Tag Archives: Barack Obama

October 20, 2011 · 8:38 pm

Gaddafi’s Dead

Yes, I’m sure everybody else is writing about it, but it is tonight’s obligatory blog topic.

Colonel Moammar Gaddafi, the man whose name was spelled a dozen different ways, the comical dictator with the hot female security guards and the big tittied Ukrainian nurse, the guy behind

Moammar Gadaffi, June 7th 1942-October 20th, 2011

the Lockerbie bombing, the man with the golden gun, is dead.

It is, as Joe Biden once said about something else, a big fucking deal.  I don’t know if it will really bring peace, prosperity and democracy to Libya.  We’ll have to wait and see on that and, so far, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the new leaders.  But at least there’s a shot.

And Barack Obama made it happen.  Let there be no doubt about that.  Last March, when it looked like the revolution had fizzled and Gaddafi’s troops were ready to go into Ben Ghazi and just start slaughtering civilians, a lot of people were calling on him to get involved.  I even signed a petition or two myself.  Preventing a humanitarian crisis was the word of the day.  And he got the NATO people together and said, well, maybe we can provide air cover and that will be enough to turn the tide.    I guess it wound up being a little bit more than air cover, but basically, the foreigners stayed out, the humanitarian crisis was averted (provided the new guys don’t go on a revenge killing spree), and the goal was achieved.  Gadaffi is dead.

So, Barack Obama gets major credit for this foreign policy achievement.  Not from Republicans, though.  Mitt Romney, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and several others released statements saying how great it was that Gaddafi was dead and the Libyans finally had control of their country, but they didn’t mention Barry at all.  Michele Bachmann, who a couple of days ago famously said “Obama got us into Libya, and now he’s getting us into Africa” has been totally silent.

I’m not always happy with Obama, and I can’t always figure out his motives.  He’s had this major success with Libya, but he seems to be pretty much ignoring the ongoing carnage in Syria and Yemen.  He just sent troops into Uganda, to find some crazy guy out in the jungle who pretty regularly kills large amounts of people, but only about 100 of them in an advisory capacity so we don’t know how that will work out yet.  It is how Viet Nam started, though.  And he left the Iranians hanging when they were shouting Allah Akhbar from the rooftops.

But he shut down the Somali pirates.  He got Bin Laden (the burial at sea made me suspicious, but OBL hasn’t resurfaced since then with a new videotape, so I guess he really is dead), and now Gadaffi.

So, give the man some credit.

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September 19, 2011 · 8:17 pm

Class Warfare, My Ass

In 1793, the French people executed King Louis XVI, by guillotine.  Over the next couple of years, they executed between 16 and 40,000 people, mostly for the crime of being greedy rich fuckers, having nice houses and servants and stuff like that when most people were struggling

What I can't figure out is why that dead guy in the foreground isn't wearing any pants

to survive.

16 to 40,000, that’s how bad they lost count.  They were just loppin’ off heads like crazy.  Now, that’s class warfare.  When Barack Obama says he’s going to let the taxes on the rich go back up to the same level they were when Bill Clinton was president, when he proposes a rule that says that rich people should have to pay at least the same tax rate that middle class people say (the Buffett rule, named after the actual rich person who proposed it), when he says he’ll veto any proposal that says we’ll reduce medicare or social security without at least making the rich pay something, some token amount, that’s not class warfare.  It doesn’t matter what Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan and John Boehner (America’s saddest cross between a bassett  hound and an Oompah-Loompah), say.

It’s just simple math.  This class warfare meme is an absurd accusation, it belongs right up there with secret muslim, born in Kenya, FEMA death camps  and oh so many others.

I object to it in this particular case because I hate teabaggers, neocons and whatever else they are calling right wingers these days, but I also object, in general, to the use of the word “war” for things that are not actually wars.  It trivializes war and makes it sound so acceptable.  When they talk about “The War on Drugs,” or Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” what they really meant was “a very serious effort.”  Unfortunately, some people took the “war on drugs” far too literally, guns got involved and now northern Mexico has, indeed, come to resemble a war zone.  Words have consequences.

So, Mr. Boehner (pronounced boner – at least I pronounce it boner), unless you actually want us to bring out the guillotines I’d suggest that you and your buddies STFU with the class warfare talk.

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September 1, 2011 · 10:39 pm

Fight, Flight or Fuck it

The current controversy is about Barack Obama rescheduling a speech.  He was supposed to give the speech Wednesday night but John Boehner (pronounce boner – anyway, I pronounce it boner) called him up and said ‘Wednesday’s bad, we’re having our big right wing praise Jesus and

That would explain a few things

rant about socialism night that night’ and Barry said ‘no-probs, we’ll move it to Thursday.’

But, like everything Barry, it’s a controversy.  Flag lapel pins, knew some guy, knew some guy, went to a church, likes Dijon mustard, knows what Arugula is, Teleprompters! Teleprompters! Birth certificate!  There’s one big difference.  This time it’s people on the left who are giving him shit.  It was only a matter of time.

As we watched him cave on Guantanamo, taxes for the rich, single payer health care and a whole bunch of stuff we have become increasingly disillusioned with Barry.  When is he going to fight back?  He reminds me of the Jim Carrey character in Me, Myself and Irene, at the beginning, when he just put up with crap from everybody and therefore everybody in town used him as a doormat, and we’re all waiting for the scene where he flips and pushes little-Miss-smartmouth’s head under water a few times, before driving some guy’s car through the front window of the barber shop and then ticketing the son of a bitch for a broken headlight.

But, I’m not going to jump on his case about this.  I remember the first time I ever saw him, I think it was on Leno, and he was talking about the Dijon thing and how  politics can get really silly and superficial and we need to be talking about important stuff.  I thought “Well, that’s a pretty vague message.” But I also thought, “he’s right.”

And that’s been his presidency.  Not to act silly.  Not to get caught up in a silly debate over speech timing.  I salute him for that.

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