Tag Archives: Obama

Misc

McChrystal has to go….

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Well…haven’t been paying to much attention today and this story just appeared like a quick thunderstorm…the commanding general in Afghanistan, General McChrystal, in a far-ranging interview with Rolling Stone Magazine has shown his true colors..or I should say has re-affirmed his true colors by again being insubordinate to President Obama. This guy needs to be removed and immediately. President Obama, do not think about this, do not mull it over, do not study it…just do it. This guy is acting like Bush is still president…when they could talk a good game and not accomplish anything and still keep their jobs. And, it appears that he has the same infection that the rest of the Republicans do…that makes them do and say irrational things whenever Obama is involved. Just look at the tea partiers….

I wouldn’t be surprised if McChrystal lands a new job as the Fox News military consultant.

He’s acted like a spoiled child throughout his career when he didn’t get his way…the definition of insubordination…he has to be taught that the military is under civilian control…geez…

Politics

You’re on your own….

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Well…can the Repubs get any more obvious who they are lining up behind in the oil spill mess? First, you have Joe Barton apologizing to BP for Obama slapping them on the wrist…and then you have the new talking points that are urging impeachment for Obama since the Repubs think that asking BP to step up to their responsibilities is an unconstitutional use of presidential power. It’s not like the scene from “The Godfather” where a character holding a gun says that either the subject’s signature or brains were going to end up on a contract. What Obama did is called “jawboning” and it has been a part of the president’s prerogative since there was a President. What the hell is with these guys? I think Eugene Robinson, from the Washington Post, said it best…that the Repubs just want to attack Obama and it doesn’t matter if what they say is true, false, or even rooted in reality…it is the same tactic they used on Clinton, Kerry, and a host of other Democrats. The sad thing is that the Repub followers believe and support this crap.

What Obama is doing, and what I have advocated for many, many years, is a key role of the government that was abdicated under the Repubs…that is to be a referee between the average American and the overwhelming power of the modern corporation. What the Repubs want to happen is, instead of the 20 billion fund that Obama has gotten from BP, is for each and every harmed individual to bet their life savings and take BP to court, or, if you don’t have any savings, you are just out of luck. If we sit here and think for just a second…that’s long enough…we’ll see the other predominately Repub group that would benefit from extended litigation and court fights. Yep, you guessed it..the trial lawyers; not to mention BP.

Please, please, please, America….open your eyes and see just once what the Repubs are all about…they don’t care about you or any other American that is part of the middle class….this is their “let them eat cake” moment…and I hope the results are the same as the French revolution. Geez….

Politics

Thank you Jon Stewart….

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This is just a placeholder so I’ll remember that I want to touch on the disappointment I have with Obama when it comes to his promises to restore the rule of law…broken promises…he is quickly losing me and many other supporters with unprincipled continuation of the Bushies worst abuses….and I’m going to have drinks this aft so I need help remembering….told you I have flaws…

Politics

The Supremes are at it again….

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Well…another case where, when you turn over the rocks that the Bushies hide under, the stench becomes unbearable when their policies of torture and extraordinary rendition are involved. I hope you take the time to read about the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer who was kidnapped when traveling through the US by the US government and sent to Syria where he was held and tortured for almost a year until the Canadians determined that the information they provided to the US was false. Now, this is a man whose only crime is having a name that is similar to ones that were on the flawed terrorist watchlists that the Bushies used to terrorize anyone they felt, in their own minds, was a danger to the US.

I find it such an egregious failure to uphold the constitution in this case and I also fault the Obama administration for doing the same damn things that were a breach on international law by the Bushies. Sending the acting solicitor general to argue to the Supreme court that national security issues are involved and thus we can’t allow this to go to court. Did they buy the same playbook that Cheney used to gut our Constitution? The information that they are so concerned about has already been revealed by the investigation that the Canadians did; finding that this man was completely innocent and compensating him over 9 million dollars for his ordeal. When did we give up moral leadership to the rest of the world? Oh, that’s right, when the Bushies decided to torture!

I have to say thanks to the Canadians for setting the example of taking responsibility for their mistakes…something that Obama and his administration have yet to learn…geez….

Politics

I was right about Obama’s speech…

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Well….it only took two days for the righties to start attacking Obama for his speech in K’zoo Monday. I don’t want to gloat (well…yes I do) but I called that Monday while the speech was going on. Okay, I’ll be back after lunch to finish this…yep, just a teaser…you go to lunch, too, and there will something waiting for you if you’re not too motivated on hump day. More later…

Okay…I’m back….and I’m going call this idiot out from the Detroit News…Manny Lopez, in his column in the News Tuesday, made a huge point of the fact that the Kalamazoo Promise scholarships are funded by private donors and that Obama didn’t kiss their butts enough in his speech. His premise was that there is no need for any government involvement in higher education since “see, private funding works in K’zoo” but what he fails to admit or realize is the fact that it has been the gutting of government programs that help the middle and lower class afford college by the Repubs that made private funding necessary. Yeah, I agree it would be great if some of his repub buddies, for example the trader at Goldman that made a BILLION dollars in compensation, would give some back.

But, there is an underlying flaw in that logic that we all should be aware of, and that is that if it is private money, there can be strings attached to it that could advance the repubs agenda. What if a student that accepted the scholarship would be required to attend a specified and well-recognized conservative school that would do the same thing the righties are so scared of on the left; that is “indoctinate” them in the ideas that would perpetuate another class of leaders that won’t give a damn about the middle class.

Doesn’t anyone see that private funding would be just another instance where the lower and middle class will then have to go to the rich with their hands out and beg for a college education?

I’m sure they will say that that kind of stuff doesn’t happen in the private sector, that the market will decide and support the “right” ideas…well…all I have to say about their blind allegiance to the market and to the goodwill of the rich is to look back at Enron, BP, Goldman, AIG…and the list goes on and on.

We should not bet the future of the education of our children on the fleeting goodwill of people who are so insulated from the struggles of normal folk…

Manny…this is not about Obama’s agenda or your feared socialist takeover of the US..this night was about celebrating the fact that these kids had done something special, so special that the President of the United States saw the need to recognize that fact, and for you to politicize what is a wonderful part of America is the kind of cynicism and division we do not need right now…geez…

Politics

I’m astounded…

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I have to comment on the latest attack on Obama from the righties…their latest “HUH” moment came a few days ago when the President was touring the gulf coast to get a first-hand picture of the damage from the oil spill. Do you know what the latest criticism is?…wait for it……that he was wearing “fancy clothes” while he was being filmed by the many news organizations that were there. “Fancy clothes?”…what is he supposed to wear? Torn sweats and a Bubba Gump Shrimp t-shirt? You have got to be kidding me….why is there anyone still paying attention to Fox News? Geez….

My Life

June 8th

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Well…had an almost normal night last night, since it was Monday, out with G for a few beers and then back here to watch the Obama’s speech from K-zoo…the wireless was down but got that running this morning so I can get back online. Not a lot to say right now but I will give a heads up that I’m going to touch on how aggrieved religious folks seem these days….I don’t understand why it is so important for them that other ideas be stifled…why do they feel so threatened?

That might be the topic today but who knows? Haven’t read the papers yet and there may be something else that will arouse my ire or nothing…you’ll just have to come back to see..you know the regular schedule..work out, bike, then write…more later…

Politics

Okay, here’s some outrage…

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This is just a place holder for now until I get back from coffee…but I will touch on the fact that the Bushies have admitted torture and no one is prosecuting them for it. This one really pisses me off….more later…but not until I get the workout and a bike ride in…probably about 1 Eastern time….so, come on back…I know your work is boring at times (as I am) and I’ll bet you don’t have a window to stare out of…

Okay…looks like I’m having lunch with T again so the entry won’t be until 3 or so….come on back…

Back from a nice Lunch with T which tempers my outrage somewhat…but I still have enough of it from the happenings here in Gr last week. As you probably know, ole GW was here to speak to some organization or other and he reiterated his comments from many other occasions that he did. in fact, order the waterboarding of terror suspects and he glibly said that if he had the power, he would do it again to keep us safe. Sitting in the armchair on stage, with the smarmy little grin on his face, he admitted that he would commit a felony again, and again, and again. Doesn’t anyone see anything wrong with that? When they are locking up people for possession of marijuana for years, you have the one person who is supposed to uphold the Constitution saying he would repeatedly break the law, and admitting he had, being able to roam the country free and not being held accountable. I fault the Obama administration for making the political calculation that prosecuting the criminals would be unpopular; but that is not what the justice system is about. It is about the ideal of equal protection under the law and that there is no one that is above the law. But the Bushies never really cared about the law except when it was used to increase their power.

Doesn’t anyone remember that we hung Japanese interrogators after World War Two for doing exactly what Bush and his ilk approved….no wonder there is no respect for the US in the world anymore…geez…

Politics

Same old story…same old song and dance…

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Well…I have to say something about what many of the righty commentators have been spouting for quite a while…when Obama tries to figure out how we got into the messes of the Wall street meltdown and the gulf oil spill to name just a couple, it is a character flaw that he doesn’t take responsibility for what’s happening but tries to blame everything on the Bushies. The character flaw to me is from the righties who, throughout the Bush years, chanted the mantra “so what if we lied to get the US into war…it’s over and let’s move on”. This crap from the party of personal responsibility that made avoiding responsibility in government an art form. How do you know to not make the same mistakes if you don’t know what happened? And how can Obama know everything that was done by the Bushies to damage the governments ability to do it’s job; to protect it’s citizens. They had 8 years to screw it up and did…it’s easy to slam a car into a brick wall…it’s not so easy to fix the damage caused by the wreck…and a wreck of that magnitude takes more than 16 months to repair…geez…