He's Baaaack

The most incredible straight-face-keeper I have ever seen interviewed people in front of a Sarah Palin book signing, which produces an equally jaw-dropping effect as his previous interviews at the 9/12 rally. Enjoy, and join me in a toast to the death of reason!

To be fair, below are some snippets of protests published on Andrew Sullivan's blog at The Atlantic from people on the Left claiming that Democrats are being too hard on President Obama, equally devoid of fact and thoughtfulness and which, also, make far more claims about Obama's perceived character than his policies. But I guess "where someone's heart is" has always been a more important barometer for success than action in this country, anyways.

"Thank goodness people are starting to leave the left. Their abandonment of Obama is as unconscionable as the right's refusal to work with him. . . . This is about decency and working together to solve problems. . . . Obama is almost solitary in his desire and ability to tackle problems of epic proportion while realizing that we live in a very heterogeneous society. . . . The loud-mouths on the Left are becoming nearly as hysterical and vicious as those on the right. . . . I marvel (unhappily) on a daily basis on how myopic and stubborn many of those on the left have become in regards to President Obama. I wonder if any of these people have ever truly had to make hard decisions in their lives. Have they not ever had to weigh all consequences?. . . . These are real choices people, not a schoolyard fantasy, in which our guy, king of the geeks, is finally captain of the kickball team, and now he can pick us fellow geeks and play us all in sweet revenge against the jocks. He is not playing. He is leading. Not even one year in, I am willing to continue to trust his instinct, his grace, his patience and his measured hand. . . .These are the reasons I voted for him. Hope for a leader, not hope for "everything to be completely different from the previous guy regardless of the consequences", which is what I think many immature democrats are upset about. What a bunch of selfish babies. . . . The stuff coming out of "progressive" mouths is all too often on a par with Glenn Beck's abusive rants--both sides (right and left wingers) playing thousand-pound national football with the President as the ball--meaning, kick kick kick, until you bust his dick. This truly makes me sick."

BUMMER WEDNESDAY PART DEUX

Obama is looking worse and worse these days, and it makes me = (. Across the board, with all of his policies it is becoming clear we did not elect the courageous liberal outsider who would do what his more politically concerned contemporaries were too busy worrying about staying in office to get done, after all. Instead, we have a president who is barely voicing an opinion during the most potentially historic health care reform debate in our nation's history, not just ignores but actually speaks out against gay rights at a time where national opinion on the matter has never been higher, and puts forth maximum effort trying to reform the pieces of a broken and morally bankrupt economic system rather than seize this great opportunity to restructure it.

And now the one area where those of us who wanted so badly to believe in him could point to for a genuine ray of light, his foreign policy objectives, has gone completely down the shitter with one devastating speech. Obama declared his plan to increase troops, as pointed out by Magical Fuckers below, and in his speech made use of (a lack of) logic that will be terrifyingly familiar to anyone paying attention during the Bush/Cheney years. Obama appears now to have fully embraced the Bush Doctrine, which for me, and many prominent liberals, officially puts an end to the ability or desire to give him the benefit of any doubt. In case you, like Sarah Palin, don't know what the Bush doctrine is, Rachel Maddow testifies with typical brilliance below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"There were two 'Reigns of Terror', if we could but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million; but our shudders are all for the horrors of the... momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror - that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves."

Mark Twain, writing about the French Revolution,
in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

This Guy Is So Cool

Boys and girls (Do any girls read this blog? If so, comment in the replies and assert your feminine identity, because I'm really curious. Additionally, does anyone read this blog?), I would like to introduce you to Ken Silverstein, Washington Editor for Harper's magazine and blogger for Harpers online. Here is his comment on Barack Obama's recent decision to delay his meeting with the Dali Lama in order to curry favor with the Chinese government.

"Mind you, I think the Dalai Lama is an overrated gasbag who’s never accomplished much of anything, and that many Western supporters of the Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom are dippy pretend Buddhists. Still, he does represent the people of Tibet and it’s sad that Obama appears to have even less courage than George W. Bush when it comes to accommodating the Chinese government."

An article cited by Silverstein points out that this will be the first time since 1991 that the Dali Lama will visit the United States and NOT meet with the president. Additionally, George W. Bush, of all people, was apparently the first sitting president to meet publicly with the Dali Lama. This isn't quite as shocking as it may seem, after a little reflection, when you take into account his vociferous hatred of those (i.e. China) who "hate democracy." (i.e. Him) Still, on the surface level, he is making Obama look bad by comparison, something I never conceived to be possible. Pretty disheartening.

The Impotence of Obama's Power

Some of you may have been asking, if you keep up with current events, WTF is George W. Bush still doing in the White House? A valid question, to be sure. He should not still be there! (EDIT: I was recently told he is actually no longer residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and apparently hasn't been for some months now. Additionally, and even more embarrassingly for me, he isn't even making policy decisions anymore. Fooled me!) Anyways, here is an article from the New York Review of Books about the inability of a modern US president to function in a way he might see fit due to the longtime accumulation of laws and responsibilities, both legal and illegal, that have increasingly factored into and distorted what exactly it means to be Commander in Chief of this once great country. Excerpts below, as well as a link to the full article. Enjoy, guys!

"But the momentum of accumulating powers in the executive is not easily reversed, checked, or even slowed. It was not created by the Bush administration. The whole history of America since World War II caused an inertial transfer of power toward the executive branch. The monopoly on use of nuclear weaponry, the cult of the commander in chief, the worldwide network of military bases to maintain nuclear alert and supremacy, the secret intelligence agencies, the entire national security state, the classification and clearance systems, the expansion of state secrets, the withholding of evidence and information, the permanent emergency that has melded World War II with the cold war and the cold war with the "war on terror"—all these make a vast and intricate structure that may not yield to effort at dismantling it. Sixty-eight straight years of war emergency powers (1941–2009) have made the abnormal normal, and constitutional diminishment the settled order.

"The truth of this was borne out in the early days of Barack Obama's presidency. At his confirmation hearing to be head of the CIA, Leon Panetta said that "extraordinary rendition"—the practice of sending prisoners to foreign countries—was a tool he meant to retain.^[1] Obama's nominee for solicitor general, Elena Kagan, told Congress that she agreed with John Yoo's claim that a terrorist captured anywhere should be subject to "battlefield law."^[2] On the first opportunity to abort trial proceedings by invoking "state secrets"—the policy based on the faulty Reynolds case—Obama's attorney gen- eral, Eric Holder, did so.^[3] Obama refused to release photographs of "enhanced interrogation." The CIA had earlier (illegally) destroyed ninety-two videotapes of such interrogations—and Obama refused to release documents describing the tapes."

"On January 25, 2002, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales signed a memo written by David Addington that called the Geneva Conventions "quaint" and "obsolete." Perhaps, in the nuclear era, the Constitution has become quaint and obsolete. Few people even consider anymore Madison's lapidary pronouncement, "In republican government the legislative authority necessarily predominates." Instead, we are all, as citizens, asked to salute our commander in chief. Any president, wanting leverage to accomplish his goals, must find it hard to give up the aura of war chief, the mystery and majesty that have accrued to him with control of the Bomb, the awesome proximity to the Football, to the Button."

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23110