Kool-Aid and Teabags

Well, it's official. Obama did drink Georgie's kool-aid. While his speech was not nearly as manic and psychotic as I've heard Georgie on the subject on those wars, he was reiterating him. Particularly when it came to the wording, according to Huffington Post.


Obviously, he never read Michael Moore's open letter. He most certainly wasn't listening to his own constituents. I doubt even most of the Dems in his own party agree with this decision. All were probably thinking the same thing: neither Afghanistan nor the Iraq wars were his. He could have ended both of them right now; sign orders to bring the troops home; to cut their losses. All who voted for him and his fellow Democrats (with perhaps the exception of Blue Dogs and members of C street) would not only have let him go for pulling the plug on both wars but it would have been more welcome than this. Obama is now a 'war president', having taken ownership of Afghanistan war.


As with LBJ before him, Obama is already taking hits from both the left and the right. The right, of course, say no deadlines should have been set and even his own friendly democrats are balking at the idea of sending 30 000 troops.


Imperialism is still imperialism, no matter who does it. Funny how Obama called the U.S. relationship with Pakistan a 'partnership'. Perhaps before making such assumptions, he should have checked some polls about the Pakistani people.


A Gallup poll in Pakistan last August showed that only 11% of Pakistanis felt that the Taliban were the biggest threat to their country. 18% felt India was the biggest threat and, you guessed it, the poll indicates that the U.S. is their biggest threat. That same poll also concluded that 67% of Pakistanis were against any Americans conducting operations in that country.  That message to me is loud and clear; the Pakistanis never asked for our help and they don't want or need it.


As for the Afghans, they too, no longer welcome us in their country. They never welcomed foreigners. The Soviets learned that the hard way. This is a country where democracy clearly doesn't work. The so-called elected Karzai government is corrupt and that will never ever change.


The Taliban will never disappear completely as no one can really know who they are. The Afghan people seem to believe that Taliban occupation is the lesser of the evils. Yes, even the women believe this. Life hasn't changed that much for them. Karzai is still very much a misogynist, having made into law that husbands were allowed to rape their wives; the term 'rape' doesn't exist in their world. It's how both men and women over there prefer it.


As for Al-Qaeda, most are from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan. There is nothing to indicate that they would even still be in Afghanistan or Pakistan for that matter. After all those years, with all the intelligence the U.S. has to offer, such as the CIA, how come no one caught Al-Qaeda?


What is with Obama anyway?  First, it was the waffling on the public option for health care reform; a plan that will significantly be watered down.


Now, he is practically giving a carbon copy speech of Georgie's. 


What the hell does he hope to achieve? He obviously hasn't learned that in trying to make all happy, you make everyone unhappy and this is what exactly is happening here.


Obama will never endear himself to Republicans, the ever-growing loud tea-baggers and of course, the Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Fox News machines.  I expect it will get worse. Obama may have had a shot at a second term if he pulled the troops out now and just not taken ownership of this war. It will worsen as this time, he will have alienated his supporters and they won't be so quick to defend him.


Below, is Michael Moore's reaction on the Larry King Show last night.  His take is that he still believes Obama is a decent man with a good heart, but he is taking very bad advice that will cost him. 




Since Obama is sure to be a one term president and his former supporters will either abstain from voting in the next election or vote for a fringe candidate like Ralph Nader, I dare say, Say hello to President Palin. I know, a gloomy outlook, but she will be the GOP candidate as they have no one near the star status of See Sawah run. Intelligence obviously doesn't matter here; like Ronald Reagan being the useful idiot to Don Regan of Merrill Lynch, Sawah will have a corporate puppet master running the country behind the scenes.


No, she won't win because she will end the wars, if anything, she'll probably expand wars all over Middle-East. She will win because the noisy minority of the growing popularity of the Tea-bagger movement will outshine the cynical and silent progressives.


She will also win the same way Georgie did; scaring American voters into believing only she and the GOP and tea-baggers can keep them safe; to keep the Communist Muslim boogie men from hiding under their beds. This escalation has already provoked the Taliban to strengthen their resolve.  No doubt Al-Qaeda will be provoked into further attempts at attacks on U.S. soil. Obama will be blamed for that as well.


I wish it were April fool or Halloween, but anything short of Obama changing his mind and withdrawing the troops immediately and cutting their losses,  his presidency is over. I really hope he realizes this decision will ruin the U.S. by giving the keys to Sawah.

One More Night of Hope, Mr President, Pull the Plug

One more night indeed and it doesn't look good. Depending what you read, it looks like Obama is going to be repeating the mistakes of Lyndon B Johnson in the 60s.


Johnson's fateful decision to continue to escalate the Vietnam war is what costed him the presidency in 1968.


The New York Times as well as other pundits, including those in Canada like Craig Oliver are calling this Obama's Vietnam. 


After all, it has been proven by pretty much all, except for some war mongering wingnut chicken hawks on the Right, that this war isn't winnable. The Soviets had proven this much many years ago. They knew when to cut their losses, pack up the show and haul it on home.


The Afghans don't want any more foreigners invading their homes and way of life. They have made this clear. Life has gotten worse for them since we began to invade. Even the women aren't noticing much improvement. Malalai Joya, who once served on Afghan parliament admits this. 

"Women's conditions in some cities have slightly improved since the Taliban regime. But if we compare it with the era before the rule of the fundamentalists in Afghanistan, it has not changed much. Afghan women had more rights in the 1960s to 1980s than today. Rapes, abductions, murders, violence, forced marriages, and violence are increasing at an alarming rate never seen before in our history. Women commit self-immolation to escape their miseries, and the rate of self-immolations is climbing in many of the provinces. Afghanistan still faces a women's rights catastrophe.

"The root cause of this ongoing catastrophe in Afghanistan is that the government is controlled by fundamentalists of both brands (jihadis and Taliban) who are constantly nourished by the United States and its allies. …People suffer from such extreme insecurity that many have stopped sending their children to school, especially girls, fearing that they might be kidnapped or raped." 

Why are we all there again? As I've pointed out here, this is not a war on terror, this is not about improving the lives of Afghans, particularly the women. PM Gordon Brown has even warned Karzai about corruption in his government. Every government knows this government is corrupt and no, it will never be able to sustain itself. As I've pointed out in the past as well as others, I'm sure, it doesn't matter when we leave: the Taliban will be back at the helm. The folks of Afghanistan seem to prefer life under them than with this war.

In the words of Michael Moore, it would seem that Obama is about to drink Bush's kool-aid and cave into the pressure General McChrystal to send about 40 000 more troops. 

 “This is not a war of choice,” he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their convention in Phoenix. “This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans.”

Except for one problem: Binladen and the other thugs who were behind 9/11 have not been caught. We've been at war for eight years, allowing a corrupt Karzai Government to continue, killing innocent civilians and cutting short the futures of many soldiers. Ouf! what a mess! How in the world continuing this senseless war; this Vietnam,  going to accomplish anything it hadn't in the previous eight years? 

Gulp! He is indeed about to drink Bush's Kool-aid! How did he get sucked into it? If the GOP was pressuring him to send more troops as well, he doesn't realize that he's playing into their hands? The GOP and their pundits don't really care about the wars overseas, they see what can cost Obama the presidency.

It is time to end the war, Mr President. Make that move to start withdrawing. The Europeans would surely pull out as well, and yes, maybe even our war mongering, monkey-see; monkey-do PM will follow your lead and pull the show out. Let's just get out now. Take a cue from the Soviets before us and cut our losses. Continuing an unpopular and unwinnable war cost LBJ the presidency in spite of the good things he did implement in the U.S. Obama is pretty certain to meet this very same fate.

As Michael Moore says in a letter he wrote to Obama, he can show courage by ending this all right now. Here is the letter from Moore to Obama

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662. I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to commit.

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone -- and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout "tea bag!"

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.

We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?

Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by abandoning the rest of us.

President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.

Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.

We're counting on you.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. There's still time to have your voice heard. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or email the President.

You can get the email link here. 

I sincerely hope that President Obama will lead and do the courageous thing. This war needs to end now (as does the one in Iraq, of course). It's about time the President concentrated on helping his own people recover from the recession and the damage that is Georgie jr and Dickie. Let's do what the Afghans want us to do: get the hell out!

Boycott Cafe Press

Remember my posting from last night? All that crazy merchandise suggesting a psalm from the bible kill the Pres of the United States? Cafe Press and Zazzle were selling all that merchandise from mugs to dog sweaters encouraging the murder of President Obama.

I heard that Zazzle pulled the merchandise off their site, but Cafe Press is still selling it. 

I think Cafe Press should be boycotted. 

Agree or disagree with President Obama; support him or not; I think we can all at least agree that this wingnuttery goes way too far and I don't think anyone wants to actually hear he got assassinated. 

If you agree with me, don't buy anything from that site and for those who use it to sell their products, please consider pulling it and finding another host.

Health Care Reform Passed!

It passed by the narrowest of margins: 220 Aye (including one GOPer) and 215 Nay, according to breaking news at Huffington Post. Here is the break down of the votes.


Below is Nancy Pelosi's declaration of the new health care bill passing.


Yes, good the Government will have a tighter noose on the insurance companies and they won't be able to discriminate anymore based on gender or pre-existing condition. It is, however, watered down. How disappointing! What is this?? Subsidizing lower income Americans so they can buy insurance?? Whatever happened to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Public option?? I did not see anything about a public option in there.  Subsidizing purchasing of insurance will surely be more expensive to the tax payers than the public option would ever be...


I wonder if this will cost Obama a second term?? Surely the more progressive Democrats will no longer have confidance in him and the Tea-baggers will surely have replaced the GOP with Rush Limbaugh at the helm. Oh what a mess!


I'm glad there is reform of some kind. The very fact the insurance companies are going to have to play fair now is already progress, as well as more will be insured, or so it says on paper.


UPDATE: 


It seems there is a public option. I apologize for having jumped the gun. Here are the particulars of this new health care bill. As mentioned, insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate based on gender or pre-existing condition.  I hope it will be put into practise in all states.

What is the Problem? It's a Public Option, Not a Communist Conspiracy

As a Canuck observing the health care debate state side, I've been really shaking my head with disappointment and confusion. Sometimes there's hope of a public option, sometimes something happens for them to all start running scared. Some come up with ideas to replace the public option, like subsidizing lower income families and then they worry about costs. Well, the public option would be alot cheaper. Our single-payer system is cheaper than the American mess of a health care system such as it is.

I read Dammit Janet's and The Galloping Beaver's posts last night about President Obama not only waffling on the public option, but actively discouraging the public option, according to an article at Huffington Post on Saturday. And for what? To please Senator Olympia Snowe? Funny, because she seems to be caring more about what her fellow Republicans are thinking about her and maybe even what Fox News says about her than whatever President Obama is concerned about.


I can't believe I'm going to use this phrase: in the words of Dr. Phil, this is the tail wagging the dog here. Obama is backing out of the public option to please a GOP senator, a senator who is a member of the minority, no less. As the folks in the video below indicate, it's time to show some leadership Mr. Obama, it's up to you to either convince Senator Olympia Snowe to pay more attention to the constituents in Maine who clearly favour a public option and less attention to her fellow GOPers and to Fox News, or just leave her out of the negotiations completely.


Perhaps you would be better served to convince your fellow Democrats like Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana who have doubts.


You are close to getting the 60 votes you need to override a filibuster. Don't back out now.

See, Mr. President? Listen to  your supporters and listen to the members of your party. Keep this campaign promise. Show some credibility. Show some leadership.


In today's New York Times, Senate majority leader, Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced there will be a public option in the proposed health care bill, however it leaves room for states to opt out  should they so choose. 


“I’ve concluded, with the support of the White House, Senators Dodd and Baucus, that the best way to move forward is to include a public option with the opt-out provision for states,”


YEESSHH!! A step in the right direction, but still pandering to the GOP. Nevertheless, it is believed that this public option presented in this way should pass. According to yesterday's New York Times, John McCain ever so begrudgingly admitted this could fly:


“I think the Democrats have the votes, and in the House, Blue Dogs bark but never bite,” Mr. McCain said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” using the nickname for conservative Democrats . “So I don’t think they have a problem over in the House side. In the Senate I think the Democrats are very aware that they don’t want a repeat of the Clinton failure in 1994. So I think it’s very likely they will get something through. But it’s not clear to me what it is.”


So, Mr. President, it looks like you could get your 60 votes for a public option. All you have to do his be a mensch and a leader and stand behind the public option. Never mind bi-partisanship, the GOP will never extend the same courtesy; they have made this plain. Even Olympia Snowe is not playing ball, in spite of the fact the state she represents favors a public option. Never mind the insurance companies, they will survive.  Do it because it's the right thing to do. Do it, because it was a campaign promise. Do it, because your mentor, the late Ted Kennedy wanted health care reform and no doubt would have wanted you to push the public option. Health care reform was something he strived for in his 40 year career.  He took time out of his treatments to endorse you: don't let him down. 


UPDATE: According to Huffington Post this afternoon, Harry Reid has announced that a public option of some kind will be in.


According to a CNN report, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has stated that President Obama is now behind a public option: 


"He supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition," Gibbs said.


Keep going! Every other industrialized country has a government option and covers all of its' citizens; it's about time the United States does the same, once and for all.


Message to Ms. Snowe: Stop being so afraid! It's a public option, not some communist conspiracy. You say you want health care reform? Here's your chance to prove it. Listen more to your constituents and less to fellow GOPers.

Neo Cons on Obama Nobel Prize: Tea-Baggers Hostile Take-over of the GOP--Thanksgiving Edition of Brain Drain Fun--Revised

Top eight Neo-con Attacks on Barack Obama winning the 

Nobel Peace Prize, from Huffington Post

Agree or disagree with the decision to award Pres. Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize,  these notable Neo-cons will always find ways of making bigger asses of themselves. Some you've heard.

8. That famous Rush Limbaugh line about the Taliban: "Something has happened here that we all agree with the Taliban and Iran about and that is he doesn't deserve the award.

- Oh Rush, who's the traitor now?  I'd be happy to send you to Iran...by row-boat!

7. Now for some convaluded logic and wishful thinking (although, sadly, looking more real) from Bill Kristol: "Obama will be kicked out in 2012, based on the fact that the Soviet Union collapsed a year after Mikhail Gorbachev won a Nobel Peace Prize. "

-Billy Boy! If we were to use your logic, Obama would not only be kicked out in 2012; but the U.S. would collapse. Where would you go, then, you bungling fool? 

6. Here's a goody from Glenn Beck, every neo-con's God. This one is particularly funny: "Obama doesn't deserve the prize, but the Tea Party protesters do." He credited an "extraordinarily powerful" global progressive network for bagging Obama the win."

-well, Glenn may have a point about the Tea-bagger's hit-parade; they did show up without guns.

5. Erick Erickson, playing that ol' race card; crying affirmative action here: "President Obama must have been picked to meet some Nobel Peace Prize "affirmative action quota."

-Yes, Erick everytime they award a black man, an angel gets his/her wings

4.  John Bolton, Mr. Mustache here looks like he forgot to take that metamucil in his pic: obviously still sore about not getting confirmed as ambassador to the U.N. He offers nothing interesting unfortunately; just says Obama should have turned down the prize. But go to the site and look at his pic: it just screams alot more than a cheesy mustache, constipation and sour grapes.

3. National Review's Andy McCarthy says the prize is already damaged goods, because Yasser Arafat once won it.

-Well, if the prize is damaged goods, why should he care who wins it from here on out?  Me thinks he's damaged goods.

2. Limbaugh, again: never satisfied not being the biggest ass-hole, so, here's another brilliant quip of his: told Newsweek that "the Nobel gang just suicide-bombed themselves."

- Do I really need to elaborate here?  Maybe he wished he'd done it first.

1. Brian Kilmeade: "wonders whether Obama delayed his decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan to win the Nobel."

-Help me out here: delaying his decision to send more troops to win the Nobel? Hmm!  If  Obama's only ambition was to win the peace prize and use whatever stategy to win: wouldn't it have just made more sense to bring home all the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Here's my favourite attack thus far;  from this wingnut, Dick Morris: 

"The Nobel Prize to Obama: Europe's Bid to re-colonize America": the title of his blog. He seems to think the Norwegians nominated Obama because, get this, Europe needs to conquer the  U.S. in order for European socialism to work. Click the above link to read the rest of his insanity. It is quite entertaining.

Funny, I always thought European countries under socialist governments were doing quite well without the U.S. After all, didn't Norway come first in a U.N. study not long ago?? 

Sad, but even worse, Right-winge Canadian talk-radio hosts just aren't much better. Speaking of Which...

Ryan Doyle's New Buddy

Remember that red-neck host of Toronto's CFRB I'd been ranting about? Well, the evening following his inaccurate and hateful  review of Michael Moore's new movie, ever so proudly announcing that non other than Sean Hannaty was his new ally. 

We all know how credible ol' Sean is don't we? Go view the videos at Red Tory's blog here and the third video will be here. After viewing all the videos, all I saw was an excitable Hannaty with Michael Moore remaining calm and laughing at him during various rants.

Congratz Ryan, now you're like Sean. Time to graduate to Rush  Limbaugh now, boy. 

Tea-baggers Planning Hostile Take over 

...of the GOP

Well, according to Politico, the Tea-Baggers have certainly been busy. In addition to wanting to oust the Obama government in anyway possible, they are also attempting a hostile take-over of the GOP. 

"...tea party forces are confronting the Republican establishment by backing insurgent conservatives and generating their own candidates — even if it means taking on GOP incumbents."

You see, Dick Armey, a former GOP congressman, chairman of the anti-tax and limited government advocacy group FreedomWorks, which helped plan and promote the tea parties, town hall protests and the September ‘Taxpayer March’ in Washington has a problem with certain Incumbent Republican centrists remaining in power.  Long story short: like the bible, they are just not conservative enough:  

“If you can’t take it seriously, we will look for places of other employment for you.”

They want to back insurgent conservatives and generate their own candidates: 

Ah, here once again, is Erick Erickson! (I do wonder if that's his real name?): 

“Grass-roots activists need to start infiltrating the party,” said Erickson. “The only way to start getting [the establishment] back is to start pounding them with every fist we have.” 

Well, he is going easy on the GOP: he's only going to go after them with his fists:  his tea-bagger friends show up to Democrat Town Hall meetings with guns.

Happy Turkey Day, All!