One:
President Barack Obama will try to block the court-ordered release of hundreds of photos showing U.S. troops allegedly abusing prisoners, reversing his position after military commanders warned the graphic images could stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger soldiers.
The pictures are said to show mistreatment of detainees at locations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And two:
Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, tapped to lead US forces in Afghanistan, is a former special operations commander whose elite forces were credited with notable battlefield successes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he nominated McChrystal to replace General David McKiernan as the top commander in Afghanistan because “new thinking” was needed at a time that President Barack Obama was launching a new strategy for the country.
He has been credited with targeted operations that hunted down and killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, in 2006 and of devising the still classified tactics used to smash Al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed cells in 2007 and 2008.
But special operators also have been accused of detainee abuses under McChrystal’s command. Questions about that were reported to have held up his appointment to his current post last year.
He was also found “accountable” for making inaccurate statements in the awarding of a Silver Star for Army Ranger Pat Tillman, an ex-American football star who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.
So President Obama is going to withhold evidence from the American people of alleged war crimes, and he’s brought on Stanley McChrystal, who apparently has a history of — at the very least — condoning torture.
So much so that Dick Cheney himself is actually applauding Obama’s choice.
“The decision to send Stan McChrystal…is a good one,” Cheney told Cavuto. “I think the choice is excellent. I think you’d be hard put to find anyone better than Stan McChrystal.”
In a nutshell — President Obama is spending money like Bush, withholding (and thus, condoning) evidence of torture like Bush, and hired a general that has Dick Cheney’s stamp of approval to oversee operations in Afghanistan.
Are we going to adopt the neoconservative stance of preemption as well? Are we going to continue to ignore the Geneva Convention? Are we going to perpetuate the foreign policies of Bush/Cheney — the very policies you blasted while you were on the campaign trail last fall, Mr. President? Are we going to ignore the Constitution in the name of defending it?
Can we allow this to happen?
Yes, we can.
Rush’s latest theory? That the whole objective of Obama’s economic plan is unemployment. According to Limbaugh, de facto leader of the GOP, this is President Obama’s master plan to get reparations for the whole slavery thing.
“This is the objective. The objective is unemployment. The objective is more food stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. And the objective is to take the nation’s wealth and return to it to the nation’s quote, “rightful owners.” Think reparations. Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on.”
And this is the guy Dick Cheney believes is representative of the real Republican Party.
No, not that McCain.
The San Francisco Chronicle features an article about Meghan McCain today. I’m a fan of hers, and do believe that she’s a step in the right direction for a struggling GOP.
The 24-year-old daughter of U.S. Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, is a regular political blogger and most certainly not her mother Cindy’s serene, St. John-suit-wearing stereotype of a Republican woman.
In brash blog posts on the Daily Beast – “The GOP doesn’t understand sex” – and outpouring of posts on Twitter, she has described herself as a pro-sex, “pro-life, pro-gay-marriage Republican,” one who experts say may be at the forefront of a new GOP breed: the “Meghan McCain Republican.”
That GOP faction is younger and interested in fiscal responsibility and less government involvement in people’s lives, while supporting environmentalism and civic engagement. They’re part of the millennial generation, the largest and most diverse generation in American history, whose voters – born starting in the early 1980s – cast ballots for Barack Obama by a more than 2-to-1 ratio.
Lately, when you think of the Republican Party, what names do you see in the news? Newt Gingrich? John McCain? Dick Cheney? Rush Limbaugh?
Not exactly a group of young upstarts.
Imagine you’re a 20-something and you’re just now beginning to show interest in the political process. One one hand, you’ve got a young, vibrant President who seems intelligent, logical, calm, and current. But maybe you don’t agree with some of his policies. Maybe you find the price tags of his budget proposals outlandish (at best), or downright dangerous (at worst). Maybe you don’t believe that government has any place in private enterprise. Maybe you’re looking for another solution to the problems facing our country today.
So you look across the aisle, and what do you see?
To put it bluntly, you see a bunch of old white guys who seem to enjoy complaining about shit:
Dick Cheney, who seemingly is incapable of shutting up about torturing people to keep America “safe.”
Newt Gingrich, who appears on any tv show that’ll have him, even though he hasn’t held office in ten years.
John McCain — who I still find to be an honorable man — but who got swept up in the presidential campaign playbook laid out by Karl Rove and George W. Bush. I remain convinced that the 2000 version of John McCain gives Barack Obama a run for his money in 2008.
Rush Limbaugh. I have no comment here.
But I believe a case can still be made for the return of the GOP. To do so, they’ll need to resurrect the ghosts of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and polish up their ideologies a little to jibe with the 21st century: Emphasize individual liberties without government intrusion, something the modern GOP has seemingly abandoned. Reduce the role of government in the everyday lives of its citizens. Make the case that though government shouldn’t be the solution to your problems, it can be there to lend a helping hand. Reduce the theological overtones and emphasize the freedom to celebrate one’s religious choices. Eliminate the litmus-test of abortion. Accept the voices of science and intellectualism, and understand that sometimes those voices will say things you don’t want to hear. And make it crystal clear that the way you defend The Constitution is just as important as the act of defending it.
As it stands now, there is no room in the GOP for people who believe in those things (just ask Limbaugh or Cheney). The Libertarian Party seems to be the ideal fit. But like it or not, we live in a two-party system, and third-party candidates tend to end up being nothing more than spoilers.
The GOP needs a reboot — badly.
Adam Mendelsohn, who was a spokesman for John McCain’s presidential campaign and is a California-based GOP strategist, said such concerns underscore what may be the GOP’s most critical “rebranding” problem: younger voters.
“The party and its leadership has become totally out of touch with where voters under 30 are,” he said. “Typically, when … you talk to Republican pooh-bahs, they dismiss them. They say, ‘Wait until they get older and understand taxes.’
“But they don’t realize these voters are those whose positioning is hardening,” he said. Millennials “don’t see the world like a 65-year-old whose opinions were formulated during the Cold War. … The Republican Party has to start actually talking about ideas and issues that resonate with these voters.”
As previously documented in this blog, Rush Limbaugh doesn’t agree with Colin Powell’s desire to reform the Republican Party. In fact, Limbaugh wishes Powell would leave the GOP altogether.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has chosen a side.
“If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh. My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.”
One of the problems with using WordPress.com (the site, not the client) is the lack of a Share button to instantly post links to popular sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Well, thanks to the Google, I’ve been able to find a jim-dandy little script to take care of that issue.
So now it’s easy to spread the word.
No excuses, people!
Hottest ticket in town last night.
Nobody can make it uncomfortable like Wanda Sykes can. In other words, she slayed.
So the other day Barack Obama and Joe Biden stop by a burger joint in Virginia for lunch. Obama orders, and I’m paraphrasing, “a basic cheddar cheeseburger. And some mustard. Spicy brown mustard, or Dijon, if you’ve got it.”
Innocuous, no?
Not in the eyes of right-wing cheerleaders Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Steyn.
Ewww… look at Barack Obama! He’s too fancy schmantzy for ketchup. He’s gotta have DIJON mustard. DIIIJOOON MUUUUSTAAARD!
Hannity calls him out on only pretending to be a “man of the people” because he likes Dijon.
Ingraham says, “I don’t even like the way the man orders a hamburger… what kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup?”
After teasing Obama for being the unofficial spokesperson for Grey Poupon, Steyn goes on to say, “So yesterday Barack Obama had a hamburger. I don’t know what he’ll do today to pass for ‘human.’”
This is a thread worthy of picking?
I’m looking right at ya, right-wing talking heads.
Look, we all know the playbook. Paint Obama as an elitist because he likes arugula, and apparently, Dijon mustard. I get it. And I’m sure it’s going to work. I’m sure we’re all going to hear the “Dijon mustard” sound bites for a long, long time. I’m sure your elitist talking point will get lots of run.
But the Republican party is in disarray right now. The conservative movement has stalled. And now it seems you’re deciding your best course of action is to behave the same exact way you ran (and lost) the presidential campaign: sit back, wait for Obama to “screw up,” and then whip up some snarky talking points and hope they gain traction.
But America decided that we’re too smart to fall for that bullshit.
And yet, you still keep trying.
You’re turning how Barack Obama orders a burger into a full-fledged talking point.
And you wonder why nobody takes you seriously anymore.
Oh, and by the way, a LOT of people order cheeseburgers without ketchup. Uppity people like Texans. Or the restaurant that actually invented the hamburger.
And Grey Poupon mustard? Made by the same Euro-trash that brings Velveeta and Ranch Dressing to your kitchen table… Kraft Foods.
Just sayin’.
I Don’t Buy It, Mr. President.
© Digital Halide Productions, 2007
I think something that would “inflame anti-American opinion” is America not investigating and prosecuting potential war crimes.
So here’s the message we’re sending: America will torture enemy combatants to keeps us safe, but releasing pictures of those tortured will endanger American lives.
Attempting to sweep this under the rug will cause irreparable damage that no soaring speeches or heart-felt handshakes will be able to remedy, sir.
from → Commentary