what are barack obama's flaws?

if you want a donkey to find its giddyup you've got two basic tools: a carrot to entice it forward or a stick with which to smack its ass from behind

but you're right, if you yourself are riding the donkey then yeah, a stick and a piece of string would be a good system of carrotage. you'd need two sticks in that case because it could get tedious untying the string each time you wanted to use the stick as a whip. though i guess you wouldn't need to. you could just whip the donkey with string, carrot and all, running the (slight) risk that the force of your whipping caused the carrot to slip out of its probably not-too-well-tied knot. it would get messy. two sticks would be far better.

Kneecapping Party Boss Obama helps clear the NY senatorial decks for Appointee Gillibrand:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-05-27/columns/obama-the-political-fixer-works-new-york-s-senate-primary

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0509/Obama_clears_field_for_Gillibrand_in_New_York.html

Prior to Obama's intervention, at least five veteran public officials were actively considering running against Gillibrand. Most, like Long Island congressman Steve Israel, who got the warning message directly from the White House, thought they could present themselves to voters in a state primary as a viable alternative to Gillibrand on several issues that Obama himself championed in his own race: gun safety, fairness to immigrants, the economy. That was the plan, that is, until the president told them not to bother.

...His heavy-handed politicking is a surprise only to those of us who know him solely from his inspiring campaign. It is old news to those in Chicago who watched Obama's steady rise. I admit to warnings received from Windy City friends who said Obama had taken lessons in kneecapping from his ward-heeler pals in City Hall and the state legislature. This complaint sounded like a petty gripe resulting from a family squabble. Even if true, it was a tiny blemish on a magnificent canvas. This notion held right up until the moment when the White House invoked Chicago rules—one of ours to the hospital, one of yours to the morgue—on any Democrat seeking to challenge Gillibrand.

why do you think he prefers gillibrand

That he can't lock up people like the ones in this video is a pretty big flaw of his job, IMHO.

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/06/max-blumenthal-feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem-on-eve-of-obamas-cairo-address.html?

yah its pretty flawed that we cant imprison people we disagree with

We need another Wilson.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/415992114_f67c203d6c_o.jpg

BLACK POWER!

http://ryanpez86.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/woodrow-wilson-008.jpg

why do you think he prefers gillibrand

because she's an appointed incumbent, ie might as well use our funds try to buy a Dem Senate seat somewhere else in the country. ie, democracy-for-sale as usual, the Schmuck Schumer-Rahmbo Emanuel way.

morbs id vote for you if you ran

rahmbo emmanuel << next level name-gaming

dunno, leaving "emmanuel" untouched is pretty lazy

rahmbo escamuel

this is harder than it looks

he-scams-you-well

He-ram-you-well

rahmbo fuckface

lol

yeah i invented Rahmbo, right

way to focus on the scummy Obama gaming too.

honestly I don't give a shit

wait are you saying you plagiarize these nicknames? ur breakin my heart over here

I mean this is standard operating procedure for a smart political party - its not like he's disseminating misinformation a la Karl Rove or assassinating political opponents or something

x-post

There is this bit of unpleasantness.

I mean this is standard operating procedure

ding ding ding ding

what do u all make of the explanation that the moves toward photo suppression are a big favor to maliki? "baghdad will burn" etc. i don't much care, myself.

it seems, i dunno, just natural -- the executive always jealously defends any and all prerogatives of the executive, no matter who or what he is or what they are. if the GOP were to suddenly turn on Obama on these issues and hammer him as an "imperial president", it would be a feature and not a bug of the american system, but they don't have two ideals to rub together anymore. it'd be nice if the teleprompter jokes and "government motors, morelike!!" gags became uh operationalized to something constitutionally useful, but that whole corner of america is just beyond hope.

i've said this all before, but i see no compelling reason for photos to be released to the public--filed in court as part of criminal charges? absolutely.

well there's the rub though, because the ACLU clearly wants these photos so they can build a case that torture was an institutionalized practice and then they can bring criminal charges against the Bush administration.

but they can't file those charges until they get the photos, and the only way to get them released is under the FOIA

Weird pre-moustache.

on gillibrand:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/new-yorks-gillibrand-has-become.html

"with very few exceptions, electoral considerations bear far more firmly on a Congressperson's voting record than any sort of deep-seated personal convictions."

So yeah, she makes me feel so good

serious question

this qualifies as a flaw. ffs.

He's taking us down for his own benefit.

I don't see how Obama benefits from this, which is why I also don't understand why he's taking this particular legal tack (also that blog post totally overstates the DOJ's legal argument being made, but that's just a rhetorical issue....)

Holy shit.

that is some serious bullshit

although seeing it is Holder and not Obama slightly lowers my urge-to-kill reflex towards Obama and redirects it towards Holder

still: serious bullshit

i'm not defending this, but AmericaBlog is lying when it says Obama is lying about what it's doing. the fact that the four previous Presidents had their DOJ oppose the law on the books does not mean that Obama has to believe that's an appropriate use of the DOJ. it's not news that the dude thinks change comes legislatively.

I'm boiling.

also, crickets from John 'n Morbs re "CHANGE" on the whole Israeli settlements thing

agree with gabbneb, which unfortunately is not lessening my urge-to-kill

Does Barack Obama care too much about his wife's clothing?!

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/huggett/090611

crickets from John 'n Morbs re "CHANGE" on the whole Israeli settlements thing

whatever nuanced words he's issued lately, pardon me for not caring any more right now than the heavyweights running Israel do.

(you may eat the crickets)

lmao

<3 morbs

crickets! the shrimp of the air! /mark s

Woman who offers Michelle Obama fashion crit should maybe look in a mirror sometime IMO

http://www.renewamerica.com/images/columnists/huggett.jpg

eddie izzard, after a religious experience, now writing right wing screeds

Cleve Jones (you know, Emile Hirsch in the movie) confirms there'll be a gay rights march on D.C. in October:

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/06/cleve-jones-we-have-permit-march-on.html

We should be marching, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience every day. We have a window, but it's already starting to close. If you think you're going to get anything out of Obama in the second half of his term, you don't know anything about political history. In a year, he'll be in full re-election mode."

Referring to today's DOJ-DOMA news, Jones closed with this: "It's so clear that Obama and the Democratic leadership are turning their backs on us. If we don't go for it now, we'll get nothing. It's beginning to smell a lot like Clinton."

whatever nuanced words he's issued lately, pardon me for not caring any more right now than the heavyweights running Israel do.

maybe if you were better at following the coverage you'd know that more than words are involved, but keep talking about "heavyweights" "running" things