15 Responses to Cult of Personality

1. ubetchaiam April 7th, 2009 at 12:20 pm «

   More; “For the first time, the Obama Administration’s brief contends that government agencies cannot be sued for wiretapping American citizens even if there was intentional violation of US law. They maintain that the government can only be sued if the wiretaps involve “willful disclosure” — a higher legal bar.”
2. selise April 7th, 2009 at 12:31 pm «

   recommended
3. TomWells April 7th, 2009 at 12:44 pm «

   A little harsh.

   I have been critcial of some followers who act as if Obama can do no wrong, but his popularity is good fopr progressives, even if he is more centrist than we wish.

   I agree with some policies and disagree with others.

   The problem is with those on the netroots who seek a leader into which to project all their fantasies of perfection rather than to empower themsleves and others to create real change, sometimes with Obama and sometimes in spite of Obama.
• Bill Egnor April 7th, 2009 at 1:59 pm «

  I am with you TW on this. We have a problem in that the previous criminal administration left so many burning problems that we have lots of folks on the left side things wanting (reasonably) change to happen now on them. The problem is that all politicians are going to disappoint you if they are doing their job right. By trying to balance all the wants of a nation there is no chance that anyone will be happy with a president all the time (hell Mom was a politician and even she disappointed me!).
• selise April 7th, 2009 at 3:06 pm «

  could you please explain what you mean by balance? or is it one of those words i need to add to the list of words i don’t understand: bipartisan, transparency, honesty, etc
4. ART45 April 7th, 2009 at 2:10 pm «

   Not too harsh.

   Obama is way wrong on the economy and Afghanistan and the state secrets doctrine.

   No excuses. None.
5. Cujo359 April 7th, 2009 at 3:47 pm «

   Recommended.

   I don’t think this is too harsh. For too long now, people have been listening to the words and ignoring or excusing the deeds. In the end, it’s the deeds that matter.

   Actually, this is something you could say about peoples’ attitudes towards a great many politicians. It’s one of the reasons we’re where we are right now. Americans don’t pay attention to what matters, and focus on irrelevance.
6. bluebutterfly April 7th, 2009 at 6:11 pm «

   ” In an unprecedented move, the Obama administration is readying for a possible confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by briefing Democratic congressmen on the peace process and the positions of the new government in Israel regarding a two-state solution.

   The Obama administration is expecting a clash with Netanyahu over his refusal to support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

   However, Obama considers the two-state solution central to his Middle East policy, as he reiterated during a speech in Turkey on Monday, and he intends to ask that Netanyahu fulfill all the commitments made by previous governments in Israel: accepting the principle of a Palestinian state; freezing settlement activity; evacuating illegal outposts; and providing economic and security assistance to the Palestinian Authority. “

   http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077222.html
• ubetchaiam April 7th, 2009 at 6:38 pm «

  Blue, one aspect the mass media isn’t paying attention to or commenting on is the need for co-operation by Syria,Turkey,And Iran for a successful withdrawal from Iraq. This had made the Israeli government even more paranoid than they already were. And then there was the story of how Obama played a Reagan like game and let the Israeli’s know that he desired the attack on Gaza to stop before his inauguration; in return, he promised not to hold up the huge arms shipment that was on it’s way to the Israeli’s and which just arrived there recently.

  And today Lieberman -the Israeli FM- said that Israel won’t respond to someone ’standing over their head’ with a demand for progress in ‘peace talks’.
• bluebutterfly April 8th, 2009 at 10:42 am «

  You aren’t holding your breath waiting for the MSM to explain reality, are you? No, thought not..’g’. Israel is genocidal, not paranoid. They have all the modern weapons of death including nukes. They know that a large part of the world despises them because of Gaza and they don’t care.

  The whole extreme right wing government is scary and Lieberman is the scariest of all. Take the $3b US yearly allowance away from Israel and he’ll stand on his own head real quick. I know..not going to happen.
• shekissesfrogs April 8th, 2009 at 11:37 am «

  Not too harsh. It’s just kicking the can further down the road towards permanent dictatorial power.

  Mere policy differences shouldn’t involve “frittering away our constituional freedoms”, as Jonathan Turley put it on Olberman last night. Successive administrations can revert those policies but we wont get our precious freedoms back because of the precedents. That’s supposed to be the line in sand, right?

  Blue, one aspect the mass media isn’t paying attention to or commenting on is the need for co-operation by Syria,Turkey,And Iran for a successful withdrawal from Iraq. This had made the Israeli government even more paranoid than they already were.

  This statement is like an iceburg mistaken for a floatilla.
  These “enemies” are of Isreal’s and the neocons making for the most part.

  Before Bush, we had good relations with Turkey and Syria.
  If you go back to the demand that Bush made to Syria to leave lebanon, and what followed was the war on Lebanon. The pretext for keeping the golan was to accuse Syria of funding Hizbolla.

  Members of Turkey’s lobbies, The ATA and ATC and AIPAC were interchangable, and they have mediated between Syria and Israel. Siebel Edmonds had some interesting things to say about this relationship.

  But rightly, Turkey had the courage to reject the war on Iraq and wouldn’t allow the US to use bases there. PM Erdogan has had the temerity to call for fairness, respresentation of Hamas at peace talks, and walked out on Shimon Peres at Davos, out of respect for the 266 children killed in the slaugter.

  Iran offered to provide support for the Iraq war, and has never stopped being dilligent in stopping drugs. They weren’t a threat until the Bush cabal decided they were, and they were next on the list to topple.

  The failed neocon zionist triangulation strategy is not really working anymore. They have played all their cards, and those include the ones shoved up their sleeves. It’s just another diversion to avoid peace while they take continue to absorb and balkanize the rest of the Palestinian mandate, and the golan.

  And then there was the story of how Obama played a Reagan like game and let the Israeli’s know that he desired the attack on Gaza to stop before his inauguration; in return, he promised not to hold up the huge arms shipment that was on it’s way to the Israeli’s and which just arrived there recently.

  I didn’t know this! Sure puts a new light on Obama for me. He hadn’t even taken the reigns of power and but he signed up as the merchant of death.

  And today Lieberman -the Israeli FM- said that Israel won’t respond to someone ’standing over their head’ with a demand for progress in ‘peace talks’.

  When I visit Haaretz or an Israeli site, what I find astounding is the egotism. I wonder if keeping state secrets is a problem there, due to their overwhelming urge to either brag, or take affront on every issue.
  I hope they keep this blustery talk up. Right now the world is infatuated with Obama, his popularity is at an all time high. We know he’s a go-along to get-along type, but they’re taking it public and he’s going to lose face if he doesn’t show some backbone.

  If there is no war, what would unite them with each other, or the diaspora? And there are all these organizations that profit from the endless continuation of hostility. I don’t think there will be ever be peace until Israel is painfully coerced into it.
  Some of the medicine that they have craftily designed for the Palestinians is in order.
  A march out of the Westbank into some tent cities from whence they they came, as well as the forced march of palestinians into the tent cities already has a precedence. The same method should be used again, but in reverse.
7. ubetchaiam April 7th, 2009 at 6:45 pm «

   Dog,Tom, I wonder why you feel my critique is ‘too harsh’; look at what he has said and done in his first ‘100 days’. As far as ‘accomplishments’, the ’stimulus’ package was too small and the budget actually has the Defense monies GROWING by 4 per cent yoy.

   The 66 per cent is way too high for someone who has NOT exhibited ‘leadership’ except in a political sense and has abandoned -apparently- his previous sense of ethics and ‘fair-play’.

   Guess we’ll just have to disagree for now and wait for more shit to be crapped on the citizenry for my point to be accepted by you.
• TomWells April 8th, 2009 at 7:44 am «

  I agree with you on those issues and have been vociferous on Daily Kos (as TomP) in fighting those who venerate Obama and attack any non-believer, but I think they are a distinct minority, mostly on blogs. On substance, we agree. I think I would just say it differently, that’s all.
8. jaango April 8th, 2009 at 9:47 am «

   Having to argue, either the pro or con relative to President Obama, is much ado about nothing.

   I on the other, am a tad more logical when it comes to the national Agenda of Issues. Of course, I am a “contrarian.” Thus, my “issues” are:

   First, I favor a UHC rolled into the VA’s Medical and Hospital Systemic. Secondly, I favor a law under the ageis of “governmental speech” in which Congress passes legislation the prohibts both the RNC and the DNC from accepting memberships from racists and bigots. Thirdly, I favor immigration reform that starts with the childen born here in the USA of Undocumented Immigrant Parents. To with, when our littlest citizens are repatriated with their parents, we don’t know if these kid have three squares-a-day, live in a hovel, have clean clothes, access decent medical care, or even experience a qualitative and quantitative educational experience. Fourthly, I favor an ‘academic-military’ draft in which a high school graduate or high school drop-out can enlist for three years, and upon honorable discharge, will have in hand, an Associate of Arts Degree in General Studies, and thusly, continue to matriculate in order to seek out and eventually, achieve the much-needed four year academic degree. And all done without the aid of the parent(s)who must scrimp and save, while possibly neglecting the younger siblings, or the construct for loans, grants, and scholarships. Of course the “TrainLoad of Demographics” is on my side, and of course, I am referring to the ever-expanding Spanish-speaking communities here in the USA.

   Now, if Obama et.el were paying attention, he’d jump on this TrainLoad and get himself re-elected in 2012, by “pandering” to my Ideas. And as such, you won’t find me ‘complaining’ about what Obama and Biden see as their self-interest. I too, have my self-interest, and somewhere in the future, our respective self-interests will coalesce, of that I am sure.

   Jaango
9. bluebutterfly April 8th, 2009 at 3:16 pm «

   ” According to a CIA Study currently being shown to selected staff members on the US Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Israel’s survival in its present form beyond the next 20 years is doubtful.

   The Report predicts “an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region.”

   To President Peres’ chagrin, the Executive Summary states that “during the next fifteen years more than two million Israelis, including some 500,000 Israeli citizens who currently hold US green cards or passports, will move to the United States. Most Israelis not in possession of these documents will receive ‘expedited waivers.’ The Report claims that, “Alongside a decline in Jewish births and a rise in Palestinian fertility, approximately 1.6 million Israelis are likely to return to their forefather’s lands in Russia and Eastern and Western Europe with scores of thousands electing to stay, depending on the nature of the transition.”

   Peres knows that his forefathers had no connection whatsoever to Palestine, as is the case with more than 95% of the Zionists who swept into the area over the past century and demolished close to 600 villages while expelling a majority of the native population. Historians have established that most arriving Jews were in fact Slavic converts to Judaism without any historical or genealogical nexus to Palestine or Hebrew tribes in the area.”

   http://informationclearinghous…..e22049.htm