what are barack obama's flaws?

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

andrew sullivan's got comprehensive coverage of the legalities and complexities, and the whole issue is sort of complicated. but the bottom line seems to be that even if this wasn't the right case to challenge DOMA on, the administration's brief went farther than it needed to to satisfy the justice dept's obligation. and of course the context is of a rising sense of impatience and disappointment on gay issues more generally. obama obviously is going to have to be pushed on gay rights, and maybe he's made a strategic decision that he won't move until he's really forced to. that's not an honorable position even if it's politically safe (and i'm not even sure it's politically safe). but anyway, time to see some action.

the bottom line seems to be that even if this wasn't the right case to challenge DOMA on

as Larry Tribe argues

the administration's brief went farther than it needed to to satisfy the justice dept's obligation.

so they shouldn't have made their case zealously? the brief was written by a Bush admin holdover as would be typical in the early days of a new admin

I certainly hope Obama comes out forcefully in favor of same-sex marriage soon, but perhaps it's understandable that he wouldn't want to use his political capital on this issue in his first 6 months in office. His agenda is a bit ambitious already, ya know. Considering that he is basically trying to reshape the role of government in American society and create a new social contract, perhaps he is wise to prevent wedge issues from hurting the chance of success for his MAJOR policy initiatives. This issue could hurt him politically, and in terms of actual policy, there isn't really all that much the Executive branch can do.

I can live with Obama pushing the status quo on same-sex marriage for a year if it mean passing comprehensive health care reform and universal health insurance.