Many Americans were shocked by Obama's meteoric rise to power. Although plenty of other ‘relative unknowns' have made the jump from Congress or a governorship to the Oval Office, none of them were visible minorities or able to galvanize public sentiment nearly as well as Obama. Following 8 years of despotic rule by George Bush & Co., huge segments of the American public embraced Obama's candidacy with wanton enthusiasm. His campaign rallies took on an imperialistic tenor, and for many confused Americans he was psychologically conflated as a political messiah - ready, willing and able to act as civilization's great panacea. Unfortunately, much of the public was simply projecting dreams for a better future onto Obama. They saw in him a clear improvement over Bush and more integrity than Hillary Clinton, and this branding helped him handily mop the floor with John McCain. Nevertheless, branding aside, with a little critical attention Obama's rise to power begins to seem less accidental, and takes on all the hues of a prolonged, successful grooming process. Barack Obama did not become a global sensation by accident. He had help getting where he is. That help obviously included corporate and financial interests, but it may also have included the involvement of covert intelligence agencies - perhaps most especially the CIA.
List of 51 Senate Democrats Who Support a Public Option: What's Stopping Them Now?
Some day, just for kicks, I'm going to collect quotes from every scold who called upon their volumes of wisdom about Senate procedure to decree that Joe Lieberman must be the ultimate decider on any health care bill, because after all it took 60 votes to pass anything. Because now, as we've known all along, that's a self-imposed limitation thatthe Senate can surmount if they want to.
But let's remember that back in August, when Chuck Schumer was pushing to pass health care through reconciliation, here was the guy who was running the health care show on behalf of the White House:
[Rahm Emanuel] acknowledged the political realities that have made the Finance Committee's still-unfinished cooperative plan a center of attention.
"We have heard from both chambers that the House sees a public plan as essential for the final product, and the Senate believes it cannot pass it as constructed and a co-op is what they can do," Mr. Emanuel said. "We are cognizant of that fact."
And then he handed the keys over to Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln to write a wildly unpopular bill that is threatening to take down the party.
When politicians are caught out in lies, their supporters often resort to the old cliché: all politicians lie. But that is itself a lie: most don't. Even among those who do, there are enormous differences in the importance and frequency of the lies. And it is surely now clear that this nation has a far from routine problem in the scale and regularity of President Obama's lying.
When politicians lie they are usually trying to avoid political damage, or to make themselves look good. Bill Clinton lied (and got himself impeached) to save himself from embarrassment about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Hillary Clinton lied about being under fire in Bosnia to enhance her non-existent foreign affairs profile. Richard Nixon was forced from office because he lied to cover up his involvement in a political dirty trick. John Kerry lied about his Vietnam combat experience to blunt his anti-military reputation. But Barack Obama's lies are far more corrosive and destructive, because they go the heart of legislation and governance, and so seriously undermine trust in government. His lies generally take a specific form: they attempt to persuade people to vote for him or his policies by categorically assuring them that they need not have the anxieties that they have been expressing. The lies say, essentially: trust me, support what I want, and I promise that what you fear will never happen. But in every case it soon becomes clear either that he knew perfectly well that what the public feared would in fact happen, or that he was giving a firm assurance that he was in no position to give, or that he had no intention of following through on his promise.
The accumulated weight of Obama's deceit is overwhelming:
* During his campaign for the presidency and since, Obama repeatedly assured us that he would protect Medicare against cuts; but he now presses for passage of bills that include savage cuts in Medicare.
While cruising around attempting to find something a little more rediculous than "Obama is really a closeted, homosexual muslim from Planet X" we came across these from 2009 posted at Alternet. Another reason 2009 will go down as the end of a rediculous decade.
Laws are supposed to protects us, but when the government decides to get in our pants, some crazy stuff goes down!
Here are some actual sex laws truly for the record books!
1. In Bakersfield, Calif., if you're going to have sex with Satan, you've gotta use a condom. And definitely come up with a safe word!
2. Poking a porcupine is illegal in Florida. But apparently that law didn't go far enough. Just a couple of weeks ago, State Sen. Nan Rich submitted a bill that would ban peeps in the Sunshine State from being able to stick it in where the sun don't shine on any animal.
3. In Minnesota, it's illegal for any slime bucket to hook up with a live fish. Don't worry disinterested wives, a cold fish is still A-OK!
5. In Merryville, Mo., no woman can waste her natural waist. Wearing a corset is illegal because "the privilege of admiring the curvaceous, unencumbered body of a young woman should not be denied to the normal, red-blooded American male." No wonder it's called the "Show Me State!"
From ab belts to Taco Bell diets, here are some of the dumbest -- and unhealthiest -- things people do to lose weight.
Although the American dream has many facets, one of the most powerful is the desire to obtain a perfectly fit body through a combination eating crap and not exercising.
Every year, we Americans are bombarded with advertisements that promise us sparkling abs, thighs and buttocks, all without doing any work or significantly changing our eating habits. Without fail, of course, these diets have certain critical flaws to them, such as depriving your body of key nutrients or giving yourself permanent bone damage. Indeed, most of these diets don't even qualify as snake oil, since consuming such oil would probably be a healthier alternative.
While the following four lose-weight-fast schemes are among the stupidest schemes around, they are actually quite representative of the fad-diet industry as a whole. It wouldn't at all be surprising to see even stupider schemes emerge in the near-future, such as a diet that promises to help you lose 40 pounds in a week by consuming only deep-fried leprechaun testicles. Even so, these schemes each stand out in their own unique, forehead-slap-inducing ways and are thus worthy of our attention. Let's get started, shall we?
Scheme #1: The Cookie Diet
The title of this diet alone should be enough to have it laughed off the Earth by sane people everywhere. Say the word combination "cookie diet" to yourself over and over again and ask yourself if it's any less ludicrous than the word combinations "frosting diet" or "raw pig fat diet." And yet, this diet has apparently proven to be financially successful as it claims to have helped 500,000 people lose weight.
This video, via TPM, is interesting. McCain, discussing the Underwear Bomber, says repeatedly that everyone knows the facts of the case. He then proceeds to repeat discredited right-wing talking-points that are anything but factual.
What's noteworthy about the exchange is that when National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter attempts to correct the Senator, McCain gets angry and Leiter quickly apologizes.
"We, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it." (Statement of Ariel Sharon, former prime minister of Israel, Oct. 3, 2001.)
It is so powerfully blatant that an Israeli prime minister (Ariel Sharon) was not even "concerned" when he uttered that statement on an Israeli radio show. Sharon was simply stating a known fact. A fact that never appeared in a U.S. newspaper (except for AFP) nor was it heard on any radio or television shows in America.
Think about it. A foreign leader, proclaiming that his country, Israel, and the Jewish people control America and it didn't make headline news.
They do. Israel, through its powerful lobby, AIPAC, dictates and manipulates American foreign policy, American commerce and the American media. You see folks, AIPAC needs only to "pull the strings" and the puppets on Capitol Hill dance to their music.
Bless the President for having rescue teams in the air almost immediately. That was President Olafur Grimsson of Iceland. On Wednesday, the AP reported that the President of the United States promised, "The initial contingent of 2,000 Marines could be deployed to the quake-ravaged country within the next few days." "In a few days," Mr. Obama?
There's no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. 200,000 Haitians have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF "austerity" plans.
A friend of mine called. Do I know a journalist who could get medicine to her father? And she added, trying to hold her voice together, "My sister, she's under the rubble. Is anyone going who can help, anyone?" Should I tell her, "Obama will have Marines there in 'a few days'"?
China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China, Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US bases in Puerto Rico: right there. Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I don't know how this government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it has." We know Gates doesn't know.
When politicians lie they are usually trying to avoid political damage, or to make themselves look good. Bill Clinton lied (and got himself impeached) to save himself from embarrassment about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Hillary Clinton lied about being under fire in Bosnia to enhance her non-existent foreign affairs profile. Richard Nixon was forced from office because he lied to cover up his involvement in a political dirty trick. John Kerry lied about his Vietnam combat experience to blunt his anti-military reputation. But Barack Obama's lies are far more corrosive and destructive, because they go the heart of legislation and governance, and so seriously undermine trust in government. His lies generally take a specific form: they attempt to persuade people to vote for him or his policies by categorically assuring them that they need not have the anxieties that they have been expressing. The lies say, essentially: trust me, support what I want, and I promise that what you fear will never happen. But in every case it soon becomes clear either that he knew perfectly well that what the public feared would in fact happen, or that he was giving a firm assurance that he was in no position to give, or that he had no intention of following through on his promise.
