I'm sorry this is confusing for you and may interfere with your worship services, but, no, it is not acceptable for Barack or any sitting president to rule on who is or who is not a patriot. American citizens judged not to be patriots? Sounds a lot like an enemies' list.
If Bill Clinton were in office right now, I'd be calling him out if he were to make such a stupid remark. But Bill was in office for eight years and, as someone who knew American history as well as the law, he never made such a stupid mistake.
How dare, from the Oval Office, someone question any American's patriotism.
It's just unnacceptable.
I do realize that the scripture for the Cult of St. Barack has the world divided into before and after Barack's ascension to the White House but I also realize that scripture of 'The One' is about as factual as Barack's claim that his parents -- an underage, sexually active teenage girl and a married adult male from another country -- got together because of Selma.
It is always unacceptable for a public servant to question the patriotism of a citizen.
Someone, apparently a deacon or high priest in the Cult of St. Barack, felt the need to repeat one statement 17 times in his e-mail: "You are not giving Obama enough credit for what he did on Friday."
You mean talk?
That's all he did.
He talked.
Wow.
By a year-and-a-half most infants can manage that feat.
Considering all the praise heaped on him for speeches since 2008, I wasn't aware that talking was something Barack had just started doing.
Do I also need to give him credit for using a toilet? Or am I mistaken in assuming an adult with full functions and capabilities no longer needs a potty chair?
All he did was talk. A great deal of what he said was dishonest.
In terms of doing something? He talked. And he talked about doing something.
But Ed Snowden's revelations were made in May and Barack's had plenty of time to actually do something, he's just chosen not to.
I believe I've shared this before. I have a friend who's a very praised novelist (and deserves the praise). Never expect more than a vague sentence during the writing stage because his feeling is, 'If I talk about it, I'm not going to write about it.'
Because talking and doing are two different things.
There are people, like my friend, who prefer to do with very little talk.
There are people who can talk and follow up with actions.
Then there's Mr. Pretty Words Barack who loves to talk and talk and talk -- but never actually gets around to doing.
You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you
All those pretty lies, pretty lies
When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies
Only pretty lies, just pretty lies
-- "The Last Time I Saw Richard," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album Blue
August 20, 2007, Barack: "As president, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act and adhere to the Geneva Conventions."
Not happened. In his first term, he failed. In his second term, he's continued to fail. But let's be clear, that 2007 promise was for his first term. He broke the promise.
Not only is it open, but the conditions remain horrifying. From yesterday's Free Speech Radio News:
Dorian Merina: This week, Guantanamo prisoners passed six months on hunger strike. According to the military today, 54 men are still on the strike, 39 are being force fed through nasal tubes. In a statement to FSRN, Navy Captain Robert Durand called the practice “medically sound” and designed to preserve the life and health of the detainees. The UN has described force-feeding as torture and the American Medical Association says it's against its medical ethics. A group of prisoners also renewed their legal challenge to the force-feeding at a federal appeals court in Washington DC this week. Today marks 77 days since President Obama renewed a pledge to begin transferring the 86 prisoners who have been cleared for release by the US government. For more, we are joined by attorney David Remes. He represents more than a dozen Guantanamo detainees. Welcome back to FSRN.
David Remes: Glad to be back, thank you.
Dorian Merina: What's the latest you're hearing from your clients about the conditions at Guantanamo as the hunger strike passes the six-month mark?
David Remes: Well the hunger strike appears to be on the wane. We don't know because the military plays with numbers. In terms of conditions, they're still subject to humiliating genital searches if they want to meet with their lawyers or speak with their lawyers. Those who remain on hunger strike are kept in isolation cells and deprived of such basic necessities as tooth paste and tooth brushes. Even those who have been moved to communal areas are subject to very stringent restrictions. Conditions are somewhat better for detainees who are not hunger striking than for those who remain hunger striking.
As David Remes observes later in the segment, "President Obama is very good at creating the illusion of movement even when he's standing still."
He must be a heretic to the Cult of St. Barack.
I've committed several heresies as well, apparently since one e-mailer kindly offers, "You should be burned at the stake and, in better times, would be." Better times? In what world is 1431 a more enlightened time? (That's when Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.) Maybe he just has a hankering for the Byzantine - Ottoman Wars?
At any rate, when I'm burned at the stake, the charge that will be read, judging by the e-mail, is this: "While you say you want all US troops out of Iraq, you refuse to give our President Obama credit for doing just that. There are no US troops in Iraq. Why won't you give the President credit?"
My would be executioner is right, all US troops are out of Iraq . . .
Except for the Marines guarding the US Embassy in Baghdad and the consulates.
Except for the couple of hundred there as "trainers" for weapons purchases.
Except for the ones Ted Koppel noted. Remember that? December 2011, the media cried "Withdrawal!" while the military brass said "Drawdown." Only Ted bothered, in a report for NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams, to examine who stayed behind. We'll drop back to "2011: The Year of the Slow Reveal" for the key exchange between Koppel and then-US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey.
MR.
KOPPEL: I realize you can't go into it in any detail, but I would
assume that there is a healthy CIA mission here. I would assume that
JSOC may still be active in this country, the joint special operations.
You've got FBI here. You've got DEA here. Can, can you give me sort of
a, a menu of, of who all falls under your control?
AMB. JAMES JEFFREY: You're actually doing pretty well, were I authorized to talk about half of this stuff.
That's quite a list for a country all US troops have departed from.
Maybe that frankincense in the Cult of St. Barack's liturgical rites is fogging the brain?
And, if my executioner could hold off shoving me onto the pyre for just a moment, there is Tim Arango's September 25th New York Times report, "Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to [US] General [Robert L.] Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence."
Not only is there all Ted Koppel outlined but, last fall, a US Army Special Operations unit was sent into Iraq.
We could go on and on.
But if I'm not properly grateful to St. Barack for magically vanishing all US troops from Iraq it may just be because his potion didn't work and his promise, like so many others, has not been kept.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
i hate the war
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