tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post3482286348379598384..comments2024-03-28T16:08:29.578-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: The Professor and the Mad ManKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-22925086971103388362013-06-19T10:13:32.171-04:002013-06-19T10:13:32.171-04:00If anyone cares to participate in a poll at the Gu...If anyone cares to participate in a poll at the Guardian, go to the website noted below. Poll closes in two days. The question is: <br /><br />'NSA surveillance: has your opinion of Obama changed for the worse?' <br /><br />So far the results are 85% Yes and 15% No. There's also entertaining comments. <br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2013/jun/19/nsa-surveillance-barack-obama-opinion?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487#start-of-commentsOutsidanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-59602930792157796682013-06-18T19:46:59.262-04:002013-06-18T19:46:59.262-04:00I remember the scorn and denigration of those who ...I remember the scorn and denigration of those who dared to speak out against the Vietnam War. <br /><br />Today’s vitriol is reminiscent of that era.<br /><br />It’s a seemingly bottomless political barrel.<br /><br />“Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Autocrat of the Breakfast Table<br /><br />When they tell big enough lies and tell them often enough, they will be believed.<br /><br />“An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling falsehood.” - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited<br /><br />What we have in place is the foundation of a very oppressive state. The tools are in place. A lie is the handle which fits them all. This powerful surveillance network could easily enable a system of controls that East Germany’s Stasi bureaucrats or Stalin’s commissars for state control would have envied.<br /><br />“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” - George Orwell, 1984Denis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-90941120186583850592013-06-18T18:05:31.218-04:002013-06-18T18:05:31.218-04:00I think that, before the summer ends, we may well ...I think that, before the summer ends, we may well be up to our ass in 'gators. I just got finished reading an article in Counterpunch by Franklin Lamb. He thinks, according to his Pentagon and Congressional sources, that Obama is going for a no fly zone in Syria. The Pentagon wants Syria over by the end of summer. I checked Lamb out and he does seem to have the experience and credentials.James F Traynornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-38084511304272340202013-06-18T01:30:57.558-04:002013-06-18T01:30:57.558-04:00Listen to Obama as he bobs and weaves with the dou...Listen to Obama as he bobs and weaves with the doubletalk. Then recall how difficult it is for him to make a decision, as when it was reported recently that Bill Clinton and the generals supposedly had to drag Obama into more involvement in the Syrian fracas, to which he acquiesced reluctantly.<br /><br />Then recall how he's always asking for one more study, one more white paper, one more special committee -- on matters he should already have made up his mind.<br /><br />On the stimulus back in 2009, what did Obama do? Krugman reminded us again and again. Obama cut the baby in half and gave us half a stimulus.<br /><br />How about his drone kill committee every Tuesday? Many inputs spreads the blame around.<br /><br />On the spying, he points to the Congress in the know about and going along with this spying on Americans. And others around the world. Likewise, the judges in his FISA Star Chamber: they approved of everything beforehand. So he's off the hook again.<br /><br />Obama didn't take the lead on the healthcare overhaul. He handed it off to a Senator who took lots of money from big insurance. So now we're supposed to shout, "It was you, Baucus!" The Repubs, not to be fooled, label the ACA Obamacare.<br /><br />He involves great numbers in decisions and kicks cans down the road endlessly. Lincoln said General McClellan had the slows. So is Obama afflicted with the slows. He draws "red lines" then does nothing when they're crossed. He's all talk – less and less coherent – and compromise and mincing action.<br /><br />Am I wrong in thinking he missed his calling? A bright yet hollow and directionless character like him is not fit for a top executive position. <br /><br />On the other hand, he evidences the cagey qualities of a high-up bureaucrat who wants to keep from choosing sides and committing to one view or another until some really big dog still higher up makes up its mind and takes all the responsibility off his (Obama's) shoulders. Once upon a time, the buck stopped in the president's office.<br /><br />Now I get it. What is Obama? Nothing other than The Compleat Bureaucrat.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.com