To Be or Not To Be

[Annie]

He can be whatever he likes and neither press nor his backers are going to point out the inconsistencies. However, that is the place of the 'loyal opposition'.

President Hamlet by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online

President Hamlet
It’s ‘to Be or Not to Be’ Time for Obama

By Victor Davis Hanson

Instead of Scott McClellan, who was inept and disingenuous as White House spokesman, we now get Robert Gibbs, a nicer sort—who is likewise inept and disingenuous.

For all the promises of a revolution in ethics, President Obama has created a new syndrome: The well-off can be made to stop evading their taxes by nominating them for cabinet posts. In any case, compare Bush’s cabinet picks with Daschle, Geithner, Holder, Lynn, and Richardson—and discover that there is no empirical evidence of any higher ethical standard for public office in the Obama era.

George Bush called for unity, passed some bipartisan legislation on prescription drugs and education, and appointed a few Democrats to his administration. Barack Obama appointed a few Republicans to his administration, but so far has not mapped out areas for bipartisan lawmaking. Despite his legendary cool and gravitas, he has scoffed “I won” (in the manner of Bush’s “I’m the decider”). The uniter went after Rush Limbaugh in a way that Bush never quite took on Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews.

Bush bumps into doors; so does Obama. Bush swaggered; so does Obama (often in a swimming suit). Not much difference there, either.

Bush said Iran was part of an axis of evil. Outraged media insisted that his braggadocio was unwise and gratuitously alienated Tehran. Obama said he wanted to talk to the theocracy without preconditions and improve on the mistakes of our past. Iran answered back: “This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed. . . . Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change.” So, like Bush’s, Obama’s words incurred Iranian disdain—but won some humiliation as dessert.

On other issues as well—the withdrawal plan from Iraq, the Patriot Act, FISA—Obama is Bush II. Your counterexample is Guantanamo? But Obama has not closed Guantanamo, which has mysteriously become complex and problematic, and therefore has disappeared as the Gulag and Stalag of the op-ed pages. Bush said in 2006 that he wanted to close it; Obama echoed that in 2009, but promised a task force to study how to do it within a year.

So is Obama Bush redux? Not quite....

RE: Rendition - Mark Hemingway - The Corner on National Review Online

RE: Rendition [Mark Hemingway]
Buried in that LAT article on rendition Jonah linked below is a flip-flop from Human Rights Watch that would impress even the East German judge. Here's Human Rights Watch in April of last year:

The US government should:

·Repudiate the use of rendition to torture as a counterterrorism tactic and permanently discontinue the CIA's rendition program;

·Disclose the identities, fate, and current whereabouts of all persons detained by the CIA or rendered to foreign custody by the CIA since 2001, including detainees who were rendered to Jordan;

·Repudiate the use of "diplomatic assurances" against torture and ill-treatment as a justification for the transfer of a suspect to a place where he or she is at risk of such abuse;

·Make public any audio recordings or videotapes that the CIA possesses of interrogations of detainees rendered by the CIA to foreign custody;

·Provide appropriate compensation to all persons arbitrarily detained by the CIA or rendered to foreign custody.
​

Now here's Human Rights Watch in the era of Hope and ChangeTM:

"Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place" for renditions, said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "What I heard loud and clear from the president's order was that they want to design a system that doesn't result in people being sent to foreign dungeons to be tortured — but that designing that system is going to take some time."​

Remember Katrina coverage? Same FEMA and same job as President, but the coverage? Well that's a tad different:

Power Line - Obama: "Let Them Eat Steak"

Is Barack Obama an insensitive lout who serves $100 per pound steaks to his elite guests and turns up the heat in the White House high enough to grow orchids while a million of his countrymen are without power and dozens are freezing to death? If not, why not?

Solely because that is not the story the media want to tell. Many on the web--but no one in the mainstream media--have commented on the fact that Obama has not even pretended to do anything about the massive ice storm that has disabled much of Kentucky and neighboring states. It took days for FEMA to swing into action. Why is that not a scandal? Days went by before Kentucky's governor called out the National Guard. Why did no one blame Obama for failing to call out the Guard sooner? Probably because he lacks the constitutional power to do so; but the Constitution hasn't changed since 2005.

The Anchoress has an excellent roundup. Glenn Reynolds has been on the story too. One of Glenn's readers writes:

What Katrina taught the media was that they could hurt Bush by lying. What 2008 taught them was that they could help Obama by not reporting at all. What will 2009 teach them? I shudder to think.​

A basic reality of our time is that our mass media are monolithic, and what they choose to report (or not report) depends on what fits the narrative they are pushing on the public. If our reporters and editors wanted to portray Obama as clueless and out of touch with ordinary Americans, he has given them ample opportunity to do so. But because they are Democrats and he is a Democrat, they have no desire to tell that story. So "let them eat steak" is not a theme you'll be seeing on the evening news.

 

[rayboyusmc]

 

[Annie]

Indeed, frightening that is what is going on in the new administration now. Hat tip for your recognition of the problem.

 

[editec]

Indeed, frightening that is what is going on in the new administration now. Hat tip for your recognition of the problem.

Here's the question, Annie.

Did you tip your hat when Rayboy was ALSO pointing out the problem of the last administration?

 

[jillian]

Did you tip your hat when Rayboy was ALSO pointing out the problem of the last administration?

Of course not. *rolls eyes*

 

[Skull Pilot]

you mean there's a difference??????

 

[Red Dawn]

He can be whatever he likes and neither press nor his backers are going to point out the inconsistencies. However, that is the place of the 'loyal opposition'.

In the seven years of abject failure and incompetence of one of the worst adminstrations in history, did you ever start a thread complaining about horrible president you voted for twice?

No?

I didn't think so.

 

[del]

you mean there's a difference??????

of course there's a difference.

bush spent the economy into ruins.

obama's gonna spend it into prosperity.

makes perfect sense.

 

[Skull Pilot]

you mean there's a difference??????

of course there's a difference.

bush spent the economy into ruins.

obama's gonna spend it into prosperity.

makes perfect sense.

OOOOOOHHHHH

Now I get it








NOT

 

[Ravi]

I have to agree here. I can't believe Obama fed steak to six republicans and their spouses. I would have fed them crow.

Does anyone know who these six republicans are? From what I understand the majority of the Republican elected officials were partying it up in Hot Springs, Virginia over the weekend on a "retreat." The poor dears really needed it, too, I'm sure.

lol

 

[Skull Pilot]

I have to agree here. I can't believe Obama fed steak to six republicans and their spouses. I would have fed them crow.

Does anyone know who these six republicans are? From what I understand the majority of the Republican elected officials were partying it up in Hot Springs, Virginia over the weekend on a "retreat." The poor dears really needed it, too, I'm sure.

lol

you forgot to mention that he tried to ply them with liquor too.

 

[Annie]

Indeed, frightening that is what is going on in the new administration now. Hat tip for your recognition of the problem.

Here's the question, Annie.

Did you tip your hat when Rayboy was ALSO pointing out the problem of the last administration?

Um, do you really think Rayboy meant that 'hat tip'? Yea, me neither.

 

[Annie]

He can be whatever he likes and neither press nor his backers are going to point out the inconsistencies. However, that is the place of the 'loyal opposition'.

In the seven years of abject failure and incompetence of one of the worst adminstrations in history, did you ever start a thread complaining about horrible president you voted for twice?

No?

I didn't think so.

I started many a one about things disagreed with. So far it seems you and your sisters & brothers haven't found even one little thing to question. Little but peeps about the pork, nothing about income tax problems of so many nominees, nothing about cleaning house of people like Dodd, Rangel, etc.