Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago when the Reactionaries were screaming about how Obama was being controlled by his anti-American pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright? How then can their tiny brains accept a contradictory theory, that Obama is a Muslim? This can’t be explained by stupidity alone, I theorize that the Reactionary Brain also suffers an extreme deficit in mid- and long-term memory.
It seems like only yesterday when politicians were shouting Drill, Baby Drill to a growing chorus of SUV-drivin’ whiners. Frankly, given the history of oil spills, I couldn’t help but wonder how politics in the U.S. could have shifted so sharply in my lifetime from a moratorium on new drilling to supposed Totalitarian Liberals like Obama and a ‘moderate’ Repug like Schwarzenegger pushing for renewed coastal drilling.
What a difference a multi-million gallon oil spill off wetlands, fisheries and resort beaches makes. Now, thanks to BP’s fuckup and the failure of an oil rig that was supposedly spill-proof, it looks like additional coastal drilling may be off the table…at least while this is still in the news.
It really comes down to this – I don’t believe Americans can really remember stuff that happened before the current news cycle. Seriously, just watch – somebody will discover some politician or celebrity’s reproductive organ lodged somewhere it isn’t supposed to be, the oil spill will fade from memory (along with countless threatened and endangered spills in the Gulf of Mexico), and Palin et. al. will be out screaming Drill, Baby Drill with renewed vigor.
It’s like all that talk a few years ago about how nuclear power was gaining new support. Obama even included building a few new of the unstable light water reactors in his energy plan. What the hell will it take to take that option off the table, another Three Mile Island or a Chernobyl (history of those nuclear power accidents, in case you too have amnesia)?
The hate talk is flying, online now. The reactionaries stalk armed around Town Hall meetings, lurk with their guns in parking lots outside airports when AF1 is in town and strut with their weapons down the National Mall. Now they are taking their UnAmerican hate online – over 1 million asshole reactionaries are now praying for Obama’s demise. Am I the only one who hears the assassination time bomb ticking?
Good thing Obama got the Health Care Reform passed when he did! Unfortunately, today also marks another very disturbing development – the opening of the floodgates of unlimited corporate election funding.
Can you imagine what’s going to happen now when they resume debating climate change legislation? Bush really fucked us with Alito and Roberts.
What would the Needlenosers have me saying?
Trial by Monster Truck
I can’t determine which is crazier – the claim that Obama shouldn’t be President because he wasn’t born here, or the belief by a large majority of Repugs that he didn’t wind because little old ACORN managed to steal 9.5 million votes.
Are they stupid, crazy or does this just demonstrate the success of the big lie technique as applied by Faux News and the Wrong-Wing Media Echo Chamber? Or all three?
Combine this with the obvious popularity of Caribou Barbie among the wingnut set, and you come to realize that Idiocracy is closer at hand than 500 years in the future.
Maybe we could make the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial more popular with the Palin crowd by including monster trucks, flamethrowers and chainsaws.
*Update 11/24/09* case in point:
This: 
Or this:
Who's the Saudi's beeatch?
I sure hope there was no tongue involved *shudder*
Juan Cole discusses some of the fall-out from the latest blast in Mess-o-potamia. Given that the blast wounded some members of the Iraqi parliament, Hadi al-Ameri, a member of parliament rightly asks:
“We’ve heard a lot of brouhaha about successes on the security front,” he said. “Where are these successes?”
Good question. Seems like things are heading South again, with increasingly brazen attacks reminiscent of the Groundhog Days of ’04 and ’05.
In the same post, Juan Cole discusses how affairs between the Kurds and the rest of Iraq are heating up around the flashpoint Kirkuk. Those of you who aren’t afflicted with American Amnesia might remember how we called Kirkuk out as a flashpoint way back when, and how the Kurds have been continuously working to reclaim demographics and control on the ground in this oil-rich city.
I guess with Obama shifting his focus on our other failing occupation, and with our gradual troop removal the Petreus plan to stabilize the Iraqi Civil War is slowly and painfully coming off, like a band-aid on a hairy leg.
The Obama Honeymoon is over. The Nobel Committee didn’t do him any favors by giving him a ‘Peace Prize’ for doing nothing other than not being Bush, because it reminded us that Obama hasn’t really done much of anything at all! Seems to be the theme now on even Administration-friendly shows like The Daily Show and Rachel Maddow.
Seriously Mr. President, our party controls the White House, Congress, and the Repug party is in complete disarray. The Wing-Nut Media and Repugs are sniping at each other.
What more do you fucking need to get off your ass? It’s great that you aren’t Bush, don’t get me wrong, but the winning strategy here is a full frontal assault on all issues. Don’t back off things because you are ‘too busy with Healthcare,’ now is the time to hit the Reactionaries with everything you’ve got, so they stay on the defensive.
And don’t put forth milquetoast proposals, go for Socialism, then let the Yellow Dogs whittle it back to something reasonable, rather than starting with reasonable and ending up with squat.
As things are going, I bet we’ll lose seats in Congress and who knows what might happen in the Senate? Unless you take some action, you may end up like Carter – a guy who did more after he left his one term in office then he did during his term. But at least you’ll get your Peace Prize in advance!
Well at least I’m glad they are finally talking about the ‘new strategies” for the Afghanistan war. Not sure why they waited so damn long though.
Frankly I’m with Colin Powell on this one – Mr. Obama, please be clear on what you hope to accomplish with U.S. Troops, and what conditions will trigger the end of the operation – give us a frickin’ exit strategy!!
The unspoken exit strategy, of course, is the neutralization of the Taliban & the destruction of Al Qaeda’s safe haven in the region, which as I’ve suggested before, is impossible without expanding the conflict into Western Pakistan.
Since the Pakistani government is scared to death of inviting US troops into the country to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban on the ground, and since we can’t invade without their permission, this pretty much rules out the current exit strategy.
So I imagine the conversation is pretty much revolving back to the old Nixon standby “how do we translate ‘Peace with Honor’ into Pashtun.”
