our glorious buffoon; but it is good to test your friends, and identify the temporary fair weather leeches. a good negotiator takes sides on issues, and compromises to make gains towards that end. this idiot doesn’t even wear the pants in the family, and negotiates from the neutered land of get along. nobody knows how far into inaction the powers behind the puppet will allow him to vacillate, until needs must be met. i am disappointed he could not get us involved in a skirmish in Africa. what a cloak for slaughtering millions of innocents. he has no policy, his teleprompter was down for that day, so be happy.

Paul Steet’s great evaluation of Obama’s first year is newly posted on http://www.blackagendareport.com

Many people including me, warned repeatedly during the election campaign that Obama is a fraud and he is beholden to big money/business and he is a war-monger too, to be met with indignation and vitriol and accusations that we are Republican TROLLS.
I guess people like to see what they are looking for and hate anyone who points out to them what is actually out there. It is wishfull thinking coupled with denial and good amount of political naivete and ignorance which is a very common human shortcoming and politician exploit it very sk

Mr. Pfaff, if you drank the Obama Cola that is your fault
and the rest of the sheeples.

I suspect that Obama is taking the long-view.  As the first African-American US president, I believe he has two primary goals:  One, he wants to avoid being assassinated by pursuing policies that would require any responsibility or expense on the part of the uber-wealthy (the most likely source for assassination planning and funding), and Two, pave the way, by showing his obedience, for some future African-American to inhabit the White House.  Surrounding himself with fellow fascists and corporatists, many of them from the old regime, and following the imperial course of war at whatever cost (to others) may seem to him the surest way to avoid the wrath of those who have in the past shown their willingness to decide policy with murder.  Likewise, maintaining the status quo Cold War pro-corporate, pro-military-at-the-expense-of-social-program spending that has been US policy at least since 1945, and the massive bail-out and hand-out welfare to corporations (he hopes) will provide enough proof to those industry lobbiests whose bosses determine national policy that an elitist Black man can serve them and do their bidding just as well as an elitest White man.

DaveZx3 wrote about Obama:
“His presidency will not be effective, but he, himself is not a bad president.  His politics are bad, his advisors are bad, and the problems he faces are beyond the scope of a man.
___________________________________________________

So you say: Obama is a “nice guy” but he is doing and will do “bad things” and he is ineffective!!
So he is a failure as a president and whether he is a"nice guy”  or “means well” or not is unimportant.
What about the country and its people???!!!

re: Samson

“To be silent about such insanity is the most hideous compliance of all.” You are correct about challenging their sacred assumptions. One of the worst, and I am sure this circulates on a regular basis around Rahm Emanuel’s blessed head, that the anti-war justice crowd will always come around to the democratic snake oil, because they have nowhere else to go. This is the DLC in a nutshell; half-ass compromises that make believe that change for the better is being made with incremental steps. Meanwhile your fellow citizens of all backgrounds and persuasions. are being savaged by a system that claims to “honor” their supreme sacrifice, while the crooked venal, well connected sharks run rough shod over all human decency.
Since the ownership class has bought everything, the only way for the politicians to understand how precarious their employment situation is when people in general (i.e.; citizens) start to reveal that they do not buy into the assumed narrative any longer.

It’s funny - I remember thinking that if the Democratic party managed to lose this last election (after 8 years of TeamBush), the party would not survive.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I could not imagine it would not fracture.

I have had suspicions—I know if “sounds crazy”—that the Republicans and McCain and the Democrats all conspired to “throw” this election to Obama (who I suspect did not anticipate winning the nomination way back in the beginning). Clinton was too great a risk for the Democrats nationally and the Clintons too hated and resented within the party. Let Teddy chose the candidate!

I admit I was surprised by the early support for loose-cannon McCain which was undermined by sane-people-everywhere when Palin joined the circus. McCain looked just plain worn out, frayed around the edges and not-all-there.

Yes, I suspect Obama will be a one-term president ... it may well be the time for a new party or two.

However, I fear the more populous one will be fascist.

“Who would have thought a year ago that most of the issues of conflict in America’s foreign relations would be made worse during the first year following Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president?”

Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader, to name just a couple who were warning about the stark contrast between Obama’s belligerent plans and the media’s portrayal of him as the ‘anti-war’ candidate.

Clearly the Democrats will not bring peace to the Middle East. They are too beholden to the military industrial complex and AIPAC. If you want real change, get active with the Green Party.

My country, ‘tis of thee
(Richest, strongest, most fearful and confused)
Sweet land of liberty (more people imprisoned than …)
Of thee I sing (a heartbroken song)
Land where my fathers died (fighting unnecessary wars)
Land of the Pilgrims’ pride (those stiff-necked fundamentalist Christians)
From every mountainside (that hasn’t been destroyed by removal for coal)
Let freedom ring! (someday. Say when.)

My native country, thee (caught by the talons of power and pride)
Land of the noble free (original indigenous tribes known as Indians)
Thy name I love (taken from a lost Spanish explorer named Vespusius)
I love thy rocks and rills (chopped down for Presidents’ faces
Or polluted by arsenic, lead and radioactive waste)
Thy woods and templed hills (chopped down by lumber mills
Or poisoned by Monsanto-engineered fertilizers and sprays)
My heart with sorrow fills (to see what we greedy breeders have done).

Let music swell the breeze (taps and a dirge!)
And ring from all the trees sweet freedom’s song - (for the very rich, that is,  Let the others eat less, look for a better job, or go to a homeless shelter.)
Let mortal tongues awake (and speak the truth about poverty, waste and cruelty)
Let all that breathe partake (of the country’s products and opportunities)
Let rocks their silence break (and give us the information we need
To prolong the sound of the children of the world, laughing.)

(Last verse omitted in deference to the separation of Church and State.)

Gee, the ‘Chattering Classes’ expect too much of Obama - Like, they even expect him to step up and keep all, any, or even one, of his many campaign promises. How stupid! He’ll get there eventually, they say. If we are dumb enough to return him to office - Changing the Constitution to allow him unlimited terms would help too. Maybe in 20 or 30 more years, he’ll accomplish something he said he’d do.

Many of us who voted for him did so against our better judgment. I for one, thought the man had a brain. I knew he was a Politician first and last. I just thought he would realize the many Progressive groups who were supporting him deserved a few bones along with the big Corporate sponsors.

Something simple, like ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or actually pushing for the card sign Union Organizing Bill. I didn’t expect everything to be wonderful, but I thought he had some balls - My mistake.

I didn’t support Hillary b because she is a War Monger, first and foremost. So, the great Black Hope hands her the State Department and gives her carte blanc on Foreign Policy. We might as well have Cheney calling the shots!

Close Gitmo? End Renditions? Restore Habeous Corpus? Make the Bankers shape up in return for our dollars? Dream on! We’ve been screwed, blued, and tattooed, and the apologists don’t even want us to bitch about it! I guess we all cling to false hopes.

I haven’t voted for either of the 2 big asshole Parties that run this country since 1988. The one time I decided to gamble, I lost my shirt, my pants, and any thoughts that things might possibly get better.

PS ... and in the next Presidential race, could we maybe have one unified and stronger campaign instead of five separate weak, divided and hopeless ones.

Kucinich, Paul, Nader, Barr and McKinney all need to be united around, behind and actively engaged in one strong unified opposition campaign in the 2012 general election.

For 2012, the slogan is simple

PEACE NOW! ... OR NO SECOND TERM.

Likewise, it would most certainly get Obama’s attention if he saw a strong pro-peace, pro-single-payer independent Presidential campaign building up early.  Such a campaign would easily threaten Obama’s margins in key, close states and threaten Obama with being a one-term President.

PEACE NOW! ... OR NO SECOND TERM.

We may or may not be a majority capable of winning on our own. But we most certainly have the power to sink almost any Democratic campaign by withdrawing our support of the very-marginally-slightly-indestructibly-less-evil Dems.

To thebeerdoctor

And, how do you slap Barry into some sense?

You do the one thing that gets the attention of any politician.  You threaten their jobs.

If people are mad at the Democrats and want to try to slap some sense into them, then start organizing 3rd party or independent campaigns in all of the CLOSEST House and Senate races for 2010.  Start organizing right now.

Do not participate in Dem party primaries. Where you need to be is in the general election.  What you want to do is to threaten to build an opposition movement that will take sufficient votes away from the pro-war, pro-corporate Democrats that they start to think they will lose the next election.

Now you’ve got their attention.  Do that in enough districts that their majority in the House or Senate is threatened, then you’ve got Obama’s and Pelosi’s attention.

Its nice to talk about how to pressure the Democrats into decency.  But no one ever says how to do it.  The way to do it is to leave the Democratic party and their candidates and instead build opposition campaigns against them.

The very first signal you could send to day would be to change your party registration away from being a Democrat.  Sure, they won’t notice one person.  But if they started seeing thousands doing this, they most certainly would notice.  Especially if these changes were going to the people the Democrats really hate ... the Green Party.

“Who would have thought a year ago that most of the issues of conflict in America’s foreign relations would be made worse during the first year following Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president?”

Me, me, me, me, me, me!

I got it right!  Whoo-hoo!
I voted for McKinney!

Where’s my gold star?  Or do I at least get a cookie?

As least folks have stopped with the 11-dimensional super-smart strategic “pragmatism” talk ...

Funny what you remember—I remember being very uncomfortable and dismayed by all of Obama’s “present” votes in Illinois (as if he didn’t want his vote in the public record), his support for the ban on gun bans, his support for the expansion of capital punishment for child rapists and the fact that I couldn’t find any “lost” cause he was passionate about ... being passionate about, say, education is pretty “safe” and in fact Obama’s adult life was safe, safe, safe ... except, maybe, for local #1 with a bullet, mover and shaker, the Mighty Reverend, of the local church of the movers and shakers, up and coming, be-there-or-be-square elite.

With some resentment, yes, I voted for him because he promised to close Gitmo .... I’m still waiting ... and the proposed “indefinite detentions” plan is just as bad… I cannot imagine doing it again.

For those who complain about people who complain about President Obama’s actions or lack of, I say in a functional democratic system, it is the responsibility of the electorate to slap some sense into Barry verbally before it is too late. Ask yourself: what kind of monumental decisions did Barack Obama have to make before he became president? What were they? Was it deciding to buy an Apple computer over a Microsoft one? Or was it to try cold turkey over nicorette in an attempt to stop smoking? Or was it how hard he would have to throw his former pastor, Rev. Wright, to the curb?
Now that he has won the prize turkey, Barack Obama is making decisions that affect the life and death of thousands of Americans. Where in all of his media cool background is it revealed that he has the acquired wisdom to approach these monumental decisions? Instead, the American people are treated to patriotic bombast down in Fort Hood, where one of the Army’s own went rogue and decided to dispatch his fellow brothers about to be shipped off to Afghanistan. Afghanistan: an escalated deployment ordered by the new commander-in-chief, who has obviously decided that he chooses to not let the killing stop… and he has the rhetorical gall to bring up that tired old saw of patriotic jingoism, about making the supreme sacrifice to protect our freedoms. What a crock of nonsense that all is. If he believes that, he is even a bigger fool than the cynical dangerous grocery clerk he is for the war machine.
To be silent about such insanity is the most hideous compliance of all.

Obama was the bridge in the false appearance of a hermetically sealed two-party system. One infiltrated by religious extremists who are hell bent, or is it heaven, for domination of this nation and eventually the world. They are very close. Obama may be a patsy, fall guy, willing tool for them who would flush him in a second if it got them closer to ending this experiment in secular gov’t. They are rich beyond most any thing. [The richest here have $30 trillion in assets which is almost 3X the net worth of the USA!]

Obama is dissapointing to those who misunderstood what was happening here. Thought a man who has stood not for us but for the oligarchs would turn 180 degrees away from his backers. He didn’t. People wanted him to be their savior. Desperation can do that. It explains why we are still threatened with a melt down of our economy. When that happens his masters will come out of their closet to save us with a rigid dictatorship. Most will take it, why? Because the alternative they will give us is chaos and Mad Maxland. Most will take the former in a second if it gives them back most of what they are familiar with. One thing about dictatorships is that they have no other crime. Kucinich was the one, Wellstone was dead, who would fight the power and get us out of this. But then that was why they 86ed him with extreme prejudice as fast as they could. Voting? What good is it if all the other elements are chosen by others before your turn? Look up Mocton‘s Fork.

Oh and G.W.Bush thought he had a direct communications link to God too.

Year one of the Obama presidency has been frustrating, not for what we haven’t achieved (no sane person could expect the enormous momemtum of US policy to change overnight), but for the lack of credit given for what has been accomplished. I for one feel the ship of state turning every day. Annoyingly, only a degree at a time, but turning none the less. That won’t stop the chattering classes defining the Obama presidency minute-by-minute. They have a job to do. They have to fill the airwaves with constant commentary. In such a world every setback is an unmitigated failure signalling the demise of the administration and every success sets the stage for the next failure.

How wonderful it would be if one man could step up and clean up the mess it took the previous administration, and their lock-step Congress eight years to create.

Even more wonderful would be a few pundits, news-wonks and bitchy people actually understanding, let alone caring about how really nasty that mess is. And even more wonderful than that, would be an army of folks rolling up their sleeves and stepping up to help with cleaning up the mess. But then, that’s not what pundits, news-wonks and bitchy people are for, is it.

Nope they have just one very specific purpose in life. To point out failure. Or at the very least try to label every effort as failure. What ever would we do if we didn’t have pundits, news-wonks and bitchy people to provide this valuable service?

Well for starters, we might actually understand the difference between cleaning up someone else’s mess and creating our own. But that would only lead to confusion, and certainly wouldn’t make the mess any less messy. But maybe that’s the whole point. Confuse and obfuscate. Confuse and mislead, and know as well as you know your own byline, such behavior sells news, which in turn sells product, which in turn keeps Corporate America happy, which in turn keeps the Board lighting up on Wall Street, which at the end of the day does absolutely nothing to bring the mess any closer to getting cleaned up. But hey ... it’s a living.

Besides, it’s so much more fun to be angry and find fault and point fingers and lay blame ... and live with the delusion that somehow that helps, which in turn allows the delusional to believe they contribute something of great value.

I think I’ll go watch Sesame Street.

War hawks should be patient. They will get their wish. 250 thousand American
troops will use Afghanistan as a staging ground to conquer Russia And China.
The victorious army should arrive in Moscow And Beijing in less than 30 days. But
they will have to climb over the vodka bottles and rice bowls left behind by the
retreating armies.

Hulk2008, you’re right: too many people set too high a bar for Obama.  It should be at about two and a half inches.  By the way, in what asylum are you residing?  Sounds like they’re treating you very well.