Posts Tagged ‘Obama’
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Last night President Obama formally announced the withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq, bringing that sorry adventure closer its end, whatever that may be. Perhaps the fledgling Democracy, against formidable odds, will take root and flourish. Perhaps not. Al Qaeda and other disaffected parties may well be able to undermine the struggling government and an unproven army, bringing a new era of chaos and terror to an already traumatized people. There’s no point in rehashing the strategic errors, deranged assumptions and questionable motives that led George W. Bush to commit this country to the long, agonizing, expensive struggle. We can only hope that somehow, someday, the Mission Accomplished banner will fly without irony over a free and democratic Iraq.
Topics: cartoon, combat troops, Iraq, Mission Accomplished, Obama, opinion, withdrawal | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
The New York Times has been running leaked information about the war in Afghanistan, and–surprise!–it’s not going as well as the administration would like you to believe. What a shock. The administration was quick to point out that none of the information contained in the leaks was exactly new, which is true. Critics of publishing the story repeated the old, tired line about demoralizing the troops. I’m guessing the troops already know.
Topics: Afghanistan, cartoon, leak, military, New York Times, Obama, opinion, Pentagon, Taliban, Wikileaks | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart did it again, quite spectacularly this time. His first memorable foray into the slime was his destruction of ACORN with misleading videos edited to make it look as though the umbrella organization of community organizations, which primarily helped the poor and disadvantaged, was corrupt. His attempt at smearing civil rights hero John Lewis with preposterously edited videos was so outrageous even Fox News wouldn’t run them. His deliberately distorted videos of Shirley Sherrod’s speech initially appeared to be so damning that the NAACP, the White House and the Dept. of Agriculture (her employer) panicked and ran for the hills before the truth emerged. Breitbart claims that he simply ran the video and had no part in editing it, but given his history of deliberate distortions, it’s hard to believe him.
Even if he’s telling the truth, he didn’t bother to check the story. In that, he’s not alone. Fox News played the video without any qualms (hardly a surprise). The NAACP, which should have known better, rushed to denounce Ms. Sherrod, and her boss at Agriculture summarily fired her, with the approval of the White House, before doing even the slightest fact checking.
The far right understands all too well how easy it is to whip up white resentment with a black man in the oval office, and shamelessly looks for ways to fan those flames. It’s sad and despicable, but we should be used to that by now. What’s almost as sad is how easy it was to spook the folks who should be standing firm against such disgusting behavior, and how badly they reacted.
Given the events of the past week, we can look for the Breitbarts of the world to continue their high-tech lynchings. So much for post-racial America.
Topics: Andrew Breitbart, cartoon, conservatives, Fox News, NAACP, Obama, opinion, race, race baiting, right wing, Shirley Sherrod, white house | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
With all the bad news coming out of Afghanistan, I thought I’d look for the silver lining in the latest storm cloud, the firing of General Stanley McChrystal for his and his staff’s contemptuous comments about their civilian bosses. At least one group of soldiers is leaving America’s longest war ahead of schedule.
Topics: Afghanistan, cartoon, General Stanley McChrystal, Obama, opinion | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Like many who lean to the left, I’ve had a tendency to dismiss the Tea Party movement as a loud distraction, a small, misinformed collection of wingnuts. The reality is much more complicated. The economy is bad, and people are hurting. It’s natural at times like this for people to become angry, and they generally vent their anger at the party in power, whether that party is responsible for the economic conditions or not. What I can’t quite understand is why these same folks weren’t out in force when the Bush administration was running up huge deficits, increasing the size and scope of government, a compliant Republican Congress was spending like–well–like they accuse Democrats of spending, banks were ruining the economy and the Bush White House was bailing them out and passing massive stimulus bills. Add to that the Republican party shamelessly shifting the tax burden away from the rich and onto the middle class. I listen to the Tea Partiers rhetoric, and it seems to me that it applies at least equally tot he sins of the Republicans as it does to the Democrats, yet almost all of the anger is aimed at Obama. We haven’t seen this kind of vehemence since Clinton (who balanced the budget and reduced the size of government) was in office. I’m angry, too, but I’m furious with a Republican economic philosophy that has resulted in the decades-long stagnation of the income of us working stiffs while the rich have gained an increasing share of the nation’s wealth.
Topics: anger, Obama, opinion, politics, tea party, volcano | 21 Comments »
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Many years ago I read a hilarious Russell Baker column (at least, I’m pretty sure it was Russell Baker) in which he promised not to trash Richard Nixon for one single day. By the end of the column, however, he was unable to restrain himself and let loose a barrage of invective. I made a promise to myself to lay off criticizing the Party of No for its blind hyperpartisanship for a week or so, but like Mr. Baker a few decades ago, I couldn’t help myself. Even when Obama does something the GOP agrees with, its members join ranks against him. The party of “Drill, baby, drill!” now takes exception to Obama’s joining the chorus. So, I couldn’t help wondering what the reaction would be to Obama doing something completely innocuous like throwing out the first pitch of the baseball season. In my fantasy, something like this.
Topics: baseball, GOP, Obama, opinion, partisanship, Republicans | 14 Comments »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Here we go again. One more attempt at crafting a health care reform bill with the Republicans. The problem is that the GOP wants nothing to do with the main ideas the Democrats have put forth. Part of it is ideological–a reflexive rejection of anything but market-driven health care, (which has dismally failed either to provide for everyone or to control costs) and part is a reflexive desire to defeat Obama at all costs. The Republican idea of bipartisanship seems to be do it my way or not at all. We no longer have a legislative body in Washington capable of the compromises necessary to pass major legislation. This is a high-risk move on Obama’s part; if he fails to get anything, and the public blames him rather than the GOP (which has successfully outmaneuvered and out-communicated him so far), he can kiss his entire agenda goodbye, as well as the Congressional majority in November. If, on the other hand, he is able to show the Republicans for the obstructionists they are, or is able to persuade the members of his own party to develop backbones and pass something, he might yet have the last laugh.
Topics: bipartisanship, Congress, GOP, health care reform, health care summit, Obama, opinion, Republicans | 8 Comments »
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Hypocrisy is nothing new in politics, and neither side has a monopoly. That said, former vice president Dick Cheney is taking it to a whole new level with his constant attacks on the Obama administration’s conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the handling of terror cases. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that any criticism of the Bush/Cheney administration was undermining the morale of the troops, giving aid and comfort to then enemy and emboldening the terrorists. The word “treason” was even whispered in certain conservative circles. I won’t even go into the long-standing tradition of previous administrations not criticizing the current one, especially in wartime. That rule no longer applies, either. I’m left to conclude that the Republicans will do and say anything to undermine any Democratic administration, no matter what the cost to the nation.
Topics: Dick Cheney, national security, Obama, opinion, terrorism, War on Terror | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Here we go again. Obama is reaching out to Republicans one more time, convening a health care summit in hopes of crafting a bipartisan bill with a party that wants nothing to do with bipartisanship. If anything, Republicans, emboldened by Scott Brown’s surprise victory in Massachusetts, see obstructionism as the way to success at the polls. They’re going along, of course, because they have to at least pretend to want to work across the aisle. Their modest proposals for health care reform, which, if enacted, might extend coverage to about 5 percent of the nation’s uninsured, and which do nothing to contain costs, are so at odds with the president’s more sweeping proposals there is little chance that this summit will be anything but political theater.
Obama still seems reluctant to call the GOP out. The party that loudly demanded up and down votes on the Senate floor for Bush’s nominees now holds all of Obama’s hostage for months on the flimsiest of grounds–the latest being Richard Shelby’s hold on 70 nominees if he didn’t get an earmark for his state. It now takes 60 votes to accomplish anything in the Senate, thanks to the GOP’s filibuster of everything and anything. In the bizarre math of the current political paralysis, 41 votes defeats 59. And the inability of Democrats to accomplish anything in this environment appears to imperil their majority in November. President Obama, Mr. Cool, still refuses to raise his voice. The only people who seem to be genuinely angry, for all the wrong reasons, are the Tea Party loonies. Meanwhile, the country suffers.
Topics: bipartisanship, Congress, GOP, gridlock, Obama, opinion, partisanship, Republicans | 19 Comments »
