Obama and the Supreme Court

[seanD]

I think what we're seeing is a lot of disappointment coming from many former Obama supporters -- they expected him to accomplish a lot more than he has.

Duh.

I noticed that among those separating themselves from partisan politics, you omitted the Tea Party. For good reason, I suspect.

Even though the Tea Party was against Obama and taxes, it was initially libertarian, before it was co-opted by Palin and Beck. When Fox News and people like Hannity embraced it, that was the final nail in the coffin. OWS was much more spontaneous, IMO, and though it's been co-opted in some cases (or at least the media attempts to label it that way), it's still basically organic. I know because I live in downtown LA and see protests and marches here all the time, and the movement out here is still a mixed bag.

[odis]

In all fairness, did Obama cause these issues?

your right it is a little unfair to include him into the things he didnt initiate, however he joined in on pointing fingers at the right for starting wars when he is also starting them. he claimed he would stop our troops from dying and while i havent seen the numbers as of late, the deaths of our troops isnt exactly satisfying.... he also stood up and said i;m the guy for the job. im your man. bush didnt ask for the twin towers to get hit but a good president will work with whats handed to him/thrown into his face.

No, I might be talking about something which actually matters.

if you and your right hand man are making mutually exclusive and opposing statements, then your administration is not organized well enough to run a small coffee shop much less the country.

If you're referring to Keystone, that's still on the table, last I checked.

as far as i know the republicans forced him to deny it or allow it to be built in a vague enough manor that he can still influence where and how and he turned it down even though they are still building it in pieces.

Which allies might those be? We have so few these days.

yea he shouldnt have insulted the isrealis so much....
Obama faces Jewish backlash over private insults about Israeli PM caught on open mic exchange with Sarkozy
Barack Obama’s top ten insults against Israel
and then there was the british
Barack Obama’s top 10 insults against Britain
and then he alienated his own police by saying they reacted stupidly and well.... if thats not enough i could provide more...

No, I'm talking about something honest and accurate.

After 31 months in office, Obama has taken a total of 61 vacation days. At similar points in their presidencies, Bush had taken 180, Reagan 112, and Clinton set the workaholic's record with only 28.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2765250/posts

http://www.sodahead.com/united-state...stion-2355535/
Of course, if you're referring to just his first year in office, here's a site for you:

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/pre...vacation-days/

Nice try, though.

mmm. i'll concede your correct without further argument because i was not clear enough in my statement although i would like it noted that i did not mean vacations as defined by "An extended period of recreation spent away from home or in traveling."

Again, I'm talking about actual issues. Of course, if you care about the Supreme Court, the Right might revoke your membership card:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec...udges-20111217

newt makes me look like i have 170 IQ and yes general disrespect is something we should expect from our president especially when it has to do with the Supreme Court. you dont just respect those who agree with you. you respect everyone or at least try! that speech he gave made me feel like he was trying to intimidate the court into passing the law.

Please do -- you're digging quite the hole for yourself.

sure thing but i wont be able to keep digging until sunday. cya then!

[Nathan Poe]

Duh.

But even a disappointing Obama is still more palatable to many voters than some of the alternatives put forth by the Right -- Perry? Santorum? Gingrich?

Even though the Tea Party was against Obama and taxes, it was initially libertarian, before it was co-opted by Palin and Beck. When Fox News and people like Hannity embraced it, that was the final nail in the coffin. OWS was much more spontaneous, IMO, and though it's been co-opted in some cases (or at least the media attempts to label it that way), it's still basically organic. I know because I live in downtown LA and see protests and marches here all the time, and the movement out here is still a mixed bag.

The Tea Party movement was more or less astroturfed from the start, and never the "voice of the people" they tried so hard to portray themselves as. I wouldn't call it "co-opted" as much as they showed their true colors too soon.

[rogue06]

But even a disappointing Obama is still more palatable to many voters than some of the alternatives put forth by the Right -- Perry? Santorum? Gingrich?

None of whom will be the nominee. IIRC, at this point Carter was still stomping a mud hole in any presumptive Republican candidate but that wasn't how it worked out.

The Tea Party movement was more or less astroturfed from the start, and never the "voice of the people" they tried so hard to portray themselves as. I wouldn't call it "co-opted" as much as they showed their true colors too soon.

Far more grass roots than the engineered Occupy farce.

[Nathan Poe]

your right it is a little unfair to include him into the things he didnt initiate, however he joined in on pointing fingers at the right for starting wars when he is also starting them.

Well, I know you're not referring to either Iraq or Afghanistan, so -- did you have another war in mind?

he claimed he would stop our troops from dying and while i havent seen the numbers as of late, the deaths of our troops isnt exactly satisfying.... he also stood up and said i;m the guy for the job. im your man. bush didnt ask for the twin towers to get hit but a good president will work with whats handed to him/thrown into his face.

Well, without bringing Bush into this, (that's a road neither of us want to walk down for various reasons) I'll agree that while Obama was dealt a rotten hand by Nov. of '08, he does have to take responsibility for what he's done since then -- and it's been a mixed bag. I didn't much care for his early gripes about having inherited the problems of the last administration (no matter how much truth was to them), because in the words of another Democrat president, "the buck stops here."

Disappointing? perhaps. But hardly disastrous.

if you and your right hand man are making mutually exclusive and opposing statements, then your administration is not organized well enough to run a small coffee shop much less the country.

Again, the Buck stops with Obama, not Biden -- In the days before the Cheney administration (as I like to think of it), the Veep was sometimes little more than throne insurance -- look at some of the duds who were only a heart attack/assassin's bullet away from the oval office -- Agnew? Quayle? Palin?

Biden's a dud, but hardly the first or the worst. It's what Obama says that matters in the end.

as far as i know the republicans forced him to deny it or allow it to be built in a vague enough manor that he can still influence where and how and he turned it down even though they are still building it in pieces.

As far as I know, after Keystone was slapped with numerous lawsuits and criticisms from everyone from environmental groups to members of Congress, the State Department gave various federal agencies time to determine whether or not this pipeline was actually in the country's best interest. Obama gave those agencies an extension until 2013.

Obama often comes across as too cautious, but in this case, making sure that all the ducks are lined up and that we're sure this project isn't going to be a national embarrassment is worth another year -- measure twice, cut once.

yea he shouldnt have insulted the isrealis so much....
Obama faces Jewish backlash over private insults about Israeli PM caught on open mic exchange with Sarkozy
Barack Obama’s top ten insults against Israel
and then there was the british
Barack Obama’s top 10 insults against Britain
and then he alienated his own police by saying they reacted stupidly and well.... if thats not enough i could provide more...

First of all, from what I've heard, Netanyahu pretty much is a troglodyte -- but agreed, Obama should've watched out for those open mics.

Britain? Really? Returning a bust of Winston Churchill counts as a major insult? You want to hear worse stories, check your history books.

As for the police, Obama has tended to side against them in controversial brutality/abuse cases -- but that's hardly an insult.

I'm sure you can come up with plenty more, but nothing here is particularly earthshaking. Just a lot of huffing, puffing, and manufactured outrage from the Right.

mmm. i'll concede your correct without further argument because i was not clear enough in my statement although i would like it noted that i did not mean vacations as defined by "An extended period of recreation spent away from home or in traveling."

Which is never what it means in the case of any president -- it's not as if they're completely incommunicado or out of reach wherever they go.

Sounds to me like you got some bad info from an anti-Obama source -- no problem; you're not the first.

newt makes me look like i have 170 IQ and yes general disrespect is something we should expect from our president especially when it has to do with the Supreme Court.

And sadly, that bozo is the GOP's second choice for the presidential nod -- and, in a fit of narcissism beyond anything the Right ever tried to pin on Obama, he actually thinks he's going to rally not only Santorum's former supporters, but the entire conservative base to his flag to beat out Romney for the nomination at the convention -- I've actually heard him speaking of his strategies for a contested convention.

Newt, really -- give it up.

you dont just respect those who agree with you. you respect everyone or at least try! that speech he gave made me feel like he was trying to intimidate the court into passing the law.

Meanwhile, Newt went on record as saying that he would not only disrespect the court, but actually defy any decision he didn't agree with. In essence, he made a campaign promise to put himself above the law of the land.

And they call Obama a narcissist...

sure thing but i wont be able to keep digging until sunday. cya then!

Cya.

[seanD]

But even a disappointing Obama is still more palatable to many voters than some of the alternatives put forth by the Right -- Perry? Santorum? Gingrich?

I wouldn't exactly call it more "palatable." Saying that Obama is a more palatable choice than the potential rightwing candidates being offered by the MSM would be like saying getting both my toes smashed by a hammer is more palatable than getting both my thumbs smashed.

[seanD]

Far more grass roots than the engineered Occupy farce.

Engineered by whom, the right or the left? Why would the left engineer a movement that is anything but right at its core while Obama is still president?

[Nathan Poe]

None of whom will be the nominee. IIRC, at this point Carter was still stomping a mud hole in any presumptive Republican candidate but that wasn't how it worked out.

Well, Gingrich didn't get the memo -- he's still thinking he has a prayer.

You and I both know that barring a thunderbolt, Romney's going to get the nod. And how much of an improvement is he from Obama? (ask Santorum)

The Republican Party had one job -- put forth a candidate that their base can rally around as an improvement over Obama. As horrible as they made him out to be, their failure to accomplish their only task becomes that much more egregious

Far more grass roots than the engineered Occupy farce.

Including the Koch brothers' blood money? Sure -- combat Obama's "socialism" using the profits from Stalin's socialism.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm sure there were no shortage of hands pulling OWS' strings -- care to guess at whose?

[Nathan Poe]

I wouldn't exactly call it more "palatable." Saying that Obama is a more palatable choice than the potential rightwing candidates being offered by the MSM would be like saying getting both my toes smashed by a hammer is more palatable than getting both my thumbs smashed.

"offered by the MSM"? Does that excuse ever get a rest? These are your candidates -- the GOP put them into the spotlight, and watched them whither one by one.

No wonder the GOP is in trouble -- they can't even hold themselves accountable for their most basic of failures.

[seanD]

"offered by the MSM"? Does that excuse ever get a rest? These are your candidates -- the GOP put them into the spotlight, and watched them whither one by one.

No wonder the GOP is in trouble -- they can't even hold themselves accountable for their most basic of failures.

How do you figure they're "my" candidates? Or are you one those retarded liberals that thinks every Christian is a republican?

[Nathan Poe]

How do you figure they're "my" candidates? Or are you one those retarded liberals that thinks every Christian is a republican?

Nah, you just came off as one of those whiny Conservatives who blames everyone else -- in this case, the MSM -- for their own failures.

Conservatives have been out of touch for so long, it's hard for them to see themselves as anything but victims.

Apologies if I misjudged you -- there might be hope for you yet.

[rogue06]

Including the Koch brothers' blood money? Sure -- combat Obama's "socialism" using the profits from Stalin's socialism.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm sure there were no shortage of hands pulling OWS' strings -- care to guess at whose?

The Koch brothers were late to the party (no pun intended). The first time they were connected to the Tea Party was a couple months before the 2010 election whereas the first protests started in January of 2009.

If anyone or anything can be considered behind the Tea Party movement it would be folks from Ron Paul's failed 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Paul is often refered to as the "intellectual godfather" of the movement.

In contrast the Occupy movement was dreamed up by AdBusters, the "anti-consumerist" organization which started the Occupy Wall Street movement and is in part financed by the Tides Foundation which is in turn financed by the infamous billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros. Soros has also given millions to MoveOn which has joined the occupiers in several demonstrations and marches.

Soros is in effect the grandfather of the occupy movement. Interestingly though while announcing his sympathy and support for the movement he helped start he also lobbied for even greater handouts to bankers in 2009.

Soros, who has been convicted of insider trading in France, pocketed $1 billion betting against the British pound on “Black Wednesday” in 1992, when it lost 20% of its value in less than 24 hours earning him the reputation of “the man who broke the Bank of England.” Talk about your vulture capitalists.

But let's get back to the group that dreamt up the Occupy movement, AdBusters.

Exploring Occupy Wall Street's 'Adbuster' Origins

The protests go by a variety of names: "Occupy Wall Street," "American Autumn," "The 99 Percent." And the lack of a unified message is matched by a lack of centralized control. But the protests share a common spark: a disillusioned Canadian adman.

The Occupy protests seemed to come out of nowhere. But the early participants, like John Garcia in downtown Seattle, point to a very specific catalyst.

"I get Adbusters, so that's how I heard about it," he says.


Source

© source where applicable

Under the photograph it states that "the demonstrations were inspired by a blog post by Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters magazine."

The last sentence of the story is "And as the continuing scene in lower Manhattan attests, Lasn certainly knows how to launch a campaign."

After Igniting Wall St. Protests, Magazine Proposes One Clear Demand

Three months ago, the Canadian magazine Adbusters called for a protest on Wall Street, providing the spark that began a wildfire of protest across the country and, over the weekend, in an increasing number of cities around the world.


Source

© source where applicable

Adbusters founders cheer their Occupy idea

With roots that reach as far as Cairo's fertile Tahrir Square, the Occupy protests roiling Wall Street will finally come full circle this weekend as they blossom in Canada, where they were conceived by Vancouver-based Adbusters.


Source

© source where applicable

The Branding of the Occupy Movement

Kalle Lasn, the longtime editor of the anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters, did not invent the anger that has been feeding the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the United States.

But he did brand it.

Last summer, as uprisings shook the Middle East and much of the world economy struggled, Mr. Lasn and several colleagues at the small magazine felt the moment was ripe to tap simmering frustration on the American political left.

On July 13, he and his colleagues created a new hash tag on Twitter: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET. They made a poster showing a ballerina dancing on the back of the muscular sculptured bull near Wall Street in Manhattan.

For some people they were just words and images. For Mr. Lasn, they were tools to begin remodeling the “mental environment,” to create a new “meme,” the term coined by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins for a kind of transcendent cultural message.


Source

© source where applicable

So now that we've established that Adbusters pretty much started the whole thing (the sources above aren't exactly Fox News) let's take a quick look at them. Seems that after Osama bin Laden's death Adbusters ran a feature that castigated the left for not lining up and supporting him.

Who Mourns for Osama?
The ideological bankruptcy of the left

Why then has there been no outcry, not even a murmur of dissent, over the assassination of Osama Bin Laden? How did it come to pass that the enemy of American cultural, economic and military imperialism is no longer the friend-by-default of the radical left?

...

One reasonable explanation for why the left supported Chairman Mao but turns its back on Sheikh Bin Laden is that Mao's ideology of Communism was essentially Western.


Source

© source where applicable

So Adbusters, who even those on the left say was behind the Occupy Wall Street protests, bemoans that the left didn't embrace bin Laden as a comrade in the struggle.

[Nathan Poe]

Interesting -- I wondered who was behind OWS.

[rogue06]

Interesting -- I wondered who was behind OWS.

From the post directly above:

But let's get back to the group that dreamt up the Occupy movement, AdBusters.

Exploring Occupy Wall Street's 'Adbuster' Origins

The protests go by a variety of names: "Occupy Wall Street," "American Autumn," "The 99 Percent." And the lack of a unified message is matched by a lack of centralized control. But the protests share a common spark: a disillusioned Canadian adman.

The Occupy protests seemed to come out of nowhere. But the early participants, like John Garcia in downtown Seattle, point to a very specific catalyst.

"I get Adbusters, so that's how I heard about it," he says.


Source

© source where applicable

Under the photograph it states that "the demonstrations were inspired by a blog post by Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters magazine."

The last sentence of the story is "And as the continuing scene in lower Manhattan attests, Lasn certainly knows how to launch a campaign."

After Igniting Wall St. Protests, Magazine Proposes One Clear Demand

Three months ago, the Canadian magazine Adbusters called for a protest on Wall Street, providing the spark that began a wildfire of protest across the country and, over the weekend, in an increasing number of cities around the world.


Source

© source where applicable

Adbusters founders cheer their Occupy idea

With roots that reach as far as Cairo's fertile Tahrir Square, the Occupy protests roiling Wall Street will finally come full circle this weekend as they blossom in Canada, where they were conceived by Vancouver-based Adbusters.


Source

© source where applicable

The Branding of the Occupy Movement

Kalle Lasn, the longtime editor of the anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters, did not invent the anger that has been feeding the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the United States.

But he did brand it.

Last summer, as uprisings shook the Middle East and much of the world economy struggled, Mr. Lasn and several colleagues at the small magazine felt the moment was ripe to tap simmering frustration on the American political left.

On July 13, he and his colleagues created a new hash tag on Twitter: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET. They made a poster showing a ballerina dancing on the back of the muscular sculptured bull near Wall Street in Manhattan.

For some people they were just words and images. For Mr. Lasn, they were tools to begin remodeling the “mental environment,” to create a new “meme,” the term coined by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins for a kind of transcendent cultural message.


Source

© source where applicable

So now that we've established that Adbusters pretty much started the whole thing (the sources above aren't exactly Fox News) let's take a quick look at them. Seems that after Osama bin Laden's death Adbusters ran a feature that castigated the left for not lining up and supporting him.

Who Mourns for Osama?
The ideological bankruptcy of the left

Why then has there been no outcry, not even a murmur of dissent, over the assassination of Osama Bin Laden? How did it come to pass that the enemy of American cultural, economic and military imperialism is no longer the friend-by-default of the radical left?

...

One reasonable explanation for why the left supported Chairman Mao but turns its back on Sheikh Bin Laden is that Mao's ideology of Communism was essentially Western.


Source

© source where applicable

So Adbusters, who even those on the left say was behind the Occupy Wall Street protests, bemoans that the left didn't embrace bin Laden as a comrade in the struggle.

[seanD]

The Koch brothers were late to the party (no pun intended). The first time they were connected to the Tea Party was a couple months before the 2010 election whereas the first protests started in January of 2009.

If anyone or anything can be considered behind the Tea Party movement it would be folks from Ron Paul's failed 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Paul is often refered to as the "intellectual godfather" of the movement.

In contrast the Occupy movement was dreamed up by AdBusters, the "anti-consumerist" organization which started the Occupy Wall Street movement and is in part financed by the Tides Foundation which is in turn financed by the infamous billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros. Soros has also given millions to MoveOn which has joined the occupiers in several demonstrations and marches.

Soros is in effect the grandfather of the occupy movement. Interestingly though while announcing his sympathy and support for the movement he helped start he also lobbied for even greater handouts to bankers in 2009.

Soros, who has been convicted of insider trading in France, pocketed $1 billion betting against the British pound on “Black Wednesday” in 1992, when it lost 20% of its value in less than 24 hours earning him the reputation of “the man who broke the Bank of England.” Talk about your vulture capitalists.

But let's get back to the group that dreamt up the Occupy movement, AdBusters.

Exploring Occupy Wall Street's 'Adbuster' Origins

The protests go by a variety of names: "Occupy Wall Street," "American Autumn," "The 99 Percent." And the lack of a unified message is matched by a lack of centralized control. But the protests share a common spark: a disillusioned Canadian adman.

The Occupy protests seemed to come out of nowhere. But the early participants, like John Garcia in downtown Seattle, point to a very specific catalyst.

"I get Adbusters, so that's how I heard about it," he says.


Source

© source where applicable

Under the photograph it states that "the demonstrations were inspired by a blog post by Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters magazine."

The last sentence of the story is "And as the continuing scene in lower Manhattan attests, Lasn certainly knows how to launch a campaign."

After Igniting Wall St. Protests, Magazine Proposes One Clear Demand

Three months ago, the Canadian magazine Adbusters called for a protest on Wall Street, providing the spark that began a wildfire of protest across the country and, over the weekend, in an increasing number of cities around the world.


Source

© source where applicable

Adbusters founders cheer their Occupy idea

With roots that reach as far as Cairo's fertile Tahrir Square, the Occupy protests roiling Wall Street will finally come full circle this weekend as they blossom in Canada, where they were conceived by Vancouver-based Adbusters.


Source

© source where applicable

The Branding of the Occupy Movement

Kalle Lasn, the longtime editor of the anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters, did not invent the anger that has been feeding the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the United States.

But he did brand it.

Last summer, as uprisings shook the Middle East and much of the world economy struggled, Mr. Lasn and several colleagues at the small magazine felt the moment was ripe to tap simmering frustration on the American political left.

On July 13, he and his colleagues created a new hash tag on Twitter: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET. They made a poster showing a ballerina dancing on the back of the muscular sculptured bull near Wall Street in Manhattan.

For some people they were just words and images. For Mr. Lasn, they were tools to begin remodeling the “mental environment,” to create a new “meme,” the term coined by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins for a kind of transcendent cultural message.


Source

© source where applicable

So now that we've established that Adbusters pretty much started the whole thing (the sources above aren't exactly Fox News) let's take a quick look at them. Seems that after Osama bin Laden's death Adbusters ran a feature that castigated the left for not lining up and supporting him.

Who Mourns for Osama?
The ideological bankruptcy of the left

Why then has there been no outcry, not even a murmur of dissent, over the assassination of Osama Bin Laden? How did it come to pass that the enemy of American cultural, economic and military imperialism is no longer the friend-by-default of the radical left?

...

One reasonable explanation for why the left supported Chairman Mao but turns its back on Sheikh Bin Laden is that Mao's ideology of Communism was essentially Western.


Source

© source where applicable

So Adbusters, who even those on the left say was behind the Occupy Wall Street protests, bemoans that the left didn't embrace bin Laden as a comrade in the struggle.

You word choice of "engineered farce" was a poor one. Engineered farce implies it was synthetically created and then managed from beginning to the present. Obviously the spark had to come from somewhere, but it was basically just adding a spark to an already existing pile of kindling wood. And this is evident in how it ignited in different cities nationwide almost simultaneously. The same thing is true of the Arab Spring. Evidence shows that the west had a hand it that via certain social networks, but we don't believe they orchestrated the whole thing in all the different countries from start to finish. They just gave it a "push."