Are You In?
You’ve got to hand it to Obummer, his timing’s impeccable. On the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King — and one day before capitulating to the Rightists and allowing military commission trials of Guantanamo detainees — Obummer rolls out his 2012 re-election campaign, complete with a smarmy, grassrootsy video, and asks, “Are You In?”
“Are You In?” Jeezus, what the hell kind of slogan is that? It sounds like the wrapup for a venture capital pitch, like a question asked by some newly-minted Stanford MBA trying to schmooze a few million for his crappy-assed Internet start-up.
The “official” unemployment rate is nailed at around 10%, the foreclosure rate is climbing, bankers are getting fatter than ever, Bush’s tax cuts for the rich are still in place, the healthcare system is still in the hands of corporations, we’re up to our asses in three wars, the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay is still open, our civil liberties are in worse shape than ever, Obummer’s just rolled over for John Boehner on the budget deal — and now Obummer’s got the sheer gall to ask me if I’m “in”.
Like hell I’m “in”. Take a goddamn’ hike, piker.
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Late last week, not long after Barack Obummer announced there’d be no US “boots on the ground” in Libya, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times revealed — much to my total lack of surprise — that the US did, in fact, have the proverbial boots on the ground in the form of CIA spooks functioning as “advisors” and gathering intelligence to share with Libya’s “Toyota Tigers”.
Even more interesting was this report on the CIA connections of Libya’s new rebel commander, Khalifa Hifter. Apparently, Mr. Hifter defected from Gadhafi’s army about twenty-five years ago and was living a comfortable life in the suburbs of Washington, DC, until he suddenly felt moved to come to the aid of his motherland in its most desperate hour of need.
“Verr-rrry innn-teresting…!”
– Arte Johnson, as the German soldier on Laugh-In
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For those of you who could tear yourselves away from the tragedy in Japan and the US media’s gushing over Obama’s “humanitarian intervention” in Libya, there was some horrifying news from Afghanistan which underscores Obama’s hypocrisy in the area of human rights and violence: the publication in German publication Der Spiegel of a batch of photographs taken by US soldiers with their “trophies” — the corpses of Afghan civilians murdered by “kill teams” who created artificial “combat situations” in order to hunt human beings for sport.
What especially galled the hell out of me was that President Hope apparently couldn’t be bothered to fly home from his holiday in Brazil to deal with these atrocities. It’s this kind of vile behavior by the US empire around the world that fills me with even more contempt for the “cruise-missile Liberals” who cheer Obama’s attacks on Libya while Saudi and Bahraini security forces murder protesters in Bahraini streets using weapons sold to them by Obama. Never mind all the talk about “freedom” for the Libyans; remember that imperialists will always do only what’s in the best interests of imperialists.
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The New Flag of Bahrain
OK, gang, let me run through this one more time: President Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner, quoted by Al Jazeera in a statement as opposing violence against civilians – on the same day that his Predator drones engaged in more slaughter of civilians in Pakistan – has sold a shit-ton of weapons to Saudi Arabia who, in turn, has joined the army of Bahrain in the massacre of unarmed civilian protesters in the streets of Bahrain. Is that pretty much it? Have I missed anything here?
While you chew on that, here’s some footage via Russia Today from Bahrain of soldiers using automatic weapons – supplied by the US – to shoot down unarmed civilian protesters in the streets.
And while you digest that, here’s a Blast From Yer Past, just to give you a little context: The Color Purple author Alice “In Wonderland” Walker, in the UK Guardian in April of 2008, gushing shamelessly in what can only be termed a love letter to Barack Obama:
He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is.
Yeah, that’s right; Alice Walker compares Barack Obama – hypocrite, warmonger, house slave for the oligarchy – to black resistance heroes Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Read on for the full load of lulz, if you can stand it. As for myself, I’m taking this occasion to get out of the studio for awhile and catch up on my daytime drinking.
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