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ronpaulhawaii
12-28-2009, 01:18 PM
http://www.regressiveantidote.net/Articles/Now_I'm_Really_Getting_Pissed_Off.html


Hey did you hear about the iconic African-American guy who plays golf, and whose relationship with the public is in a free-fall lately?

No, as a matter of fact – I’m not talking about Tiger Woods.

You know, I’ve really been trying not to write an article every other week about all the things I don’t like about Barack Obama.

But the little prick is making it very hard.

Like any good progressive, I’ve gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this president. Now I’m fast getting to rage.

How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage.

Did this clown really say on national television that “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of you know, fat cat bankers on Wall Street”?!?!

Really, Barack? So, like, my question is: Then why the hell did you help out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street?!?! Why the hell did you surround yourself with nothing but Robert Rubin proteges in all the key economic positions in your government? Why did you allow them to open a Washington branch of Goldman Sachs in the West Wing? Why have your policies been tailored to helping Wall Street bankers, rather than the other 300 million of us, who just happen to be suffering badly right now?

Are you freakin’ kidding me??? What’s up with the passive president routine, anyhow, Fool? You hold the most powerful position in the world. Or maybe Rahm forgot to mention that to you. Or maybe the fat cat bankers don’t actually let do that whole decision-making thing often enough that it would actually matter...

But, really, are you going to spend the next three interminable years perfecting your whiney victim persona? I don’t really think I could bear that. Hearing you complain about how rough it all is, when you have vastly more power than any of us to fix it? Please. Not that.

Are you going to tell us that “I did not run for office to be shovel-feeding the military-industrial complex”? But what – they’re just so darned pushy?

“...I did not run for office to continue George Bush’s valiant effort at shredding the Bill of Rights. It’s just that those government-limiting rules are so darned pesky.”

“...I did not run for office to dump a ton of taxpayer money into the coffers of health insurance companies. It’s just that they asked so nicely.”

“...I did not run for office to block equality for gay Americans. I just never got around to doing anything about it.”

“...I did not run for office to turn Afghanistan into Vietnam. I just didn’t want to say no to all the nice generals asking for more troops.”

Here’s a guy who was supposed to actually do something with his presidency, and he’s turned into the skinny little geek on Cell Block D who gets passed around like a rag doll for the pleasure of all the fellas with the tattoos there. He’s being punked by John Boehner, for chrisakes. He’s being rolled by the likes of Joe Lieberman. He calls a come-to-Jesus meeting with Wall Street bank CEOs, and half of them literally phone it in. Everyone from Bibi Netanyahu to the Japanese prime minister to sundry Iranian mullahs is stomping all over Mr. Happy.

And he doesn’t even seem to realize it.

Did you see him tell Oprah that he gave himself “a good solid B+” for his first year in office? And that it will be an A, if he gets his healthcare legislation passed?

Somebody please pick me up and set me back on my chair, wouldya?

I am seriously beginning to worry that this cat is delusional. He has lopped off twenty full points from his job approval rating in less than a year’s time, falling now below fifty percent. His party, once dominant in generic congressional election poll questions, is today almost even with hated Republicans in the public mind. Last month, Obama’s inverted coattails (don’t even ask where those go) got two Democrats clobbered running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. The otherwise obnoxious George F. Will (very) rightly points out that in Kentucky, “a Republican candidate succeeded in nationalizing a state Senate race. Hugely outspent in a district in which Democrats have a lopsided registration advantage, the Republican won by 12 points a seat in Frankfort by running against Washington”. Wow. Obama is now wrecking state senate races! What’s next? Will local Republican candidates for sheriff win office just by opposing the embarrassment in the White House who chooses abysmal policies and then refuses to fight for them, lest he should ruffle any feathers?

“For Democrats, the red flags are flying at full mast," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart in a recent AP article. "What we don't know for certain is: Have we reached a bottoming-out point?”

Au contraire, Peter. Au contraire. I think anyone more sentient than a newborn amoeba can answer that question. The first thing to note is that the economy is not coming back anytime soon, if it comes back at all. Unless, of course, you’re a fat cat Wall Street banker. Then you’re just fine, because the Bush-Obama administration took care of you quite nicely, thanks very much. The rest of us poor slobs out here in real-world land, on the other hand, got a “jobs summit”.

I can’t even begin to describe how insulting Obama conducting a “jobs summit” is to me, or what an unbelievably ham-fisted piece of public relations that was for the White House, which is increasingly showing itself not just to be sickeningly regressive, but also fully inept. I think I speak for a whole lot of Americans when I say that, one year into his stewardship over a destroyed economy that was actually atomizing for at least six months before inauguration day, I don’t want my president sitting around a table, running a dog-and-pony show, pretending to kick around ideas on how to generate jobs. I wanted him to have those ideas, himself, before he was inaugurated. I wanted those to be real ideas, that produce real jobs for real Americans who are really hurting. I wanted that to be, and still be, the be-all and end-all of his presidency, not some distant fourth-place priority, behind healthcare and the White House dog selection process. And, especially not some fourth-place priority behind jive healthcare reform.

Which brings us to the second answer to Mr. Hart’s question. If Democrats think they’ll be screwed next November because of unemployment, wait till Congress passes this healthcare monstrosity. Or doesn’t. At this point, either way they’re gonna get slammed for it, and rightly so.

If they don’t pass anything, they will be seen as unable to govern. This perception will be quite true because they will have failed to pass a major piece of legislation, despite having 60-40 majorities in both houses of Congress and control of the presidency. It doesn’t get much better than that for a governing party in the American system. But it will be true in an even more profound sense, because the whole priority structure of the Democratic agenda is wrong. Sure, people want healthcare reform right now (especially if it were to miraculously also have the virtue of being authentic healthcare reform), but what they really want, overwhelmingly, is jobs. This choice of priorities is the equivalent of, say, invading Iraq when you’ve been attacked by people in Afghanistan. Surely no president would be that stupid, right? Surely any political party would realize the costs of having priorities so divorced from those of the voters, right?

On the other hand, the Democrats and their hapless president are probably in worse shape if they actually pass this legislation. Especially now that it’s been stripped of nearly every real progressive reform imaginable, it has become an incredibly stupid bill, from the political perspective. It will force people who can’t afford it to spend a giant amount of money on lousy insurance, without any real choice to hold down costs, and it will fund this by hacking away at the Medicare budget. No wonder an insurance industry lobbyist broadcast an email last week declaring: “We WIN. Administered by private insurance companies. No government funding. No government insurance competitor.”

But here’s a little riddle that any sixth-grader can easily figure out, although it seems to have eluded the brain trust at the White House: If insurance companies are winning big-time, then who is doing the losing? Something tells me that if Democrats are dumb enough to pass their own legislation, voters will provide them the answer to that puzzle in November of 2010, and then again two years later. What could be stupider than saddling thirty-five million Americans with a new monthly bill that will probably represent the second or third biggest item in their budget, in exchange for crappy private sector health insurance that is unlikely to pay out when needed, and wastes a third of the dollars paid in premiums on bureaucracy and profits anyhow? Slapping big fines on them if they don’t pony up for the insurance, perhaps? Yep, that’s in there too.

This bill alone could mobilize legions of people to go to the polls and vote for whichever party didn’t do it, and I’m pretty sure the GOP won’t be shy about reminding Americans who that is. I mean, if Democrats were searching for legislation less likely to win them votes, why didn’t they just bring back slavery or the debtor’s prison? Why not come out for pedophilia? It would have been so much more efficient. At least they wouldn’t have spent the last year looking like idiotic bunglers who, in addition to sponsoring really unpopular ideas, also inadvertently left their testicles at the coat check and have spent the last thirty years trying to find their way back to the gala.

Ah, but wait! If you order now, there’s more!

As I understand it, the bill doesn’t even actually force insurance companies to cover people, at least in the sense that they can charge prohibitive amounts to those with whatever they define as pre-existing conditions. You know, like the young woman who had a policy but died when she was denied cancer treatment because she had a bad case of acne as a teenager.

This will be a total train wreck for the Democratic Party. Already, the public opposes the plan by a ratio of 47 to 32 percent. And they haven’t even been handed the bill for it yet. And they haven’t even had their premiums skyrocket yet. And they haven’t even seen insurance corporation executives buy small countries for use as second homes with the increased compensation they will be floating in. And they haven’t even found out what this does to their Medicare yet. And they haven’t even seen the impact on the national debt yet. And they haven’t even realized that the ‘good’ parts of the bill don’t go into effect until FOUR YEARS from now.

You know, elite Republicans may be sociopaths, and they may be lower on the moral totem pole than your basic cannibal, but they’re not stupid. I bet they’re salivating at the idea that this thing passes. I bet they’d even have Olympia Snowe vote for it if necessary, just to put it over the top. They must be laughing their asses off at this gift. All they have to do is oppose it right down the line, then say “Told ya so!” at the next election, squashing the pathetic Demognats, one after the next. Hey, even if worse comes to worse and the thing eventually becomes popular, they can always wait a decade or two and become champions of the new publically beloved healthcare system – just like they did for Medicare, Social Security, civil rights, etc.

This is President Nothingburger’s great gift to America, along with doing nothing about jobs, doing nothing about the Middle East, nothing about civil liberties, nothing about civil rights, and now doing nothing at Copenhagen. Regarding the latter, the world is literally on fire, and he jets in, gives a speech haranguing the delegates that “Now is not the time for talk, now is the time for action”, then splits even before the vote in order to beat the snowstorm headed to the east coast that might delay him getting home to his comfy bed. I’m not kidding. You can’t make this shit up, man.

This guy is killing me, though at the same time I still can’t quite figure him out.

Here’s what I get: This president is a corporate hack. Like Bush or Clinton, he has constituents, alright – but you and I are not on that particular list.

Here’s what I don’t get: He is radically tanking, at a moment when people no longer have patience for those kind of politics anymore.

Here’s what I get: This president has his fingers in many pies, as he needs to, ranging from global warming to economic implosion to two wars abroad to massive federal debt.

Here’s what I don’t get: Why does he bother to do these things in a way that pleases no one, and only dramatically undercuts his own political standing? Why does he refuse to make anyone his enemy, thus making everyone his enemy?

Is he just massively deluded? I wouldn’t have thought so, but watching the guy give himself a very good grade for 2009 – straight face and all – during the same year he’s lost twenty points off his job approval rating, and at a moment when even blacks and gays are deserting him, you know, you have to wonder.

Is he happy just to be a one-term president – just to say he’s been there and done that, and then sell some more books – even if he is reviled as one of the worst in history?

Maybe. But what about the rest of us?

The rest of us, indeed. It’s been quite some time since anyone in the White House ever cared about that sorry pack of rabble.

Obama looked like he could’ve been something different. He ain’t.

So this is it, folks.

Change you can believe in?

More like bullshit you can take a bath in, if you ask me.

LittleLightShining
12-28-2009, 01:27 PM
Awesome.

MelissaWV
12-28-2009, 01:36 PM
That may well be the best-written thing I've read in ages.

lynnf
12-28-2009, 01:40 PM
it's about time for him to be skewered, I've been sparking the kindling for some time now.....


lynn

FSP-Rebel
12-28-2009, 01:41 PM
That may well be the best-written thing I've read in ages.
Totally, u beat me to it.

dannno
12-28-2009, 01:44 PM
So this is it, folks.

Change you can believe in?

More like bullshit you can take a bath in, if you ask me.


:D

Original_Intent
12-28-2009, 01:52 PM
That was an enjoyable read. The author even makes a coupole of half hearted attempts at realizing that our two-party system is a one-party system.

Anti Federalist
12-28-2009, 02:24 PM
So this is it, folks.

Change you can believe in?

More like bullshit you can take a bath in, if you ask me.

I Lol'ed as well

TinCanToNA
12-28-2009, 02:55 PM
I loved that last part as well.

It appears that Obama will do exactly everything Bush did, including tainting the "brand" that he supposedly represents. He just might do everything faster, with only half the length of presidency, if things continue as they are.

swirling_vortex
12-28-2009, 03:10 PM
Epic win.

Matthew Zak
12-28-2009, 03:25 PM
I sincerely hope Obama reads that.

AmericaFyeah92
12-28-2009, 03:30 PM
Liberal "progressives" + our Liberty movement = America's best hope


Matt Taibbi has written some very similar stuff for Rolling Stone

torchbearer
12-28-2009, 03:32 PM
bullshit you can take a bath in

kathy88
12-28-2009, 04:03 PM
Outstanding.

CharlesTX
12-28-2009, 04:06 PM
This is President Nothingburger’s great gift to America, along with doing nothing about jobs, doing nothing about the Middle East, nothing about civil liberties, nothing about civil rights, and now doing nothing at Copenhagen. Regarding the latter, the world is literally on fire, and he jets in, gives a speech haranguing the delegates that “Now is not the time for talk, now is the time for action”, then splits even before the vote in order to beat the snowstorm headed to the east coast that might delay him getting home to his comfy bed. I’m not kidding. You can’t make this shit up, man.

That last part made me LOL.

Stary Hickory
12-28-2009, 05:21 PM
Sorta good....I guess? The poster thinks the president should implement "progressive" reforms using government force to suppress any opposition.....not my kind of guy. But I am glad Obama is losing support, maybe there really is hope

dannno
12-28-2009, 05:52 PM
Sorta good....I guess? The poster thinks the president should implement "progressive" reforms using government force to suppress any opposition.....not my kind of guy. But I am glad Obama is losing support, maybe there really is hope

Ya we're not nominating the writer for political office, he just made some great observations..

ronpaulhawaii
12-29-2009, 01:12 PM
Ya we're not nominating the writer for political office, he just made some great observations..

lulz... :)

angelatc
12-29-2009, 01:18 PM
Pfft. We tried to tell them that if they really wanted progressive changes they should vote for Kucinich.

But they heard what they wanted to hear.

At least the people that voted for GWB the first time voted for a guy who promised fiscal responsibility and an end to foreign intervention. He, at least, bothered to lie.

Obama voted for TARP before the election. His coffers were full of insurance company money. The signs were there, they just refused to asknowledge them.

acptulsa
12-29-2009, 02:29 PM
Pfft. We tried to tell them that if they really wanted progressive changes they should vote for Kucinich.

But they heard what they wanted to hear.

At least the people that voted for GWB the first time voted for a guy who promised fiscal responsibility and an end to foreign intervention. He, at least, bothered to lie.

Obama voted for TARP before the election. His coffers were full of insurance company money. The signs were there, they just refused to asknowledge them.

Now if we can find a really, really nice way to say we told you so, maybe we'll be listened to before the next election.

dannno
12-29-2009, 02:48 PM
Ok, I posted part of the article (including the "bullshit you can take a bath in" line) as my away sig on gmail and someone who I had e-mailed with a while back about a craigslist posting randomly caught it and sent me an e-mail. To be honest, I don't remember the posting or if I ever even met this person.

I'll keep you guys up to date with the exchange.



Hello,

As a progressive, I could not help but feel dismayed by your negative status in regards to Barack Obama on gmail. After one year, he's accomplished a lot (personally, fulfilled all promises outside of health care reform) and it sounds like many conservatives' attitudes. To appeal to negative emotions won't fool any true progressives, only drive those to work harder.

Response:


I have no idea what you are talking about, Obama has done absolutely nothing but continue and expand on the polices of George W. Bush. You must be some neocon to be a fan of Obama after all this time.

Your idea of "Change" apparently means bringing troops home from Iraq and replacing them with private contractors similar to Blackwater? Escalating military spending by over 20%? Killing more innocent people in Pakistan and Afghanistan? Bailing out Wall Street banksters who led us to the financial crisis in the first place? Did you even read the link that the statement came from?


Here it is in case you missed it, this is a pretty good article:

http://www.regressiveantidote.net/Articles/Now_I%27m_Really_Getting_Pissed_Off.html


I spent months campaigning against both Obama and McCain because I'm tired of the BS promises. Obama was never a peace candidate, I'm not sure why anybody thought that he was. I supported someone who wants to bring the troops home tomorrow... and not just from Iraq, but from the over 120 countries our military currently occupies. Why? Because the reason there is so much hatred for our country is because our country is used to occupy others for big business interests. Our country's military is really just the international imperial army. It's disgusting. Obama changed the world's attitude about us temporarily I'll admit, but our policies have only worsened and he isn't doing us any favors in the long run. Obama thinks we need to spread democracy using the barrel of a gun and his smooth talking lies can't change his actions.

The biggest problem with progressives is that they are blind to the fact that giving government more power to do what they think is best means giving that power to lobbyists who represent the banks and the corporations.. because they run DC and that isn't going to change. Ever. Not while DC is handing out dollars like they're going out of style. That means that whatever power you try to hand over to government is ultimately going to help large corporations and banks. The founders of this country were really smart, they knew how to battle tyranny. Tyranny can only take hold when the government takes power that it shouldn't have and those who control government then hold that power or give it out to their friends. In fact, the only purpose of government should be to protect individual liberty. That would mean they are able to intervene when there is injury, theft or fraud. That's about it. The government upholds contracts and private property rights. Private property rights doesn't mean you can do whatever you want on your property, you've been tricked into believing that. It means that you cannot pollute other's property, but industry colluded with government during the Industrial Revolution and created "regulations" so that the government can control how much pollution corporations are able to emit. This means that the government circumvented property rights to ALLOW corporations to pollute. Have you read 1984? There is double-speak everywhere, the "left" and the "right" have all been fooled into believing a massive hoax. Neither of them believe in true individual liberty.

The main point here is that our government has done more to empower large corporations and in a truly free market that respects property rights, contract law, individual rights, etc, you would not have these large overbearing corporations. Anybody would be able to compete because no companies would be given special privileges like they are now. Monopolies wouldn't exist, government ALWAYS creates monopolies.. The trust busting done back in the day was guided by the big corporations. They created smoke screens and ran out the competition. That is why the government shouldn't be given any of this power you desire that they have, they should strictly follow the Constitution.

Of course the biggest problem is the Federal Reserve. They are a private banking cartel that handles our country's money supply. Look into Austrian Economics if you're interested in economics at all. If you care about why the poor are poor, you will learn about Austrian Economics, because poverty is a direct result of Keynesianism. It is a transfer of wealth from the poor working class to the rich, which causes job losses ultimately hurting the poor even more. Poverty is built into our monetary system, and we need to change that first. Checkout youtube and checkout Peter Schiff if you're interested. He's really good at explaining this stuff in easy to understand terms.

Bruno
12-29-2009, 02:57 PM
Ok, I posted part of the article (including the "bullshit you can take a bath in" line) as my away sig on gmail and someone who I had e-mailed with a while back about a craigslist posting randomly caught it and sent me an e-mail. To be honest, I don't remember the posting or if I ever even met this person.

I'll keep you guys up to date with the exchange.




Response:

Thanks, danno. Wonder what actual promises Obama has fullfilled in that person's opinion?

Dieseler
12-29-2009, 03:01 PM
Thanks, danno. Wonder what actual promises Obama has fullfilled in that person's opinion?

The hidden promises, as in the Progressive agenda to destroy America within a completely legal framework but at an increased pace while still managing to keep the wool over the eyes of the foolish who tow their party line.
Bush was also a progressive.
I'm sure most progressives are ecstatic with the progress Obama has made.

dannno
12-29-2009, 03:02 PM
Thanks, danno. Wonder what actual promises Obama has fullfilled in that person's opinion?

Ya I'm still trying to figure out what healthcare promises Obama has upheld :confused:

Maybe he's talking about medical marijuana. I mean, to be honest, the DEA was literally breathing down our necks here in CA until it was clear that Obama was going to be elected. They've backed off since, but they've gone after other areas in CA so I don't know that I can completely agree that he's held is promises in that area (though I have to admit the situation has improved)

rprprs
12-29-2009, 05:01 PM
I'm sorry if this Huff Post article has been linked before in these forums, but I thought it was appropriate to this thread. Progressives, who are still holding on to the Obama myth, would do well to read this progressive's "take" on his "accomplishments".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/leadership-obama-style-an_b_398813.html.

Devastating.