Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

Obama's ending Bush's wars and hasn't started any new ones iirc

xp

well there's yemen. and lybia.

er libya

like I'm all against targeted assassinations and this ridiculous drone program etc but let's not even pretend that they're on the scale (either in terms of people killed or economic costs or resulting political instability or any metric really) of invading Iraq and Afghanistan.

xp

yeah Libya what a disaster, with our zero troops committed and goals accomplished with minimal expense and whatnot

haven't invaded Yemen iirc

"ending"

Can TGWOT be over by the time I go to the airport next month, Shakey?

the meme taking hold on the right is that Obama a) is so scared of looking like a screwup w/r/t terrorism and b) tied his own hands by moral preening over torture/gitmo, that he is killing everybody he can in tyrannical fashion instead of capturing them.

i think a) has a ring of truth to it

(a) is the gist of the officials quoted in the NYT

TGWOT was a PR exercise that's already over since nobody mentions it anymore

goals accomplished with minimal expense

srsly, you need to become a savage full-fledged O-bot.

lol Morbz thinks we're going to be in Afghanistan past Obama's re-election in 2014. or do you think we're still at war in Iraq too

xp

I don't think this matters because the people will be behind it always, but I would like to see it have more prominence in the national conversation - or even just the more mainstream lefty one. Bill Maher's New Rules/Rant thing last week was decent in that it was all about the way in which Obama is basically a Republican and that it's the Progressives who should be angry about him, not the tea party/ted nugent, but I don't think he mentioned the war aspect at all (though last week they did have that reporter on there who's whole steez is the Greenwald/Morbz/we're using drones line).

I am not a savage full-fledged O-bot but dude there is a difference in scale between destroying the entire economy and killing tens of thousands of people and keepign the economy puttering along and killing a few thousand people. that is math. welcome to it.

xp

TGWOT was a PR exercise that's already over

I think those 6 future child terrorists we blew up this weekend prrrrrrrrrrobably would disagree.

that sounds like Jeremy Scahill, Gukbe

I know it's hard to maintain that permanent state of ever-escalating hysteria but sticking to facts is harder, I guess

xp

Gukbe, the Jack Ripper aspect of O's governance is the part Maher's OK with.

I think those 6 future child terrorists we blew up this weekend prrrrrrrrrrobably would disagree.

pretty sure they wouldn't call it the TWGOT since they wouldn't know/care/be aware of Dubya's preferred nomenclature - they would just call it standard US foreign policy

"Jack Ripper" is probably hysterical, let's stick to "Colonel Kilgore"

I know that Maher's a disgusting hawk on this shit, but I guess I'm using him as a lame figurehead for leftist mainstream media talking points.

It was him, cheers Alfred xpost

Bill Maher is not a leftist

he is in the larger American conversation

I think those 6 future child terrorists we blew up this weekend prrrrrrrrrrobably would disagree.

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, May 29, 2012 12:12 PM (1 minute ago)

Oh, but you had me at "the inconvenience at the airport is going to be such a pain!"

I try to have a wide-ranging list of complaints, WmC, it's populist

he is in the larger American conversation

I don't think event his is true. dude is closer to libertarian/Ron Paul axis

B.M. gave a million dollars to Obama 2012 a few weeks back

lol I didn't know Maher was a PETA board member

that may explain why they kill all those animals

only with regards to weed/lager scale wars. he's deffo for the government upping spending on social welfare programs. but really, he's definitely perceived by most as a leftist, which was my original point (how much of this drone/anti-terrorism stuff is in the mainstream 'leftist'/dem conversation).

the liberal internet may grouse or just ignore him but bill maher is absolutely on "team liberal US"

Murder by drone is never discussed by the Cokie crowd.

from about 2:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXY8Mr5BhNk

anyway, i think it's telling that Obama gets criticized by the Right for stomping all over the constitution, but never for the times when he actually does, like this with all this Infinite Detention/Drone Warfare/Killing Our Citizens shit. they don't want to highlight it because they agree with all of that. I'll bet an awful lot of Democrats do as well. Democracy though...what are ya gonna do? Still better than the guy who thinks that "job-creators" are taxed too much.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TEr9pdCepMo/T8PpOnmhSYI/AAAAAAAAD_0/jRpId0qy0z4/s400/TMW2012-05-30colorKOS.png

Still better than the guy who thinks that "job-creators" are taxed too much.

don't be so sure that Obama doesn't think so, too. some of his "surrogates" appear to.

He's not a socialist into total wealth redistribution or anything, but raising the taxes on those over 250,000 has been his thing for a while now, and even Pelosi is turning on him for it.

lol u believe campaign "promises."

(sorry, don't mean to be snarky ... but i've seen enough of Change We Can Believe In in action to know better than to believe much of what he says on the campaign trail.)

i can't wait until other countries develop their own fleet of drones and then we can just have drone battles in the sky!

yaaaaay 21st century!

I know Obama is a centrist, and I know he's failed to get anything legislatively across along the lines of increasing taxes on the rich - and I'd argue that on that issue he just can't get shit through congress, not that he doesn't believe in the idea - but if you think he and Romney have the same ideological view and, by extension, hopeful legislative agenda on the economy then i don't know what you're seeing. He ignored Simpson-Bowles, after all, and he's getting a lot of shit for it.

I'm not sure which will happen sooner, the end of the Bush tax cuts or those 'mandatory' reductions in the Pentagon budget.

i believe that the Congressional Dems have become even more useless on increasing taxes on the rich than Obama, esp. after citizens united -- after all, they were the ones who punted the issue to Obama in 2010. and House members need to get elected every 2 years (as opposed to any President, who only needs to shake the money tree once every 4 years.)

idk man, as i understand it every single elected pol spends about 75% of life shaking the money tree constantly

lol the House on that mandatory reductions btw.

GG connects more dots...

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/29/obama_the_warrior/singleton/

and links to this Foreign Policy piece: "Ignore what the candidates say they'll do differently on foreign policy. They're basically the same man."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/23/barack_oromney

"Terror Tuesdays" in the Oval Office, w/ Axelrod slicing the baloney

I have no idea how anyone has endured Maher's puerile dismissals of red states, malls, and suburbia all these years.

he's a good moderator and there are no commercials

as for the rest, i mean, i can stay inside and hear it from bill maher or i can go outside and hear it from every single person i know

their timing's worse

i'm lying of course i can't afford hbo

only talk show i've ever actively wanted to watch, tho

"Ignore what the candidates say they'll do differently on foreign policy. They're basically the same man."

lol

I have no idea how anyone has endured Maher's puerile dismissals of red states, malls, and suburbia all these years.

this is being too kind, don't forget the sexism and the racism!