Loading ...The WSJ Calls It “Obama Versus Pelosi“
That’s right, President-elect Barry “Steve” Obama (YouTube) — take it as a fair warning from this left-leaning, independent (small “I” on purpose) blogger to keep that newly-appointed “Veto Pen” poised and ready now that you’ll be presiding over a nation who has given you the gift of a Democratic Congress and Senate. Deservedly so, I’ve often referred to this so-called “New Democratic Congress” as the “Do Nothing Democratic Congress” and apparently, most of my other fellow Americans — BOTH sides of the political aisle agree by rewarding them with the lowest approval rating of any other previous Congress in U.S. history — currently holding steady at 17.3% right now according to RealClearPolitics.
My appeal to you, President-elect “Steve”, is to bear in mind this is THE very same Congress, which succeeded the “Old Republican Congress” filled with such crooks, biggots, thieves and perverts as Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Trent Lott, Ted Stevens, Denny Hastert, David Vitter, and too many others to count in this short timeline I have to make my point today. When THAT “Congress” was approved by more Americans than the “Congress” led today by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — Houston, we’ve got PROBLEMS and you, Sir, will TOO should you kow-tow to their every wish.
I plead with you to resist this hated Congress when they approach you to sign a law criminalize smoking cigarettes. Since you yourself smoke cigarettes, Sir, I don’t think I’ll be surprised when you actually DO veto that one. I also plead with you to remember what happened when the Republican Party started licking their pasty, white, thick chops when President “Surge” Dubya Bush inherited the same situation you are on Capitol Hill; only he REFUSED to dust off his “Veto Pen” and rubber-stamped everything to cross his desk into law. If you’ll take the time to look at their shrinking ranks now, Sir, I’m sure you’ll agree this MIGHT not be a great tradition for you to continue.
We Americans, as a body, voted ourselves into a GOP-Led Police State when we decided the other way not so long ago and I’m begging you, “New Mr. President”, to resist any urges and/or pressure you might feel to simply transform this GOP Police State into a Democratic Nanny State. Should you fail to listen, your coveted party will pay DEARLY for it at the polls next time around and that’s not a threat or a promise, Sir…
It’s called “history“.
***
We should also remember that Harry S. Truman had an approval rating of about 23% when he left office, but is generally regarded by historians as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents. It is very difficult to be objective in your own time, too many emotions get in the way. None of us can truly predict how future historians will regard Pelosi, Reid,or President Bush.
I believe the future will judge Bush to have been a criminal and nothing more, and the American people will be viewed as sheep that failed miserably to stand up and put him in shackles where he belongs. After he pardons himself and his syndicate for all crimes past and present I suggest we bring in U.N. troops to bring him to the Hague for war crime trials.
The problem with future historians being the judge is that future historians don’t have to endure what’s going on today. It’s all fine and dandy if they wish to look back with nostalgia and decide that 2001-2009 was all hunky dory if not the Golden Age of the United States. I don’t care because history and nostalgia have never been accurate, so why should that change now?
For example, we like to think of how “innocent” our country was in the 1950′s and 1960′s. Schoolchildren nowadays are hoodlums and are contrasted with the schoolchildren of yesteryear. Apparently, it was a more moral time. Forget that black people couldn’t drink from the same water fountain and violent war protesters were everywhere. Maybe it was better during the Prohibition Era– when bootlegging led to gang rule. Innocent times, indeed.
Those historians didn’t get accidentally thrown into Gitmo because of a mixup and then weren’t allowed a lawyer– much less a trial or charges. Those historians will never have to learn that their personal phone calls to their husbands overseas became the entertainment of choice for individuals in the NSA. Those historians didn’t lose a husband and have to raise a new baby that hasn’t even been born yet without the benefit of his father. Those historians didn’t lose their homes or jobs due to an economic crisis partially brought on by a lack of regulation.
So forgive my cynicism in giving those historians 50 years from now any credit whatsoever when they look back on the early 21st century as being a time of economic strength and glory of war abroad. Historians are idiots who do nothing more than speculate on what it might have been like for those who experienced the situation. Forgive me if I consider those who actually lived it to be more credible experts on the matter.
I think you’re right, GTL, that if Obama goes with Pelosi and Reid he will have one term. But there’s hope in that Obama seems to be his own man and he surely knows how to read opinion polls. Actually I think we should replace Congress with 585 used car salesmen. At least they have a higher rating than our present Congress members and they do know how to close a sale.
So far Obama seems to be taking the right steps. I do like the 200 executive changes he is promising to make the day he takes office, reversing much of the Bush/Cheny imperial presidency. When he closes Gitmo he will take a lot of fire from the right wing but, hell, they hate him anyhow.
I’m just sorry that I won’t be here fifty years from now to look back as I did live through the Truman downfall and watched his rehabilitation. One of the causes of Truman’s low ratings was his firing of one of the most popular generals, McArthur. He was widely diliked when he issued the order to desegregate the Armed Forces. There was also the Marshall Act which many people thought was wrong because it would help Germany recover. But these are very different issues from why Bush is so unpoplar. Alabama listed these issues well.
You are so right on with this one, GTL, and you gooo, Alabama Mod! A very good reminder for Mr. Nose-up-in-the-Air *sniff* He is inheriting a CONgress the Rethugs are glad to hand off to him – now that the Rethugs have totally destroyed the conservative brand. Ohhh, and don’t get me started on the “change” thing either. Obama’s change consists of bringing the Clinton administration back from the crypt. Wow! That’s a real change from previous administrations, effing-a? *snicker* They recycle all right, but they never throw anyone away! It’s the same faces in different hats! As if shuffling the crazy deck is gonna produce a sane hand every 4 or 8 year presidential cycle. *hyena laughter*
And finally, this is an aside that made me roar with incredulous laughter while listening to the 10PM news. The anchor made reference to the “two most powerful men in the world” meeting today to talk (over new whirled odor issues?) Did you get that? Two most powerful men in the world!! All that (hat and no cattle!); Mr. Obama-Lama hasn’t done a damn thing yet. Ha! That’s what the world has come to. Adoration, genuflection and idolatry from the tranced-out zombies for their Empty-Suit. Ooo, but he’s a smooth talker, a real charmer, sorta like a lounge
lizardcrooner *snort*I truly don’t mean to insult anyone on the left or the right, only the thinking cap left suspended in air as each side exists stage left/right. heh heh No! I didn’t even mean that, really, just going for the joke..:)
A/M – that was my point, too much emotion to judge the current administration fairly. You only listed what you obviously see as weaknesses or “failures.” What you didn’t mention, and may become clearer as the years go by might be the long term effect of the fledgling democracy that has been established in Iraq, and another in Afghanistan. A more inclusive cabinet than any of Bush’s predecessors, which can only lead to less racial discrimination, more open-mindedness, and so on. President Bush, like all other Presidents, has his good points and his bad – only time will tell the relative merits of each.
I’ll give him some credit for the solidifying of our 2nd Amendment Civil Right to Keep And Bear Arms and that’s IT
His single greatest, and perhaps only achievement was to adjust daylight savings time by 3 weeks. Put the piece of s4it in prison for the rest of his miserable wretched life. It’s like commending Mussolini for improving the train system in Italy. Iraq was, is and will continue to be a disaster of immeasurable proportion. Keeping America in there to help out while the newly formed Iraqi government gets their act together is like asking the Germans to hang around in Poland. We are complicit in heinous crimes and sheer stupidity, and the sooner we apologize to the world and bail out of this horrible fiasco, hanging our heads in shame, the better off America and the rest of the world will be. In the roller coaster that is America, this is the lowest we’ve ever dropped. The only good that will come of it is to move this country sharply to the left.
girardia: “Iraq was, is and will continue to be a disaster of immeasurable proportion” – Hey man, you need to come down out of that mountain and see what’s really going on down here .
We should plan on maintaining bases in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 50 or 60 years at least, just like we have in Germany, Japan, Korea…
I’ll give him that he might have had good intentions when invading a sovereign nation, but you know what they say about good intentions and a certain road.
It was in saying things as stupid as “We should plan on maintaining bases in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 50 or 60 years at least, just like we have in Germany, Japan, Korea…” that cost McLame the election, in a truly LANDSLIDE-SEACHANGE-MANDATE to shift to left kind of way. We need to get the hell out of those countries too.
By the way, GTL, and all you other veterans, thanks for your sevice!
I took the liberty of copying the letter Cindy Sheehan posted to Bush today…
Dear George,
I am writing this to you on the fifth Veteran’s Day I have mourned the death of my son, Casey Sheehan. Casey was a soldier in the Army. You killed my oldest son with your lies and greed for Empire. Casey never became a Veteran because he came home in one of those pesky flag draped coffins that your mother doesn’t want to bother her “pretty mind” with.
During that other illegal and immoral war that you and your VP, Dick, had the good sense to dodge, your mother never had to go through one second of worry for your safety, did she? You were too busy doing your drugs and going AWOL to bother her “pretty mind” about that. What galls me the most when I think about my brave and honorable son’s needless and untimely death, is that you were so cowardly and worthless when you were his age and you had the nerve to condemn thousands of our children to death or disability with your lies.
George, I have written you letters before. I have demanded your resignation and also promised you that I would work for your impeachment. If you remember, I even started a peace camp of thousands of protesters outside your Crawford ranch and I even tried to get into Congress so I could impeach your criminal hide. You never answer my letters and you have never had the integrity to tell me what “Noble Cause” killed my son. This is the last letter you will receive from me while you are infecting our Oval Office, but it won’t be the last time you hear from me.
George, I guess I could “rest on my laurels” and allow you to slink off into the quiet desperation of leaving the White House as the most detested President in American history, but that is not enough for me: Millions are dead, wounded, displaced and suffering life-long pain because of your actions. You are the number one terrorist in the world today and this country catches, tortures and prosecutes “terrorists” doesn’t it? Haven’t you said so yourself? You have turned the USA into a nation of imperial mobsters and we have the ignominy of being torturers and you do not deserve to retire with any kind of peace or honor.
George, if Nancy Pelosi and the other complicit Congressional leaders won’t hold you accountable, I will. This nation has a very short memory and we have been assaulted on a daily basis by your arrogance and stupidity and most of America is buying the hype of pre-packaged and aggressively marketed, Hope, but I don’t have the option of burying your deadly legacy like it never happened and moving on. The hole in my heart that used to contain the living and breathing presence of my son will never heal and you are the one who put it there. If you think you are going to live a comfortable life in Dallas, or Paraguay, or wherever, a la Johnson, Nixon, McNamara or Kissinger, you are wrong.
George, this country too hastily moved on from the abomination of Vietnam and we never healed from that horror because we never did the hard work of holding American leaders accountable for crimes against humanity. If history repeats itself, as it tends to do, you won’t be held accountable for your crimes, but I won’t let you forget the faces of my son, Casey and his comrades or the legion of faces of the Afghan and Iraqi dead. Are your dreams haunted by the souls of the people massacred by your hubris?
If I have to buy or erect a billboard near your home and plaster it with the faces of the people you murdered, I will. I will also work with my contacts in the international community to have you indicted for crimes against humanity. I will do whatever it takes to be the thorn in your side as you have been my sorrow. There are many people around the world who thirst for justice and healing who will join me in this noble cause.
This Nation forgot the faces of the 58,000 plus Americans and millions of Vietnamese who were slaughtered for imperial greed, but they won’t forget the faces of the ones you have sacrificed on your altar of deception or the ones who will be sacrificed for the President Elect’s continued War OF Terror. If Obama does not declare a speedy and complete end to the USA’s war of terror on the world, someone should set up camp at his vacation home (which I bet will be nicer than Crawford, TX in August).
On this Veterans Day, I make this pledge to you. Unless we stop the bloody tide of war for profit and US hegemony by seeking justice for your war crimes and crimes against our Constitution, more Casey’s will die and more countries that unfortunately lie in the path of imperial conquest will be decimated.
On this Veteran’s Day, I also send my love and support to the Vets from all wars who live on our streets and are substance abusers because they can’t get help from this hypocritical government. My heart goes out to all Gold Star Mothers who have nothing but a box of medals, a triangular folded flag and memories of a dead child and regrets for a life not lived with him/her. The war machine in collaboration with our government chews people up and rolls on oiled with pain.
George you broke your oath to “faithfully” execute your office and you betrayed the troops that you command due to nothing but election fraud, but I will not break my promise to you.
Cindy Sheehan
Mother of Casey Austin Sheehan
KIA in Sadr City, Baghdad
April 04, 2004
Dear Mrs Sheehan,
You have my sympathies for your son sacrifice and I am very proud of him for the sacrifice he has given in order for you to be able to speak the way you do. I sincerely wish you would be as equally thankful. Your agressive hate filled agenda has gotten old and twisted. Your agenda no longer represents your loss of a son in a time of war but your hidden agenda to fight against America trying to protect you and me from terrorist and domination from oppressive behavior. Your continued rhetoric and disillusionment of reality displays more care for our enemies and their agenda than your own son’s sacrifice for our freedom. Your son was not drafted, he made a choice, President Bush did not make his choice,Casey did.I think Casey was more concerned about America and its people than you will ever be. President Bush has kept America safe for his term in office,look at the facts, and take a long break from your pitiful, self centered quest.
I put this letter in because it has so much truth in it. Bush stole both elections. He is a traito. The war was and still is illegal, based on lies, and waged solely for profiteering. Bush does not give a rats ass about America. There were no enemies in Iraq before we started this heinous criminal act. There are now due to our brutal greed and sheer stupidity. The terrorist oppressor is in the White House, but not for long thankfully. If anyone should be waterboarded it’s Bush. Not only has he not protected us from threats, his family was in on 911. We need to put the entire leadership of the Repuglican party, as well as some complicit Democrats, in prison till they rot.
In addition to the above comment:
Many of you think the world all runs on checks and balances.You misconstrue reality to believe in a euphoria of life that is non existent,greed is a world fact of life, and as every country tries to dominant each other for power, money,or religion,opression is going to exist.America has been instrumental throughout the world with many presidents to aid and fight people oppressed with tyranny including Americans (9/11).We are a fortunate people,to have what we do. Remember this,from the beginning of America we have had to fight to get and keep safe what we have, from other countries to the American Civil War we have built American strength and pride,but we’re so desperate for change to a weaker America that were building the chains and shackles we fight so hard against. Think about it.
I’m thinking about it. I’m not sure I follow you. I’m for a strong America. I’m for a strong military, which is used wisely and sparingly, and which will reqire rebuilding after recent unwise squandering of it’s resources. I’m also for strength in leadership of and cooperation with other nations, something we have all but forgotten recently. Ameria has, paradoxically, been both a force against oppression and a force for oppression, simultaneously. We are, without a doubt, the nicest bully in history. I am both proud and grateful to live in this country, but I do not blindly believe we are God’s gift to the world. From the days when America was built on the graves of the original inhabitants who were eradicated genocidally, America has been successful fighters and that will remain the same. Think about it.
Unfortunately, America can not run as America if it disregards its own constitution. Defending this country is to not only defend it from outside aggression. You must also defend it from itself– from forces within who would destroy everything that this great nation represents.
If we cannot protect this country from tearing apart at the seams and losing its very identity, then what is the point of protecting it from outside aggression? If we lose our identity as a country by minimalizing (if not completely demolishing) the Constitution it is build upon, then we are already defeated.
I think that’s the point you fail to see, Patriot.
You’re so right Alabama.
Amen to that, Alabama Moderate!
I’d also add that along with upholding our Constitution, we need to get back to being a civil and well-educated society. I’m afraid we’ve been so dumbed-down over the last 30-40 years, that most people wouldn’t know the Constitution if we tripped over it! Please indulge me as I mini-rant one of my pet peeves.
Most of us have seen how things have deteriorated over the last 30-40 years, especially in education, probably because the young whippersnappers don’t seem to have constitutional mentors who used to teach our students about the different techniques used by socialists, Marxists, and yes, even communists, to indoctrinate students. And still do. They always hide their true agenda and affiliations. It’s a game of semantics. For example, the younger set have adopted the term “progressive” to identify themselves with a movement that has at its core working for social change, social responsibility, equal opportunity, equal rights and the environment. But how many people know that the underlying political philosophy of progressivism is communism? In other words, some people may be shocked at this, others know what I’m talking about. The communist hold-overs from the last push for influencing and infiltrating our institutions in the 40′s as you know went bust and the players just merely went underground here, just like the communists went underground in the Soviet Union. But they all didn’t suddenly become conservatives over night! No, they’re merely working underground, organizing, influencing, drawing the young in by changing the semantics of their core philosophy of communism.
Now, I’m sure I’ll get my head snapped off for writing this. Probably from those who are experts in the techniques of “taking care of the opposition” by maligning and demonizing the enemy off the stage..heh heh But really, how many young people do you think bother to research the different political philosophies and then apply that knowledge to what they’re being told today? I mean, how much history is being taught in our schools today? Do they even teach about the Constitution, the branches of government, their functions, checks & balances etc. etc. anymore?
The sorry state of education in our country coupled with the rampant dishonesty, deceit and corruption of all classes of people deem the nation ripe for internal take-over from our sworn enemies to the concept of freedom and individuality. We’ve already proved that we’ll latch on to any smooth-talking pol who seduces us with words of hope and change, i.e., Clinton, Bush, and now Obama. Does this make us followers, or leaders of our own destiny?
Ack, sorry, comrades (attempt at levity), I better stop now before the tomatoes start to fly, right? Oh well, I hope someone here knows what I’m trying to say..
Perhaps I’ve just suffered a silent aneurysm or something, sorta.. heh heh
All tight commontater, I’m kinda with ya and kinda not. It’s true the educational system is not teaching as effectively as it should be or could be but it’s hard to tell how much of that is our failure to adapt as we remain stuck in a mythical “Leave it to Beaver” era mentality, and how much of it is a deliberate dumb-down to prevent the people from rioting in the streets like the highly educated kids in the 60s did. A populace that is fully aware of all the crimes this government commits in their name is bound to revolt. Keeping many of the people stupid and conservative cuts down on these reactions.
“constitutional mentors who used to teach our students about the different techniques used by socialists, Marxists, and yes, even communists, to indoctrinate students. And still do. They always hide their true agenda and affiliations.” Our Constitution is a brilliant construct however, it has absolutely nothing to do with “socialists, Marxists, and yes, even communists”. These are economic thoeries. And I’m curious as to what these subvrsive techniques are that are being used by this vast contingency of secret communists to indoctrinate students?
“the younger set have adopted the term “progressive” to identify themselves with a movement that has at its core working for social change, social responsibility, equal opportunity, equal rights and the environment.” So progress is bad? The last thing we want is social responsibility, equal opportunity, equal rights and responsible policies regarding the the environment! That’s why people should vote GOP, because they have always advocated laissez faire capitalism as they know that the invisible hand of the market will naturally bring about social responsibility, and because white males have the power because they deserve it, so women and minorities should realize this and just shut the hell up, and of course, the idea that puny man could harm the environment is ridiculous. In the wake of the catastrophic failures of capitalism, perhaps socialism and communism are no longer dirty words. I like my socialized fire department, and I want my medical system to work the same way.
Your talk of communist infiltrators leads me to wonder if you think McCarthy was a good American? Do you believe in the mythical “Leave it to Beaver” America? It never existed.
That list of smooth talking pols should include Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter and one of the worst, Reagan. We’re still paying dearly for the incredibly shortsighted policies that worthless jackass foisted upon us.
The liberal illuminati will bump heads with him as soon as the president elect disagrees with them.