Scheer writes: "Obama as the cool triggerman is an image useful to White House operatives as they buff the president's persona for the coming election. But what it reveals is the mindset of a political cynic whose seductive words cloak the moral indifference of a methodical executioner."
President Barack Obama speaks to supporters during a campaign fundraiser in Denver, 05/23/12. (photo: AP)
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
Obama seems to be going after the moderate republican vote and abandoning the left. Probably he thinks like all Cliinton-esque candidates that liberals have no where else to go and they will vote for him just to prevent a Romney victory. This is flawed logic. I won't vote for Obama. Who the hell cares if Romney wins. Obama would do the same things as Romney.
It is time for a real 3rd party.
Yes, millions of people around the world liked Obama, believed in him, looked forward to his presidency (I'm not American) but we have all been disappointed by his reality. And, no matter what he says about 'tough choices', as President he had both power and opportunity to leave the legacy that he promised in his campaign. But, he chose to ignore his electorate and listen to the war mongers and oil barons. RMDC is correct, voters need to back off Obama...indeed it makes little difference if Romney wins. They're both flip-flops apparently. But Obama does need to see that turning his back on his voters means his voters doing the same to him.
One hopes that the dopes who abstain from the presidential ballot in 2012 will still get their sorry butts to the polls and vote for a Democratic Congress, where more power sits than the Oval Office.
It's all about Congress in 2012!
RLF, I'm feared loud buzzers effects have never been much for affecting change. This drift towards behavior resembling Patricia Hearsts Stockholm Syndrome appears to be what the hopey changey folks are doing...
Most of the folks who reflexively give thumbs down for anything critical of Obama don't read this type of article -- maybe because they don't want information that conflicts with their view of him.
America doesn't need more enemies but thanks to Obama we are clearly making some. How anyone with a heart or soul could vote for this man is hard to believe.
Forty-four years ago tonight the best, most caring and decent candidate the Democratic Party ever produced was shot to death in Los Angeles. The contrast between Robert Kennedy and this creep could not be more striking.
Another thought, 6 of the members of the Supreme Court are Roman Catholics, Consider this when the Birth Control issue is brought before that court by the Catholic church!
One thing is absent from both, and that is an honest assessment and effort to say what Scheer or the "agree" folks would do if they were in Obama's shoes.
Start from that idea and then come up with practical suggestions and alternate plans that can be submitted to Obama for his next years in office.
To go all doctrinaire and purist and just shoot down Obama for whatever failings he may have is to live in a fantasy world and not care what happens in the real world.
Ted, your last comment about Climate Science is a vital one. We are starting a slide down a slope that gets steeper as we ignore the necessity to quit burning fossil fuel. Four years of Romney doing nothing to control Climate Change would bring us closer to the free-fall zone. The survival of humanity and most other life on the planet hangs in the balance.
We need to start a major effort to build the Thorium and other generation 4 reactors that were planned long ago. The programs were dropped in one of the worst episodes of shortsighted craziness in US history. We need to encourage Obama to start those projects again.
(continued)
"Storms of My Grandchildren" by Dr James E Hsnsen
"Power to Save the World" by Gwyneth Cravens
"SuperFuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future" by Richard Martin
We are in dire danger. Hansen, an Emonent Climate Scientist with NASA, explains the Science and history of Climate Change, and shows us the peril and some of the ways out of the mess.
Cravens and Martin both explain how Nuclear energy is a vital and necessary part of any serious effort to save humanity from near if not total extinction.
There is a major amount of fear and propaganda clouding discussions of Nuclear Energy. A serious study is the only way out of the confusion, and these three books are a distillation of the necessary knowledge.
One vital fact is that generation 4 reactors are not only inherently safe, shutting down completely if any problem occurrs - with no operator intervention necessary, but they can use present stockpiles of Nuclear "waste" as fuel, eliminating the storage problem and giving us power for hundreds of years.
You BOTE(better of two evils) folks throwing in the towel so early is like Obama's positioning himself in the middle, only to move to the right to get something passed. It’s the way you get ACA instead of single payer - the somewhat better than the worst, never the best. Support Rocky Anderson now. You can move to Obama in Nov. if Rocky can't win. Since we didn't get a primary to pull Obama and the democrats back to the left, they're steering to the right. And there is no way of knowing what Obama and the democrats will do with Social Security, Medicare, and the safety net. Look what they did with welfare. And Obama says he will compromise on those things. Some minor adjustments are reasonable, but since he refuses to put his vision out there, we don't know how much he will trade away. And Obama is a damn conservative. He got elected by being a dark horse.
Have you learned nothing from the increased cancer rate and thyroid problems from the dosing we've gotten from nuclear? Deep thermal can provide all the electricity we need without that danger.
Yep, they're as safe as the computers that control them. Puts me in mind of the yarn about the computer-contro lled airliner. Before takeoff the computer voice went out over the intercom: "This plane is first of the new wave. No pilot or co-pilot, just computers will be flying it. The airline assures all passengers that this plane is perfectly safe. Nothing whatsoever can go wrong (click) go wrong (click) go wrong. . . .”
For the rest of us 99% - vote straight Dem and that includes vote for Obama. Or die
I am not an Obama apologist (I knew we were screwed when he appointed Rahm, Summers, etal) and perhaps he had no choice. Doesn't matter...the MIC that runs this country wants the status quo.
The only hope is for this country is mass civil disobedience.
I intend to hold my nose and vote for Obama, and then work at the grassroots so that someday true progressives will be viable candidates...
Well said - thank you DaveHOz
This may be a good thing, good for the long term Democratic party anyway. If the Mitt wins, the Gop will finally be faced with fixing the mess they've created. Unfortunately this will ultimately be a bad thing for the 99% - because they won't be able to - not with the policies they're currently advocating. If democracy survives another GOP term it could result in a subsequent long period of Dem leadership. Lots of 'ifs'.
Obama/Biden in November for a saner more adult presidency. Oh yea, please do not forget to load both houses in Blue.
I realized what was going on in our country when the JFK commissions couldn't even lie sufficiently to cover up their
messy assassination plot. They had to hide behind classified
secrets that would be held for 50 years. How perverted can democracy get before we realize we don't have one.
I agree completely with your assessment of our political situation.
If the target had always been Bin Ladin, Bush could have made that happen in Afghanistan and stayed the hell out of Iraq. All he achieved was to take the one secular nation in the Middle East and turn it into another religious minefield. The is the way for "end of times" politicians.
Writers constantly talk about the death of children in the Middle East and continually without considering the arc of history. WWII, fought on European soil, killed many children. The Germans and the French and the Italians and Japanese were guilty of this before the US even entered the war.
If the Arab WOrld held its children in high regad they would be trying to get to the table and end the conflict. Instead they are driven by some foolish tenant in Islam that has made them believe that all those children are martyrs, and they very well may be. If so the war might be seen as a service to get them all to heaven and their reward of virgins.
That is what happens when war are driven my religious fanaticism.
Protect our own children first.
If the target was bin Laden Bush could have taken the Taliban up on its' offer to turn over every al Qaeda member in Afghanistan to the world court, despite Islam's charge to protect your guests to the death. But Bush wanted his kangaroo court and refused their offer. All this death was a direct result of Bush's ego.
To consider Mittens as an option is foolish. There won't be enough left of our democracy to fix after a debacle like that. I'll vote for Obama because he is absolutely the best of two evils and because you can't imagine the alternative. He will address the issues of education and health care, as well as appoint people to the supreme court we can live with.A Mittens presidency would be THE END of this nation as we know it and we WON"T get it back, EVER !!
Have three and a half years completely wiped clean your memory ??
As for allowing Romney--poster boy for the 1% to win, as RMDC and Coffeewriter suggest--this is simply cutting off our noses to spite our faces. We have two viable choices in November; casting a vote for anyone but Obama is a vote for Romney (as we should have learned from Florida in 2000, Gore v. Bush). Lotuslover is on the money: how many more Citizen's United-like decisions will we see with a Romney-appointe d court?
Robert Scheer is the best when it comes to picking out the word games.
You can have the lesser of two evils as a fall back safeguard if the alternative doesn't look like he/she has a chance.
Every Republican in national office is working for the destruction of American democracy.
And for noni, it was the Barbary pirates, Adams and the treaty of Tripoli which assured Islam that we had no problem with "Musselmen" which was what they called Muslims then.
And we are to somehow make the leap that his next four will unveil 'the real' liberal in his heart?
I wanna pooooonnneeeeee ee tooooooo!
I see no difference in that reasoning than in the reasoning of those who are calling for a vote for Anderson, Stein etc.
One long shot is as good as another and relying upon some bogeyman scenario about SCOTUS appointments, when your guy is killing women and children while eating a Big Mac from 8000 miles away seems down right as cognitively dissonant as anything the FauxSnoozers are tossing on the table.
Believe me, he will take it as a mandate.
I actually think he's more dangerous than Romney because he's much better at peddling the corporate poison than Romney could ever be. (Romney would like to be as good a liar as Obama is, but his Mormon faith won't let him. Nixon, with the Quaker spirit of his mother hovering over him, had the same problem. He constantly worked at lying well--but never really got the hang of it. Great liars are, I suspect, born with the gift. Reagan had it. Bill Clinton has it. So does Obama.
If a majority of Americans think this way--console themselves, that is, that America is less criminal than it might be, then maybe the Koch Brothers and their friends are benefactors after all. Clearly the demented rich are doing things which, unchecked, will destroy our economy. But once our economy is gone, so one would think will be our days as a super-power as well. Considering how we have squandered our opportunities, maybe this is all for the best.
RSS feed for comments to this post